OLD TOWN

Quimby buys 1881 camp on branch of Penobscot

Conservationist Roxanne Quimby has purchased a wilderness sporting camp on the East Branch of the Penobscot River.

Lunksoos Camps was built in 1881 to serve lumberjacks. Today, it consists of a lodge and four cabins on 14 acres across the river from more than 70,000 acres that Quimby hopes to donate to the National Park Service.

Percival Baxter stayed at Lunksoos the night before he climbed Mount Katahdin in 1920. Nineteen years later, it was the site of the rescue of 12-year-old Donn Fendler, nine days after he got lost on Katahdin. That led to the book “Lost on a Mountain in Maine.”

Quimby’s conservation foundation, Elliotsville Plantation Inc., said Lunksoos Camps will provide access for hiking, canoeing, skiing, bird watching, research and artists’ and writers’ retreats.

CASTINE

Maritime training voyage departs May 3 for Europe

Maine Maritime Academy’s annual two-month training voyage will take students this spring to Malta, Italy and Ireland, as well as ports in the U.S.

Maine Maritime said Tuesday that the cruise aboard the 500-foot State of Maine training ship will leave Castine on May 3 and stop in Norfolk, Va., from May 6 to 9. After sailing across the Atlantic, it will make port calls in Valetta, Malta; Civitavecchia, Italy; and Cobh, Ireland.

On its return, the ship will stop in Portland before arriving back in its home port June 26.

AUGUSTA

Airport’s repair project will close main runway

Repairs to the main runway at the Augusta State Airport could mean there will be no commercial flights to or from Maine’s capital for as long as two months.

Construction is set to begin on a $7.5 million project to renovate the runway and other improvements. The plan is to close the 5,100-foot main runway for 45 to 60 days. The project is set to begin May 13.

During that period, no planes that need more than 2,700-feet of runway space will be allowed to use the airport. That will include commercial Cape Air flights.

Airport Manager John Guimond told the Kennebec Journal that the runway is being rebuilt for the first time in 40 to 50 years.

FORT KENT

Principal of high school named superintendent

A veteran Maine high school principal will become the new superintendent of the school district in Fort Kent.

Tim Doak will take over for Patrick O’Neill, who will retire at the end of this school year.

Since 2004, Doak has been principal of Fort Kent Community High School.

O’Neill, 62, told the Bangor Daily News that he is retiring because of concerns about cuts to the state retirement system being considered by the Legislature.

The district that Doak will take over encompasses Fort Kent, St. Francis, St. John Plantation, New Canada, Wallagrass, Eagle Lake, Winterville and Allagash. The district has about 1,100 students.

PRESQUE ISLE

GOP raises $2,300 so state can buy embattled mural

Republicans in northern Maine have raised $2,300 in online contributions so the state can buy a disputed labor mural from the federal government.

The Aroostook County Republican Committee launched a website this month to raise $60,000 so the state can take ownership of the art.

The U.S. Department of Labor said the state should return federal money that was used to create the mural because Gov. Paul LePage violated terms of the federal grant used to pay for it when he had it removed from the state labor department headquarters.

Committee Chairman Hayes Gahagan said $2,300 has been donated online. More contributions have been received in the mail, but he didn’t know the amount.