THIS GOES ON EACH B section front for Monday



Reporters’ notebook

The Birdman of Bethel’ item has a photo; sent to copydesk.

Surprise, surprise

JAY – A casually dressed SAD 36/Winthrop schools Superintendent Terry Despres walked into a Jay restaurant last Thursday geared for an informal meeting to discuss sharing services with the Jay School Department.

Despres is most definitely a formal-suit man when it comes to representing his schools at public functions, but he was duped into the casual style by a fabricated story that he was at the restaurant to meet with Jay officials to step up the plan to collaborate resources with the schools.

The invitation came from Livermore Administrative Assistant Kurt Schaub and Jay Town Manager Ruth Marden, but it was SAD 36 Chairman Ashley O’Brien who sealed the deal by listening to Despres’ 20-minute briefing on the differences in financing between Jay’s municipal school and SAD 36’s regional approach in preparation for the meeting.

When Despres arrived Thursday, he discovered he wasn’t there to discuss cost efficiency after all. He was there – at a very public formal function in casual clothes -to be recognized for his leadership and accomplishments.

Schaub said the ruse was necessary to lure Despres, and the premise had to believable enough for him to attend without suspicion.

Despres’ recognition for leadership is deserved. The surprise just made it more fun.

– Donna M. Perry
Woeful tune

RUMFORD – Organizers behind the failed Moontide Music Festival, which was to have been held last Saturday, said they couldn’t understand why ticket sales were so low.

They’d placed posters around the River Valley area.

Joe Roberts said that he and promoter Jim Viger had also advertised it on many Maine radio and television stations. They’d sent queries to these stations on Aug. 4 about getting a spot ad run, and had received responses.

But neither apparently checked with the stations to see if the ads had aired.

“Apparently, they didn’t run the spots,” Roberts said Thursday.

“We were ready on Monday to advertise hard and heavy this week. The money was there to do it,” he said of Aug. 15, seven days before the concert.

But, last Monday, they said problems beyond their control occurred with the headliner band’s booking agency. The advertising was then “put on hold.”

By Wednesday, the show was canceled.

Ironically, while they were having breakfast Thursday, Viger said someone approached them and said that he’d just heard on the radio that the show had been canceled.

– Terry Karkos
Moose-la

Two Maine icons will be saying farewell to tourists on Labor Day.

The Maine Turnpike’s Miles the Moose will be handing out special edition Farmers’ Almanacs at the York toll plaza Monday, Sept. 5. The turnpike mascot will have about 30,000 editions of the special publication to give to departing tourists and summer residents on Labor Day.

“We like to give something that’s fun, but also useful,” said Dan Paradee of the Turnpike Authority in a Maine Tourism Association newsletter.

The special, 96-page turnpike edition is published by Geiger, which has produced the annual compendium of facts, tips and predications in Lewiston since 1955. The regular, full-size Farmers’ Almanac will be available Aug. 30.

– Carol Coultas
Birdman of Bethel’

Scott Adair of Scarborough travels across Maine, literally flying “economy class.”

He doesn’t use a plane or an ultralight. Costs too much.

When he gets the urge to fly out of his backyard, he simply straps on a backpack, to which is attached a 55-pound, 25-horsepower motor; fuel; and a caged, 48-inch-long propeller. And then there’s his “wing,” a colorful paraglider sail.

He also straps a global positioning unit on a leg belt, so he knows where he is in the air.

Getting airborne involves his running, with the motor on and the prop rotating.

“The toughest part is when there’s no wind,” he said last Saturday at the Bethel Regional Airport.

Adair, a member of the Maine Powerchute Association, is flying with a group of powered parachute pilots, traveling from Bethel to Eastport on a seven-day charity flight.

So what’s it take to fly solo like a bird, legs dangling in the wind, after 40 hours of training and 20 supervised flights for confidence?

“At first, it’s a bit intimidating to strap a motor on your back,” he said. “You don’t have to be crazy, but it helps.”

– Terry Karkos