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Town seeks housing grant

Leader Editor — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 15:22:52 GMT

By Michael Kelley

Staff Writer

The Town Council is hoping a federal Community Development Block Grant will help the town begin the process of creating affordable housing in Scarborough.

On Feb. 1, the council voted to apply for the grant to cover the cost of connecting town-owned property at 75 Broadturn Road to a sewer line at the nearby Dunstan Crossing housing development.

The sewer line is needed because an affordable housing development is slated for the property, located between Saratoga Lane and the Maine Turnpike.

Currently the Scarborough Housing Alliance and Habitat for Humanity of Greater Portland are working on plans to construct approximately 17 residential units on the site and make the units available to very low, low, or moderate income individuals and families.

According to the town’s comprehensive plan, 2,152 households, or approximately 30 percent of all households in town, are considered very low or low income because they made less than $40,662 annually. Another 2,081, or 28 percent, were designated moderate income because they earned less than $76,242 a year.

The plan, still in the beginning stages, has received a mixed reaction from community members. Several abutters, who have spoken out against the project, indicate they are worried about the density of the project.

Aymie Hardesty, who lives on Saratoga Lane, said she supports applying for funding to cover the installation of the sewer line, but remains concerned with the project.

“I am all for applying for this grant. We absolutely need to make this application and meet the deadlines,” she told the Town Council at its Feb. 1 meeting. “I am concerned with the public process of this project and the lack of involvement with the abutters.”

Larry Mead, a fellow Saratoga Lane resident and town manager in Kennebunkport, said there will be plenty of opportunity to air his concerns with the project. He was at the meeting, he said, to question whether the town should apply for the grant.

He suggested rather than connecting the project to the sewer line nearby, it might make more sense to rezone the parcel so the units could use septic systems.

“The deadline will roll around again next year; is there such an urgency that the project needs to be done right now, or is there time to work on it with neighbors?” he said.

Contrary to some neighbors, who indicated they were caught off guard with the proposal, David Green, a resident of Beech Ridge Road, said the goal of adding more affordable housing in town is not a new concept in Scarborough.

“This is not something that has popped up overnight. This has been ongoing,” he said

“You got the option to get the funding, so let’s get the funding,” he added. “We’ll straighten out some of the details later.”

Judy Roy, vice chairman of the Town Council, said the Housing Alliance has been working on introducing affordable housing in town, at that property specifically, for some time. In fact, in 2006, the town purchased the 75 Broadturn Road property with the intention of using part of the land for affordable housing, with the rest staying as conservation land.

“Affordable housing has been a part of Scarborough plans for a long time,” echoed Council Chairman Ron Ahlquist. “For me this is exciting. I am convinced that is a really good location to put it. I am not convinced about the density though.”

Town Planner Dan Bacon said regardless of the size or scope of the Habitat for Humanity project, a sewer line is needed on the property.

“The Housing Alliance and Habitat for Humanity realize it’s premature in terms of understanding the layout and design of the project, but whether there are five units or 25 units, there needs to be sewer service and that is one of the more costly things for a project’s expense,” Bacon said.

Town Councilor Jessica Holbrook, who serves as a council liaison to the Scarborough Housing Alliance, said now is the time to apply for the funding to finance the sewer connection.

“I wholeheartedly support going for the grant application,” she said. “There is a small window of opportunity and it is vastly closing. If we apply for it, it doesn’t mean we get it. No matter what happens, this is an important piece of the process.”

Fearing the availability of the funding in the future, Roy said the town should not pass up the opportunity to get money this year.

“Community development block grants may not be available next year, given the state of the economy on the state and federal level,” she said. “I fully support applying for it, hopefully we get it.”

If successful, this would be the second time Scarborough would receive funding for the project through the Cumberland County Community Development Block Grant program. Last year Scarborough received $10,000 to hire a consultant to help with project design and feasibility.

This project would be the first built by Habitat for Humanity of Greater Portland in Scarborough, although the organization has done work in other communities around Scarborough, including South Portland, Portland and Westbrook.

According to Habitat for Humanity Executive Director Stephen Bolton, involving the organization in the project helps to keep the cost of construction down because it relies on volunteer labor and discounted services, which in turn means a lower asking price for the house. The asking price has not been determined yet.

Staff Writer Michael Kelley can be reached at 282-4337, ext. 237.

Dance center group bound for Olympics

Leader Editor — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 15:21:39 GMT

By Michael Kelley

Staff Writer

A group of five dancers from the Scarborough Dance Center is getting ready to perform on perhaps the biggest stage in the world.

Lyndsey Anderson, Kayla Finley, Tyla Hagan, Haley McOsker and Paige Unni will be heading to London this summer to perform as part of the 2012 Summer Olympic festivities.

Melissa Willey, owner of Scarborough Dance Center, said she was shocked when she found out last July that she had been invited by the American Alliance of Performing Arts Educators to choreograph a piece to be performed during the opening weekend of the Olympics.

“I honestly thought it was a joke. I called my mom and said, ‘This seems too good to be true,’ ” Willey recalled.

When she determined it was not a joke, Willey said she was humbled by the opportunity.

“I was excited. It is a big honor. I don’t think we’ll have a trip like this again,” she said.

Preparations for the trip, she said, began in August. Looking at the strengths of the dancers at her dance center, Willey invited Anderson, Finley, Hagan, McOsker and Unni to represent Scarborough Dance Center overseas.

Finley, a 16-year-old sophomore at Scarborough High School who has been dancing since she was 2 years old, said she is looking forward to that opportunity.

“It’s definitely an honor. It is so exciting to get to this point and be invited to go,” she said. “I am psyched.”

For Hagan, Willey’s younger sister and a part-time teacher at the center, it wasn’t an invitation, as much as it was a threat.

“She told me, ‘I am not going without you,’ ” said Hagan, 22, who is pursuing a doctorate degree in pharmacy at the University of New England.

For many of the girls, dancing is simply in their blood. Anderson, 14, a freshman at Cheverus High School, has been dancing for a dozen years— including the past six or seven competitively. Unni, 15, has been dancing with Willey since she was 3 years old and has been a member of the center’s competitive dance team for the past eight years. Similarly, McOsker, a sophomore at Cheverus High School who turns 16 next week, has been dancing with Willey for more than a decade.

“Not many people get a chance to do this,” Unni said of the London performance. “Not many people our age know what they want to do in life. We all know we want to dance. Now we get a chance to do that and share it with people.”

Willey said while in London, Scarborough Dance Center will perform a three-to-five minute piece on July 28 and July 29. One of the performances will be underneath a canopy tent outside Warwick Castle, a medieval castle built in 1088. The other performance venue has not been determined, she said.

The dance center traveling party, which totals 20, will have time to explore during the week they are in the city, although Willey said the itinerary, booked through Greatdays Holiday Services, has not been finalized yet. Willey said she does not expect seeing some of the Olympic games will be part of that itinerary.

“Olympic tickets are expensive,” she said. “Tickets were going for $1,500 a person for the opening ceremonies and that was a year ago.”

Her dance center is one of 15 dance studios making the trip and the only one from New England.

“We will be able to meet dancers from all over the country while we are there and share our passion for dance,” Willey said.

The dancers will begin rehearsing the choreographed piece, a mix of modern and contemporary dance, later this month, but learning the routine is but one challenge the girls face. In order to make the dream a reality, the group must raise $20,000. Jenny Hagan, a member of the Scarborough Dance Center Fundraising Committee, said the committee is roughly a third of the way to its goal.

“We have a fund-raising goal of $20,000, said Hagan, who will accompany her daughters Tyla Hagan and Melissa Willey on the London trip. “To date we have $6,100.”

To get to this point, she said, the fund-raising committee has held a number of fund-raising events, including restaurant nights, a haunted hayride, pie sale for Thanksgiving, a penny jar at the dance studio and bottle drive through the CLYNK program at Hannaford Supermarket.

The group’s next fundraiser, a dinner and silent auction, is scheduled from 6 to 10 p.m. Saturday, March 10 at J.P. Thornton’s Café and Deli on Broadway in South Portland.

Hagan said there is already $7,000 worth of items to be auctioned off. A week later, at 8:30 p.m. Friday, March 16, the group will hold a comedy night, headlined by Karen Morgan, at the Gold Room in Portland. A yard sale will be held at the dance center on May 5.

“We have a long way to go, but our big events are coming up, so I think we will start to see the rewards of it soon,” Jenny Hagan said.

She said many members of the community and several Portland-based businesses, which include General Fitness, Foley’s Fitness, Parker’s Restaurant, Anania’s Variety Store and Joe’s Smoke Shop, have offered financial support.

“It is all about everyone doing that extra little bit,” Jenny Hagan said. “That has made the difference.”

Staff Writer Michael Kelley can be reached at 282-4337, ext. 237.

Education Foundation ‘up and running’

Leader Editor — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 15:20:27 GMT

By Michael Kelley

Staff Writer

A group of Scarborough parents and community members have come together to make sure students in the Scarborough school system are not missing out on educational opportunities because of cuts to the school budget.

“What we hope we can do as an organization is enhance the educational opportunity or experiences for Scarborough students,” said Jeff Ertman, vice president of the Scarborough Education Foundation, which was incorporated Dec. 15. “We want to seek funding for initiatives that fall outside the traditional budget.”

“Our purpose is not to replace, or supplant the regular school budget. It is to provide for things that are not in the budget,” said Will Leadley, president of the foundation. “It wouldn’t provide a teacher’s salary, but it may provide a program that teacher has in mind.”

The foundation follows in the footsteps of other educational foundations in nearby communities.

“Educational foundations are pretty common now, Kennebunk, Falmouth and Cape Elizabeth all have one,” Leadley said. “The idea is to provide funds for innovative programs, innovative ideas that teachers or staff might have that are unique or otherwise unavailable.”

“It came time to do it here in Scarborough. It has been tried before in Scarborough, but it didn’t take off,” Leadley added.

Leadley said Superintendent of Schools George Entwistle set up a meeting with representatives from the Cape Elizabeth Education Foundation, the Falmouth Education Foundation and the Education Foundation of the Kennebunks and Arundel to discuss what makes their foundations successful.

Entwistle is familiar with how educational foundations can help the educational offerings in a community. Prior to starting as superintendent in Scarborough in July, Entwistle worked as the head of Falmouth schools from 2004 to 2009.

“We are pretty excited to have this organization up and running,” Entwistle said.

The meeting with other educational foundations, Leadley said, helped give the Scarborough Education Foundation some direction.

“We are very grateful to the other educational foundations,” Leadley said. “They have had a lot of ideas for us. Cape Elizabeth had been instrumental with helping us out.”

With the foundation’s framework now in place, Leadley said the focus has now turned to fundraising.

The foundation received a financial boost this week from the Louis and Tina Fineberg Trust, created by Louis Fineberg, a longtime Scarborough resident, in memory of Tina, his wife of 70 years. The trust has committed to allocating $100,000 to the foundation over the next 10 years, as well as making sure the school district’s nutrition system continues to get funding.

“The Fineberg Trust provides our foundation with a terrific start, one that will allow us to take an enormous jump forward. What a gift. I hope it will inspire and challenge others to follow in Mr. Fineberg’s lead,” Leadley said.

Fineberg said he was happy to be able to support the education in Scarborough through his donation.

“I am glad that this money will provide wonderful opportunities for kids, Fineberg said.

The donation comes in the midst of a fund-raising campaign launched by the educational foundation on Jan. 23.

The campaign, called 100 at 100, aims at finding 100 families to donate $100 to the foundation.

“We certainly would accept any amount of donation, we understand many people are not able to contribute at that level,” Leadley said.

“We are going to need the help of the whole community if this thing is going to thrive. That is what we are really trying to work on right now through this 100 at 100 campaign,” Leadley added.

As of Feb. 6, the campaign has received $2,525 from the community, as well as $3,500 from the board of directors. Aside from Leadley and Ertman, this group includes Jodi Shea, secretary; Marci Booth, treasurer; Chris Brownsey, Larissa Pratt, Melissa Murphy, Nancy Ravin, Doug Foerster, Kristin Dequattro and Stephanie Brady. Leadley said another $875 in donations is expected to arrive in the near future.

The board, he said, is still looking for people who want to join the cause.

“We’re looking for people that are passionate about education to help us build a strong foundation for the foundation and really get it going,” Leadley said.

For right now most of the foundation’s funding has come from financial donations from area businesses, families, or members of the community, but the group plans on holding some fundraisers along the way as well.

The first fundraiser planned, Leadley said, will be in early May, when a community spelling bee will take place.

Once the foundation can get the money it needs, it will turn its focus on finding projects to fund. The hope, Leadley said, is to be able to fund projects beginning this spring.

“We don’t have any specific projects in mind, but we have talked to a number of educators in the schools to get some of their ideas about what they have done in the past or what they might like to do in the future,” Leadley said.

“We have thrown some ideas around, but realistically we want to see what the teachers and educators come up with,” Ertman said. “They are the ones who are in the trenches proving the education and learning opportunities for the students.”

John Cole, a member of the Scarborough Board of Education, said he hopes the foundation can help teachers get what they need to succeed in the classroom.

“I’m excited for the teachers,” he said. “They have another avenue to turn to when things are tough.”

Ertman said the board is currently working on language for the initial grant application and guidelines for the board to consider when applications start rolling in. By no means, he added, is the board or the foundation, trying the drive the curriculum or things students learn in the classroom.

“We anticipate not having a shortage of applications coming in to us,” Ertman said. “We are at the initial stages, but we have a dedicated group working hard to make the plans we have in place come to fruition in the coming weeks and months.

At this point, the foundation will only fund programming and initiatives in the Scarborough school system and not from teachers and educators in other places of education in town, such as day care centers or the Scarborough Library. That, Ertman said, could change in the future.

“We are aiming and angling this to ensure we are funding initiatives that would be taking place inside the schools and not to things that fall outside the school day,” Ertman said.

The goal in doing so is simple, he said.

“We want to make sure the Scarborough schools are the best they possibly can be,” he said.

Cole said he remains optimistic about the foundation and the initiatives it can support.

“We have to go slow here and not rush this,” Cole said. “They are doing this the right way. I think a couple years from now you are going to see some really good things that they can provide for the community.”

Staff Writer Michael Kelley can be reached at 282-4337, ext. 237.

Black Point Beach Park plan pulled

Leader Editor — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 15:19:13 GMT

By Michael Kelley

Staff Writer

As it turned out, opposition to the proposed Black Point Beach Park was much to do about nothing. On Feb. 1, the Sprague Corp. pulled its plan of developing a 65-acre piece of farmland property at 388 Black Point Road into a beach park complete with a 370-vehicle parking lot and multi-use concession stand bath house building.

Seth Sprague, president of the Sprague Corp., indicated the plan was pulled not because of the negative reaction to it by neighbors, but because it was starting to become financially burdensome to pursue it any further.

“Regrettably, the economics of our proposed project could not survive the rigors of the public process,” he said in a prepared statement. “Over the last 14 months, each and every step of the process has resulted in added costs and reduced viability. We believe, had we persisted, we would have received the final permits required, overcome any legal challenges, and created a facility for Scarborough and greater Portland area of which we would have been proud. Unfortunately, that is not enough to overcome the financial realities.”

Sprague has said the intention was to improve access to Scarborough Beach, which is located right next to the proposed beach park property.

Tom Skolfield, a resident of Winnocks Neck Road, said he admires the work the Sprague family has done over the years to conserve land in Scarborough and Cape Elizabeth, but questions if another beach was really needed in Scarborough. The town, he pointed out, already has Ferry Beach, Scarborough Beach, Pine Point Beach and Higgins Beach, not to mention other beach parks in neighboring communities.

“I am all for people going to the beach, but I do think there is enough beaches for people, if they don’t mind driving a little ways,” he said.

Town Council Chairman Ronald Ahlquist, a park ranger at Crescent Beach State Park, located on land in Cape Elizabeth gifted by the Sprague family, said he is relieved the project is not progressing any further.

“I am glad the new park is gone,” he said at the Feb. 1 Town Council meeting. “I think that is terrific, in my world anyway.”

Adam Bradley, a Scarborough resident and a member of Save Scarborough, a community group formed in opposition to the Sprague proposal, said he, too, was glad to hear the news.

“Frankly we think this is without a doubt the best possible result for the community,” he said on behalf of Save Scarborough. “By community I mean the public as a whole, not just the people who live near the project.”

Bradley said he would like to see the land remain as is, but if it were to be developed, he would prefer to see it for residential purposes rather than commercial purposes.

“My personal feeling about it is that land should remain farmland,” he said. “I would love to see some sort of conservation effort, like a land trust trying to acquire the land and taking it up as a project. I think it is a special piece of property.”

A major concern regarding the project for those who live on or around Black Point Road was the amount of traffic that would be created by a 370-vehicle lot and the pollution and noise the parking lot would create for the residents next to the development.

Traffic congestion on the road, Skolfield said, is age-old problem that just seems to be getting worse.

“The traffic problem has always been bad,” Skolfield said. “The road wasn’t constructed for this type of traffic.”

Several people who live in the Black Point area of town, including Lucy Lacasse, said the project had the power to change the neighborhood forever.

“This huge project will change the character of the Black Point area, which my family, as well as many others, call home,” she said at a Planning Board meeting earlier this year.

Other people, Lacasse included, were concerned about the effect the project would have on the environment, especially the piping plover population. The piping plover is a small shorebird that was placed on the federal list of threatened birds in 1986. Over the years, the plover population has continued to decline.

“The parking development would have had a significant environmental impact, simply because of the sheer volume of people it would bring to the beach,” Bradley said.

Staff Writer Michael Kelley can be reached at 282-4337, ext. 237.

Wentworth, Blue Point schools to host short plays

Leader Editor — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 15:18:11 GMT

By Michael Kelley

Staff Writer

Four children’s books will come alive on stage Feb. 15 when students from Wentworth Intermediate School and Blue Point Elementary School team up to present four short plays to their classmates, teachers, parents and community members.

At 10 a.m., students from Lisa Douglas’ first grade class at Blue Point will help students from Pat Regan’s fifth grade class perform theatrical adaptations of Chris Van Dusen’s “The Circus Ship,” a picture book based on the true story of The Royal Tar, a circus ship that sank off the coast of Maine in 1836.

The classes also will perform “Little Beaver and the Echo,” a 1990 picture book by Falmouth-based author Amy MacDonald, who will be on hand to see the performance.

Regan’s class also will perform “The Knee High Man” and “Fooling the King.”

Students from Blue Point will be able to see their peers in action at a 10 a.m. performance at Scarborough High School. A performance will be held for Wentworth students at 11 a.m.

An evening performance is scheduled for 6 p.m.

Regan, who has been incorporating theater into his classroom instruction for 14 years, said performing arts is a fun way for the students in both grade levels to work on their public speaking and literacy skills.

Last month students from several third-, fourth- and fifth-grade classrooms participated in a storytelling competition aimed at honing those same skills.

Staff Writer Michael Kelley can be reached at 282-4337, ext. 237.

Hockey roots run deep for Red Storm captain

Leader Editor — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 15:16:51 GMT

By Michael Kelley

Staff Writer

To say hockey runs in Jordan Bathe’s family may be an understatement.

Because of his family tradition in hockey, Bathe, a senior captain on the Scarborough hockey team, fell in love with the sport at an early age.

“I’ve been playing hockey my whole life, ever since I could remember,” said Bathe, a center on the team. “My father played professional hockey with the (Philadelphia) Flyers. It really motivated me to follow in his footsteps.”

Bathe’s father, Frank Bathe, a member of the 1977-1978 Calder Cup champion Maine Mariners, played in the National Hockey League with the Detroit Red Wings from 1974 to 1976 and the Philadelphia Flyers from 1977 to 1984, before a back injury ended his career.

Bathe’s older brother, Landon, works as a linesman in the American Hockey League after an injury stopped his professional hockey career.

While both he and his father enjoy hockey, Bathe said he doesn’t feel pressured by his dad’s success in the NHL.

“To me it is a blessing. There is a lot of pressure in hockey to succeed. He doesn’t really stress that,” Bathe said. “He just wants me to do my best. I try the best I can to put a smile on his face and get his approval.”

Now, as a four-year member of the Scarborough varsity hockey team and captain, Bathe is looking to stress the importance of having a positive attitude in hockey, a game of never-ending ups and downs.

“I want to keep them motivated and only thinking about the positives,” Bathe said of encouraging his teammates. “You really need to get them to not think of what they did wrong, but that great pass they made or how great they have been playing.”

So far, this approach seems to be working. Prior to its game against Brunswick on Feb. 9, the team had a 10-2-1 record and trailed only Thornton Academy and Falmouth in the standings.

“The season has been great. I couldn’t have asked for anything better,” Bathe said. “We have a lot of young players who are doing well. Our goaltending has been incredible, even though we have been switching starters. It seems whoever is in the net is at his best.”

Currently the team, third in the standings, is preparing for a tough stretch in their schedule.

The Red Storm host Biddeford (which beat Scarborough 2-1 on Jan. 28) at MHG Arena in Saco on Feb. 11 at 5 p.m.

The season concludes later this month after games against top-ranked Thornton Academy (11-1-1) on Feb. 20 and Falmouth (8-3-1) on Feb. 23.

“It doesn’t matter where we end up in the standings,” he said. “All that matters is how far we get in the playoffs.”

Bathe has become a leader off the ice as well. Since his sophomore year he has been involved in the Natural Helpers program, a group of students nominated by their fellow students to provide a peer support system within the school.

Bathe said he does not know what he will do after he graduates from Scarborough High School this spring.

He will either play junior hockey for a league such as the Atlantic Junior Hockey League, which has tryouts this spring, or pursue computer science at a college in Canada.

He became a Canadian citizen to help in the process if he ends up attending college in the fall.

“I am talking to my coaches to see what I should do about my hockey,” Bathe said. “I am undecided right now. I am seeing where everything falls into place.”

Staff Writer Michael Kelley can be reached at 282-4337, ext. 237.

Senior housing questioned

Leader Editor — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 15:14:45 GMT

By Michael Kelley

Staff Writer

After fighting the development on the Black Point Beach Park at 388 Black Point Road, Mary Anne Rodrigue said she can hardly believe another company is looking to create a commercial development on the often-traveled road.

“To learn that there was another project in the works to further compound all the traffic issues and concerns on the road was very unsettling,” said Rodrigue, who lives in the Atlantic House condominium complex near Kirkwood Road.

Rodrigue was one of a dozen members of the public at the Jan. 30 Planning Board meeting who addressed their concerns about Wegman Companies constructing a 59,000-square-foot assisted living facility just south of the intersection of Route 1 and Black Point Road, an intersection that has been deemed problematic in town.

Jerry Watkins, a representative from Wegman, said the facility will house 46 studio apartments, 15 one-bedroom apartments and 20 dementia care units.

Watkins said all facility residents will be provided three meals a day and offered activities and exercise classes throughout the day. The facility will also help the residents with prescription management, laundry and housekeeping. The two-story building will feature two wings heading south and west. Parking will be in front of the building and will be accessed from a driveway on the southern side of the property.

The 8-acre piece of property sits in the TVC2 zone, a transitional zone between the dense commercial developments of Route 1 and the residences of the Black Point neighborhood.

“This would seem to be a very appropriate use for that zone,” said Andrew Johnson, a civil engineer from SMRT, a Portland-based engineering and planning firm that is working with Wegman Companies on the project.

Many neighbors in the area, however, said at the public hearing that they do not feel the development is right for the property.

“Oak Hill already has four other senior living facilities. I think this would be a poor choice to be located in this area. I don’t see the purpose it would serve,” said Lisa Ronco, a resident of 17 Black Point Road.

Her neighbor, Jay Phelps, said he is not against the project, but is against it being located where it is proposed.

“I welcome this and appreciate all the work that’s been put into it. I’d love to see the company come here and do business with the town, but my deferral is this is not an appropriate location for a project of this stature,” he said.

Many members of the public who spoke at the hearing voiced their concerns about the project adding more vehicles to an already congested Black Point Road and Oak Hill intersection. During peak commuting hours in the morning and evening, it is not uncommon to see vehicles backed up along Black Point Road in front of the property.

“For anyone who has driven on Black Point Road – going to work, coming back from the beach or coming home from work – you know how the traffic stacks up there. I am absolutely surprised there is no exit or egress on Route 1. This is putting a huge strain on an already burdened Black Point Road,” said Carol Rancourt, who lives at 23 Black Point Road.

Tom Gorrill, a traffic consultant on the project from Gorrill and Palmer, said because of the nature of the project and the anticipation that many of the facility’s residents will not be driving, he does not expect the project to add a lot of traffic to Black Point Road. He said he expects an additional 14 vehicle trips during the morning commute and 18 trips during the evening commute. Wegman entertained the idea of having access to the property off Route 1, but that was ultimately decided against due to the problems it could create with Route 1 traffic, especially when someone was looking to turn left toward the Oak Hill intersection.

“Traffic is certainly a problem in the Oak Hill area, we all know that, but this project, I think, is mitigating any impact it has,” Gorrill said.

As part of Wegman’s mitigation effort, the company will construct a sidewalk in front of the property to help pedestrian safety and a third lane to help the congestion that backs up from the intersection of Route 1 and Black Point Road.

“I understand the traffic problems there,” said Dave Bouffard, an alternate member of the Planning Board. “Before my wife and I built our house in West Scarborough seven years ago, we lived directly across from the property. Sometimes (traffic) was a horror. Fortunately, I believe this will be a minimal traffic impact on Black Point Road.”

Although she said she had some concerns with the project, alternate Planning Board member Kerry Corthell said she supports the project because it fills a need for senior citizen housing in Scarborough.

“I think this is a great use of the property,” she said. “Being able to have an elderly care facility this close to other commercial pieces of the Oak Hill area is great.”

The project also gained the support of Planning Board Chairman Allen Paul.

“I like this project. I like where it is,” Paul said. “The traffic generated by it doesn’t scare me. It certainly is a facility we need in this town. I think you have a solid plan and I hope it moves forward.”

Before it does, however, the Zoning Board of Appeals will address Wegman’s plan for the dementia unit. The review is needed because the dementia care is not considered a residential use, but rather a nursing home use, which is allowed in the zone, but only by special exception by the Zoning Board of Appeals.

The plan would then appear before the Planning Board again for final approval.

Staff Writer Michael Kelley can be reached at 282-4337, ext. 237.

Town leader leaves lasting legacy

Leader Editor — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 15:13:29 GMT

By Michael Kelley

Staff Writer

Imagining a Scarborough without her father, Harold Snow, is a difficult thing for Dr. Susan Snow to picture. Unfortunately, that has become a reality for Snow as Harold Snow, a longtime Scarborough resident and the force behind F.H. Snow Canning, the company that produced the nationally recognized line of Snow’s chowder, died on Nov. 29 at the age of 94.

Now, two months later, it is not a time of grief for the Snow family, but rather a time to honor the life Harold Snow led and the people he inspired along the way.

Snow said her father inspired her and her four children to push themselves to accomplish things that even they didn’t think possible. This message was echoed in 2004 when Harold Snow addressed the graduating class of Thornton Academy, his alma mater, when the Saco-based high school honored him as Alumna of the Year.

Her father, Snow said, gave her the inspiration to excel in school and earn a MD and PhD from Dartmouth College, two things that would not have been possible without his support.

“He always encouraged us to do a little bit more than we thought we could do,” Snow said.

Harold Snow also provided a support system for his granddaughter, Ariana Bratt, who last year earned a degree in chemistry from Rice University. Harold Snow had graduated from college 72 years earlier from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, also with a degree in chemistry.

“There was this pure joy in telling my grandpa that you did this or accomplished that,” Bratt said. “It was so powerful to have that.”

Snow said her father had an ability to connect with younger generations right up until the end.

“One of the most impressive things about my father was how well he related to youngsters even into his 90s,” she said.

She said she was particularly touched by the relationship he had with his 1-year-old great-granddaughter, Sophia Cinader.

One of Harold Snow’s interests was history. Snow said her father was an integral part of publishing “Scarborough at 350: Linking the Past to the Present,” for Scarborough’s 350^th anniversary in 2008, because he was able to remember much of what went on in town over his lifetime. But he also offered insight about other historic events in town through his conversations with people who lived through them.

Working on the book with her father, Snow said, helped her learn more about not only Scarborough, but the role his father played in its history.

“I wouldn’t even know a lot of what he did, if I didn’t know to ask him about it from talking to other people,” Snow said.

Snow said her father was not one to sit idly around. He was a man who got things done. While he was the driving force behind Snow’s Canning for many years, holding executive positions with the company, Snow said her father “could always be found in the workshop with his sleeves rolled up helping to build and fix equipment.”

In fact, Harold Snow, who worked for Snow’s Canning Co. for more than 40 years, helped to streamline the canning process, allowing the company to begin distributing its products nationally.

The success of Snow’s Canning was also able to give many residents in Scarborough steady employment, not only in the canning factory, but also for clam diggers, lobstermen and others who worked the shoreline.

Snow was also able to make the company a household name across the country, in part due to his partnership with 20^th Century Fox in promoting “Carousel,” the 1956 movie based on his great-grandfather, Captain Enoch Snow.

As part of the agreement, the film promoted Snow’s Canning along with the movie and Snow’s Canning provided clam chowder at premieres at major theaters across the country. Snow also hosted a clambake for the film’s stars, Shirley Jones and Gordon MacRae, during the filming of the movie.

“He wasn’t passive,” Snow said. “One of the things about him was he didn’t sit still.”

His can-do spirit, she said, could be seen in the annual clambakes he hosted for his family. Snow said even this summer her father held the family clambake, something that the Snows were known for over the years. In 1957, Harold Snow helped to orchestrate the world’s largest clambake in Plymouth, Mass.

Harold Snow was the driving force behind the construction of the Blue Point Congregational Church, next to the home he lived in for more than 70 years.

The home, on the corner of Pine Point Road and Seavey Landing, is the former First Blue Point School, which he attended for 10 years prior to going to Thornton Academy for high school.

Not only did Harold Snow design the church, he also served as the project engineer, organizing and overseeing a team of community volunteers in constructing the church.

“There wasn’t a smarter man out there,” said Ernest Tarbox, a cousin and former coworker at Snow’s Canning. “If it wasn’t for Hal Snow that church wouldn’t be there and the organ wouldn’t be inside that church.”

Although it was not something that he would brag about, Snow said her father was a talented organist. He played organ at the Blue Point Congregational Church and served as its choir director for 42 years.

“There were pieces he could play that no one else could. You hummed a tune and he could play it,” she said.

Staff Writer Michael Kelley can be reached at 282-4337, ext 237

Middle school coach has college pedigree

Leader Editor — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 15:12:20 GMT

By Michael Kelley

Staff Writer

As the new coach of the Scarborough Middle School wrestling team, Joe Pistone sees his role with the young wrestlers as much more than that of a coach. Pistone, head coach of the University of Southern Maine wrestling team — the only collegiate wrestling team in the state — said his role is part coach, part mentor.

“I am going to ensure these kids are learning the sport, they are safe, they are making safe decisions and they are taking care of their responsibilities inside and outside the classroom,” Pistone said.

Pistone, who moved to Maine a decade ago to take the USM job, said the opportunity to take over the middle school program in Scarborough came to him through his friendship with Shane Stephenson, the head coach of the Scarborough High School wrestling team.

“Shane Stephenson was a former wrestler of mine,” Pistone said. “He wrestled for me at the University of Southern Maine. I recruited him out of New York. We are from the same area.”

“He asked me if I would be interested in joining the Scarborough wrestling family and presented the opening at the middle school to me. You could say he recruited me. I went from recruiting him to wrestle, to him recruiting me to coach,” Pistone said.

Pistone said he was excited about what Stephenson was doing to reinvigorate wrestling at the high school level and was more than willing to take over the middle school team.

“Shane, who has a wealth of wrestling knowledge, wanted to take the high school program over and change the culture there. In a sport like wrestling, you need a good base. That usually starts at the elementary and middle school levels and works its way up to the high school,” Pistone said.

Pistone, who has been involved in wrestling for 25 years, said he hopes a strong program in the middle school will translate to a strong high school program down the line.

“If these kids are motivated, it will be easy for them to pick up a lot of the stuff they will need to be successful in this sport,” Pistone said. “By the time they get to high school, they will have all the fundamentals down.”

Ted Sutton, a Scarborough wrestling booster, said Pistone is the right man for the job.

“We really are in a building mode right now, as you build up a program, you need good coaches,” Sutton said. “I think it is wonderful to have someone of his caliber. He is great with the kids.

“The goal is to get the youth in the middle school program really going with his help and make sure they are ready for high school,” he added.

Pistone said the support he has received so far from the Scarborough wrestling community will make his job much easier.

“The Scarborough wrestling boosters, coaches and athletic director have all made a serious commitment to improving wrestling,” he said. “With that support, it makes for a really good base for the future of the sport in Scarborough.”

Pistone, who has been involved with wrestling in Scarborough as a volunteer for nearly a decade, said he will hold practice from 2:30 to 4:15 p.m. during the season, which runs Feb. 6 to March 28.

His focus, he said, will be on teaching young athletes the fundamentals of wrestling, proper nutrition and light weight lifting.

Many of the students who participate is middle school wrestling, Pistone said, have never participated in the sport and may, because of organizations such as World Wrestling Entertainment, think wrestling is much different from what it actually is.

“People who have never been associated with wrestling have no base besides professional wrestling,” he said. “When they think wrestling, they don’t think of NCAA wrestlers or Olympic wrestling. They think of turnbuckles and chairs being smashed over people’s heads.”

“Wrestling is the complete opposite of that,” he continued. “It is a never-ending cycle of teaching folks what the sport is really about. Once you get parents on board with that and they see all it does for a young person, they are hooked.”

So far, Sutton said, he has been impressed with what Pistone has brought to the program.

“I like his approach and the way he handles himself not only with us, but with the kids as well,” he said.

Pistone said his goal in taking over the program is to simply share his love of wrestling with as many Scarborough youths as possible.

“My goal is to get as many young middle school students to wrestle as I can and really support these kids and help them build a strong foundation both academically and athletically.”

Pistone said his life would have turned out much differently if he hadn’t got involved with wrestling at an early age.

“If it wasn’t for this sport, I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to go to college, earn an athletic scholarship and graduate,” he said. “I’ve been able to travel this country extensively because of this sport. I want these kids to have the same opportunities I did, but better.”

Staff Writer Michael Kelley can be reached at 282-4337, ext. 237.

Wentworth parking plans scrutinized

Leader Editor — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 15:11:07 GMT

By Michael Kelley

Staff Writer

When he looks at an informal sketch plan of the proposed Wentworth Intermediate School, Planning Board Chairman Allen Paul said all he can see is “a sea of tar.”

“I am looking for ways to minimize that,” he told representatives of Harriman Associates, the architectural firm designing the new school.

Much of Paul’s concerns stem from the plan’s redesigned parking and traffic infrastructure at the school, which includes plans for a bus loop that accommodates 18 buses double stacked, a fire lane to the west of the school, a new intercampus road that connects Quentin Drive with the high school parking lot, a zone for parents to drop off their children and a new 248-vehicle parking lot.

It was the parking lot that was flagged as a concern for many of Paul’s fellow board members.

“The town requires 126 spaces, but there is a strong desire to provide more than that because of all the events that happen at the school,” said Dan Cecil, principal architect with Harriman Associates.

Corey Fellows, vice chairman of the Planning Board, said even when taking into account the amount of activities Wentworth holds, he feels the parking lot is too large.

“While I certainly recognize all the ancillary activities Wentworth hosts and, as a parent of three, I am involved in a lot of those, it seems to me the sheer volume of the parking lot is driving a lot in terms of the layout of the site.”

He said the high school lots, just a short walk away, often have plenty of spaces available, even on the busiest of days.

“I would like, if possible, a little more thought about the level of parking provided,” Fellows said.

The parking, Cecil said, would not just support events at the intermediate school, but the nearby high school and middle school as well.

Ron Mazer, a Planning Board member, said he supports constructing a new school, but worries 163,000 square feet is excessive.

Cecil said the square footage is typical of some of the other recently constructed schools he has worked on. The size of the school, like the parking lot, is being designed with the community activities in mind.

“Your school has a lot of community use attached to it, which a lot of schools don’t have. If you look at all the community activities before school, after school and during breaks, it is pretty impressive,” Cecil said.

Members of the Planning Board also addressed concerns about the traffic flow being proposed in the plan.

Tom Gorrill, a traffic consultant for the project from Gorrill-Palmer Consulting, said the plan is designed to take traffic away from Wentworth Drive, a short road in front of the existing Wentworth school that is commonly used as a way to avoid the traffic light at the intersection of Route 1 and Gorham Road. The road is also used as a connection to the high school parking lot.

To do so, vehicles will only be able to turn right into and out of Wentworth Drive.

The main entrance point to the school will not be off Wentworth Drive, as it is now, but off Quentin Drive. The road, which also serves as an entrance point to Scarborough Library and Scarborough Middle School, would include an entrance to Wentworth on which vehicles could access the parking lot, parent drop-off, Wentworth Drive parking or connection to the high school and municipal parking lots.

John Chamberlain, a member of the Planning Board, said he hopes the plan improves the current traffic that moves through the Wentworth Intermediate campus, which he said can often get unmanageable.

“It’s kind of scary, I don’t care how fast people are going,” he said. “There is so much going on between sporting events at both the fields and the schools and people coming and going to school,” he said.

Planning Board member Jay Thomas said the new traffic infrastructure will help traffic flow in the area.

“All these things, perhaps minor things, are going to be a tremendous improvement for traffic,” he said.

Those improvements and the construction of the school would disrupt 1.3 acres of wetlands. To offset the destruction of the wetlands, the town would either pay a $200,000 in lieu of mitigation fee to the Maine Department of Environmental Protection or donate a parcel of land it owns next to the Rachel Carson Wildlife Sanctuary for conservation, or a combination of both.

The mitigation fee would be used by the Maine Natural Resources Conservation Program for conservation efforts across the state.

The project’s environmental impact will also be reduced through solar paneling on the roof and a geothermal heating and cooling system.

Once the final plan has been drafted and approved, the project would be put out to bid in June, the contractor would be chosen in August, and construction would begin in early September.

Cecil said the new school would be handed over to the school department in June 2014, at which time the existing school would be demolished. The project would then be completed and ready for the 2014-2015 school year.

Between now and then, Wentworth Principal Anne-Mayre Dexter said she will work on determining the technology and equipment that will go inside the classrooms and hold professional development workshops with teachers and staff to make sure they are ready to instruct in the newly constructed school.

Staff Writer Michael Kelley can be reached at 282-4337, ext. 237.

Company plans to build senior housing

Leader Editor — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 14:11:28 GMT

By Michael Kelley

Staff Writer

An out-of-state company is looking to help fill the need for senior housing in Scarborough.

Wegman Companies headquartered in Rochester, N.Y., has plans to create a 59,000-square-foot assisted living facility on vacant property on the corner of Route 1 and Black Point Road.

“The general Portland area seemed like a good market for us,” said Joe McEntee, vice president in charge of senior housing. “It has a lot of things we were looking for. The town of Scarborough was particularly attractive to us.”

The group will be at the Jan. 30 Planning Board meeting to seek approval of the site plan they have created for its 81-unit facility, which will include studio and one-bedroom apartments. McEntee said 20 of the units would be used for individuals in need of dementia care. All of the residents, he added, will be offered meals, housekeeping and medication management.

“I don’t expect the board to make a final decision on the project at the meeting because part of the project also needs approval from the Zoning Board of Appeals,” said Scarborough Town Planner Dan Bacon. “A portion of the building will be used for intensive dementia care, which requires approval from the ZBA.”

The Zoning Board of Appeals approval is needed because the dementia care is considered a nursing home use rather than a residential use. Nursing homes are allowed in the zone, but only with special exception from the Zoning Board of Appeals.

Bacon said the Planning Board will discuss the project then pass it along to the Zoning Board of Appeals before it eventually winds up back on a Planning Board agenda. There will be opportunity for the public to comment on the project during the Jan. 30 meeting.

Bacon said when the Planning Board first reviewed the project’s sketch plan, there were concerns about the traffic impact of the facility.

“There were certainly questions about access and traffic impact given the location of the project and its proximity to the Oak Hill intersection,” Bacon said. “In the early stages there were concerns with the traffic backing up there in the early morning and evening. I suspect there will be additional questions and concerns with that, but (the applicant) has tried to address some of those concerns.”

McEntee said traffic won’t be an issue due to the nature of the business.

“Traffic is an issue, but I think it will work out. Assisted living facilities generally don’t generate a lot of traffic. Not a lot of our residents will have vehicles,” he said.

Gorrill-Palmer Consulting Engineers is serving as a traffic consultant on the project.

Wegman is proposing 53 parking spaces, four more than the project’s size requires. According to the project file in the Scarborough Planning Office similar sized projects in Queensbury and Brockport, N.Y., have not had parking issues in the 10 years they have operated.

The busiest time of day, when the parking lot will be its fullest, will be at 3 p.m. when there may be as many as 31 staff present, with the morning shift leaving and the afternoon shift coming into work.

McEntee said the company was attracted to the property because of its convenience to Black Point Road and Route 1, two major roads in Scarborough.

“Exposure and visibility is big for us,” he said. “We don’t like to be on overly busy roads, but we like to have folks in the community know where we are so when it comes time for assisted living, people are familiar with where we are.”

The entrance to the project, which is located behind the Citgo station, will be 300 feet from the intersection of Black Point Road and Route 1. Bacon said the project has been designed so that it is as far from the Oak Hill intersection as possible.

The two-story building will feature two wings heading south and west. Parking will be in front of the building and will be accessed from a driveway on the southern side of the property.

“The present layout offers a balance between the needs of the facility for connectivity to the surrounding neighborhood and the privacy and tranquility for facility residents,” Andrew Johnston, a consultant on the project from SMRT architecture, engineering and planning firm, wrote in a summary of the project.

The 8.5-acre property, as it exists now, is an open field of trees. Some of the trees will be retained to serve as a screen, or buffer, between the facility, the abutting properties and Black Point Road. Other trees, however, will have to come down as part of the construction process.

“We will have a significant landscaping plan that we will be presenting to the Planning Board,” McEntee said. “We will try to keep as many good hardwood trees as possible.”

In an effort to keep in harmony with the recommendations of the Oak Hill Pedestrian Study, commissioned by the town in 2010 find ways to make Oak Hill more pedestrian friendly, the project will include a sidewalk along the property on Black Point Road.

The Town Council has made implementing some of the recommendations from the study one of its goals for 2012.

When constructed, the as-of-yet unnamed facility will join several other similar venues in the Oak Hill section of Scarborough. Bessey Commons, an independent senior living facility, opened on the site of the former Bessey School on Route 1 in 2008. Scarborough Terrace and Maine Veterans Home are located on Route 1, just south of the site.

After obtaining the proper approval from the Planning Board and Zoning Board of Appeals, the hope is for the project to break ground in late spring or early summer and be completed by summer 2013.

Tuskegee airman will talk about experiences tonight

Leader Editor — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 14:10:18 GMT

By Michael Kelley

Staff Writer

History will come alive tonight when South Portland resident Jim Sheppard, a member of the Tuskegee Airmen, shares his story about being among the first African-American aviators to serve the United States during World War II.

The event, which will be held at 5 p.m. at the Rock Church of Greater Portland located at 66 Gorham Road in Scarborough, coincides with the Jan. 20 release of “Red Tails,” a film created by Lucasfilm that is inspired by the heroic exploits of the Tuskegee Airmen.

When he hears Sheppard recollecting his time with the Tuskegee Airmen during World War II, Eric Samuelson, senior pastor of Rock Church, can’t help but get a sense of military pride.

“It gives me a connection to a legacy that I have great pride in,” said Samuelson, a lieutenant colonel in the Air National Guard.

It was a love of flying that brought the two men together at a chance encounter at Portland International Jetport six years ago.

“I love planes and I love flying,” Samuelson said. “I met Jim Sheppard years ago at an air show and heard some of his stories.”

“He is the greatest kind of veteran because he knows it is his job to tell his story,” Samuelson added. “We went out to lunch and he talked for an hour and a half straight. It was great.”

With a renewed interest in the Tuskegee experiment thanks to the film, Samuelson said now is a great opportunity for others to hear a firsthand account of the Tuskegee Airmen.

“With “Red Tails” coming out, I thought ‘is there a way where we can give people an opportunity to get together to know more about the Tuskegee Airmen and what they did?’” Samuelson said.

He reached out to Sheppard, who was willing to share a slideshow presentation that chronicles his story at the event.

Sheppard, who has already seen “Red Tails,” has said the movie, produced by George Lucas and starring Terrence Howard and Cuba Gooding Jr., is fairly faithful to actual events. He said there was some Hollywood glamour added to it, but overall the movie stayed true to what actually occurred.

Sheppard had the opportunity to meet Lucas at a Tuskegee Airmen reunion a few years back when the famous director paid the group a visit to get their input about his plans for the film.

Enrolling in the Army Air Corps as a Tuskegee airman was a dream come true for Sheppard, Samuelson said.

“Jim’s dream and desire was always flying. He wanted to be a pilot, but as an African-American, pre-World War II, that was not an option,” Samuelson said.

Without an opportunity in aviation, Sheppard became an auto mechanic in Harlem, N.Y. It wasn’t too long before he heard about a new program from the Army Air Corps to train African Americans to fly and maintain combat aircraft as part of the war effort.

Sheppard saw this as an opportunity to live his lifelong dream of being a pilot. It didn’t quite work that way, however.

Samuelson said when Sheppard arrived in Tuskegee, Ala., he made the mistake of being too honest and said he was a mechanic. He was made an airplane mechanic and never got the opportunity to pilot a plane.

Nevertheless, he did what was asked of him and worked as a mechanic on the red-tailed planes on army bases in Italy. He worked his way from Sicily to northern Italy and moved along the frontline toward Berlin, Germany. Sheppard said he enlisted in 1942 and spent much of the final years of the war in 1944 and 1945 in active duty.

“My specialty was always aircraft maintenance, from crew chief all the way up to flight engineer,” Sheppard said this week while preparing for tonight’s event.

After the war, Sheppard said he served as an Air Force reservist for 10 years and stayed in the aviation industry by working as a commercial airline mechanic and eventually as an inspector for the Federal Aviation Administration. In fact, it was the inspector job that brought him to Maine in 1972.

The Tuskegee experiment included more than 16,000 men and women who served as pilots, mechanics, support staff and instructors from 1941 to 1949.

Their story is preserved at Moton Field, where the airmen got their basic training. The former army base, now used as a municipal airport, is home of the Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site, which includes a museum and interpretive displays. It was designated part of the U.S. National Park Service by President Bill Clinton in 1998. In 2007, President George Bush awarded the Tuskegee Airmen the Congressional Gold Medal for defending the U.S. in the midst of racism. Sheppard was among those honored.

“What was done at Tuskegee was incredible. The people involved are an irreplaceable part of American history,” Samuelson said. “They faced challenges that most people couldn’t begin to imagine.”

Samuelson said that in his eyes the Tuskegee Airmen proved that African-Americans were as capable of serving in the military as anyone else. It was in part due to the Tuskegee Airmen that President Harry S. Truman officially ended military segregation in 1948.

“They helped people understand that all people are created equal, that they were not just hollow words. They proved they had just as much a right and were just as qualified to serve as anybody else,” Samuelson said.

He said he hopes the story of the Tuskegee Airmen and what they were able to accomplish in the face of adversity can be used as inspiration for today’s military troops.

“They overcame barriers and did some good for this country,” Samuelson said of the Tuskegee Airmen. “I hope our military today can overcome its barriers for the good of others and carry on that tradition of service and the legacy of heroics.”

Samuelson said he hopes the event is entertaining, as well as educational. Sheppard agreed.

“This is a good follow up to what people learned in school,” Sheppard said. “It is a good follow up, especially if you have a connection to the military.”

Samuelson said he has made it a can’t-miss event for his family.

“I want my kids to be in the first row to hear this,” Samuelson said.

Staff Writer Michael Kelley can be reached at 282-4337, ext. 237.

Local students learn art of storytelling

Leader Editor — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 14:09:04 GMT

By Michael Kelley

Staff Writer

A simple story can be a powerful educational tool for children. Teachers at Wentworth Intermediate School have used that tool this month to teach children in grades three through five about literacy and public speaking through a school-wide storytelling competition.

The competition has been happening at the school on and off for more than 25 years. For the past 14 years, Christine Koch, a literary specialist at the school, has led the program.

“I took it over after a gap of several years,” she said. “I thought it was such a great opportunity for the kids.”

Since returning from winter break earlier this month, students have been working on memorizing 2- to 5-minute stories from popular children’s books or have written their own stories.

Through funding from The Friends of Wentworth, the school’s parent-teacher organization, Antonio Rocha, a Maine-based storyteller, actor and mime, came to the school earlier this month to present a workshop on storytelling for the children.

Koch said the goal of the competition is not about naming a winner, although a school-wide winner will be named at the storytelling performance in the school library at 7 p.m. Tuesday.

“The value of this for me is not the competition,” she said. “The value is every kid getting the opportunity to tell their story in front of their class.”

Wentworth Principal Anne-Mayre Dexter said this helps students gain confidence to speak in front of their peers.

“It helps children feel they can capitalize on their strengths and make a performance out of it,” she said.

Koch said while the event is fun for students to take part in, it also ties back into the school’s curriculum and coincides with the third-grade unit on fairy tales, fourth-grade unit on tall tales and fifth-grade unit on folk tales from around the world. She added it also meets the public speaking standards of Maine Learning Results, a set of state standards aimed at improving student learning and achievement.

The program is only one way Wentworth teachers bring public speaking into their classrooms.

“Some teachers do public speaking another way by having kids dress up as historical figures,” she said.

Dexter said an event such as the storytelling competition presents public speaking in a fun and unique way.

“Most intriguing for me is this transcends the old system of memorization of a very rote, strictly prepared speech that follows a prepared format,” she said.

The format, she added, allows students to have fun and be themselves.

Although some of the same stories – “Goldilocks and the Three Bears,” “The Three Little Pigs” – get recited year after year, students are encouraged to choose a story that is special to them.

Annabelle Forsley, a third-grade student who is taking part in the storytelling competition for the first time, chose her favorite book, “Gingerbread Baby.”

Others, such as fourth-grade student Tansey Hughes, chose a familiar tale.

“I chose it because I already knew it,” she said of her choice, “Little Red Riding Hood.”

Fifth-grader Caroline Arpin, who read “The Boston Tea Party,” and third-grader Jacob Keim, who read “Wet Dog,” found their stories among books they had at home.

“I was going through my brother’s books – he is younger than I am – and I found ‘The Boston Tea Party,’ I thought it would be a good story to tell,” Arpin said.

Despite many of the stories being repeated, Dexter said each child brings a fresh approach to the story.

“The reason I support endeavors like this is because they are different from what most kids experience,” she said. “Sitting here watching these performances is a window into who these students are.”

The storytelling won’t end at Tuesday’s event. Koch said students will visit Hillcrest Retirement Community in March to present their stories to residents.

Staff Writer Michael Kelley can be reached at 282-4337, ext. 237.

Wentworth School project moves ahead

Leader Editor — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 14:07:48 GMT

By Michael Kelley

Staff Writer

Next week the Scarborough Planning Board will get its first official look at plans for a new Wentworth Intermediate School since voters gave the go-ahead for a new school during the November election.

Paul Koziell, chairman of the Wentworth Building Committee, the volunteer group charged with planning the project, said the site plan remains the focus of the committee at this point.

“Harriman and Associates has put together a site plan and the subcommittee associated with the plan has been reviewing it. We have sat down with the town and continue to refine it,” he said.

The plan to replace the aging school, built in 1964 as a junior high school, includes constructing a two-story, 163,000-square-foot school on the site of the Bessworth child care building between the municipal ice skating rink and Scarborough Middle School.

The project’s plan is still in its early stages.

“It’s more of an informal review to give the Planning Board a chance to comment early in the process,” said Town Planner Dan Bacon. “It gives the applicant an opportunity early on to hear some of the board’s concerns and make adjustments before they do detailed engineering work.”

Bacon said the Planning Board would not make any decisions on the sketch plan, or any plan it may see along the way, as it is not in the board’s purview to do so.

“Because it is a municipal or school project, the Planning Board does not have final approval,” he said. “Their role is to provide comments and give what we call an advisory opinion.”

That is not to say municipal officials, education professionals and members of the public will not have an opportunity to have their comments heard along the way.

A meeting was held Jan. 11 with municipal officials from the police department, fire department, school department and community services to do just that. There were two small changes that came out of that meeting, Koziell said.

The fire lane on the side of the school, which connects to the middle school parking lot, was redesigned to make it easier for fire engines to navigate. The other change was to not have the bus drop-off loop and the location where parents drop off their children connect.

“It is not a huge material change, but a refinement to the plan,” Koziell said.

Koziell said he expects to further refine the site plan after hearing feedback from the Planning Board.

“What we will take from the Planning Board meeting is constructive criticism so we can further refine the plan and move forward. This is an important part of the process right now,” he said.

The presentation to the Planning Board will be the first of several made to town officials over the next few weeks.

Koziell and Dan Cecil, principal at Harriman Associates, the architecture and engineering firm designing the school, will appear before the Scarborough Board of Education Feb. 2 to update board members on where the committee is in the process and outline phasing of the project. A similar conversation will be held with the town council at its Feb. 15 meeting.

The goal, Koziell said, remains to break ground on the project this fall and have construction completed by the beginning of the 2014-2015 school year.

He expects the project to be put out to bid by late summer.

“Harriman and Associates will complete the site plan and specifications between now and June. We hope to put it out on the street for bidding by August and begin construction in September,” he said.

The building committee will meet with and interview contractors to see if they are qualified to bid for the project. The idea, he said, is to gauge contractors’ construction ability and financial resources to get the project done. He said it is not uncommon to do so for large construction projects.

“The goal is to get the most qualified and best contractors involved with this project,” he said.

Before that happens, paperwork will be submitted for permitting from the federal Department of Environmental Protection. Koziell said that paperwork is expected to be filed by the end of February or early March.

Koziell said thus far committee members, as well as educational professionals in the school system, have put in countless hours to prepare for the new school and will continue to do so as the process proceeds.

“It’s my understanding that this is the largest locally funded project in Scarborough’s history,” Koziell said. “I don’t think Scarborough has had a locally funded project of this scale. This is huge. We need to keep folks informed about what is going on. We take that very seriously.”

While Koziell and other members of the building committee focus on the site plan and keeping the public informed about the project’s process, Wentworth principal Anne-Mayre Dexter said she is focused on how the new school will be used for instruction.

Now that the square footage and price has been accepted by the public, Dexter said it is time to look at the project in a much more detailed way.

“Now we are discussing what to put inside that square footage and how to connect it all to make a great learning institution,” she said.

To help in that regard, last week Dexter, along with many of her teachers and support staff at Wentworth, toured other newly constructed schools to see how space is being used in those buildings.

Doing so has been helpful, Dexter said.

“We are asking what does the facility offer to help teachers instruct in a more productive way?” Dexter said.

She said now that the referendum has passed, teachers have engaged their students about the project and asked them what sort of playground they would like or what they would like to see in physical education or art equipment.

“Through one of our art programs children have been designing playgrounds,” she said. “Children can influence the process simply by offering their opinions.”

Since the project will take place right outside their classroom doors, Dexter said students will use it as a learning tool, especially in the sciences and math.

“It will offer them learning experiences that don’t normally fall into the hands of third-, fourth- or fifth-grade students,” Dexter said. “We will be able to capitalize on things like engineering, architecture and ecology.”

Staff Writer Michael Kelley can be reached at 282-4337, ext. 237.