(As reported in the Bangor Daily News)

10 years ago – Sept. 29, 1995

ORONO – When University of Maine President Frederick Hutchinson begins knocking on doors soliciting donations for his new operating fund endowment, he will join an increasing number of public university heads who must turn to private sources to maintain their school’s financial stability.

Private colleges have long relied on the generosity of alumni to supplement their annual budgets, while public institutions have counted on state funding to cover day-to-day costs of running a university.

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BANGOR – Trustees of Eastern Maine Medical Center and directors of Eastern Maine Healthcare announced a dramatic restructuring program they claim will save $5.2 million in costs to the community without compromising the quality of medical services.

Officials said the plan will introduce a variety of changes that include the elimination of 24 positions within the organization, a consolidation of departments and the restructuring of several affiliated organizations.

Norman Ledwin, president of EMH and the leading proponent of the redesign, called the move a natural step toward the hospital’s goal of offering the community a broad spectrum of health services while controlling costs to the consumer.

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BREWER – Motorists traveling in Brewer have discovered in recent days that they have been violating the city’s speed limits.

Brewer Police Sgt. John Page and Patrolman Christopher Martin have been manning the visual radar equipment in various neighborhoods throughout the city to let motorists know that for the most part, they are driving too fast.

Martin set up the equipment in a parking lot across from the Pendleton Street School, with the radar pointed north along Parkway South.

Martin said he had noticed that the average speed along Pendleton Street near the school was 37 mph. The road is posted at 25 mph.

25 years ago – Sept. 29, 1980

BANGOR – After 18 years at 6 Forest Ave., a haven for unwed mothers will move to a new home. The Good Samaritan Agency, formerly the Good Samaritan Home, will take its new name and its new tasks to 160 Broadway to an office at the Penobscot Valley Memorial Center.

The move emphasizes the expanded role the agency has undertaken in dealing with women going through unplanned pregnancies.

“I think the term ‘agency’ connotes more of a social services idea,” said Ruth Hagan, executive director.

It has been a long time since the home was a home in the literal meaning of the word. The organization gave up housing unwed mothers in a group home and instead placed them with individual families, a setting that was believed to be more natural and comfortable for the young woman.

With the dramatic drop in adoption placements in the past decade, the agency staff found itself devoting more time to counseling and less to home case studies.

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ORONO – John Anderson offered sacrifice and “hard choices” to a standing-room audience at the University of Maine’s Hauck Auditorium, and criticized his Republican and Democratic opponents for avoiding campaign issues and promising election year tax cuts.

He attacked President Carter’s nonenforcement of environmental regulations, saying the president has ignored land and water pollution caused by 77 billion pounds of hazardous waste the chemical industry alone produces each year. Reagan also lacks a commitment to clean air, water and land, Anderson said.

50 years ago – Sept. 29, 1955

BANGOR – National Republican Chairman Leonard W. Hall said in a speech that his party “is in the best shape in 25 years,” and even if President Eisenhower’s health prevents him from seeking a second term in 1956, “we will present able and attractive candidates.”

Many Maine Republicans left the ranks to vote Democratic and greatly contribute to the victory of Democratic Governor Edmund S. Muskie.

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BANGOR – Additional highways to serve the crowded Bangor, Portland and Biddeford-Saco areas have been proposed by federal officials to help complete the nation’s vast interstate highway system, the U.S. Bureau of Public Roads reported.

The Maine cities are among the 102 urban centers figuring in the allocation of the system’s final 200 to 300 miles.

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BANGOR – Bangor will be host to the annual convention of the Maine Teachers Association, which will bring 6,000 teachers into the city. At the convention, Lisa Sergio of Woodstock, Vt., will speak on “Education Needs an Atomic Lift.”

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BANGOR – Fifty-four Bangor High School girls turned out for the first drill of the Stetsonettes – the distaff side of the Stetson Rifles.

This year the girls as well as the boys will have a precision drill team when they march in the field and in city parades.

Drill Sgt. Kenneth Russell said that the girls were terrific.

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BANGOR – Janet James of McKinley Street has been the busiest girl in town the last few days. She is the “Board Girl” at the Hornblower and Weeks office in Bangor and she has been going back and forth, up and down – the market has been doing likewise – writing the latest stock market quotations on the board for all to see. Once the trading starts, Janet keeps on a steady merry-go-round.

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BANGOR – The Rev. John Brett Fort, pastor of St. John’s Episcopal Church, was the guest speaker at the meeting of the Women’s Auxiliary of the church.

Mr. Fort disclosed the fact that 135 years ago a group of men met at the Penobscot Hotel and founded St. John’s Episcopal Church. He traced the history of the church from that time until the present. Mr. Fort said that St. John’s Episcopal Church was the first one designed by the architect Richard Upjohn, who later designed Trinity Church in New York City, and that the local church was the first Gothic-style church built in the United States.

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ORONO – The executive board of Central Penobscot Girl Scout Council met with Mrs. Mark Shibles presiding.

Mrs. Clarence M. Spearin, Old Town registrar, reported that 25 troops had been registered in the council to date, with 399 girls. This includes 12 Brownie Troops with 223 girls, 10 Intermediate Troops with 147 girls and three senior troops with 29 girls.

100 years ago – Sept. 29, 1905

BANGOR – An event for which people of Bangor and vicinity will eagerly wait, is the coming roller skating race at the auditorium between two ladies well-known as the fastest lady skaters in the state. Recently these ladies raced in Portland.

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ETNA – John Downs, one of the prominent farmers of Etna, wants his name to go on record as saying that it snowed Wednesday at 9 a.m., so hard and furiously that he could not see four rods ahead of him.

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BUCKSPORT – Parties from away were in town and went to the McKay and Dix shipyard where they looked over the stock on hand, buildings, equipment, etc. It is rumored that there is to be a vessel built at the yard during the coming winter if satisfactory arrangements can be made. It is hoped that such can be the case as it means much to the town, an active industry of this kind.

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HAMPDEN – Miss Elizabeth E. Patten has earned her place among the sporting fraternity having shot a partridge. Bessie has a right to feel pleased as the shot was a long one and made offhand.

Compiled by Ardeana Hamlin