Snowmobile club to add new access trail across town land

RUMFORD — Members of the Rumford Polar Bears Snowmobile Club will soon be clearing 200 feet of brush along an all-terrain vehicle trail on town property, thanks to selectmen who OK'd the work.

Town Manager Carlo Puiia said late Tuesday afternoon that the club sought selectmen's approval to use the corridor from Wyman Hill Road for an access trail this winter after a private landowner discontinued access across a portion of his land.

The new trail will provide snowmobile access to trails by Mountain View Annex Road.

Former school doubling as haunted house

PERU — Members of the Peru Recreation Department will hold their first ever haunted house from 3:30 to 6 p.m. and 7 to 9:30 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 24, in the former Peru School.

"A Haunting of the Old Peru School" will have two floors of fun and fright, complete with a Witches Walk on the downstairs level and a Terror Terrace on the upstairs level.

The Witches Walk will be decorated with young children in mind and include interactive games.

A bake sale will be held in the cafeteria during the Haunted House hours.

Municipal agenda

Tuesday

Bethel: Bethel Water District, 7 p.m., Town Office

Hanover: Selectmen, 5 p.m., Town House

Hanover: Annual town meeting, 6 p.m., Town House

Mexico: Region 9 School of Applied Technology Board of Directors, 7 p.m., River Road school

Wednesday

Dixfield: Recreation Committee, 6 p.m., Ludden Memorial Library

Newry: Planning Board, 7 p.m., Town Office

Mexico: Selectmen, 6:30 p.m., Town Office

Thursday

Board gives town manager OK to seek tax anticipation note

RUMFORD — Deviating from their agenda at Thursday night's board meeting, selectmen convened two emergency sessions, the first of which seemed to come as a surprise to some in the audience.

The first session was to authorize Town Manager Carlo Puiia to apply for a tax anticipation note, to borrow money with which to run the town should it become necessary until tax revenue starts coming in.

The first tax payment installments from residents who don't pay all at once, aren't due until Nov. 16.

Home invasion, assault investigation nets two arrests

RUMFORD — An Andover man remained behind bars early Thursday evening in Paris and a Jay man was free on bail after police accused both of participating in a home invasion in Rumford that sent one tenant to the hospital.

Joshua Messier, 26, of Andover, was charged with felony burglary and assault and Scott Towers, 20, of Jay, was charged with felony burglary (accomplice liability), according to Rumford Detective Sgt. James Bernard.

Board to work on five property-related matters

RUMFORD — Among the 11 new-business items up for discussion and/or approval at Thursday's Board of Selectmen meeting at 7 p.m. in the town hall auditorium, are five property-related issues.

These are:

• Approving a Lincoln Avenue Development Project bid.

• Making an abandoned properties declaration.

• Discussing parking on Knox Street.

• Discussing the Swift River Park housing project off Route 120.

• A snowmobile club request to use town property.

Board approves Region 11 cooperative agreement

DIXFIELD — The Western Foothills School District last week unanimously approved a new cooperative agreement with Maine Vocational Region 11 in Paris to provide technology education to Buckfield High School students.

Mountain Valley and Dirigo high schools in Rumford and Dixfield, respectively, send their vocational students to the Region 9 School of Applied Technology in Mexico, district Assistant Superintendent Gloria Jenkins said. All three high schools are part of the newly formed district named Regional School Unit 10.

Seniors learn about college, real life after school

RUMFORD — Nearly 300 seniors from Rumford, Dixfield and Buckfield high schools gathered Wednesday for the first time since the Western Foothills School District was formed.

They sat around tables in the cafeteria of Mountain Valley High School to share lunch and get to know each other, after spending the morning learning about things they'll need after high school.

Mountain Valley Principal Matt Gilbert said he believes the chance for the students to get together is almost a symbol for the greater community.

Sunday River Ski Resort opens for season

NEWRY — In keeping with its three-year tradition, Sunday River Ski Resort became the first ski resort in the East to open, when its season began with an hour of free skiing and riding on Wednesday afternoon, according to spokeswoman Darcy Liberty.

For the past two years, the resort has claimed the marketing title by opening on Halloween.

However, cold temperatures this past week that allowed snow-making to start, coupled with 3 inches of natural snow that fell Tuesday, enabled the Newry ski hill to open 13 days before Halloween.

Panelists present one side of wind farm question

RUMFORD — Questions ranging from how installing wind turbines might affect tourism and wildlife, to beliefs that such devices could cause physical and mental illnesses were put forth by some of the members of a panel Tuesday night that explored the possible ramifications of building a wind farm atop three local mountains.

Conspicuously absent were representatives from First Wind LLC, the Newton, Mass., company that is tentatively planning a 40-megawatt project along the ridgeline of Black, North Twin and South Twin mountains.

Proposed Hanover budget 12 percent less

HANOVER – Residents at the annual town meeting Oct. 20 will act on 39 articles that, if passed, would raise about $27,000 less than the current budget. They will also decide whether to adopt a new Comprehensive Plan.

The meeting begins at 6 p.m. in the Town House on the Howard Pond Road.

Bethel board tables action on police chief's appeal

BETHEL — Selectmen met behind closed doors twice Tuesday night, then voted to table police Chief Alan Carr's appeal of an action taken against him Sept. 25 by Town Manager Jim Doar.

The two executive sessions were to discuss a personnel matter, officials said, but they would not say what the issue is with Carr.

Rumford police log

 Rumford Police

 Arrests

 Unless otherwise noted, the following are to be arraigned on Dec. 8 in Rumford District Court:

Rumford crime bulletin

The Rumford Police Department responded to 76 complaints between 6 a.m. Oct. 4 and 6 a.m. Oct. 11.

Arrests/summonses

Oct. 6 at 12:37 p.m. — Dahlia Robichaud, 46, of Rumford was summoned by Sgt. Tracey Higley on a charge of unlawful furnishing of a schedule z drug. Robichaud is scheduled to appear in Rumford District Court on Dec. 8.

This week's meetings

Tuesday

Roxbury: Selectmen, 6 p.m., Town Office

Rumford: Windfarm forum, 6 p.m., Mountain Valley High School

Rumford: Park & Recreation Commission, 4 p.m., Hosmer Field

Woodstock: SAD 44 Board of Directors, 7 p.m., Woodstock Elementary School

Wednesday

Dixfield: Special town meeting on Wind Energy Facility Moratorium Ordinance, 6 p.m., Dirigo High School

Greenwood: Public hearing on several land use issues, 7 p.m., Town Hall

Home on the new range

 Just in time for autumn apple pie, cranberry raisin and pumpkin, too, and pot roasts, roast turkey, and pork and braised beef ribs, we received our new gas range. It's shiny black, perfectly clean and level!

We were happy to buy locally and to enjoy the perks attendant: free delivery of the new, and disposal of the beastly old, range. One of its burners had to be lit with a match, and we could have lived with that for another eon. But when the oven went . . .

Selectmen to research wind farms

DIXFIELD – Three members of the Board of Selectmen along with Town Manager Eugene Skibitsky plan to attend a special breakfast meeting on wind farms next week in Paris.

The event will take place from 7 to 9 a.m. Oct. 23 at the Four Seasons Function Center on Route 26. It is hosted by the Western Maine Economic Development Council.

Trail system planned

MEXICO - Town officials and the area's planning agency are well on their way to creating multiuse paths to serve school children, walkers, snowmobiles and other means of transportation that would connect with neighboring Rumford.

David Errington, road commissioner for the town, said a so-called "walking" audit of the town's proposed trail system resulted in a series of long- and short-term recommendations by the Androscoggin Valley Council of Governments.

Moratorium vote set for Wednesday

DIXFIELD – Residents will have a chance Wednesday, Oct. 14, to decide whether to approve a six-month moratorium on any action related to the development of wind turbine projects.

The special town meeting begins at 6 p.m. in the community room of Dirigo High School. Voting will be done by secret ballot.

First Wind to present plans

RUMFORD – Several representatives from First Wind LLC plan to attend a public forum on a proposed wind farm for three Rumford mountains.

Karl Aromaa, a member of the Wind Farm Development Committee, said Matt Kearn of First Wind and several others will make a presentation on the proposal at 6 p.m. Oct. 13 at Mountain Valley High School.

Gritty effort: Lewiston couple wins National Wife Carrying Championship

NEWRY — When competing against the world's fittest man, Joe Decker of San Diego, Calif., it helps to have an edge.

Fire station's open house draws more than 100 children, adults

DIXFIELD — During the Dixfield Fire Co.'s first ever open house on Saturday, Samuel Benson of Dixfield was right where he'd always wanted to be since the age of 2: sitting in the driver's seat of a real fire engine.

Best foliage color this weekend in Western Maine

RUMFORD — Clear skies this weekend will give leaf peepers good conditions to enjoy peak foliage colors in Western Maine's lakes and mountains region, according to the Maine Department of Conservation.

Forest rangers are reporting high color, or 50 to 70 percent toward peak, in Rangeley, Rumford and Bethel, and peak foliage conditions, or at least 75 percent color change, from Stratton to Moosehead Lake and Lincoln to Mount Katahdin in Baxter State Park.

South Rumford Road to fully reopen by Oct. 23

RUMFORD — Nearly four months after large areas of South Rumford Road and its Thurston Bridge were wiped out by torrential rains on June 27, the road will fully reopen by Friday, Oct. 23.

Small crowd greets Babe the Blue Ox

RUMFORD — Three-year-old Samuel Demascio of Rumford brimmed with excitement early Thursday afternoon, as did about 20 other people who greeted Babe the Blue Ox's arrival on upper Congress Street.

While Rumford Selectman Mark Belanger and a Public Works crew installed the nearly 400-pound fiberglass bovine on a cement pad on the Rite-Aid Pharmacy lot, Demascio shouted instructions to his dad, David Demascio.

"I want to take a picture of you on the Blue Ox," Samuel twice repeated, while held in dad's arms.