Thumbs up to all the hard work from local high school students, teachers and administrators. A report from the Maine Department of Education showed many increased graduation rates over the last few school years in York County. Biddeford High School had a 5 percent increase in graduates from the 2008-09 school year to 2009-10 school year. The dropout rate also dropped in Biddeford. Massabesic also made marked improvement on its graduation rate increasing from 73 to 78 percent. Old Orchard Beach High School jumped from 70 percent to 86 percent. Keep up the good work!

 Thumbs up to the Community Bicycle Center for arranging to have a custom-built mobile bike repair unit traveling the streets of Biddeford this summer to perform free, on-the-spot, minor repairs and tune-ups on children’s bikes. The bicycle will be outfitted with a tool box being built by a CBC design team and should take to the roads in July. CBC Executive Director Andy Greif said in addition to providing repair services, it will allow the organization to connect with children who do not attend CBC programs already.

 Thumbs up to students and staff at Fairfield Elementary School in Saco for setting up a vegetable garden at the school. Fran Poisson, the school’s kitchen manager, said she’s had a dream of having a garden at the school for a long time and was inspired by a garden at a school in Yarmouth and a healthy food initiative by First Lady Michelle Obama. The 120-square-foot garden will have tomatoes, cucumbers, green peppers, summer squash, lettuce, radishes, peas, green beans and carrots. Poisson plans to use the produce in a summer lunch program and in the school lunch program this fall. The garden is great opportunity for teachers to get their students involved and teach them about growing their own food, compost and the processes of plant and vegetable life.

 Thumbs up to U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe for working to help small businesses in Maine. Earlier this month, Snowe introduced The Freedom from Restrictive Excessive Executive Demands and Onerous Mandates Act, also known as the FREEDOM Act, which would provide small businesses with relief from restrictive government regulations. Snowe visited Volk Packaging Corp. in Biddeford last week to speak with CEO Douglas Volk and President Derek Volk. Snowe said onerous federal regulations and taxation laws can inhibit the ability of businesses like Volk to grow and create jobs for Maine people. We hope Snowe is successful in her bid to help small businesses grow and increase job growth.

 Thumbs up and thank you to York County Manager Richard Brown for his many years of service in York County. Brown announced he will retire from his position, effective Sept. 2. County commissioners credit Brown with getting the county’s finances in order and making the difficult decisions for the health of the region. Brown has served as county manager since 2008 and also served as town manager in South Berwick and served two four-year terms as the Republican state representative for North Berwick and part of South Berwick. Good luck to Brown in retirement.