NEW GLOUCESTER – SAD 15 directors fired the district’s director of finance and operations following a short executive meeting with their attorney Wednesday night.

By 10-0 vote, the board terminated Brian McDonnell’s employment, effective immediately.

Superintendent Victoria Burns was directed to issue a certificate of dismissal to McDonnell, attaching a copy of the board’s written findings and conclusions.

McDonnell was placed on paid leave by Burns on Sept. 25.

Victim in critical condition

LEWISTON – A 54-year-old Lewiston man struck by car on Russell Street Saturday remained in critical condition at Central Maine Medical Center Wednesday night.

Police said Daniel Michaud suffered fractures, cuts and internal injures when he was hit while walking from his Main Street home to a friend’s house on Russell Street. The crash occurred just after dark.

Police this week said they still do not know why Michaud was in the path of the car, driven by Lisa Evans, 31, of Lewiston.

No charges are pending against Evans.

Progress made on downtown projects

LEWISTON – Five condominiums arrived on Maple Street. Down the road, work continued on new townhouse apartments, outer shells complete. Closer to Kennedy Park, interior rehab work above Speaker’s Variety was nearly finished.

Downtown housing projects are coming right along.

Excavation began in June along Maple and Knox streets to make way for 16 new apartments, built by Community Concepts. Units are at various stages, said Wayne Petersen of the P.M. MacKAY Group, the general contractor.

The porch columns are up, the windows in. Buildings on the right side of the road, looking up the hill, have three-bedroom townhouses. On the left side, there’s a mix of three and four bedrooms. A one-story building along Knox Street has two handicap-accessible units and a community laundry room.

The first building will be done by the first of the year, Petersen said.

Town to honor first firefighter

GREENE – A 22-year-old man pulling a trailer with a pump and hose behind a Buick was Greene’s first fire department. Soon, that man, Alden Peterson, will be honored for that and other achievements 56 years later when the new fire station is dedicated.

That will happen on Nov. 23. Peterson, 78, will be cited for more than five decades of public service to the Fire Department and to the town.

After Peterson hooked the trailer to his mid-1940s Buick and put out a fire at a farm in 1947, the forerunner of the Greene Volunteer Fire Department was born. Peterson and a few others fought fires with the Buick and the trailer for the next eight years.

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