JANUARY

Regional School Unit 9 Board of Directors voted unanimously to adjust its COVID-19 policies, which included changes to requirements for quarantine and isolation lengths, close-contact definitions, and quarantine exemptions. Directors decreased its requirements for isolation of COVID-19 positive individuals and quarantine from ten days to five. Individuals isolated or quarantined were required to mask around others for an additional 10 days afterwards.

Farmington selectman unanimously approved appropriating $200,000 in future funds to complete match requirements for a federal grant being sought to rebuild the Rail Trail Bridge on Jan. 11. The railroad bridge that allowed snowmobile travel across the Sandy River was removed several years ago. Since then, the town, Androscoggin Valley Council of Government and the state have looked at ways to replace it.

Mt. Blue Middle School students and staff turned to remote learning from Jan. 18, through Jan. 21, due to a shortage of staff. Regional School Unit 9 was “forced” to make the change from in-person learning due to a “large” staff shortage and “a lack of substitutes,” Superintendent Chris Elkington said in a statement. Elkington shared in an email that as of Jan. 17, eight teachers and one administrator at the middle school had called out sick. The district would have only be able to acquire substitute teachers for half of the staff.

Farmington Selectmen approved an $8.5 million budget for 2022 that was put to voters at the annual Town Meeting in March. The approved budget was $1.65 million or 23.65% more than this year’s budget of $6.5 million. The board had also asked Town Manager Christian Waller to make recommendations to bring some town employees closer in line with wages and benefits employees from similarly sized Maine towns receive. This year was the first time Farmington received taxes from the solar farm on routes 2 and 27, the Farmington Falls Road.

FEBUARY

Missing for nearly seven years, Ashes the cat was reunited with her family, the Cilleys, after a flight from Florida. In August 2015, Ashes disappeared from her home where she’d lived since being adopted from the Franklin County Animal Shelter in Farmington. The family searched for weeks without finding a trace of her. Ashes was found by a young couple who took her to a veterinarian. The veterinarian’s office in Longwood, Florida, called Denise Cilley saying a cat with a microchip registered to her had been found. Cilley confirmed it was her spayed female gray tabby.

From 1970s to the 1990s, many local towns were licensed to spread sewage sludge (solids) or septage (liquids) on agricultural fields in Franklin County. The Town of Farmington, the Farmington Wastewater Treatment Plant, and Wilton Sewer District had licenses to spread solid sewage on almost 340 acres in Farmington, Wilton, Chesterville and Phillips. Some of the farms where sewage waste was spread are no longer in business, have been sold, or have new owners. Records on how much was spread annually or for how many years may no longer be available.

Farmington Selectmen voted Feb. 8 to provide hazard pay to employees using American Rescue Plan Act funds. Employees who have been with the town more than two years will receive $2,000; those one to two years $1,500; those six months to a year $1,000 and those less than six months $500. Town Manager Christian Waller felt some criteria was needed since the amount of time employed by the town would affect the amount of risk involved. Someone employed less than six months would only receive 25%, and so on up through, he said.

“Woodsqueer” is an intimate portrait of Gretchen Legler’s time living in the woods of Jay and starting The Three O’Clock Cat Farm with her partner, Ruth Hill, where they lived, raised animals and farmed from 2000 to 2017. The book not only covers the ins and outs of sustainable farming and rural living, but also underscores the concept of connections — with nature, animals, other humans — and what it takes to build, sustain and repair these relationships. Altogether, sustainability, passion for the woods, interpersonal relationships and LGBTQ+ identity intertwined for a narrative about the woodsqueer experience in Jay and Franklin County.

University of Maine at Farmington President Edward Serna announced on Feb. 22 he would be stepping down and moving to Winthrop University in South Carolina after three years in the job. In the days leading up to the Winthrop announcement, Serna told the Franklin Journal he wasn’t “looking to leave Farmington” but applied for the position because it is his alma mater. Serna began his tenure as UMF’s 15th president in July 2019.

MARCH

Maine Department of Health and Human Services [DHHS] reversed its decision on Mar. 2 to close the Wilton Call Center. In a statement to the Franklin Journal, Maine DHHS Director of Communications Jackie Farwell wrote that the decision was made “in response to worker concerns about commuting to Lewiston and the landlord’s recent commitment to improved service.” DHHS had previously told Call Center employees it was closing the Wilton Call Center and transferring employees to the DHHS building in Lewiston. DHHS explained it was terminating the lease due to lack of space in the facility and issues with the building landlord, Randal Cousineau.

The Regional School Unit 9 board of directors approved the motion on Mar. 8 to make masking optional districtwide with stipulations. The policy included a stipulation that gave Superintendent Chris Elkington authorization to implement a universal masking mandate in individual schools and buses “if there is an increase [or] outbreak in cases deemed concerning by Maine Center for Disease Control.” Over 50 people attended the first portion of the meeting. Thirteen people spoke – prompting the board to extend its usual 10 minutes allocated for public comment to around 30. Upon passage of the motion, the audience loudly applauded and gave a standing ovation. A majority then removed their masks and soon after left the meeting.

Organic Valley, the Wisconsin-based farmer-owned cooperative, offered nearly 80 farmers in northern New England and New York a market for their milk through a letter of intent. Some 89 organic producers who sold their milk to Horizon/Danone had received letters informing them that it was too expensive to pick up milk in the Northeast and would no longer have a market.

The Regional School Unit 9 board of directors voted unanimously on Mar. 22 to approve and adopt the district’s new mission and vision statements. The statements would shape the rest of the process to create action items, plans and strategies. With the statements approved, the committee moved on to the next steps in the strategic planning process. Strategic Planning Committee Chair Lisa Laflin said the committee would focus on developing a plan, action items and strategies to foster those statements.

APRIL

The Franklin Journal reported Walgreens were charging customers 15 cents at locations across Western Maine for bottles that should legally be charged 5 cents. After a consumer posted on Facebook in mid-March about a 15-cent deposit charged for a recyclable bottle at Walgreens in Bethel, reporters from Sun Media Group went to stores in Farmington, Lewiston, Auburn, Livermore Falls and Norway. They purchased bottles that register under the state’s 5-cent deposit fee and each were charged 15 cents for “recycling fees.”

Regional School Unit 9 proposed a $40.09 million budget for the 2022-23 school year. The budget was a $1.23 million [3.17%] increase from 2021-22. Increased spending areas of note included a 646.60% increase for food services, 8.01% increase for school administration, 13.45% increase for facilities and maintenance, a 5.3% increase for special instruction and a 9.56% decrease for debt services. The biggest increase was in food services due to what Elkington said is the one-time cost to pay off meal debt. Elkington explained that the district had spent too much time and money on mostly unsuccessful attempts to ask families of students to pay off their meal debts.

Three second-graders at W.G. Mallett School won first place at the 30th annual Toshiba Exploravision science program’s Northeast regional competition with their “Spider Plant CO2 Collector.” Ronnie Yau, Lucy Perry and Claire Kiger moved to the national competition representing the kindergarten through third grade division. Yau, Perry and Kiger each won a Chromebook computer “to support the development of virtual posters, website and videos for the national phase of the competition,” according to a release from Toshiba.

Wilton Town Manager Rhonda Irish announced on April 19 her retirement after 13 years in the position. Irish made the announcement at the Select Board meeting, where she handed in a letter of resignation. In a phone interview, Irish sang her praises for the town employees, Selectpersons and people of Wilton. She noted some of her favorite moments, initiatives as Town Manager had been “the downtown revitalization project,” the Wilton Tannery redevelopment and the Brownfield Project for the Forster Mill – which “did a lot of the outside environmental cleanup.”

MAY

The University of Maine at Farmington appointed Joseph McDonnell as its two-year interim president. McDonnell served as a professor of policy, planning and management in the Muskie School of Public Service at the University of Southern Maine. University of Maine System Chancellor Dannel Malloy and UMF Board of Visitors Chair Cathy Wimett stressed McDonnell was up to the task to make UMF “fiscally stable” through the university’s new strategic plan. Malloy said McDonnell’s experiences had made him “keenly aware of the need to strategically align academic programs to the needs of the 21st century Maine economy.”

Nine faculty members at UMF had their positions eliminated. The eliminations were confirmed by Margaret Nagle, interim executive director of communications for the University of Maine System. UMaine System officials declined to confirm which departments saw eliminations “because that would necessarily identify individual faculty,” Nagle said. According to multiple sources, the eliminations removed all of the staff in the Women’s and Gender Studies program, Philosophy/Religion department, and Modern Languages department. Five of nine were tenured positions. Three other faculty positions were eliminated in the Geography, History and Psychology departments.

The UMF Faculty Senate cast a vote of no confidence in University of Maine System Chancellor Dannel Malloy on May 18. They cited issues with Malloy’s leadership, the decision to eliminate positions in the humanities and social sciences, integration into UMaine System’s Unified Accreditation and the threat to “UMF’s identity and mission as a liberal arts college specializing in the preparation of teachers.” As a result of the eliminations, students and faculty protested following UMF’s Class of 2022 graduation. Students also held a 24 hour sit in, where they wrote a list of demands that included Malloy’s resignation or removal.

Postmaster Susan “Sue” Jones retired May 31st. Enlisted in the United States Navy out of high school, Jones worked as a postal clerk at the fleet post office on Midway Island. After her military service ended, Jones was hired as a postal clerk in Lancaster, California, in 1982. She transferred to Portland, Maine, in 1984. Her claim to fame for knowing every zip code in the State of Maine was due to working on the letter sorting machine. Jones said she memorized the zip codes while letters passed in front of her one second apart. She was installed as the first female postmaster at the Farmington Post Office in 2010. Including her military service in the US Navy, when she retired Jones had completed over 42 years in the Federal government.

Farmington Parks and Recreation completed its homeschool gym class with a fun day at Hippach Field. Students played games of kickball, then were presented certificates of achievement for completing the program. Afterwards they were treated to ice cream at Gifford’s. Families from Farmington, Wilton, Chesterville and Vienna took part in the program this year. Several families chose to homeschool their children, chose that route in the last couple years, Savage said. The gym class “gave parents a chance to toss ideas around, build community,” she added.

Those who gave all in service to their country and never returned home were honored and remembered in ceremonies on May 30 organized by Roderick-Crosby American Legion Post 28. A band comprised of Mt. Blue middle and high school students lined up behind the monument. The band was a new addition to the services. Boy Scouts from Troop 546 were there as was a contingent from the Legion Auxiliary. Many veterans and other community members from the area were also present.

JUNE

Stacey Augustine, a kindergarten teacher at W.G. Mallett School in Farmington was selected as the Maine Department of Education’s 2022 Franklin County Teacher of the Year. According to the Department of Education, each county teacher of the year was among hundreds “across Maine nominated by a member of their school community” and selected through “a rigorous application process [by] a panel of teachers, principals, and business community members within the county.” Augustine has taught kindergarten at Regional School Unit 9 since 2003 after graduating from the University of Maine at Farmington.

Mt. Blue High School’s 52nd commencement in Farmington saw 150 seniors graduate at Caldwell Field on June 12. The graduation ceremony featured speeches by Principal Monique Poulin and students Joshua Smith, the valedictorian, Grace Bell, the senior class vice president, and Evan Lowell. Poulin offered graduates a few pieces of advice: “‘Be kinder than necessary at every turn.’ ‘Be your best self.’ And ‘Carpe diem, seize the day’ today and all days before you.”

A call for members and ideas for a new taskforce being formed to address mental health issues in Franklin County youth was made to Farmington selectmen at their June 14 meeting. A huge increase in mental health crises was being seen prior to COVID-19 and was even worse during the pandemic, Healthy Community Coalition Director LeeAnna Lavoie said. Data also showed lesbian, bisexual, gay youth, and female youth reported greater levels of poor mental health, emotional abuse by parent or caregiver, and attempted suicide than their counterparts.

Farmington held it’s first LGBTQ+ Pride Festival in the town’s history on June 25. The family-friendly festival started with a march through downtown and then returned to Meetinghouse Park, where there were musical performances, community vendors, food, educational resources and activities for all ages. Farmington Pride organizers AJ Saulnier and Leia Pasquarelli said in an interview their goal was to build community in the area and offer queer people a place to feel welcome.

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