While city officials expressed a lack of faith in the Kennebec Arsenal owner's ability to redevelop, or preserve, the historic property, they agreed to give him until July 28 to present a plan before considering declaring it a dangerous site.
Despite the U.S. Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade on Friday, Maine law will continue to protect access to abortion. But that legislation could come under scrutiny after the November election.
Slate of budget-related actions receives unanimous approval from City Council, and while the city's share of the property tax rate is expected to remain unchanged, the spending plan is to fund paving projects and additional staffing for Fire Department.
The Axe Women Loggers of Maine, which will bring world-class talent to Litchfield this weekend, has grown in membership since its inception in 2011, but it is still "a small world," says its founder.
Following approval from residents at the Town Meeting on Saturday, town officials are pursuing a contract with the Kennebec Valley Humane Society in Augusta instead of using a retrofitted box trailer in Litchfield.
Voters at the Windsor annual Town Meeting added $27,000 to the $1.96 million budget and also approved the purchase of a new fire truck to replace a 1986 tanker truck.
Renovations to Johnson Hall Performing Arts Center, considered the state's oldest opera house, began this month. A crew from Barn Boards & More, a local wood salvaging business, was pulling up and saving the tongue-and-groove floor boards from the theater Thursday to reuse as flooring or make into tabletops. By December 2023, the three-story performing arts venue in Gardiner is expected to reopen to the public with a 400-seat theater, a large lobby and concession area, full-service box office, green rooms for performers, and an elevator. Local hotel owner Benjamin Johnson turned the former livery stable into a performance hall in 1884, and it became an opera house in 1888. All photos by Kennebec Journal photojournalist Joe Phelan.
Steve DeAngelis has been with the district for 44 years, with 42 of them spent teaching. He will retire to spend more time with his family and run his nonprofit.
Hector Rivera, 26, of Gardiner, fled after allegedly stabbing a Farmingdale man in the stomach and began to exhibit symptoms of a drug overdose while officers were apprehending him.
This year, town officials plan to pave an additional 2 miles of road to catch up on deferred road work, following voter approval at Thursday's annual Town Meeting.
The all-day 'Growing Gardiner' event kicks off Saturday morning, as organizers work to showcase the historic city and what it has to offer residents and visitors alike.
UMaine Chancellor Dannel Malloy and the board of trustees Chairperson Trish Riley spoke virtually to the Legislature's Committee on Education and Cultural Affairs.
Trish Riley, chair of the University of Maine System board of trustees, announces Chancellor Dannel P. Malloy's contract has been extended through mid-July, allowing the board time to discuss the matter at its July 11 meeting.
Warren, who because of term limits cannot seek reelection as the state representative for Hallowell, Manchester and West Gardiner, is to face Joseph Pietroski Jr., the Republican nominee from Winthrop, in November for the open seat representing 14 communities in southern and western Kennebec County.
City councilors who criticized the appearance of the initial proposal expressed support for a new, office-like building in place of standalone units with garage-style doors in the former Kmart parking lot on Western Ave.
According to an official at Central Maine Power Co., a dump truck "came into contact with a transmission line" off of U.S. Route 201 in Gardiner on Monday afternoon.
No shortage of smiling graduates as they mingle before commencement, receive their diplomas during the ceremony and later exchange congratulations, share handshakes and hugs and pose for photographs.
Officials seek residents' approval Thursday to spend about $650,000 more this year in part to catch up on deferred road maintenance and to fund the snow plow contract, as the town shifts to using more salt rather than a sand-salt mix to keep roads clear in the winter.
Seniors mark their commencement Friday at the Augusta Civic Center with essays and handshakes. Check out these photos from Kennebec Journal photojournalist Joe Phelan.
Former councilor Rita Moran died unexpectedly in March as a result of an unspecified illness. Winthrop residents will select a candidate Tuesday to fill her seat.
Some board members bristled at the ask by city officials because the school budget had already tapped into reserve monies to prevent an increase to taxpayers.
The proposed athletic complex has received mixed reaction, with some residents excited about the community opportunities and others concerned about the environmental impact.
Kennebec County commissioners on Tuesday endorsed a list of 39 projects to be supported by Kennebec County's $23.7 million share of American Rescue Plan Act funds that will support child care, housing and health programs as well as sewer, water and construction projects, among others.
Residents will vote on the budget, which is up 5.6% from last year, and a slate of local races Tuesday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. at the Richmond Hallway Garage on High Street.
The Augusta airport was awarded $900,000 to reconstruct the apron where planes are parked and boarded by passengers, while the Waterville airport will get $300,000 for a master plan.
Samuel Thibeault is poised to trade getting up early for school for getting up earlier to go to work, now that a vocational training program has him on a path toward becoming an electrician.
New graduate Xavier Hodge, who is excited and nervous for the rest of his life, says his high school years taught him about balance, life and death and what he wants to do with his life.
Richmond High School students, educated during the COVID-19 pandemic, bid farewell to their school and friends as Alyssa Letendre, the class valedictorian, urges them to pursue an end to gun violence
At Kents Hill School's commencement Saturday, 49 students from around central Maine and around the world prepared to move on from their school in Readfield to take their next steps in the world.
Augusta councilors approved a $72.6 million budget for the city and its schools Thursday, resulting in a 4.7% tax increase several said was unavoidable.
Agency that provides social services to residents of Kennebec and Somerset counties has received the most fraudulent applications for federal rental assistance in Maine this year.
Vice Chancellor Jim Thelen's departure is not related to the fallout from the failed University of Maine at Augusta presidential search, according to university officials.
For nearly three years, Krystal Lavallee underreported sales at Brews N' Views, the Hallowell restaurant and bar she owned, and failed to pay more than $24,000 the business owed in sales taxes.
Jeremy Gilley, 37, of Vassalboro, whose legs were amputated in 2011 after he was hit by a van, was killed Monday morning, and Joshua Bilodeau, 30, also of Vassalboro, was injured, according to police.
The unofficial start of summer and what many hope are the later phases of the COVID-19 pandemic are setting the stage for residents and visitors to enjoy an expanded roster of restaurants, food trucks and tasting rooms.
Ronald Emmons Jr. finds a cemetery behind a horse farm in Bowdoin containing graves of his relatives, and later locates a headstone for multiple relatives under a cedar bush at the Cotton Cemetery in Richmond.
The picture taken at a Memorial Day parade in 1942 may be the last ever photograph of Alfred W. Maxwell Jr. before he was killed in action on Guadalcanal during World War II.
A proposal to covert the former big-box store on Western Avenue into a self-storage facility has prompted conversations about how to reuse large, empty retail spaces.
The deal between the University of Maine System and Michael Laliberte also ensures he will make a minimum of $235,000 annually for the next two years, with UMaine agreeing to pay the difference if a new job pays him less than that.
City officials say that even with the fee increases, Hatch Hill will still cost less than other area landfills even as the site is prepared for an expansion before it fills up.
Maine-raised songwriter Amy Allen co-wrote one of the tracks on the British popstar's new album, but fans think there's another Maine connection — to a farm in Monmouth.
Michael R. Laliberte's potential $615,000 paycheck over three years is not sitting well with certain faculty members, some of whom were laid off recently for budgetary reasons.
With the final vote by the Kennebec County Budget Committee, the spending plans for Kennebec County government and Unity Township will be forwarded to county commissioners next month for the final approval.
Most of the spending increase comes from a $239,000 tax abatement the city must pay in the upcoming fiscal year to Granite Hill Estates, an apartment and assisted living complex for older adults at 60 Balsam Drive.
Gerald Scott Stackpole, 45, of Augusta was indicted on charges of arson, domestic violence criminal threatening and endangering the welfare of a child following a July 1, 2021, fire in his apartment.
Friends recall Robert Logan Johnston, who died Sunday at age 69, as someone who gave generously to the Gardiner community and the organizations he supported.
UMaine System board of trustees takes no action on Chancellor Dannel P. Malloy's contract, which expires June 30, but expects to decide in the coming weeks whether to keep Malloy.
Michael R. Laliberte, whose hiring was criticized after votes of no confidence at his former university came to light, to be paid salary of $205,000 in what would have been his first year.
City officials now require documentation proving ownership of cemetery lots before burials can take place, to prevent people from being buried in the wrong plots or at the wrong cemetery.
‘He doesn’t understand or want to understand the issues the faculty are raising,’ said a professor from the Augusta campus, the first school to declare no confidence in Chancellor Dannel Malloy.
Goals for the year, just approved by the Augusta City Council, also include expanding ways to help people with substance use disorder, revitalizing Sand Hill, improving pedestrian safety, and solving the problem of Hatch Hill landfill filling up.
Christopher M. Good pleaded no contest to several charges, including reckless conduct with a dangerous weapon and terrorizing in addition to the assault charges.
Derik Broox Wight, 41, is being held by federal officials for allegedly attacking a security officer April 20 at the Edmund S. Muskie Federal Building in Augusta.
By adjusting some spending and identifying additional revenue, officials said they were able keep Gardiner's municipal share of the property tax rate flat for another year in the city's proposed spending plan.
A woman fell about 20 feet as she tried to escape the burning home Wednesday but was caught by three men who had come to the scene when they saw smoke.
Levi Caverly, who graduated last year from the Mid-Coast School of Technology in Rockland, was remembered by his father as a faithful and quirky kid who loved to program.
The funding is part of the $1.5 trillion Bipartisan Infrastructure Law passed in November 2021 that identifies money to address infrastructure needs across the United States.
"Bella, An Immigrant's Tale" covers the life of actor Vicki Summers’ grandmother, a Russian Jewish immigrant who escaped the pogroms and started a new life in America.
The event featured an address from diversity, equity and inclusion consultant Anthony James Jr., and the university's first degrees conferred under its new graduate programs.
As Gardiner officials review the proposed spending plan, they want to hear from members of the public at the May 18 meeting on its spending plans for the fiscal year that starts July 1.
Without a quorum at Wednesday's Kennebec County Budget Committee meeting, the committee could not give its final approval to the $17.4 million spending plan.
During a five-hour meeting Wednesday, faculty members at UMA call for a new presidential search, following recent disclosures that faculty members and students at Michael R. Laliberte's former university in New York had voted no confidence in him.
The Northern Avenue home, owned by John Jaques of Keller Williams Realty, was under renovation and nearing completion as a four-bedroom, two-bathroom home.
The city voted in January to keep the nearly 200-year-old former fire station, which currently houses the city's food pantry, and now say they'd like citizen-backing from a nonbinding ballot vote to spend up to $4 million on the project.
University of Maine System faculty union President Jim McClymer sent the letter Tuesday morning in response to the hiring of President Michael Laliberte at University of Maine at Augusta.
Kristie Clark, who won the 2021 Maine Principal's Association national Distinguished Principal of the Year award, is expected to begin her new role July 1.
Hancock County Sheriff's Deputy Luke Gross was investigating a crash when he was struck and killed by a vehicle in Trenton on Sept. 23, 2021, and he is now among the names on the memorial.
The Catalyst Grant Program offers established small businesses in Gardiner the chance to apply for up to $2,500 to meet a variety of critical business needs and is now accepting applications.