Arena cleanup caps tournament

BANGOR – Billy Shaw began sweeping the ground floor at Bangor Auditorium shortly after 11 p.m. Saturday, pride in every stroke as he stopped only briefly to wipe the perspiration from his forehead.

“Everyone is gone, but it’s still hot in here,” he said with a chuckle.

Long after the last Eastern Maine championship plaque was handed out and long after the last basketball was packed away, a small group remained inside Bangor Auditorium into the wee morning hours Sunday.

It wasn’t the Maranacook boys’ team still reveling in its win to move on to the Class B title game next week. It wasn’t the rather large fan base from Presque Isle – which had two teams playing in Eastern Maine championships – looking for a cheap place to sleep.

It was Shaw and eight others who worked overnight on the thankless task of cleaning up Bangor Auditorium after a long week of basketball.

While Shaw swept the area around the still-glistening hardwood floor, others made their way up into the bleachers, becoming lost in a sea of empty plastic water bottles, half-empty bags of popcorn and discarded handmade signs.

“Most of these guys are part-timers,” Shaw said of his co-workers, who were provided this week from PAGEmployment, a temp agency in Brewer. “We need the help this week.”

But Shaw, an 18-year veteran custodian at the auditorium, is no part-timer.

“I’ve seen them all,” Shaw said of the tournaments in Bangor, smiling at the thought that only hours ago the place was full of ecstatic fans.

“We didn’t seem to miss Class A this year,” he added, referring to the fact that the Eastern Maine Class A championships were played in Augusta for the first time.

When the last game ended Saturday at about 10:15 p.m., Shaw and his crew were on the scene shortly afterward. It’s the same routine they had been doing all week.

“We’ll go through and sweep all the seats and then wash everything down,” Shaw explained. “It will be squeaky clean come next Friday,” when the Class B state title games will be held in Bangor.

The cheering fans and well-rehearsed chants were replaced late Saturday by music playing over the loudspeakers, but other than that, Shaw and the others went about their business in relative silence.

“The overnight hours don’t bother me,” he said.

In the interior hallway just outside the auditorium, another veteran custodian toted a large mop and bucket behind him.

“I’m in charge of the bathrooms,” declared Bob Hill, seemingly unfazed by the notion of cleaning up what must not be the best-kept restrooms in the city. “Someone has to do it.”

Hill has worked for nine years at Bangor Auditorium, including every night last week after the tournament games. He calls tournament time one of his busiest of the year.

“I’m not crazy about the overnight hours, but if it’s not basketball, it’s a circus or a home and garden show … there’s always something to keep us busy.”

In the midst of the cleanup, every once in a while the auditorium crew comes across a forgotten wallet or cell phone, Hill said.

“I think we had a couple nice cameras this year,” he added. “I tell you though, it’s awful nice when those people come back and see their lost items waiting for them.”

And with that, Hill continued down the hallway, headed for the bathrooms, a smile on his face as the soapy bucket sloshed behind him.