Cape to hold school forum

The Cape Elizabeth School Board will host an Action Planning Community Forum 6:30-8:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 16, in the high school cafeteria.

The forum will gather input from community members as the board works on an action plan for the schools for the next one to three years.

The action plan is an outgrowth of the vision and mission statement developed last spring, and is one of the School Board’s goals for 2012.

For more information, contact the superintendent’s office at 799-2217.

Candidate forums set in South Portland

Forums for local City Council and legislative races will be held starting Thursday in South Portland

The forums will be held on three consecutive Thursdays, 7-9 p.m., in the South Portland City Hall Council Chambers. The forums are sponsored by the South Portland/Cape Elizabeth Community Chapter of the Chamber of Commerce and televised on Channel 2. Michael Vaillancourt will be the moderator.

The forums will include candidates from House Districts 122 and 123 (Oct. 11), House District 124 and state Senate District 7 (Oct. 18), and City Council districts 3 and 4 (Oct. 25).

The format will be four-minute opening statements (chosen in random order). The public is encouraged to attend and submit questions from the floor (one-minute time limit to the question). Other questions may then be used time permitting. Each candidate will have two minutes to address each question. Each candidate will have two minutes for a closing statement.

Garden club ?to meet

Osewantha Garden Club of South Portland will meet at 1 p.m. at the South Portland Community Center Nelson Road on Wednesday, Oct. 17. The business meeting will be followed by a dried plant material program given by Lynn Holland, a master gardener from the University of Maine Cooperative Extension.

CMP offers rebates on heating units

Central Maine Power Company is offering rebates to qualified customers who install new electric thermal storage (ETS) heating units in their homes.

The utility’s ETS program was developed in response to a new state law allowing transmission-and-distribution utilities to develop programs to reduce heating costs and provide energy-efficient heating options for Maine consumers. The Maine Public Utilities Commission unanimously approved the program last month.

CMP is offering a limited number of rebates for customers who want to install an ETS heater at their home or small business. Customers opting for a single-room heater will receive $1,500 off the purchase price. Those who wish to install an ETS furnace to heat their entire home will be offered a $4,500 discount.

ETS heaters contain electric heating elements surrounded by special high-density ceramic bricks that can store large amounts of heat for extended periods of time. The bricks are heated during off-peak hours when electricity prices are lower. That heat can be used to keep a home or business at a comfortable temperature 24 hours a day.

For more information, go to www.cmpco.com/ets).

City firm produces ?trade video

“Visit. Study. Invest.” is the theme of the new Invest in Maine promotional video recently released by Maine International Trade Center (MITC) and produced by a South Portland company.

Invest in Maine is a MITC program of that seeks to attract foreign investment to the state and is cooperatively funded by the Maine Technology Institute, the Maine Department of Economic and Community Development, and private sector partners. The three-minute video was produced by Nomad Pictures of South Portland and features glimpses of Maine’s industrial, tourism, and educational assets.

Produced in both Mandarin and English, the video premiered to approximately 300 people at the State of Maine receptions in Hong Kong and Shanghai during the recent trade mission. It is also being used by Maine and Company for their business attraction efforts in the U.S and various economic development groups for their national and international outreach.

The video can be viewed using the link on the Invest in Maine home page at www.investinmaine.net.

Workshops offered for chronic conditions

Living Well for Better Health workshops will be held in three locations in the coming months. This six-week workshop is aimed at people with chronic conditions. Learn about handling pain and fatigue, eating well, fun ways to get active, and tips for talking with your doctor and family.

The following workshops are scheduled

• 11/1-12/13, 1:30-4 p.m. – MMC Family Medicine, 272 Congress St., Portland?• 11/2-12/7, 9-11:30 a.m. – MaineHealth LRC, 100 Campus Drive, Scarborough?• 11/6-12/18, 1-3:30 p.m. – Casco Bay YMCA, 14 Old South Freeport Road, Freeport?To register (required) or to receive more information, call 800-400-6325, ext. 583.

Honored Sept. 19 at the Scarborough Fire Department’s annual “Old-Timers’ Night” were 14 of the town’s surviving World War II veterans, many of whom served on local fire and police crews after their military service. Pictured are, front row, from left, Ken Libby, Alfred Kinney, Paul Webster, Henry Bellavance, Earl Ahlquist, Clarence Ahlquist and Arthur Purington; back row, Jim Judge, Anthony Attardo, Richard Collins, John Elliot, Stanley Payson, Robert Carson and Wendall Whitten. Said department historian Mark Dyer, “Many people look up to members of the fire and police service as heroes and oftentimes that is true, but firefighters and police officers need heroes, too, and these members of ‘The Greatest Generation’ are our heroes.”