Warm up those wallets. Come March 23 there will be two new local venues for spending money.

Both Best Buy and Fuel expect to open their doors that Friday. Best Buy, the electronics giant, has been under construction at Mount Auburn Plaza since last fall. A spokesman from the retailer said it projects a March 23 opening.

In downtown Lewiston, Fuel, an upscale eatery and wine bar launched by Eric and Carrie Agren, also expects to open its doors the same day. The restaurant/bistro has been hailed for marrying entrepreneurship with creative vision and sparking interest in other downtown development. Stay tuned.

– Carol Coultas
Casting a spell

Local theatergoers opened their wallets Thursday – one patron donating a $100 bill – for a benefit performance of the musical “Godspell.”

Proceeds from the Community Little Theatre show, totaling $1,037, will aid the Siegler family of Lisbon. The family lost their home in a fire Jan. 31.

The loss was keenly felt within the theater community.

Ray Siegler, Shirley Bernier and their four children have all been part of CLT productions.

“We don’t hesitate to help our own,” said Doreen Traynor, executive director of the theater company. After all, they’d given innumerable hours to previous productions.

“We do look out for people who commit so much time,” she said.

Traynor had hoped to raise at least $1,000 with the performance. The $5-per-ticket audience was smaller than expected, perhaps due to cold temperatures, she said.

However, individuals’ generosity made up for the numbers, she said. Besides a donor giving up $100, others overpaid for their tickets with $50s and $20s, she said.

All performances of the musical, which runs through March 18, will be accompanied by calls for donations to the Hope Haven and the St. Martin de Porres shelters.

– Daniel Hartill

$1 million day

State workers got the day off last week when snow and freezing rain blanketed the region.

Maine paid about $1 million to give them the time.

According to the state, Maine’s 12,000 employees earn about $1 million a day, including benefits. When the state – usually the governor – closes government for the day, those employees get paid anyway.

Becky Wyke, the commissioner of the Department of Administrative and Financial Services, said closures happen once or twice a year and are usually only for part of the day. During the Valentine’s Day blizzard, for example, the state stayed open in the morning and sent employees home after 12:30 p.m.

Some people aren’t happy that the state told employees to stay home all day on March 2, the latest snowstorm. On As Maine Goes, a conservative political Web site, eight public forum pages have been dedicated to the topic. A few people defended the state closure, saying it was necessary for safety. Most others lambasted the decision.

“That storm was a typical Maine snowstorm. We live in Maine, for cripe sakes,” wrote Bob Stone, a regular contributor to the Web site.

Wyke said the state decided to close for the entire day on Friday, March 2, because the National Weather Service expected bad weather from at least 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Employees might have been able to get into work, she said, but they wouldn’t have been able to drive home. And then there’s the public’s safety.

“When we’re open we’re inviting them to come out in that weather and join us,” Wyke said.

Unlike schools, which make up snow days during summer vacation, the state doesn’t establish makeup days. Some state employees worked from home. Others caught up with their work the next week or at another time.

“I got to work the rest of the weekend,” Wyke said.

– Lindsay Tice