AUBURN – Androscoggin Home Care and Hospice marked the start of construction and its public fund-raising kickoff for its $3.7 million inpatient hospice house at a groundbreaking on Stetson Road.

The campaign already has reached $1.18 million, which is 78 percent of its community fund-raising goal of $1.5 million, said Kim Wettlaufer, an Androscoggin Home Care board member and chairman of the hospice house capital campaign.

The balance will need to be raised in the public phase of the campaign, which will extend through March when the facility is scheduled to open. The remaining $2.2 million will be financed through Peoples Heritage Bank.

Wettlaufer acknowledged the leadership support of the campaign’s benefactor donors, the JTG Foundation, MeadWestvaco Corp. and Peoples Heritage Bank through the Banknorth Charitable Foundation.

He said Wednesday’s ceremony honored these three organizations and the many other individuals, businesses and foundations that have come forward to support this project. He said that Androscoggin Home Care’s board and committee members, volunteers and employees have raised $287,000 for the project.

Lewiston: $9 million fix-up nears completion

LEWISTON – Freshly paved driveways still too soft for cars were black and pristine.

Maintenance workers ran sprinklers along new strectches of lawn.

Residents escaped the heat inside townhouses with new appliances, new carpets, new cupboards.

After nearly nine months and $9 million, the facelift of the largest housing project in the city was nearly complete.

Tall Pines became River Valley Village and began its upgrade under the ownership of the nonprofit Caleb Foundation last fall.

“The property had fallen into disrepair,” said Debra Nutter, the foundation’s executive director. Back then, the vacancy rate was about 30 percent. Now it’s 20.

All 296 units are being rehabbed, including seven that are handicapped accessible, with new windows, exterior doors and paint, plus floors, boilers and roofs as needed.

The undertaking is the single biggest affordable housing project ever financed by the Maine State Housing Association.

“The improvements are fantastic; there’s no doubt they needed it,” said Mike Maheux, visiting his daughter and grandchildren who’ve lived in the village three years.

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