Maine notebook

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Vance Ginn of Abbot spent 16 hours seated on the gate of his pickup truck outside Goulette’s IGA on Saturday and Sunday, soliciting nonperishable items for victims of Hurricane Katrina. By Sunday night, Ginn had filled the 6-foot body of his truck to its ceiling with diapers, bottled water, formula, canned goods and cereal. His wife, Angel, also collected items at her business, Abbot Village Crafters.

“People in the Guilford and Abbot area were fantastic,” Vance Ginn said Tuesday.

Ginn said he delivered the items to radio station WTOS in Augusta, which is sending a tractor-trailer load of goods to the disaster area. Riverside Texaco in Guilford donated the tank of gas for the trip to Augusta, he noted.

“These people have nothing, and there was a time in my life when I thought I had nothing, but I always had a place to go back to at night, and they don’t,” Ginn said of the hurricane victims.

Ginn doesn’t think he did anything special. “It just takes one person at one grocery store, and they can fill up a truck too,” he said.

Two New England commercial fishing organizations, including one from Maine, have announced the creation of the “Hurricane Katrina Fishermen’s Relief Fund.”

Staff at the Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance, based in Saco, and the Cape Cod Commercial Hook Fishermen’s Association, based in Chatham, Mass., have been in communication with officials from the affected region regarding specific impact the storm has had on the fishing industry and fishing communities.

“Anticipating that financial assistance for long-term rebuilding of the commercial fishing sector will be badly needed, we have begun to assemble relevant organizations to lend support,” Michael Crocker, NAMA communications director, was quoted as saying in a press release.

For more information, call (207) 590-9614.

A truckload of goods donated by residents of Millinocket and surrounding communities to help in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina left Tuesday morning for the storm-ravaged area, organizers said.

Tri Town Baptist Church and I-Care Ministries in Millinocket started “Operation Love in Action” late last week and over the weekend collected enough nonperishable items, clothing, and money for food to send the first truck.

Original requests “were for anything,” Pastor Dave Chicoine said Tuesday. “Today it’s turned into water and baby items, specifically diapers, baby food and formula.”

Because churches in the region are cooking massive meals to feed the many people displaced by the storm and those without power, instant potatoes, rice and spaghetti sauce are other items specifically requested.

A man from Sanford volunteered to drive the tractor-trailer to Broadmoor Baptist Church in Madison, Miss. Church member Skip St. Peter of East Millinocket went along for the ride and will document the trip with a video camera. Broadmoor is acting as a distribution center for the region to get supplies to other area churches.

In Millinocket, Tri Town and I-Care are looking for volunteer drivers or businesses or individuals to donate transportation costs, which run $1,200 to $1,500 in gas and food, to get the trailers to the Gulf Coast.

“We’ll try and raise the money for fuel if we can find a driver,” Chicoine said.

After numerous calls from his former employer, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Drew Sachs, Brewer economic development director, accepted a temporary job to assist with hurricane relief efforts.

“They appear to desperately need the help,” he said Tuesday. “I’m expected to leave in the next several days. I’m waiting for my official order to come through [so] I’m not exactly sure what I’ll be doing.”

Sachs worked for FEMA for 81/2 years with the agency’s response and recovery and hazardous mitigation departments.

“I’ve got pretty broad-based experience in the agency,” he said.

In Sachs’ absence, D’arcy Main-Boyington, assistant economic development director, will fill his shoes.

Dozens of law enforcement officers, from various branches, have volunteered to assist with disaster relief, but a hold on law enforcement deployments has been issued from the Emergency Management Assistance Compact, which is functioning as the resource manager for disaster-stricken areas.

“We received a stop this morning basically saying they’re OK for now while they reassess their needs,” Lynette Miller, Maine Emergency Management Agency spokeswoman, said Tuesday.

“We were just notified by the Maine Forest Service that they have had two folks go down under the auspice of their own compact,” she said later. “They’re incident management type individuals.”

Officials at the state forest service could not be reached for verification.

Four volunteers from the Penobscot County Sheriff’s Department are still waiting for the call to deploy to the Gulf Coast to provide security in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Penobscot County Sheriff Glenn Ross said Tuesday.

“If they called in five minutes and said go, they’re all ready to go, but I’m just not sure about what’s going to happen,” Ross told the Penobscot County commissioners Tuesday morning. Ross said if they are mobilized, the officers will drive down in the county’s new special response vehicle, which is equipped with computer equipment and a generator.

Members of the Maine Army National Guard and Air National Guard remain ready for deployment, but so far only three official appeals for items, not personnel, have been received.

The Guard sent helicopter slings to Louisiana last week, and a mobile kitchen has been requested and is on a waiting list, along with a satellite communication vehicle from the 265th Maine Air National Guard in Portland.

Colby College is offering a helping hand to college students who have been displaced by Hurricane Katrina.

The college announced Tuesday it will offer temporary admission and enrollment to qualified students.

Tuition will not be charged to students who already have paid tuition at their home schools. For students who have not yet paid tuition, Colby will charge the rate of their home school. Enrollment will be temporary, and probably for the fall semester only.

Colby officials said the school has been in contact with several students, including two who had been admitted to Colby for the fall but chose to attend Tulane University. Tulane is among the colleges and universities in New Orleans that have been shut down because of flooding.

Irving Oil is giving its customers another way to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina.

The company announced Tuesday it is donating $100,000 to the American Red Cross and placing collection boxes in its 125 stores and gas stations in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and Massachusetts. The company’s American operations are based in Portsmouth, N.H.

Harry Hadiaris, director of Irving’s convenience stores, said his employees are saddened by the disaster and many customers said they wanted to help.

A benefit concert featuring area musicians will take place at 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 8, at the University of Maine at Machias Performing Arts Center.

Admission to the concert is free, with donations going toward victims of Hurricane Katrina. All funds collected will be directed to national charities working to provide aid along the Gulf Coast.

Scheduled to participate are the Black Socks String Band, Sam & Rachel, the Orange River Jazz Band, Duane Ingalls, the UMM Jazz Combo and other area artists.

Contact: Gene Nichols, (207) 255-1229.

The concert is sponsored by UMM and the Cobscook Community Learning Center in Trescott.

For information, contact Gene Nichols at UMM, 255-1229, or Alan Furth at the learning center, 733-2233. Musical performers or other artists interested in participating may contact Nichols or Furth in advance of the event.

Gov. John Baldacci is coordinating with the Maine American Red Cross Chapters to put on a benefit spaghetti supper to help evacuees from Hurricane Katrina.

The buffet style community dinner will be held 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Monday, Sept. 12, at the Augusta Armory. Suggested donations are $5.

To R.S.V.P. for the community dinner or to donate money, auction items, or services, please call 1-800-452-8735 or 624-4400 between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. daily.

– From Staff and Wire Reports