Lewiston Evening Journal for March 1, 1923

Read more about March 1, 1923, in the SunJournal.com archives.

100 Years Ago: 1923

The petition for the abatement of taxes on the Shiloh property in Durham has been refused by the county commissioners.

Durham tax assessors last year placed a valuation of $14,000 on the 31 group of buildings on the Hill-top, which include the main structure, the tabernacle, the children’s building, and hospital, and several acres of land, which is partly grown up to timber.

Judge Henry Coolidge of Lisbon Falls, the present-owner of the property considers this valuation excessive, and  petitioned the county commissioners for an abatement. A hearing was held in Auburn, Jan, 6, and the commissioners reserved a decision until they could visit the place. The storms and bad travelling prevented this visit, and in the meantime Mr. Coolidge paid the taxes, amounting to $560, with an agreement between counsel that if the petition was granted, the surplus should be rebated.

Judge Coolidge said on Thursday afternoon that no appeal from the decision would be taken.

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50 Years Ago: 1973

Members of the Garden Club of the Woman’s Literary Union will gather at the home of Mrs. Philip Levesque, of Laurel Ave, Auburn, Wednesday at 9:30 a.m. for a workshop to make favors for the Androscoggin District! meeting planned for May. Those attending are asked to take scissors, wire and wire cutters.

25 Years Ago: 1998

Gov. Angus King said he will try to persuade the Maine Turnpike Authority to keep a pending toll hike to a minimum.

Last week the authority announced tolls could go up by 20 or 30 percent in order to pay for the road widening approved by voters in November. The toll hike would unlikely be an across-the-board 30 percent increase, MTA spokesman, Dan Paradee explained Friday. Rates for those with commuter passes — who now get a 50 percent deduction — could go up more than 30 percent, as could rates for commercial traffic. That, Paradee said, would soften the increases for remaining turnpike users.

Either way, King said he’s concerned about an increase, and said he plans to look into the MTA’s budget for cost savings with the goal of keeping tolls down.

“I hope they’ll look at their own operation first for savings before just assuming that whatever the widening costs are, they’ll pass them along to the drivers, ” King said. “My interest is seeing that the budget isn’t any more costly than necessary and that they’re operating as efficiently as they possibly can.

“The turnpike authority,” he said, “will have to borrow to pay for the $100 million cost of modernizing the road and adding a third lane from York to Scarborough, but what’s the rate going to be? I haven’t seen a final business plan that outlines that, but I am going to insist on seeing that before I climb aboard and endorse a toll increase,” said King.

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


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