The overcast skies and rain just couldn’t squeeze the good news out of Tuesday’s Sun Journal:
• Bravo to Dirigo basketball coach Gavin Kane who has fulfilled his goal of coaching Division I basketball.
Kane, who put together an incredible 263-17 record coaching the Dirigo
girls and was 74-10 coaching the boys, will become assistant women’s
basketball coach today at the University of Maine.
He will join University of Maine legend Cindy Blodgett and her staff
where he will help with on-floor coaching, recruiting, film evaluation,
camps and other administrative duties.
In a statement issued Monday, Blodgett said Kane “has an unparalleled track record of success.”
That’s for sure. In his 13 years coaching the Dirigo girls, Kane set a
state record for 11 straight regional titles as well as six state
championships. At one point, his teams had won 124 consecutive games
and he was Maine coach of the year five times.
Kane’s appointment is certainly well-deserved.
• After years without a school of pharmacy, Maine will now have two beginning this fall.
The pharmacy schools at The University of New England in Portland and
Husson University in Bangor both were granted approval Monday from the
National Accreditation Council on Pharmacy Education, according to a
Portland Press Herald story.
The demand for pharmacy education is certainly there. Many Maine
pharmacies have had to curtail hours or run short-staffed because of
the shortage of pharmacists, particularly in rural areas. Meanwhile,
Maine students have had to travel outside the state to receive pharmacy
education.
UNE received 790 applications for its first class of 100 students,
according to the Press Herald. Husson, meanwhile, reported that 72
percent of its first class will be Maine residents.
The two new schools will provide jobs for Mainers as well as improve the delivery of health care in Maine.
• Hundreds of visionary Vinalhaven residents celebrated the groundbreaking Monday for three wind turbines.
While other communities fight over the location of wind turbines and
argue over the mysterious and unconfirmed health threats they pose, the
Vinalhaven residents were surprisingly willing to embrace this project.
“I think it’s a wonderful project,” one woman who lives close to the site told the Bangor Daily News.
“I’ve always loved the windmills. It’s cheaper power; and to me, they’re peaceful,” she told the BDN.
Her attitude isn’t unusual on the island. When members of the local
electric cooperative voted last summer on the $14 million deal, 383
voted in favor and five against, the BDN reported.
The near unanimity on wind power? What’s up with that?
Well, electric rates jumped on the island back when propane prices
soared. Plus, the members of this cooperative are responsible for
providing their own energy solutions and they own the local delivery
infrastructure.
The power generated locally will be used locally.
Necessity is the mother of invention. It’s certainly interesting to see
how windmills seen in one area as a blight can be seen in another as
beautiful, peaceful and economical.

editorialboard@sunjournal.com