YESTERDAY …

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(As reported in the Bangor Daily News)

10 years ago – Jan. 10, 1998

BANGOR – It was 7 p.m. Thursday. Across the Penobscot River the blue flashes of arcing power lines lit up blacked-out Brewer. We sat, frustrated – not discouraged – in total darkness in the newsroom on the second floor. Sleet continued to crackle on the windows. There had been no electricity since four o’clock. Without electricity, there would be no Friday paper.

That there was a Friday paper – 12,000 copies were printed at the Bangor Daily News Hampden plant in the early hours of the morning – was due to a rare collaboration between luck and planning, and also to a series of personal triumphs: the perseverance of individual NEWS employees in Bangor and Hampden over the consequences of the worst ice storm in modern memory.

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BREWER – In North Brewer on Thursday, Ron Pelletier spent a sleepless night at the Paradis Supermarket hoping the ice storm outside would not spoil the store’s perishable foods.

The manager had to turn away scores of residents, many of whom worried about the effect the power loss would have on their own freezers.

Pelletier said he hadn’t slept in more than 24 hours. Instead, as trees snapped and blue power arcs crackled outside the store window Thursday night, he tried to maintain cool inside.

Next door at the Brewer Cafe, employees were struggling to protect the $20,000 worth of stock slowly thawing in the freezers.

The cafe opened all of its doors in the hopes of keeping the stock as cold as possible while Paradis unloaded its meat and poultry onto a refrigerator truck.

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BANGOR – Families, students and townies packed into Pat’s, where a large generator allowed stoves and ovens to do their hot work [during the ice storm]. The day before, the restaurant served 1,500 pizzas, about twice as many as on a usual Thursday, and about the same number as the busiest day of the year. But yesterday’s commitment to business wasn’t about sales, said Bruce Farnsworth, manager of the restaurant and son of Pat himself.

“People have come to depend on us,” said Farnsworth. “Pat’s has always been a civil shelter. People know that unless there’s something extraordinary, we’re always open.”

While some patrons ate by candlelight in the back room, others filled every seat in the main room, where the air was filled with a tangy steaminess.

25 years ago – Jan. 10, 1983

BANGOR – Phil Lee exploded for 18 points, including 12 in the decisive third quarter, and the Bangor Rams placed three other men in double figures on their way to shocking the Presque Isle Wildcats 68-56 in the Class A schoolboy basketball contest played Saturday night.

The victory boosts Bangor’s record on the season to 4-1 and delivers a truckload of tournament points. Forward Dan Phillippon struck for 17 points in the game to complement Lee, while Al Cowan added 15 points and Warren Caruso 10.

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LEVANT – Two fires within 24 hours had the Levant Fire Department on its toes over the weekend.

The first fire was reported at a house on the Wagner Road and the second on Union Street.

Firefighters from Glenburn Hermon Kenduskeag and Carmel assisted the Levant department in combating both fires.

The water used to fight the fire on Wagner Road was shuttled from a pond on Union Street, about half a mile from the scene of the fire. The water used to fight the fire on Union Street was pumped from a brook 500 to 600 feet away.

Both houses were a total loss.

50 years ago – Jan. 10, 1958

BANGOR – Clear fresh water from Floods Pond should begin flowing through 17 miles of pipeline into Bangor homes by November.

This is the target date that engineers are doing everything possible to meet, it was disclosed at a meeting of the board of trustees of the Bangor Water District.

The pipeline will come across country from Floods Pond and hit Route 9 at Eddington village. It will follow Route 9 and cross the Penobscot River at Eddington Bend. Connecting valves will be built on both sides of the river so upriver communities will be able to tie in if they desire.

There also will be a connection in place should the necessity arise to combine the Bangor and Brewer water supplies.

Engineers estimate the total project cost at $3,505,000.

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BANGOR – Roderic C. O’Connor was speaker at a meeting of the Athene Club. Mr. O’Connor is industrial representative of the Department of Economic Development for the state of Maine, which is an outgrowth of the former Maine Development Commission.

Bangor, O’Connor said, has always been the center of trade and industry of all kinds including food, clothing, hardware, chemicals, paper, woodworking, shoes, leather and food processing.

Unfortunately, he said, young people are still leaving Maine because of a lack of what they consider favorable opportunities here. The Department of Economic Development, Mr. O’Connor said, is interested in bringing new industries to Maine and to Bangor, which will furnish job opportunities for both Bangor and Maine.

100 years ago – Jan. 10, 1908

BREWER – Complaints are numerous these days in spite of the April weather in all its warmth and uncertainty now being meted out to the inhabitants of this section. And one and all agree that the good old New England winter is something the loss of which is to be deplored.

The patrons of the ferry route are heartily tired of the Robin Hood’s Barn route by way of the bridge. Engineer George Leach of the Bon Ton [ferry] said that if the present weather conditions continued, work of getting the little steamer ready for service would begin. The Penobscot River must be crossed in some other manner than by the long, stuffy and dusty toll bridge, is the sentiment of the majority.

Compiled by Ardeana Hamlin