SOUTH PORTLAND — An energy auditor has submitted a preliminary report suggesting nearly $1.6 million in upgrades to city buildings and mechanical systems.  Councilor Tom Blake said representatives from Siemens Industry delivered their preliminary findings last week. City Manager Jim Gailey said the company is still drafting a final report for formal public presentation to […]

CAPE ELIZABETH — The Planning Board is still wrestling with how to best restrict rooster noise in residential neighborhoods at its next workshop on Jan. 4, 2011.  A proposal to limit roosters to properties of 40,000 square feet or more was discussed at the Dec. 21 board meeting, but members decided to continue the discussion […]

BRUNSWICK — A photographer tries to take Andrew Ian Dodge’s picture, but the man who has become one of the leading national spokesmen for the tea party is having difficulty sitting still. Dodge, 42, shifts on his bar stool, as if subconsciously seeking the shadows made elusive by the midday sun. He obsesses over the […]

HARPSWELL — Superintendent Michael Wilhelm this week said the suggestion that School Administrative District 75 is planning a “media campaign” for closure of West Harpswell School is unfounded. He said the only discussions that have taken place within the SAD’s strategic planning committee have been to decide how to publicize the upcoming public hearing and referendum […]

SCARBOROUGH — While in Haiti in May prosthetic limb designer Ian Engelman helped treat more than 20 car accident victims in an open-air emergency room, figured out the best way to set up a mosquito net, met with patients living in tent cities and had his underwear stolen off a clothes line. He also provided […]

BRUNSWICK — Executive Director Greg Farr is leaving the Brunswick Downtown Association to become senior vice president of Rollease Corp., a Stamford, Conn., maker of window coverings. “I look forward to my new challenge and also keeping my ties with the Brunswick area,” Farr said, adding he and his wife, Carolyn, plan to return to […]

BRUNSWICK — The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s National Coastal Wetlands Conservation Grant programs last week awarded nearly $1.4 million to the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife to support protection of more than 300 acres in Brunswick and Harpswell. A press release also announced additional funds for the protection of coastal wetlands in […]

BRUNSWICK — Several common themes emerged last week as local business owners gathered in Brunswick to discuss the business climate in Maine and what can be done to improve it. The “red tape removal” workshop was sponsored by the Southern Maine Midcoast Chamber of Commerce and invited business owners to submit ideas to a representative of […]

BATH — Final passage this month of a defense bill by both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives fully authorizes funding for two destroyer programs being worked on at Bath Iron Works. H.R. 6523, the Ike Skelton National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2011, supports the U.S. Department of Defense budget request for […]

BRUNSWICK — A defense bill passed by Congress last week includes a provision to continue operations of the Navy Exchange Service Command store at Brunswick Naval Air Station and the Defense Commissary Agency at the Topsham annex through next June. The stores were scheduled to close in March 2011. The provision was part of final […]