JANUARY

New Year’s Day brought MaineHealth Stephens Hospital’s first baby of 2025. Paul and Courtney St. Amant’s daughter Emilia was born Jan. 1, joining older siblings Eliza and Colton.

Oxford Hills high and tech school teachers Shellie Léger and Kate McCarthy teamed up with a cohort of burgeoning writers and artists to publish a literary journal, the Pen’s Palette. Printing costs were covered by a $1,000 grant from the Maine Environmental Education Association.

Harrison announced Town Manager Cass Newell’s resignation following a tumultuous period that saw some residents circulate a petition to remove her, while the town’s Planning Board launched a community activists group to focus on issues and goals they identified as urgent. Two Select Board members, Chair Matthew Frank and Colleen Dinsmore, also resigned in the aftermath.

The West Paris Water District, which endured failed equipment, bacterial contamination and a monthslong boil water order the previous year, acquired an $111,000 loan and $30,000 Maine Drinking Water Program grant to address critical repairs and upgrades that were part of a Maine Department of Environmental Protection consent agreement. It was the utility’s first effort to correct issues brought by years of neglect of its equipment and accounting.

Maine Administrative School District 17 held a ribbon cutting ceremony for its newly completed Experiential Learning building at Roberts Farm in Norway. The $890,000 project was funded by American Rescue Plan funds. It replaced an aging manufactured double-wide building that lacked plumbing.

FEBRUARY

A year after it closed Agnes Gray Elementary School due to unsafe conditions, SAD 17 served the town of West Paris notice that it intended to make the closure permanent. Its students would continue to attend Paris Elementary School.

The Maine Department of Education had signaled to SAD 17 that it would not fund a small school, but would support building a larger one that would consolidate Norway, Harrison, Waterford and special education students. With replacing Agnes Gray no longer a possibility, SAD 17 began communicating with officials of those towns about the future.

Harrison had already convened a committee to study its education options should its elementary students have to attend school in another town.

The Oxford Helping Hands Food Pantry announced it would close March 6. The community organization was bounced around to different locations when it lost its original distribution location at the former Oxford Town Office. The number of families relying on its services had more than tripled from about 30 to 100 in just two years while financial donations faded.

Norway’s Select Board announced it would pursue grant funds for a traffic feasibility study from the U.S. Department of Transportation. The study would determine how to reconstruct Main Street to improve vehicle and pedestrian safety, overhaul sidewalks and better link village neighborhoods, including, school, hospital and healthcare access.

MARCH

During the annual town meeting, West Paris voters approved a $1.8 million municipal budget. Judy Boutilier was elected to the water district board of trustees. She joined David Walton, an appointee who was reelected, and Chair Brandon Ballweber. Within weeks Ballweber would resign, after the utility’s office manager and board secretary Clairluz Perez Lisboa was suspended, reinstated and then also resigned.

At Hebron’s annual town meeting voters approved an article authorizing the select board to hire a town administrator while reorganizing its finance and accounting functions. The proposed $1.18 million municipal budget passed as recommended by Hebron’s budget committee. Butch Asselin was elected to a three-year term and Joseph Chretien a one-year term on the board.

Funding of SAD 17’s 2025-26 school budget took a $1 million dollar hit as the Maine Department of Education announced major increases to Oxford Hill’s property valuations would result in a $934,000 cut of the district’s subsidy. Lower student enrollment also led to a loss of $110,700 being cut from DOE’s essential programs and services assistance.

Paris’ citizens clashed with the select board’s plan to restructure its police department. Some questioned the need to reclassify officer ranks. Some indicated the town could not afford the changes and suggested dismantling the force altogether in favor of sheriff’s coverage. Still others said the department is stretched as it is and needs more, not less support.

APRIL

Customers of the Oxford County Chrysler Dodge Jeep RAM in South Paris were left in the lurch when the dealership was seized and closed by creditors April 4. In some cases owners were not immediately able to retrieve vehicles or keys that were locked up. Other area Stellantis dealers stepped in to assist people with purchase orders and hired a number of laid off employees.

Oxford Town Manager Adam Garland and Fire Chief Ashley Wax Armstrong presented a plan to the Board of Selectmen to develop 24-hour staffing of the fire department. Although the board’s reception of the plan was mixed, voters would ultimately vote in favor of it two months later at the annual town meeting.

SAD 17’s Oxford Hills Middle School building committee announced its recommendation to build the district’s new middle school on its existing Pine Street location in South Paris. More than 100 residents confirmed the proposal at a community straw poll meeting May 7. A new school would eliminate the need for a separate student campus in Oxford and bring sixth graders to the middle school level.

The Oxford Hills school board authorized Superintendent Heather Manchester to permanently close Waterford Memorial School, a move that would combine pre-K through sixth grade students at Harrison Elementary School and save the district about $400,000. The two schools had a combined capacity for 417 students. However, 73 kids from pre-K to second grade attended classes in Waterford and 104 third through sixth-graders were enrolled in Harrison.

On March 26, Oxford County and local first-responders came to the aid of two dogs that fell through ice at Saturday Pond in Otisfield. Owners were alerted to the emergency by a third dog. One pooch was able to get to safety on his own but a 90-pound Great Pyrenees mix was saved when Norway Fire Chief David Knox and Oxford Lt. Corey Nugent entered the water and retrieved him with a kayak.

The Paris Police Department parted ways with a newly hired patrol officer after his former employer, Oxford County Sheriff’s Office, issued a criminal trespass order against him. Brandon Tiner, a former sheriff’s deputy, was attending the Maine Criminal Justice Academy to be recertified in law enforcement when Paris rescinded its job offer.

MAY

Otisfield resident and Vietnam War veteran William Griffin shared details of his moving visit to Washington D.C.’s war memorials through Honor Flight Maine. Accompanied by one of his sons, also a veteran, Griffin found closure and peace honoring fallen comrades and forebears after he was convinced to take the trip.

West Paris Animal Control Officer Brandon Holmes led volunteers and a drone rescue team on a three week search for two dogs involved and then lost in a late night vehicle crash. One that had been sighted on game cameras in neighboring towns was struck and killed before he could be recovered. The other sustained a serious leg injury but was found and rescued close to the crash scene. Although she lost the leg to amputation, the dog was able to be reunited with her owners at home in Oxford.

West Paris Water District moved to outsource its administrative and billing services to Maine Rural Water Association, a step toward rectifying its history of undercharging customers and poor accounting practices. 

The closure of two Oxford Hills community schools hit home when West Paris voters authorized SAD 17 to officially and permanently close Agnes Gray Elementary School. In a separate action, the SAD 17 school board voted to move forward with permanently closing Waterford Memorial School at the end of the 2024-25 school year.

JUNE

Bucking opposition from Oxford’s Select Board, voters approved a plan at June 7’s annual town meeting to add eight full-time positions to the town’s fire/rescue department and commit to 24-hour first responder coverage.

A long standing dispute between neighbors in Norway was finally addressed when the town’s code officer cited an Airbnb owner for multiple shoreland ordinance and Maine sub-surface wastewater disposal violations. Property owner Jonathan Shalalis was alleged to have improperly cut vegetation along the Crooked River, added buildings and amenities without proper permitting and dumped hot tub and other gray water onto ground that ran into the river, which is part of greater Portland’s drinking watershed.

Buckfield residents voted to accept a former church property from the estate of resident James Jordan. Jordan used a novel tactic to make sure townspeople accepted his bequeathment: if they voted to refuse ownership it would instead be deeded to the nearest chapter of the Hells Angels motorcycle group. The property was in need of substantial repairs but voters chose to accept it anyway.

Tensions over funding the Paris Police Department continued when a group of citizens invited Oxford County Sheriff Christopher Wainwright to a forum to present protocols for shifting local public safety to the county’s jurisdiction. In response to the citizens’ forum, the Paris Select Board directed its town attorney to send a letter warning the sheriff’s office to cease activities it saw as detrimental to its police department’s autonomy.

Paris citizens approached the June 16 annual town meeting with surgical tactics — cutting the proposed police department budget by $200,000 and introducing article amendments that slashed municipal spending by another $1 million.

Norway residents voted to adopt a $7.1 million municipal budget at the annual town meeting, a 12% increase that some voters asserted was actually 30% when factoring in school district and county government costs. 

Repairs and renovations to the Municipal Complex resulted in an increase of 27% to its budget and a 38% increase to the planning and enforcement department’s budget. The police department budget rose by 20% due to rising wages, benefits and vehicle replacements. Public works expenses also jumped 20% and fire department spending increased by almost 27%.