PORTLAND

Maine Turnpike Authority finds buyer for former HQ

The Maine Turnpike Authority has sold its former headquarters building in Portland to an electrical engineering consulting firm, nearly three years after putting it up for sale.

Officials say ComNav Engineering Inc. has agreed to buy the 9,800-square-foot building on Riverside Street for $575,000. The turnpike authority’s original asking price was $925,000 in the spring of 2009, when it moved into its new headquarters.

ComNav and its 37 workers plan to move in by the end of May.

PHILLIPS

Man pointed gun at hunter during dispute, police say

A Phillips man accused of pointing a shotgun at a coyote hunter has been charged with criminal threatening with a firearm.

Police said a group of hunters with dogs were confronted by Mark Cosenza, 60, on Wednesday. A spokesman for the Franklin County Sheriff’s Department said there was a verbal confrontation, after which Cosenza allegedly pointed a shotgun at one of the hunters and told them to stop. He then left the scene.

The hunters called 911 to report the incident. Cosenza was arrested at his home later.

The incident occurred in a heavily wooded area, and the Maine Warden Service is looking into whether the hunters were on private property.

WASHINGTON, D.C.

Federal Downeaster funds restored to bill in Senate

A federal funding source that provides as much as $6 million a year for Downeaster train service is back on track in a Senate transportation bill.

Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, has persuaded Senate leaders to accept an amendment to the bill allowing Maine to keep using money from the federal Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality program to help fund the Downeaster’s annual $15 million operating budget.

The pending transportation bills in the Senate and House would have ended Maine’s ability to use the federal money to help operate the Downeaster, which provides passenger service between Portland and Boston. However, the Senate version is considered more likely to gain bipartisan support.

The federal money was supposed to be used just temporarily when Downeaster service started in 2001. Maine won an exemption in the 2005 transportation bill to keep using the money for the train.

Congress has not passed a new transportation bill since then, so Maine’s exception has been renewed each time the current bill’s policies have been extended.

LEWISTON

Christian school closing, says poor economy cut enrollment

A Christian school in Lewiston will close at the end of the school year, and administrators are blaming the poor economy.

Vineyard Christian School opened in 2000 and had 145 students in grades K through 12 at its peak.

Allen Austin, executive pastor of the Pathway Vineyard Church, which runs the school, said enrollment has steadily dropped and is now at 93. The economic climate has made it increasingly difficult for families to afford a private education, he said.

Tuition is $3,400 per year, and Austin said raising it in order to stay open is not feasible, because many parents would not be able to afford it. Parents and students were informed of the June closure on Wednesday.

AUGUSTA

Spring flood risk low before Thursday’s snow, panel says

Minimal snowpack and river ice are making for below-normal flood potential in southern Maine this spring, but the flooding risk factors are about normal in northern Maine.

The Maine River Flow Advisory Commission met Thursday to analyze snowpack, stream flow, river ice conditions and weather forecasts to assess the potential for spring flooding in Maine.

Commission co-chairman Robert Lent of the U.S. Geological Survey said with the flooding outlook could change because of the significant snow that fell Thursday on southern and central Maine.

He said the most impart factor influencing flooding is rainfall, with a single rainstorm at the wrong time able to cause flooding..

BELFAST

Suspect in firefighter killing set to appear in court today

The Bangor man charged in the slaying of a Florida firefighter will make his initial court appearance this morning in Waldo County Superior Court in Belfast.

Daniel Porter, 24,, who had been staying at a house in Jackson, is charged with killing Jerry Perdomo, 31, of Orange City, Fla., in what police are calling a drug-related case. Perdomo disappeared in Maine Feb. 16 and his body was recovered Wednesday in the woods of Newburgh. As autopsy is expected to begin today at the earliest.

Perdomo was a Seminole County firefighter and emergency medical technician and a married father of two.

SKOWHEGAN

Police say man fired bullet into car with driver inside

A Cornville man has been arrested after police said he fired a single shot from a .22-caliber rifle through a car’s windshield while the driver was inside.

Alan Sipe, 20, was taken into custody after the incident around 11:15 a.m. Wednesday.

Skowhegan Police Chief Michael Emmons said the shooting was the result of a domestic dispute. Police said Tara Harrington was injured when she was pushed down the stairs by Sipe a short time before the shooting.

Two other women were outside the car when Sipe opened fire. No one was hurt.

Police charged Sipe with aggravated reckless conduct with a firearm. He is being held on $25,000 cash bail.

KITTERY

Elderly woman’s helper stole $330,000 in jewels, police say

A woman hired to care for an elderly Kittery woman stole $330,000 worth of jewelry, police said.

Jocelyn Dowey, 30, of Rye, N.H., is accused of stealing the jewelry over time from the victim’s Kittery Point home. The jewelry was discovered at Dowey’s home on Sunday, said Kittery Police Chief Paul Callaghan.

Police said Dowey was hired to run errands for the victim a little more than a year ago. She did not work for an agency that provides services to the elderly.

The victim noticed some of her jewelry was missing last month. She told police the value of the jewels she lost was about $500,000.

Dowey was released on $25,000 bail. She’s due in court next month.

HOULTON

Suspect in triple killing cites publicity, seeks new venue

Lawyers for a man charged with killing a 10-year-old boy and two adults in rural eastern Maine have asked for a change of venue for the trial, saying publicity about the case has made it difficult to find an impartial jury.

Assistant Attorney General Bill Stokes told the Bangor Daily News on Wednesday that he expects a decision on the request to move the trial of Thayne Ormsby to be made when jury selection begins in Aroostook County Superior Court in Houlton on April 4.

Ormsby, 21, is charged with fatally stabbing Jeffrey Ryan, 55, his son Jesse, and Jason Dehahn, 30, at Ryan’s home in the border town of Amity in June 2010.

Ormsby has pleaded not guilty and is being held without bail.

BANGOR

Hollywood Slots renamed Hollywood Casino Bangor

The only casino now operating in Maine has a new name.

Hollywood Slots in Bangor officially changed its name Thursday to Hollywood Casino Bangor. Casino officials also unveiled a new logo at a news conference.

The casino changed its name because it will soon be offering poker, blackjack and other table gambling games in addition to slot machines. The table games will open to the public on March 16.

PORTSMOUTH, N.H.

N.H. officials skip subsidies for train but plan upgrades

A new plan for New Hampshire’s railroad system calls for improving passenger rail service without helping pay direct subsidies for two trains serving the state.

Kit Morgan of the New Hampshire Department of Transportation, speaking in Portsmouth, said a priority is to continue Amtrak’s Downeaster service that runs up the coast to Maine, and the Vermonter, which runs up the Connecticut River Valley.

Currently, the states of Maine and Vermont pay $12 million to subsidize the two trains. New Hampshire isn’t offering to help subsidize the services, but instead wants to support passenger rail with infrastructure improvements such as track and station upgrades.

Bob Hall of the Exeter Train Station Committee said it’s “a miracle” that New Hampshire is served by the trains without contributing.

— From staff and news services