Silver Street Tavern gets Waterville downtown honor

Silver Street Tavern was named Downtown Business of the Year Thursday when downtown business owners and employees, volunteers and city officials gathered at Amici’s Cucina as part of the week-long Small Business Week Waterville celebration.

Waterville City Manager Mike Roy (right) and Downtown Main Street President Ronald Ducharme (left) present the Downtown Business of the Year Award to Silver Street Tavern owner Charlie Giguere Thursday at Amici Cucina in Waterville. Contributed photo

CONNORS

Thursday’s event was the 11th annual Business of the Year recognition, honoring downtown’s outstanding independent businesses and as well as the many volunteers working to further Waterville’s downtown revitalization efforts, according to a press release from Waterville Main Street.

Silver Street Tavern’s owner Charile Giguere received the award, presented by Waterville Main Street Board President Ronald Ducharme and City Manager Michael Roy.

Ducharme was also named 2015 Board Member of the Year Award.

Waterville Main Street recognized Kevin Dutil posthumously as the 2015 Volunteer of the Year.

The Mid-Maine Chamber of Commerce, Waterville Public Library Business, Career & Creativity Center, Waterville Main Street, KVCOG and TOCmedia are all involved in the Small Business Week Waterville activities.

Maine Chamber of Commerce’s Connors honored by University of Maine

Dana Connors, longtime president of the Maine State Chamber of Commerce, was awarded an honorary doctorate degree by the University of Maine on Saturday at UMaine’s 213th Commencement.

As the leader of the state’s largest and most diverse business association for more than 20 years, Connors oversees the Maine State Chamber’s broad range of activities: advocacy efforts, economic development initiatives, workforce development opportunities, and a wide variety of member services on behalf of the state’s business community, according to a press relese from the chamber.

Connors began his career as the city manager of Presque Isle, a position he held for 16 years. He then spent 11 years serving the state of Maine as commissioner of the Maine Department of Transportation, serving under two governors. Connors led Gov. Angus King’s transition team before becoming president of the Maine State Chamber of Commerce in 1994.

A Maine native, Connors earned a bachelor’s degree in public management from UMaine in 1965.

Professional Logging Contractors of Maine holds annual meeting

The Professional Logging Contractors of Maine celebrated its 20th anniversary May 1 at the association’s annual meeting by announcing it had raised approximately $20,000 for the Log A Load for Kids Foundation to benefit Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals.

The Log A Load For Kids campaign is a national effort that encourages loggers and others in the forest products community to donate the value of a load of logs, or any amount, to local Children’s Miracle Network hospitals.

Since Log A Load began in 1988, the campaign has raised more than $41 million dollars for children in need of medical treatment at Children’s Miracle Network hospitals, according to a press release from the organization. The PLC money raised will benefit the program at Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor.

Awards presented at the annual meeting included:

The Acadia Insurance Safety Award, to Comstock Woodlands of Hampden.

The PLC Impact Award, to Sen. Andre Cushing, R-Hamden, who is assistant majority leader of the Maine State Senate and owner of New England Forest Products.

The PLC Community Service Award, to Steve Madden from SF Madden Logging of Greenbush.

The PLC Supporting Member of the Year Award, to Barry Equipment, Inc. of Webster, Mass.

The PLC Logging Contractor of the Year Award, to Voisine Brothers, Inc. of Fort Kent.

The President’s Award, to Andy Irish of Irish Family Logging, of Peru.

The PLC Annual Meeting included review of an economic impact study on logging conducted by the University of Maine and a session with paper mill company representatives to discuss ways the mills can collaborate with PLC contractors to work toward mutual benefits.

The PLC is a statewide trade association that provides independent logging contractors a voice in the rapidly changing forest products industry. It is run by loggers on behalf of loggers and PLC members employ nearly 2,500 people and are responsible for 75 percent of the timber that is harvested from Maine’s forests annually.

Kennebec Savings Bank’s Lagasse, Nortonleadership graduate Kennebec Leadership Institute

Kennebec Savings Bank employees James Lagasse and Jessica Norton recently completed the Kennebec Leadership Institute, according to a press release from the bank.

Lagasse is senior vice president and chief technology officer of the bank and Norton is branch operations and items processing manager.

The 80-hour, 13-week intensive leadership training program, the oldest of its kind in the state of Maine, according to the release, exposes area professionals to practical skills and experience. Through shared history and connections, participants complete the program with the potential to make more informed and impactful contributions in Kennebec Valley. Graduates of the program have gone on to be business or agency leaders, serve in elected positions and board members for area non-profit , the release said.

Each class selects a community need to research and serve, and this year’s project was a commercial kitchen renovation for the Augusta Boys & Girls Club at the Buker Community Center that will provide a space for cooking classes and inspire healthy eating.

Norton, who has been with the bank since 2012, is a graduate of Husson University and earned an MBA at Thomas College.

Lagasse joined the bank in 1995 as a network coordinator and was named to his current position last year. He attended Cony High School, Thomas College and VTEC Education Center.

Kennebec Savings Bank and Anthem BlueCross BlueShield are the corporate sponsors of the program, which is organized by the Kennebec Valley Chamber of Commerce.

Augusta/Gardiner KOA in Richmond opens for season

The Augusta/Gardiner KOA Journey Campground at 30 Mallard Drive in Richmond, opened for the camping season Friday.

The campground was one of 485 open-to-the-public KOA campgrounds in the Kampgrounds of America system in the U.S. and Canada that will be open this year, according to a press release from KOA.

To celebrate 53 years of serving campers, KOA is partnering this summer with Keystone RV Company and Cabela’s to offer a prize package for campers that includes a new RV. The giveaway began Monday and runs through Aug. 30.

KOA also is making the 2015 edition of its campground director free at all KOA campgrounds.

The directory is a travel atlast of every state and Canadian province, and includes listings of KOA campgrounds, maps and directions. There is also a digital edition available at koa.uberflip.com/i/268207.

Business, nonprofit annual reports due to Maine secretary of state

Annual reports are due on Monday, June 1, for all business and nonprofit entities on file with the Maine secretary of state’s office as of December 31, 2014.

Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap said in a press release that business and organizations can file online at www10.informe.org/aro/index_on.html.

The annual report fee is $85 for domestic business entities, $150 for foreign business entities and $35 for domestic or foreign nonprofit corporations. Entities that filed online in a previous year will be able to review the information provided at that time, and must update it before filing this year’s report, according to the release.

For those who prefer to file a paper annual report, a preprinted form can be downloaded at http://www10.informe.org/aro/form_download.html .

Dunlap said there is a “substantial” late-filing penalty on all reports received after the June 1, 2015 filing deadline.

For information call 624-7752 or email cec.corporations@maine.gov.

Compiled from contributed releases

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