NORTHPORT — The Sun Journal accepted the Freedom of Information Award for its August analysis of unreliable cell phone transmissions called in to emergency dispatch centers, work that was prompted by a July 4, 2009, Dixfield fire in which firefighter response was delayed because of a misdirected E-911 cell call.

The E-911 story entry, written by Regional Editor Scott Thistle and staff writers Terry Karkos and Donna Perry, also earned a first-place award for analysis.  

On the night of that fire, it took 20 minutes for dispatchers in at least three centers to sort out the correct address of the call, but by then the fire had consumed Lisa Bourgeois’ home. Afterward, emergency communications officials insisted the cell towers involved routed emergency calls correctly.

The Sun Journal requested access to the transcript of the E-911 call, through Maine’s Freedom of Access law, and the contents were startling. Early in the transcribed conversation, based on the location of the cell tower transmitting the initial call, dispatchers were showing the fire to be in Wells, Maine, some 99 miles from the actual location of the fire.

Based on the Sun Journal’s report, Maine public safety officials launched their own investigation into the efficiency and accuracy of cell phone E-911 routing and found that only about 50 percent of cell calls are routed to the correct dispatch center. As a consequence, in Oxford County — where the 2009 fire occurred — officials now recommend callers use land lines instead of cell phones as much as possible to report emergencies.

Staff writer Lindsay Tice earned a first-place award for her in-depth investigative report titled “Health & Wealth,” looking at hospital spending practices, including an examination of salaries earned by top hospital executives in Maine. 

The examination revealed that Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston not only employed the highest-paid CEO in the state at that time, it also spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to compensate its board members over the years, a practice not followed in hospitals elsewhere.

Staff writer Kathryn Skelton was awarded the top prize in the business category for her October 2009 report “Wanted: Milk money,” an analysis of how the low price of milk and the high cost of production is killing Maine dairy farms.

Included in the analysis was an examination of the fluctuating subsidies farmers receive for their product, and the practice of setting prices at the federal level instead of state by state, which hurt Maine farmers. The uncertain prices paid for milk, and the rising cost to produce the product, have resulted in a steady decrease in the number of Maine dairy farms, with just over 300 still operating here.

The top award for weekend editorial page was given to the Sun Journal for its Feb. 7, 2010, edition, which recognized a cover piece written by Judith Meyer, managing editor/days. Her story on a January conference held by the Center for Preventing Hate, titled “Advice for America,” examined what Lewiston and Auburn have learned since 2000 about relationships between the cities’ residents and migrating newcomers. The editorial published in the same entry tackled the issue of sexual abuse and the nation’s progress in addressing this complicated social, emotional and criminal problem.

Next-day coverage of the fire that destroyed the Cowan Mill, which started just before 4 p.m. on July 15, 2009, earned the Sun Journal a first-place award for spot news. The coverage of that fire, which changed the city’s landscape, included afternoon updates of the blaze using text, video and still photos, as thousands gathered to watch the mill burn and collapse.

It was the biggest story the Sun Journal covered that year. Coverage was a total staff effort as reporters and photographers gathered information at the scene and editors updated the newspaper’s website and moderated a three-hour Cover it Live chat with readers that included traffic reports, tips on where burning ash was falling in the city and where people should go to best view the fire.

Our staff got to the fire at about the same time as some of the first firetrucks, and were cordoned inside the crime scene tape, much closer to the scene than other media. At the time, Regional Editor Scott Thistle remembers, “That was kind of an oddity, but a testimony to the street cred our reporters and photographers have with the local cops and firefighters.”

Half of the Sun Journal’s July 16 “A” section was devoted to the fire, five pages in all, including news about the fire, multiple photos, directions to online video and a historic timeline of the mill.

The Sun Journal’s coverage of the fire also earned a first-place award for best online project.

In the multimedia category, the Sun Journal took another first-place award, this time for its coverage last September of a tense and extended standoff on Holland Street in Lewiston between local police and resident Dan Bussiere. The online project included story and picture updates throughout the 18-hour standoff, assisted again by having a photographer who managed to get behind police lines and set up in an adjacent apartment building.

The first-place award for local column writing went to the Sun Journal’s Mark LaFlamme for a collection of entries from his Street Talk column, including commentary on convicted local sex offender Michael Johnson and his continued lack of remorse for his crimes.

LaFlamme, who writes two columns, covers the police beat and regularly writes for the paper’s b section on Sunday, said of his sources of inspiration: “I will never run out of things to write about for my weekly column. When all seems hopeless, Lewiston always provides some new fodder for me.”

The Sun Journal also took first place for headline writing with “Girls’ Knight Out,” a headline reporting the Poland Regional High School cheering squad’s victory last year in the Class B state cheerleading championship. “Knight” refers to the nickname used for the Poland school.

The newspaper’s four-year project “Following the Freshmen” won another in a series of first-place awards, this year for its final chapter, “Hello, real world,” in which staff writers Daniel Hartill, Kathryn Skelton, Lindsay Tice and Carol Coultas talked to the four area students the newspaper has followed through their college years. This chapter, published in May, looked at “what’s next” for these students after college graduation, including their employment prospects.

The local ad that won first place, designed by Michelle Pushard, was for the Riverwatch/Hilton Garden Inn in Auburn. According to Pushard, “The Hilton Garden advertises its Riverwatch weddings every year with us, so I wanted to capture the feeling of being in the hotel and looking down at the wedding location alongside the Androscoggin River,” which includes a grand view of the Great Falls that separate the cities of Auburn and Lewiston.

In all, the Sun Journal accepted 27 news awards and three advertising awards for:

First place

Local ad, Michelle Pushard, “Riverwatch/Hilton Garden”; Editorial page (weekend), staff; Best online project, staff, “Cowan Mill fire”; Multimedia presentation (weekend), staff, “Holland Street standoff ends in suicide”; Spot news story, staff, “Cowan Mill burns”; Investigative report, Lindsay Tice, “Health & Wealth”; Analysis, Terry Karkos, Scott Thistle and Donna Perry, “911 where are you?”; Local column, Mark LaFlamme; News/sports headline, staff, “Girls’ Knight Out”; Business, Kathryn Skelton, “Wanted: Milk money”; Education, Daniel Hartill, Kathryn Skelton, Lindsay Tice and Carol Coultas, “Hello, real world.”

Second place

Spot news photo, Daryn Slover, “Sobriety test”; Editorial page (daily), staff; News story, Rebekah Metzler and Judith Meyer, “Felon keeps hand out”; Investigative report, Christopher Williams, “Feds seize developer records”; Arts/lifestyle feature, Mark LaFlamme, “Re-enact, remember”; Editorial, Rex Rhoades, “Christmas story even more timely”; Environmental, Kathryn Skelton, “Maine’s got power”; Health, Lindsay Tice, “Flying with LifeFlight.”

Third place

People photo, Daryn Slover, “Balloon blower”; Specialty page design, Corey LaFlamme and Jose Leiva, “Royal flushes”; Campaign or series, Jesse Richter and Sheri Verville, “Meeting the challenge”; Self promotion, staff, “We’ve captured the moment”; Sports section, staff; Website, staff; Analysis, Kathryn Skelton, “Have they got your number?”; Continuing story, staff, “Revenge in Rumford”; Feature story, Daniel Hartill, “Finding some peace by the river”; News/sports headline, staff, “Big pain in the drain: After washed-out weekend, more rain on the way”; Education, Lindsay Tice, “Tricky math.”