LEWISTON — U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe encountered no partisan bickering Friday when she visited Simones’ Hot Dog Stand.

Diners at the local restaurant frequented by Maine politicians were unanimous: sadness and disappointment at the impending departure of Maine’s senior U.S. senator.

It was Snowe’s first public appearance back in Central Maine since she announced to a stunned constituency that she wouldn’t seek a fourth term because the partisan dissonance in Washington had grown too loud.

A sign at the entrance to the restaurant exclaimed: “Welcome Home Olympia!” a reference to her local roots. She lived for a brief time in Lewiston then spent more time in Auburn as a girl, before she went off the University of Maine at Orono.

Seth and Emily Vincent brought their two young sons to the restaurant for a bite to eat, but didn’t have a chance to meet Snowe who was exiting as they entered.

“I guess I was kind of surprised,” Seth Vincent said of Snowe’s decision to leave elective office. He said he remembered as a child marching in a parade with Snowe in Mechanic Falls.

“I thought that was one of the neatest things.”

Snowe mingled with the lunch crowd as People magazine photographers snapped frames for an upcoming issue. The shoot ended with Snowe posing under the restaurant’s sidewalk sign.

Her cousin, Georgia Chomas, and brother, John Bouchles, who live in Auburn, were on hand Friday, making the visit something of a family affair. Snowe lived with Chomas and her parents in Auburn while Snowe attended high school there.

Bouchles presented Snowe with a black-and-white photo of a dance class the two attended in Lewiston as children. Snowe revealed that the dance teacher had picked her brother over her for a solo.

Snowe told the Sun Journal outside the restaurant that she hadn’t finalized her retirement plans, but expects to remain active in her efforts to break congressional gridlock. After November, she’ll be doing that as an outsider instead of as an elected official.

“I’ll be pursuing opportunities to speak out,” she said, “because we have to change what’s happening in the Senate.”

National lawmakers, unwilling to compromise, have put off making the hard decisions for political reasons while the country suffers, she said. That attitude has stalled the economic recovery, which should be further along, she said.

“That’s deeply troubling,” she said.

Congress should have tackled by now reforms to taxation, regulation and the budget and should have addressed debt reduction and energy policy, she said. “These issues have been languishing” and have been put on the back burner, she said.

A lack of political will in Washington has signaled to investors not to take a chance on lending their money in an uncertain economy, she said.

She had hoped the 2010 elections would grease the wheels in Congress, but was dismayed to see the fight over the debt ceiling grind on all summer. That put the country in “emotional upheaval, not to mention we saw political and financial brinksmanship at its worst.”

Despite the milder and shorter winter, plenty of Mainers need help with their oil heating bills, she said. She aims to work from now until November for more federal money to assist them with those bills, she said.

She’ll also fight the proposed closure of any more military installations in Maine, she said.

There needs to be a return in Washington to a culture of rewarding politicians who work across party lines by building bridges and reaching across the aisle, said the self-described centrist.

Asked what she thinks of former Gov. Angus King running as an independent candidate for her U.S. Senate seat, Snowe said she knew and respected King, but she was quick to say she would be supporting Republican candidates in the general election.

“I just hope that ultimately we get people who are prepared to work together because that’s what it’s going to require,” she said. “Maine people understand that.”

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