Yesterday…

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10 years ago – June 27, 1992

(As reported in the Bangor Daily News)

WINTERPORT – Lazy days of summer are also days of haze caused by rising dust on dirt roads, but Winterport is prepared to deal with that problem.

Town officials have awarded a $6,300 contract to Ellsworth Building Supply of Bucksport for 500 100-pound bags of calcium chloride to treat the town’s 21 miles of dirt roads. The chemical not only keeps dust down, said Town Manager Arthur Ellingwood, it also helps to preserve the roads.

The manager said they have enough to treat the roads, but because of budget constraints, they won’t treat as many roads as often as some people would like. This was one area where the budget was shaved a bit this year. Ordinarily they spend $9,000 on the chemical.

25 years ago – June 27, 1977

ORONO – A total of 115 students ranging in age from 14 to 18 and residing in five Maine counties arrived Sunday at the University of Maine at Orono for the annual six-week residential academic program conducted by the University of Maine’s Upward Bound staff.

Dorin Schumacher, director of Upward Bound and Maine Talent Search at UM, said the summer residential program is aimed at providing basic academic skills, career education, career related work experience, responsible community involvement and extra-curricular activities to enable the students to become more successful at their high schools in the fall.

The summer program students come from Penobscot, Waldo, Knox, Lincoln and Hancock counties. The Upward Bound program seeks to motivate and provide skills to junior and senior high students for success in post-secondary education. The summer program has been in existence at UM for 11 years, and is part of the College of Education.

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BANGOR – And there she was – one of the great queens of song attired simply in a black dress sitting in a simple green chair in a cubby hole in the basement of the Bangor Auditorium.

Oblivious to her bleak surroundings, Ella Fitzgerald – whom one mentions in the same breath as Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong – was simply happy to be in Bangor, happy to be participating in the inaugural event of the Ella Fitzgerald Series of Performing Arts, sponsored by a group of Bangor citizens.

“Yes, it’s my first time in Bangor,” confessed the dusky-voiced legend, comfortably settling herself. “But I did sing with the late Chick Webb’s Band in Old Orchard Beach years ago. But somehow I felt I always wanted to live in Maine. When I did a television show with that opera singer, Eileen Farrell, in Boston, she told me about Maine. I like the open spaces of the country. After all, I’m basically a country girl.” (She was born in Newport News, Va.)

“But the main point,” she stressed, “is that I’m happy to be here for this occasion. It’s important what the Bangor people are trying to do. A city can be small or large depending on the love and warmth it shows.”

50 years ago – June 27, 1952

BANGOR – A special federal racket-probing grand jury yesterday gave this section of Maine a clean bill of health as far as organized or syndicated crime is concerned.

After three days of deliberations at United States district court in Bangor the special panel drawn for the specific purpose of ferreting out the truth about the existence of rackets rose and reported:

“Any evidence to support the contention that (organized) crime does exist in the northern division of Maine is totally lacking.”

The jury went on to say in its report that existing federal, state and local law enforcement agencies in the district “are apparently handling all cases which fall within their jurisdiction both diligently and expeditiously.”

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OLD TOWN – A re-reading of musty treaties last night served little more than to weaken the Penobscot Indians’ claim to Marsh Island.

Their ancestors may have been out-dickered in selling the 2,000 acres of land for 30 bushels of corn, but unless further time-yellowed documents come to light, Marsh Island seems to have been White Man’s territory for 175 years.

That’s the essence of several treaties and other papers read before members of the tribe by Nicholas Smith, curator of Bar Harbor’s Abbe Museum. He appeared in Tribal Hall in an effort to acquaint the Indians more fully with the legal aspects of the case.

100 years ago – June 27, 1902

BANGOR – It was learned on Thursday from authoritative sources that President Roosevelt has completed the arrangements for his visit to Maine this summer. He will make but one speech in Maine, and that will be at Bangor at the Eastern Maine State Fair, which comes the last week in August.

His reason for speaking at this fair, rather than at a mass meeting held elsewhere, comes from the fact that his official position prevents him from taking the stump in the political campaign. At Bangor he will speak on the invitation and under the auspices of the Eastern Maine State Fair Association. His stay in Maine will be of the briefest, as he is due to speak in Vermont the day following his appearance in Bangor. He will make no rear platform speeches during his trip into and out of Maine.

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BREWER – The reunion of the Burr family that was to have been held at Riverside park on Thursday was postponed on account of the weather and will take place at a future date to be announced.

It has been officially announced again that the cars will resume service this week. A short transfer will be necessary for the present at Cemetery hill, but the people will gladly put up with that after six months or so of that terrible bus.

Recent arrivals are Walter M. Hardy from New York and Moses T. Phillips and John A. Harlow from Bowdoin.

Compiled by Matthew A. Poliquin