Charles Smith, sentenced from the Auburn Municipal Court May 17th, to 90 days at hard labor in the County Jail for intoxication, is not having the very worst kind of a job according to all appearance.

Smith is to be seen nearly every day driving about Lewiston and Auburn on the job wagon belonging to Mr. Horne who hires the jail help from the county. He is dressed in citizen’s clothes and no one not aquatinted with him, would mistrust that he was prisoner.

It is claimed that Smith is taking the place of a man who was hired at $1.50 a day, and the man doesn’t think that it is the right kind of competition to use jail help against good American labor.

50 Years Ago, 1954

Lewiston Civil Defense Police and Civil Defense officials held a meeting last night at the city building to discuss the traffic problem that will result from the practice air raid alert scheduled for 10 a.m., June 14.

When the red alert sounds, motorists have been asked to cooperate by pulling over to the curb and taking shelter in the nearest building. Motorists who are on the bridges between the Twin Cities when the alert sounds have been asked to continue driving until there cars are off the bridge.

25 Years Ago, 1979

There’s a stray island parked on Charles Phillip’s sandy beach. It wasn’t invited. It’s lost and no one seems to know who owns it. Phillip’s would like to find out who owns the half acre of reeds that floated onto his property, carrying redwing blackbirds, frogs and turtles on its back. It’s pretty hard for him to toss a fishing line into Annabessacook Lake with a 150 foot by 100 foot swamp in the way.

A lot of islands pry themselves loose and float around the tranquil lake nestled in the verdant marshland about 10 miles west of Augusta.

“But nothing this large. They’ve always been fairly small – 10 or 20 feet in diameter. They were nothing compared to this. This is gigantic…Heck, this is big enough for a house lot.” said Thomas Gordon, executive director of the Cobbossee Watershed District.

Gordon says he has asked the state Department of Environmental Protection for help since the soggy bog is on public water, but he hasn’t had much luck.

“No one in state government is charged with taking care of a problem like this. No one is assigned the job of rounding up stray marshes,” he said.


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