100 Years Ago: 1922

While towing a rowboat filled with timber, Daniel Crowley and Daniel Driscoll, Lewiston policemen, narrowly escaped from drowning in Lake Sabatis Thursday night. Waves capsized the rowboat and imperilled the motorboat with which they were towing it. The lumber was valued at more than $50 and was almost entirely lost.

The policemen who were on their vacation now have been staying at Crowley’s cottage on Lake Sabatis. Crowley meant to do some repairing. With Driscoll’s assistance he loaded some hardwood lumber sometime after 9:00 pm Thursday night. The lake was quite dark, and the water was quite rough. How the boat overturned neither was able to say, but each of them say that the waves had overbalanced it, and the upsetting was easily accomplished.

They shouted for help, after they refused the assistance of John Ashton, another Lewiston policeman who was staying at the same cottage and offered aid believing they would come out all right. But the lumber tipped into the water and was soon scattered. The officers managed to gather some of the lumber, but it was too dark to see. They were out early Friday morning to pick up what was in sight. Neither of them was injured.

50 Years Ago: 1972

The former Jones Block, near the Central Maine General Hospital, was razed today, eventually to make way for improved parking facilities for the hospital, owner of the property.

A new professional building is to be constructed between the hospital and where the Jones Block stood, necessitating even more parking space. The Jones Block formerly housed doctor’s offices on the first floor, and there were apartments upstairs.

25 Years Ago: 1997

City and county officials said Friday that the public shouldn’t worry too much about potential electricity outages this summer, but neither should residents ignore the possibility that Central Maine Power could run short of power in a severe heat wave. “Obviously, (an outage) would be a major inconvenience, but if everybody would apply a little common sense and don’t fly off the handle, we’ll get through it,” said Peter Van Gagnon, emergency management director for Lewiston-Auburn and Androscoggin County.

City Administrator Robert Mulready agrees, “it’s important for all of us to follow conservation warnings when they come. We can be our own worst enemy and I think we need to work together. I think common sense needs to prevail.”

CMP has warned municipal officials that a shortage of power is possible this summer because numerous generating plants — including Maine Yankee in Wiscasset — have been permanently or temporarily closed. Maine isn’t alone, either. New England utilities pool their power and distribute it throughout the Northeast. Therefore all the states could experience shortages in the event of a protracted heat wave.

The material used in Looking Back is produced exactly as it originally appeared although misspellings and errors may be corrected.

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