(As reported in the Bangor Daily News)

10 years ago – April 21, 1995

ORONO – Joined by a common heritage, the University of Maine and the University of Angers in France will now be joined through an academic and cultural exchange agreement.

UM President Frederick Hutchinson and Angers’ First Vice President Jacques Louail signed an agreement formalizing the relationship between the two institutions.

The agreement is unique because it goes beyond the traditional academic exchange to include staff and community members. It also will help to bring together people of similar heritage. Angers is located in western France, the ancestral home of much of the state’s French population.

.

HERMON – The new $12.3 million Hermon High School is coming in under budget and ahead of schedule. That was the word from Superintendent Gene MacDonald, who said the school is expected to be open for students at the start of the 1995-1996 school year.

Originally, MacDonald said, the completion date of the project was expected to be Nov. 15.

The state-of-the-art facility will replace Hermon’s current high school, which was built in 1953. Next year, the old high school will become a middle school and house Hermon’s sixth- through eighth-graders.

The new building also will provide an opportunity for the school department to move classes out of 14 portable classrooms.

25 years ago – April 21, 1980

HERMON – What started out as a routine spring diversion for a Sunday afternoon for Brian Thayer, 12, of Hermon, turned out to be a lot of hard work.

Thayer, a sixth-grader, found conditions ideal to launch his kite. Using a 400-foot ball of string, Thayer and a friend played out the kite. From a spot roughly half a mile from the top of Miller Hill in Hermon, Thayer watched his kite waft into the April sky.

Terry Shorey, 21, happened on the scene. Together, Thayer and Shorey decided to find out how far they could send the kite. To the string the two tied a fishing line. The line spun out from a large reel.

It wasn’t long before the kite became just a speck in the late afternoon sky as Thayer let the line run. The speck kept getting smaller and smaller, and then it disappeared from view.

.

BANGOR – To some they are the Golden Couple, the Beautiful People, the jet setters.

But, says Diane Cohen, that’s not an accurate description of her and husband Bill, Maine’s junior senator.

Written up in the Washington press as trendy and party-going, the golden-haired Mrs. Cohen says the couple’s personal side isn’t quite so glamorous, that they’re not much different from other Washington couples.

The senator’s wife believes they have attracted attention because they are younger than many couples in Washington; also because of the publicity Bill got when, as a freshman member of the House of Representatives, he served on the House Judiciary Committee at the time of the Nixon impeachment decision.

50 years ago – April 21, 1955

BREWER – “Don’t look for atomic-powered automobiles in the atomic age,” Richard C. Hill, associate professor of civil engineering at the University of Maine, told Brewer Kiwanians.

An automobile with a 100-horsepower atom engine would require a 55,000-pound shield to guard against the effects of radiation, the professor said in discussing “Prospects for Nuclear Power.”

The use of atomic power plants, Hill believes, will be confined to large installations such as locomotives, ships and for generating electricity. Professor Hill, who worked on the Navy’s atomic submarine Nautilus, told the Kiwanians he does not feel it is economically possible to generate electricity with atomic power in Maine unless there is a much greater population.

The great problem facing scientists today is what to do with the waste from atomic power, Professor Hill added.

.

BANGOR – The regular occupants of City Hall moved over this week and the younger generation assumed the reins of command in all municipal departments. It was Citizenship Day, an annual event sponsored by the recreation department, in which seniors at both local high schools sit in on all department meetings and activities to learn first hand just how the city government works.

Seventy-four students from Bangor High and John Bapst assembled in City Hall for a briefing from City Manager Joseph R. Coupal Jr. and Assistant Recreation Director Albert Noyes.

.

BANGOR – The Bangor Osteopathic Hospital is cooperating with Old Town High School in a work experience program for two senior high school students. This is the first work experience program to be conducted as part of a hospital program in this state.

The two young ladies, the Misses Barbara Smith and Gladys Simon, are planning to make nursing their profession at the completion of their high school course. They are at the hospital each school day morning for a period of four weeks. Their program has been planned by nurse Miss Lois H. Beane, administrator at the hospital, and they are instructed by nurse Mrs. Jennie Malone, nursing supervisor.

.

VERONA – There will be a public meeting at the Verona schoolhouse for further discussion of the school situation. Plans have been sketched and checked with a member of the State Education Department for specifications and a more approximate cost of adding a room to the present building, plus plumbing and a central heating system. If the majority are in favor of the project, a town meeting will be called for the purpose of voting, appointing a building committee and appropriating the necessary funds. Should the project be turned down, the issue will rest until the regular town meeting in March when a vote will be taken as to merging Verona with Bucksport.

100 years ago – April 21, 1905

BANGOR – The approaching military ball to be given by the students of Bangor High School has inspired much interest among the student body. The battalion is working hard to give a perfect drill and it is expected that the affair will be a grand success.

.

BANGOR – The new boxes will be installed in the post office Saturday, and will be in use in a few days. All box holders desiring mail Sunday morning should call at the new general delivery window, where they will receive their mail until the new boxes have been assigned.

Compiled by Ardeana Hamlin