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Alton

Town meeting

The town of Alton will hold its annual town meeting at 10 a.m. Saturday, March 31, in the Municipal Building, 3352 Bennoch Road.

Registered voters will decide several warrant articles and elect one selectman for a three- year term, two school board members for a three-year term and one school board member for a two-year term.

A complete copy of the town warrant will be posted, and is available at the town office.

The registrar of voters will be at the municipal building at 9:30 a.m. the day of the meeting to register new voters.

Change in “new registration” for vehicles

The town of Alton has appointed Irene Wickett to be its new tax collector and town treasurer, replacing Paulette Borja as financial administrator. She also will be appointed the agent for the Department of Motor Vehicles after she receives training, which will take place after she works six months as a limited new agent.

As a result of this probationary requirement, the town of Alton will not be able to issue new plates or process private sale registrations during the six-month period. If the customer has bought a motor vehicle from a dealer, sales tax and title paperwork will have been processed. If that customer has a plate to reuse or transfer onto the new vehicle, the registration may be processed in Alton.

The town will be able to collect excise tax only on private motor vehicle sales which require sales tax and-or title processing. After paying excise tax in Alton, the customer will need to take the paperwork to Bangor, Bradley, Milford or other “new registration” town offices to complete registration.

Currently, Old Town is a “limited new,” and not a “new registration” office.

Town officials hope that Alton residents will be patient as the new regulations go into effect and during the transition period. Residents will be notified when it receives new DMV status in the fall.

Excise tax still must be paid at the Alton town office as the first step in any motor vehicle registration.

Boats, ATVs and snowmobiles will continue to be processed in the same way in Alton.

For more information, call the Alton Town Office at 394-2601, 2-6 p.m. Mondays and Thursdays, or 8 a.m.-noon Wednesdays.

Bangor

Easter egg hunt

The Bangor Parks and Recreation Department will hold an Easter Egg Hunt on Saturday, April 7, at the Union Street Athletic Complex, for children in grade one and younger.

The egg hunt for pre-school age children is at 10 a.m. The egg hunt for children in kindergarten and grade one will be held at 10:15 a.m. Participants should plan to arrive early.

For more information, call the Parks and Recreation Department at 992-4490.

Junior League of Bangor

Are you interested in meeting new people, getting involved and making a difference in your community?

If the answer is yes, then the Junior League of Bangor wants you. The Junior League is an organization of women committed to promoting volunteerism, developing the potential of women and improving communities through the effective action and leadership of trained volunteers. Its purpose is exclusively educational and charitable.

Interested members may attend a general membership meeting on Tuesday, April 3, at the Sea Dog in Bangor. A social hour begins at 5:30 p.m. and the general membership meeting at 6:30 p.m. Membership is open to any woman over age 21.

For more information, contact membership chairwoman Martha Helfrich at 288-2112 or visit www.jlbangor.org.

Library quality survey

The Bangor Public Library thinks it can do better, and wants its users to tell it how. Starting March 25 and lasting for three weeks, the library will conduct an online survey to find out users’ perceptions of library services, facilities and staff. The public may take the survey from home computers, or at designated computers at the library.

The survey will also be available online at www.bpl.lib.me.us from March 25 to April 14. For those who prefer not to use computers, paper copies will be available at the library’s main desk. All who take the survey may enter a drawing for cash prizes.

The Library Quality Survey was created by the Association of Research Libraries to measure library patrons’ perceptions of service. It does this by asking those taking the survey to rate their minimum and maximum requirements of a particular service and then asking how their library rates.

Staff at the Bangor Public Library hope, through the survey, to assess the library’s strengths and to identify areas for improvement. Once the survey is complete, the results will be presented to the library’s board of directors and to the public for further discussion.

The survey is being given in all libraries participating in the URSUS consortium. These include libraries in the University of Maine system, the Maine State Library, the Maine Law and Legislative Library and the Portland Public Library. Survey results will be for both the individual library and for the consortium as a whole.

For more information, call the library’s reference department at 947-8336.

Maine People’s Alliance

The Maine People’s Alliance has announced that Jesse Graham has assumed the position of executive director of the organization. He replaces Tammy Greaton, executive director for the past two years.

Graham has served as the MPA associate director since 2005. He is a Maine native and graduated from the University of Vermont with a bachelor’s degree in environmental studies and English in 1998. He has worked with MPA since 1999, when he joined the staff as the door-to-door field canvass director.

In 2000, he was hired to be the Penobscot Valley community organizer and statewide environmental organizer. He received the Dirigo Alliance Leadership for Change award in 2002 for his organizing successes.

Graham’s work with MPA over the past eight years can be credited for much of MPA’s organizational growth. In 2002, he was one of two community organizers who helped design and implement MPA’s nationally recognized leadership development model.

Since 2004, he has recruited, trained and managed the directors of the statewide door-to-door MPA field canvass, overseeing record-breaking growth in the number of new MPA members recruited at homes across Maine.

Since 2005, he has supervised all MPA community organizers, a period that has seen dramatic growth in the number of citizen leaders in MPA campaigns. He has extensive experience serving on statewide coalitions, including his seat on the Alliance for a Clean and Healthy Maine and Maine Citizens for Clean Elections. He also has served as a liaison with key national and regional allies, including USAction, Northeast Action and the Center for Community Change.

Milt Hillery, MPA board of directors co-chairman, said. “We are thrilled to welcome Jesse in his new position and are confident that his leadership will continue to lead MPA toward bold new achievements.”

Jesse Graham can be reached at 990-0672 or e-mail jesse@mainepeoplesalliance.org.

Book talk

Screenwriter Peter Behrens calls Maine home, but the enthusiastic response to his first novel is taking him on a tour of the United States and Canada. Behrens will visit the Bangor Public Library at 2 p.m. Saturday, March 31, in the Lecture Hall.

Behrens’ book, “Law of Dreams,” a novel that describes an Irish orphan’s rough passage to the New World, has won the prestigious Canadian Governor General’s Award and much critical acclaim. The New Yorker observed that Behrens’ stark style is “admirably suited to conveying the horrors of starvation and despair,” and that his language has a “visceral rhythm,” with similes that blend the “humble with the lyrical.” The New York Times Book Review bestowed the praise, “absorbing, unsparing and beautifully written … a masterly novel.”

Behrens’ book will be available for purchase and signing.

Blood drive

Unicel will sponsor a blood drive 11 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Friday, March 23, when the Maine Blood Center will set up its mobile blood donation center at the Unicel store, Crossroads Plaza, 930 Stillwater Ave. Unicel employees and the public are invited to donate blood.

Donors must present a photo ID. Refreshments will be available at the Unicel store and in the blood mobile.

Thrift store moving sale

Ofelia’s Community Resource Center’s Thrift Store at 1372 Union St. is moving to accommodate its expanding clothing recycling program.

But organizers don’t want to move the current inventory, so all items in the warehouse are at cash and carry prices – nothing more than $5.

Bring in non-perishable food items for the pantry and receive additional discounts.

The center is still accepting donations – especially clothing – for the export-recycling program.

Ofelia’s Community Resource Center is a 501 C3 non-profit organization.

Flowers in the museum

The public is invited to enjoy gorgeous themed flower arrangements paired with art at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.

“Art In Bloom” is the major annual event at the museum sponsored by the friends of the museum for the past 30 years. The talents of 60 garden club flower arrangers and 20 professional floral designers will provide creative floral interpretations of works of art. Join Wellesley College alumnae, families and friends for the day trip on Sunday, April 22.

The cost is $119 a person and includes bus fare, admission to the museum and special flower exhibits, box lunch at the museum and a buffet supper at Ricetta’s Brick Oven Pizzeria in Portland. Reservation deadline is April 6. All venues are handicap-accessible.

The bus will depart from the Park and Ride lot, corner of Odlin Road and I-395, opposite the Ramada Inn in Bangor. The bus will be available for boarding at 6:30 a.m., with departure scheduled for 7 a.m. Boarding along I-95 is available by prior arrangement.

Trip proceeds support financial aid programs at Wellesley College and special book gifts to the young women accepted and attending the college from eastern Maine.

To obtain more information or to make reservations, call Nancy Ziegenbein at 947-7965.

Brewer

Officer of the Year

Amy Nickerson was named 2006 Officer of the Year for the Brewer Police Department.

She started as a Brewer officer 18 months ago. Nickerson had worked five years as a game warden, and was a public safety officer for the University of Maine when she adopted Mace, her first police dog.

Kiwanis Club news

At a recent meeting of the Brewer Kiwanis Club, President Kathleen Harding-Heber welcomed Key Clubbers President Jackie Files, Alex Dube and Courtney England.

Also present were new members Eva Howlett and Brad Roseberry. Speaker Chairman Herb Hopkins introduced Laura England, director of the Brewer Public Library who talked about the Family Read Aloud Program.

President Kathleen Harding-Heber presented a check on behalf of the Brewer Kiwanis Club to Laura England. This is the fourth year that Brewer Kiwanis has participated.

The Brewer Kiwanis Club meets 6-7 p.m. the second and fourth Wednesdays of each month at the Muddy Rudder Restaurant.

Holden

Superior Court

Gov. John Baldacci nominated Bangor attorney Kevin M. Cuddy of Holden to the Maine Superior Court recently.

“Kevin Cuddy has an impressive history of public service and he has distinguished himself in private practice,” Baldacci said. “He’s fair-minded and dedicated to justice and he will make an exceptional addition to the bench.”

Cuddy is a former assistant U.S. attorney in Washington, D.C. and Maine. He also has worked for the Federal Communications Commission. He has been in private practice since 1973 and has argued cases at every level of the judicial system, including the Maine Supreme Judicial Court and the U.S. Supreme Court.

Cuddy has served as the president of the Maine Trial Lawyers Association, the Maine Bar Foundation and the Maine Chapter of American Board of Trial Advocates.

He was appointed to the Select Committee on Workers’ Compensation by governors Longley and Brennan, and to the Select Committee on Judicial Nominations by governors King and Baldacci.

Cuddy also has been active in his community, serving as the chairman of the Winterport planning board, Holden Board of Appeals and Holden comprehensive plan committee.

Nature writing workshop

An environmental writing workshop will be offered for adult writers of all skill levels at Fields Pond Audubon Center.

Workshop leaders will be Kathryn Miles, director of writing at Unity College and Holly Twining, Audubon naturalist. Miles will focus on writing exercises and technique and Twining will reveal the wonders of spring on a nature walk.

The springtime walk will help in gathering images and ideas for writing a nature-based short story or essay. Writing exercises will help in getting ideas sketched out on paper and perhaps inspire new ideas. With the program both indoors and outdoors, participants are advised to dress accordingly – boots for mud – and bring a notebook and pencil. An optional reading night is offered so that participants may share their edited nature writing with the group.

“Nature Writing: A Workshop for Writers,” will be held 1-4 p.m. Saturday, April 14. The optional reading night is 4-6 p.m. Saturday, April 21, at the center.

The cost of the workshop is $18 members, $22 non-members. Preregistration is required. Call 989-2591 or e-mail htwining@maineaudubon.org for more information.