Fifteen years ago, smoking was banned insidethe hospital.
By Eileen M. Adams
Staff Writer

RUMFORD – Rumford Hospital will join more than 20 other Maine hospitals by becoming smokefree next month.

The change will take place Nov. 20, the date of the Great American Smokeout.

Deb Gorham, clinical coordinator at the hospital, said the ban on smoking for employees, visitors and patients applies to the parking lots, vehicles and outdoor areas of the hospital, Swift River Healthcare, the Rumford Veterans Clinic, and the Elsemore/Dixfield Clinic. Rumford Community Home, which is also associated with the hospital, will not go smokefree at this time because it serves as home for its residents.

The decision to go smokefree was made by the hospital’s Wellness Committee, which determined that a smoking prohibition was the No. 1 priority.

Smoking was banned inside the hospital about 15 years ago. At that time, a so-called smoke shack was built at the rear of the facility that allows employees and visitors to take smoke breaks. That tiny building will be torn down Nov. 19.

With the new smokefree policy going into place, Gorham said Rumford Hospital becomes the first campus of the Central Maine Medical Family to launch the ban.

The reasons for going smokefree are many, she said.

“Rumford Hospital plays a leadership role in the community, to model healthy behaviors,” she said. “Patients have seen their medical care workers still smoking when they’ve been told to stop.”

Beyond serving as role models, Gorham said the smoking ban will go into effect so that secondhand smoke won’t contaminate employees and patients. The smoking area outside is near the ventilation system that sometimes allows smoke into the building.

She estimates that less than 5 percent of the hospital’s employees smoke.

Signs will be posted in the parking lots and at the entrances to each of the medical facilities announcing the smokefree policy.

The hospital is the site of ongoing smoking cessation classes. Six have been offered so far this year for employees and anyone else in the community who wants to participate. A seventh, four-class session to take place over a three-week period begins Nov. 13.

Gorham said the hospital is being supportive of employees who still smoke. Opportunities are available for employees to try to quit smoking, and the attitude is one of support rather than offensiveness, she said.

A celebration of the smokefree campus begins Nov. 19 when the smoke shack is torn down.

“We’ll have events to take the edge off not smoking. We’ll urge people who work with smokers to be supportive,” she said.

Information on the smokefree policy is available to anyone from the switchboard and emergency room at the hospital.

eadams@sunjournal.comHousing called ‘outstanding’
Norway Family Apartments have been named as development

of the year.
By Gail Geraghty
Staff Writer

NORWAY – Norway Family Apartments on Cottage Street was named the Outstanding Development of the Year at the Governor’s Annual Affordable Housing Conference Sept. 29.

The 18-unit affordable housing project, built last year by Community Concepts Inc., “represents the very best in affordable housing, smart growth, and community development,” Maine State Housing Authority Director Michael Finnegan said in presenting the award.

More than 450 housing leaders from throughout Maine attended the MSHA-sponsored conference at the Augusta Civic Center.

“It was built in an area where family units were badly needed,” said Dan Simpson, the housing authority’s director of public information, on Friday. “It is also architecturally compatible with downtown Norway. We thought it was a good-looking development.”

Simpson said the housing authority has been emphasizing the need to create affordable housing to enhance downtown areas, and Norway Family Apartments “responds to our goal of reviving downtowns.”

Simpson said Community Concepts, in designing the units in several separate buildings, with sidewalks and play areas, took care to try to have the development fit in with its surroundings.

“It doesn’t look too modern. It fits in with the downtown,” he said. “It’s workforce housing,” he said, where rental costs are supplemented by low-interest rate MSHA loans and grants.

The development was created on a site across from the New Balance Athletic Shoe manufacturing plant, with the thought that some of the units could serve employees of the footwear manufacturer.

Dennis Lajoie, who supervised the project as the real estate specialist for Community Concepts Inc., was unavailable for comment on the award.

Simpson said the same goal of community revitalization was the driving force behind another award presented at the conference.

The city of Westbrook was honored for its support of a project that converted the former Westbrook High School, a downtown brick building on Main Street, into assisted housing for senior citizens, and designating a downtown neighborhood for housing improvements.

Two people also received awards.

Mark Adelson, Portland’s administrator of Community Development, was honored for his contributions to affordable housing development in Portland in recent years. Linda Gifford, owner of Central Maine Title Co. in Augusta, was honored for her efforts in helping first-time homebuyers find affordable housing.

Simpson said neither the Norway project nor the Westbrook project was inexpensive to create, but that “it’s worth it to spend a little extra money if you are working to prevent sprawl.”

ggeraghty@sunjournal.com