Protesters didn’t deter people from attending a fundraising supper held Feb. 25 in Westbrook to help low-income Mainers buy heating oil.

About 100 people attended the dinner at St. Anthony of Padua Church, raising $1,500 for Keep ME Warm.

Lewiston political and religious activist Paul Madore and a group of about 12 Catholics from around the state protested outside the event, which was sponsored by state Reps. Timothy Driscoll, D-Westbrook, and Bob Duplessie, D-Westbrook. The group also picketed outside the Chancery offices of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland because the event was sanctioned by Bishop Richard Malone.

Madore objected to the event being held in a Catholic facility because the two lawmakers support abortion rights and the bishop has said the church would not provide such politicians a platform.

“I don’t know that they had any impact on people who planned to come,” Driscoll said. “People were there to help the community, not trying to tear the community apart.”

– David Farmer
Polishing those bytes

Lewiston’s experience on the World Wide Web might get a little fancier if the city wins a $40,000 makeover.

Lewiston’s Web site is a finalist in the running for an “Extreme Web site Makeover” by municipal Web site specialists CivicPlus. The Kansas-based company fine-tunes city Web sites, adding the latest in Internet trends and technologies. It includes special city document searches, automatic e-mail notifications for events and issues, and geographical information system integration.

The contest began in October. A winner should be selected in the next few weeks.

– Scott Taylor
The gift of stories

The second shipment of hundreds of thousands of donated books arrived safely in Alabama on Thursday, a gift organized by Livermore Falls librarian Penny Brown.

Project Katrina: Read for Relief was launched in early September with help from librarians from public and school libraries across Maine. Many of the books trucked down South contained personal notes from donors. The first shipment was delivered in the fall.

Brown spent the past five months trying to find someone to haul the second load and finally found one; Hartt Transportation Services System of Bangor offered to do the task. On Tuesday, a tractor-trailer packed full of 22 pallets, some stacked double with books, left on its goodwill journey.

When truck driver Francis Hanson called Brown to tell her the books had been delivered, she could hear the excitement and pride in his voice.

“It’s hitting me now,” Brown said of the effort. “I’m so pleased. We received so much help throughout the state. Mainers just really like to pitch in when there is a need.”

Her biggest hope now is that someday, somebody in Maine will get a phone call responding to one of the notes tucked inside one of the thousands of books.

– Donna M. Perry

Pole patch

For what seems like weeks now a utility pole has been drawing some attention on Center Street in Auburn.

The pole, near the fire house, was damaged earlier in the winter either by an accident or storm winds, according to Gail Rice of Central Maine Power Co. She wasn’t sure just what happened.

But she says the mystifying temporary fix to it – described by one person as something a 3-year-old with a set of Lincoln Logs might construct – is just that, temporary.

Such poles, Rice noted, serve more than one utility. CMP has already moved its transformers, insulators and other hardware onto the replacement pole.

Verizon hasn’t, she said.

Once the telephone company gets its wiring reset on the new pole, the broken remains of the old one will be hauled off, Rice said.

– Doug Fletcher

Designer brownies

In case Hollywood’s pampered elite gets hungry, a Maine company is supplying them with a treat of designer brownies.

Simply Divine Heavenly Brownies, made in Brunswick, were included in $12,000 gift bags to attendees of the pre-Oscar party lounge created by the TV show “Extra.”

The package included a “calmel turtle brownie,” described by the company as “a fudgy brownie, massaged with toasted pecans and an indulgent chocolate drizzle.”

Other treats included a “Perk Up Brownie,” made with cappuccino, “The Star Silhouette Brownie” and “The EXTRA Brownie: a delicious brownie dipped in fine white chocolate and imprinted with the EXTRA logo.”

The TV show’s party lounge was held on March 1 and 2 at Le Meridien Hotel in Los Angeles.

The Vera Bradley gift bag also included an Indianapolis 500 VIP Experience Package, a Bodog.com Poker Chip Set, DKNY Red Delicious Perfume and Cologne, and Betties hand-pinstriped leather pumps.

– Daniel Hartill