Oh, how slowly those federal wheels grind.

The Sun Journal submitted a federal Freedom of Information request on Feb. 19, 2007, seeking details about a contract awarded to International Management Services, a linguistics company based in Rumford.

The five-year contract, capped at $703 million, was to provide interpretation and other services for military operations in Afghanistan. IMS was awarded the contract from the U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command. We wanted to know whether the company’s small-business status and location in a federal HUB Zone were factors in its selection, as well as who else bid and a breakdown of the contract costs.

But the award was appealed a month later and IMS left town that summer.

Now, 17 months after submitting the request, the contract arrives. Sort of.

Despite its heft (47 pages) all the pertinent information – contracting officer, costs, competitors – were obscured or omitted, per the Army’s interpretation of privacy statutes.

It took a different tack with another law: On March 17, 2007, the FOI compliance officer sent us a note.

“… we are unable to comply with the statutory 20-day time limit in processing your request.”

Well, at least that’s clear.

– Carol Coultas

Minot citizens help others during washout

On Aug. 16, I got to see some things I’ve never seen in my many years of reporting.

Just after filing a story on skydivers at the balloon festival, reports came over the scanner about flash flooding, people trapped in cars on washed-out roads in Minot.

In Maine?

Yes.

I drove to Minot but had to park my car and hike down Route 119. The roads looked surreal, beaten, broken, twisted. The roar of water was loud. Streams became rivers. The roads were covered with dirt and rocks carried by the torrent.

But what especially impressed me was the people.

Everyone I spoke to was friendly, kind, willing to tell me what happened. I was invited into homes, offered coffee. I was shown how to get to the other side of a road where a bridge had washed out. (Climb up and down a steep banking.)

And volunteers driving four-wheelers, the only way to get around, were buzzing about, giving strangers rides, checking on neighbors to make sure everyone was OK.

The scene evoked a kind of Norman Rockwell portrait. A tight-knit community caring about each other.

– Bonnie Washuk