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Advertiser Democrat staff reporter Leslie H. Dixon came to Maine in 2007 as a Sun Journal reporter in the Norway bureau following more than 30 years as a reporter for newspapers in the Boston Metro West area. She currently covers education and business news in the Oxford Hills and the town of Oxford.

Latest
  • Published
    January 7, 2019

    SAD 17 gets state approval for buses

    PARIS — Oxford Hills School District Superintendent Rick Colpitts told the board of directors Monday night that the state has approved funding for more buses, which could support a single run if school officials approve. Colpitts said he will approach the Finance Committee to determine how the buses might be paid for and report to […]

  • Published
    December 21, 2018

    Oxford selectmen table cable service agreement

    OXFORD — Selectmen voted 3-2 Thursday to table a proposed cable TV contract, citing issues that include its length and lack of internet connection for municipal departments and outlying areas. The agreement signed in 2001 expired in 2016. The proposed 15-year contract requires Charter Communications, which operates under the brand of Spectrum, to extend cable […]

  • Published
    December 17, 2018

    SAD 17 gets agreement on high school accreditation

    PARIS — The New England Association of Schools and Colleges has agreed to evaluate Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School for accreditation as a comprehensive high school. Principal Ted Moccia and Oxford Hills Technical School Director Shawn Lambert told SAD 17 directors Monday night that the organization agreed to judge the school as a comprehensive school […]

  • Published
    December 14, 2018

    Oxford wants competitive police wages

    The town of Oxford is concerned that it will not be able to attract quality police offers with its current starting salary.

  • Published
    December 14, 2018

    Combatting absenteeism that leads to failure

    One of the major reasons freshmen students are failing classes is absenteeism.

  • Published
    December 7, 2018

    80 years ago: The woman who built the Norway library

    NORWAY — Sarah Maude Thompson Kaemmerling wanted to become a professional musician. Instead, she built this town a library. The daughter of a local dentist who left Norway for Pennsylvania in the late 1800s to become engaged in a lucrative logging business with his brothers, Kaemmerling’s life was to be shaped by her father’s decision […]

  • Published
    December 7, 2018

    Former West Paris selectman could face 10 years in prison

    WEST PARIS — Toby Whitman, a former SAD 17 director and West Paris selectman, is scheduled to appear Jan. 9 in Unified Criminal Court in Augusta. Whitman’s appearance is for a dispositional conference, which is a preliminary hearing scheduled after arraignment and after both parties have seen police reports, witness statements and other documents or evidence […]

  • Published
    December 6, 2018

    Board approves moving forward with NOAA grant

    OXFORD — The Board of Selectmen unanimously agreed Thursday night to move forward with a pre-application for a NOAA fisheries community-based restoration grant and to a $30,000 match. The grant is intended to support habitat-restoration projects that would help recover threatened and endangered species of fish, and help rebuild fish stocks in the Little Androscoggin River, which […]

  • Published
    December 7, 2017

    Oxford still hopes to get mobile home park on sewer

    OXFORD — Efforts are continuing to persuade the owner of a local mobile home park to tie into the $28.5 million wastewater treatment plant. “We just made contact yesterday and they are reluctant to connect as they replaced a couple of their systems recently and have a couple more that they are doing in the future,” […]

  • Published
    December 7, 2017

    KBS Waterford plant for sale

    WATERFORD – KBS Builders, based in Paris, is selling off its Waterford plant for close to $1 million. The Dunham group in Portland is marketing the 61,850 square-foot manufacturing plant at 947 Waterford Road for KBS Builders for $995,000, according to information on the Dunham Group‘s webpage. A “For Sale” sign has been placed at […]