10 years ago – May 19, 1995

(As reported in the Bangor Daily News)

ORLAND – The long-awaited $2.65 million sewer project is proceeding ahead of schedule and with few complaints.

In her report to the Orland Board of Selectmen, Mandy Holway of Olver Associates said most of the pipe for the project that will service more than 100 area households already has been laid. The project should be complete this fall.

Most complaints so far are from drivers upset at stalled traffic where the work is taking place, said Town Clerk Connie Brown. The primary work site is being moved from Fish Point Road to Upper Falls Road.

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BANGOR -Three sports targeted for elimination at John Bapst Memorial High School last week because of the private school’s budget problems will be back competing next year thanks to a commitment by support groups to raise $20,000 in additional funding.

After more than two hours of closed-door meetings at the school, the John Bapst board of trustees announced the football, indoor track and wrestling programs had been spared the budget ax.

The announcement followed more than a week of demonstrations in support of the programs by the school community. Those demonstrations included submittal of several fund-raising proposals by football boosters.

“We were pleasantly surprised with the passion and fervor shown by supporters,” said Mary Ellen Darling, chairman of the 15-member board of trustees that had voted at its May 8 meeting to drop the sports programs to save $36,000. Football costs $25,000 a year. The remainder is split nearly evenly between track and wrestling. The program served 71 students this year.

25 years ago – May 19, 1980

BREWER – Though the official announcement will not be made until June 5, the long-expected sale of the Pyr-A-Larm facility in Brewer to the Lemfordr Mittallwarren Co. of Lemfordr, West Germany, has been acknowledged by plant manager John D. West Jr. of Bangor.

Pyr-A-Larm, a subsidiary of Borg-Warner Corp., has been closed since April 30. The company, which employed more than 400 workers, was shut down because of competition in the home fire-alarm business allegedly drove the profit margin down too low to justify continued operations.

Lemfordr Mittallwarren is known principally as a manufacturer of automotive parts, notably steering mechanisms for such firms as Volkswagen. The company also is involved with the manufacture of electronics components.

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ORONO – Former Gov. James B. Longley, whose differences with the University of Maine System over spending became one hallmark of his brief political career, was given an honorary degree at graduation exercises at UMaine. But the man who played a role in causing a 10 percent budget cut in the university’s state appropriation a few years ago was too ill to come to accept the honor.

The honoring of Longley was one highlight of ceremonies that included advice from a former Canadian secretary of state, and from Edmund S. Muskie, the current U.S. Secretary of State, to the 1,650 graduates at Alumni Field. Muskie, frequently receiving cheers, was the biggest crowd-pleaser at the ceremony attended by an estimated 10,000 people.

50 years ago – May 19, 1955

BANGOR – Bangor probably will not be able to begin distribution of the Salk polio vaccine in time for youngsters here to receive two shots of the serum before school closes.

The Associated Press reported that Surgeon General Leonard A. Scheele does not expect to clear any more batches of the vaccine this week.

Local health officials have stated previously that unless distribution starts here Monday, clinics will have to be held after the close of school in order for children to receive the second of three shots.

Dr. Scheele said that the Public Health Service’s laboratory of Biologics Control is working toward clearance of additional lots of the vaccine.

An inspection team has moved into the Pittman-Moore laboratories at Zionville, Ind., a spokesman for the Health Service said. The vaccine, already in Bangor and being held here pending clearance, was manufactured by Pittman-Moore.

The laboratory is the fourth of five manufacturers whose plants are being inspected in the reappraisal of the manufacturing and testing processes.

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BANGOR – Two men escaped from the alms house one day in Bangor, and before they returned the next morning, they each had made $1,800.

This was in about 1836. And if you could have been there you, too, would have made some money, or if you didn’t care about it, you could sip champagne out of buckets on Exchange Street.

G. Peirce Webber told the Rotarians these interesting vignettes of life in Bangor as he traced the history of Maine timberlands at the regular luncheon meeting of the club at the Bangor House.

The $1,800 and the buckets of champagne – actually, tubs, he said – were all part of the wild and woolly days of the Maine land boom. Fortunes were made and lost overnight in the wildest part of the boom, which came to an end in 1837. A depression set in about this time and lasted until 1845, when the trading started up again.

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BANGOR – Cracks in the brick walls of Bangor’s new municipal auditorium will be repaired at the expense of the contractor and will not delay the completion date of the $1,400,000 building, it was announced by Lawrence Guptill, job superintendent of the Volpe Construction Co.

Guptill said the company was aware of several cracks on the north side of the structure and had planned to make repairs as soon as possible. He said, however, that he did not know about the cracks in walls on the other three sides of the building until the matter came to public attention recently.

The building is structurally sound, he said, and repairs can be made without causing any permanent damage to the walls.

The cracks might never have appeared if construction hadn’t been delayed much of last summer because of bad weather, he said. He declared that work on the structure was at a virtual standstill for 69 out of 160 working days, during the peak construction season.

100 years ago – May 19, 1905

BUCKSPORT – Superintendent Charles G. Atkins of the Craig’s Brook hatchery in East Orland is a busy man these days. The Fish Commission car No. 3, in charge of Captain Pierce, left here Thursday morning for Brownville with 127,000 silver salmon, which are to be placed in the waters of Pleasant River. Next week, the sea salmon collecting will commence.

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BANGOR – When roller-skating comes back on Saturday night, the Bangor public will be there. Indications point to a record-breaking first night. Young and old, many for whom it will be a new experience and many who were in the front ranks years ago when skating was the most popular fad that the city ever knew, all will be there. Thus it will develop that those who come to laugh remain to skate.

The comment heard on all sides is constant and everywhere favorable, particularly over the selection of the auditorium for a rink. That it is unsurpassed in all Maine is agreed, the broad and lengthy floor with spacious gallery accommodations and all the accessories so essential in such an establishment.

Mr. Matthias has spared no expense to prepare the floor for the sport and the carpenters have removed the unevenness around the corners so that the skaters will find the surface is smooth as ice, but otherwise somewhat dissimilar. An entire new lighting arrangement is under way also, a dozen great lamps suspended from the rafters and there is no question about the brilliancy of the illumination.

It will be lively scene, as viewed from the many vantage points which these high seats provide, and it is worthy of note that there isn’t a seat on either side of the rink from which nearly the entire floor cannot be viewed easily. A competent crew of employees will attend to the comfort of patrons, and this will become a pleasure resort par excellence of the city.

This is different from ordinary entertainments where there are two elements, the spectators and the performers, for the two are combined in a skating rink in large measure. It will be from an impelling motive more potent than curiosity, the rush to the rink next Saturday and thereafter.

Compiled by Ardeana Hamlin