10 years ago – Feb. 26, 1994

(As reported in the Bangor Daily News)

BANGOR – Marit Cattelle of Bangor hasn’t lived in her homeland of Norway for 27 years, but she still feels as enthusiastic about the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer as any of the thousands of screaming Norwegians who crowd the Birkebeineren cross-country ski trails and fill the Viking Ship Olympic Hall.

Cattelle, a local hair stylist, has been following the Olympic Games “as much as I can,” she said. She is showing her support for the international competition by displaying both a Norwegian and an American flag outside her Cumberland Street shop.

“I think it’s amazing,” she said, about the success of Norway in winning more medals than any other country except Russia. “It’s such a small nation of only 4.5 million people, yet they’re getting all these medals. It’s quite an achievement.”

Cattelle, who still has her Norwegian citizenship, talked about the Olympics while rolling curlers in a client’s hair.

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HAMPDEN – Hampden, following through on last year’s daylong seminar on “Values, Visions and Vittles,” is actively defining its future.

According to Town Planner David Gould, consultants from Land Design Group in Ellsworth will give a presentation on town character.

“They’ve come in and looked at the development patterns going on today, in the areas of subdivisions and the zoning ordinance, and from that they have come up with a number of different alternatives for the future,” Gould said.

So far the comprehensive planning committee has completed the first half of its plan by completing its inventory and analysis of community resources. With the inventory process out of the way, the committee is now in the process of developing policy guidelines. It will be looking at land use, where it will be recommending business and residential districts, extensions of sewer and water lines, and general policies and issues related to good land use planning. It also will be encouraging rural use areas and determine how to preserve them.

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VEAZIE – Charles Jordan doesn’t mind being part of an experiment by Bangor Hydro-Electric Co. He’s just happy to get some relief from staggering electric bills.

Jordan has an all-electric house. For the Veazie homeowner, relief came in the form of a heat pump installed courtesy of Bangor Hydro.

“Since we’ve been on this [system] our monthly payments have been reduced 20 percent,” Jordan said, while sitting in the kitchen of his 25-year-old ranch house. “My guess is that it’ll go even lower. We’re using considerably less kilowatt hours than we used to.”

Jordan has owned the home for more than 20 years. For the first six or seven years, his heating costs were lower than neighbors who owned similar houses that burned oil. Since then, the cost of electricity has soared.

25 years ago – Feb. 26, 1979

ORONO – The swish of fresh-waxed skis gliding neatly over the snow. The magnificent polyphony of a symphony orchestra in full sway.

The two will meld together in the best classic tradition as the Bangor Symphony Orchestra embarks on its first annual cross-country ski races benefit at the Penobscot Valley Country Club in Orono, then delivers its popular annual children’s concert at Bangor’s Peakes Auditorium.

Considering that the event ties in so neatly with the afternoon concert, perhaps the highlight is the children’s race, for those 10 and under.

The supreme athlete in that endeavor will take a highly unusual prize in being named “The Littlest Maestro.” Later in the day at the children’s concert, the youngster so designated will have the thrill of ousting the BSO music director, Miles Morgan from the podium in order to conduct the full orchestra in a presumably stirring rendition of “The Stars and Stripes Forever.”

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BANGOR – The Bangor City Council will consider an order establishing no smoking sections for public meetings.

The no-smoking order would permit the chairman of a meeting to designate areas at public meetings in which smoking would be banned. The area so named would have to constitute at least half of the room, and in smaller, poorly ventilated rooms, the chairman could ban smoking altogether.

The order would not cover meetings of the housing authority, the urban renewal authority, the school committee or the water district.

50 years ago – Feb. 26, 1954

BANGOR – Founders Day was observed at Bangor Theological Seminary with Dr. Frederick Whittaker, president, as the principal speaker on the 140th anniversary of the institution.

Dr. Whittaker spoke on Jehudi Ashmun, first teacher at the seminary, then called Maine Charity School, which was located in Hampden. Ashmun came to Hampden to teach in 1816.

In 1816, the American Colonization Society was founded in Washington, and in 1822 the organization sent Ashmun to Africa, where he founded a colony for freed slaves which later became Liberia. In the first contingent to go to the new colony were 114 freed slaves from this country.

Ashmun died in 1828 of a tropical disease he contracted while in Africa, but the project he founded continued.

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WASHINGTON – The Maine Broadcasting Co., licensee of radio station WLBZ at Bangor, asked the Communications Commission today to dismiss its application for a channel 2 television station.

The petition said the company has entered an agreement with Murray Carpenter and Associates, the only other applicant for the channel. The statement said the Carpenter group has agreed to give the Maine Broadcasting Co. an option to buy up a 40 percent interest within one year after a Bangor station begins operations.

The agreement also said if the Maine Broadcasting Co. exercises the option to buy an interest in the new TV station, the Carpenter group agrees to give up its interest in radio station WGUY in Bangor. Carpenter explained that the FCC has a strict rule against overlapping interests in either radio or television ownership in the same area.

Bangor already has one television station, WABI-TV.

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KENDUSKEAG – Kenneth Crombie, son of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Crombie, Kenduskeag, has won scholastic honors at the Milwaukee School of Engineering, Milwaukee, Wis. He has been listed on the dean’s honor roll for the third consecutive term. A graduate of Bangor High School, Crombie is an Army veteran.

100 years ago – Feb. 26, 1904

BREWER – Although it was expected that Thursday would be something of an off day for the Methodist fair, such was not the case and the attendance on both afternoon and evening was very satisfactory.

The programs were excellent and the various entertainers received liberal applause and recalls.

The fair closes tonight and the final programs promise to be of unusual merit and interest. There will be a recital by Miss Bramhall’s pupils.

The program will be given under the direction of Mrs. F.M. Fuller, teacher of elocution at the East Maine Conference Seminary at Bucksport and will consist of a musical first part, followed by the drama, “A Regular Fix.” Alexis Luce, who appears in the leading role, is an amateur of more than ordinary ability.

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BANGOR – “Sky Farm,” which is announced for production at the Opera House, is the most noted big rural production of last season. The piece is of the Old Homestead description, but the staging illustrates American life in the country with more fidelity than Old Homestead ones, and at the same time, refrains from exaggerating the comedy of the story.

The piece filled the theater in Boston for nearly four consecutive months last winter, and after a brief intermediate season of a few one night stands was located for the rest of the season in New York where it ran more than 100 nights.

Compiled by Ardeana Hamlin