AUBURN — As school officials continue to debate a new Edward Little High School during meetings, there’s worry among a few taxpayers that the School Department plans to build a school with a pool.

“The only high school I know of that has a pool is in Belfast,” said David Young, who represents the City Council on the School Committee. He explained why Belfast has a pool, much to the chagrin of committee member Bonnie Hayes, who has insisted there are no plans to build a high school with a pool.

Where the pool subject came from, Hayes said, was during a New High School Steering Committee meeting, when Leighton Cooney raised the idea. “It was his wow factor,” Hayes said. Cooney regrets ever bringing up the idea, an animated Hayes said. “The pool is not an issue. There is no pool!” she said.

— Bonnie Washuk

Seeking a safer Route 4

AUGUSTA — On Tuesday, the Transportation Committee will hear a heartfelt request from people who live along the Route 4 corridor in Androscoggin and Franklin counties to make that corridor safer for motor traffic.

The request will be delivered in the form of a bill, LD 875, sponsored by Sen. John Cleveland, D-Auburn, and co-sponsored by Sen. Margaret Carven, D-Lewiston. The bill has the support of state Reps. Michael Beaulieu, R-Auburn, Brian Bolduc, D-Auburn, and Wayne Werts, D-Auburn, and Rep. Gary Knight, R-Livermore Falls.

The resolve bill requests that the Department of Transportation and the Maine Turnpike Authority conduct a study of existing highway infrastructure and future capacity of the state routes in the two counties, with a special focus on Route 4.

The purpose of the study would be to examine potential improvements to decrease congestion and eliminate hazards in the area, and to report back next January with the study results.

The bill is prompted by a series of serious and fatal injuries suffered by travelers along the Route 4 corridor in recent years, including a six-car chain-reaction collision in Auburn in August 2012 that seriously injured 5-year-old Danika DeMayo.

Other public testimony is expected to focus on an October 2011 accident in which a driver drifted over the centerline near Lake Auburn and hit a tractor-trailer truck. That truck careened into a nearby house. And, Transportation Committee members will also hear about an accident in nearly the same place two months later that seriously injured 84-year-old Harry Walker. 

The public hearing is scheduled for 1 p.m. Tuesday, April 9, in Room 126 at the State House. The public is invited to submit testimony.

— Judith Meyer

Legislators could benefit from some River Valley DARE advice

RUMFORD — Maine Attorney General Janet Mills elicited laughter from parents, school officials and police during her talk to River Valley fifth-graders at Tuesday’s Drug Abuse Resistance Education graduation.

The Rumford Police Department program was taught by its longtime DARE instructor, Sgt. Douglas Maifeld.

Mills was commending the students for learning how to deal with stressful situations, when she asked them, “Would you come down and help me in Augusta?”

“I really need help dealing with stressful situations: The Legislature’s in session, the parties are debating and warring and can’t come to terms about things,” she said. “We need a DARE program in Augusta. We really do. Can Sgt. Maifeld come down and help us?” Mills said to loud applause.

“Boy, oh boy. If we learned half of what you learned, if the Legislature and the public officials I deal with could learn what you’ve learned here with the DARE program, life would be a lot better for everybody in the state of Maine,” she said.

— Terry Karkos