SOUTH PORTLAND — When City Manager Jim Gailey asked the City Council last week to fast-track next year’s $4.3 million Capital Improvement Plan and add $125,000 in funds for more street paving, he didn’t expect it would be passed Wednesday night with no discussion. “Wow,” Gailey said, shortly after the CIP was quickly passed. “Thank […]

SOUTH PORTLAND — The city is looking to cash in on the hundreds of tankers that annually dock and unload oil at eight local terminals to help fight the effects of declining revenues.  During budget deliberations last week, City Manager Jim Gailey unveiled a proposal, drafted with input from Fire Chief Kevin Guimond, to increase […]

SCARBOROUGH — Proposed changes to the zoning ordinance to allow farm animals, gardens and farm stands in residential area are moving forward after a Town Council public hearing April 21.  Planning Director Dan Bacon explained the changes proposed by the Maine Department of Agriculture, which asked the town to follow the state’s requirements for food […]

CAPE ELIZABETH — Residents can expect another property revaluation in the coming year, and will see changes to their property tax bills in October 2011 and April 2012. Town Assessor Matthew Sturgis said the last equalization took place in 2004 and increased the valuation from $763 million to about $1.25 billion. Since then, discrepancies in […]

Wild West fans still argue over whether shootings by the Earp brothers and Doc Holliday were justified.

WASHINGTON – After a decade of steady increases, motorcyclist deaths nose-dived last year, possibly due to bikers watching their budgets in a sour economy. The study, set for release today, indicates a 16 percent drop in U.S. motorcycle fatalities through the first nine months of 2009 compared to the same period in the previous year. […]

SCARBOROUGH – John Flaherty Sr. was a career police officer, known for serving the Scarborough Police Department for 30 years, 18 of them as chief. But the role he was most comfortable with was guiding a tractor on the family farm. Mr. Flaherty, who died Monday at the age of 92, would routinely come home […]

BOWDOINHAM — The Dancing Cricket Farm is kicking off an endeavor to provide people from Portland to Augusta with top-notch organic vegetables, flowers and herbs through environmentally friendly and sustainable farming practices. The 75-acre farm is the flagship project of the Center for Ecological and Cultural Living Arts, a new non-profit organization focused on multiple-resource management, […]

SCARBOROUGH — Darcy Pierce is a veteran of large-scale disasters. He traveled to Thailand after the tsunami in 2004 and Indonesia after the earthquake in 2009. But after a trip to Haiti last week, the ongoing devastation there surprised him. “It’s an extreme situation. I think we’re going to see this come back in the […]

SCARBOROUGH — Earth Day is all about giving back to the planet, and nowhere is that more obvious than the annual marsh and beach cleanup day, the Saturday after Earth Day. More than 100 residents came out last year for the event, and Linda Woodard of the Audubon Society said she expects at least that […]