News Briefs

Healthy Communities: Trail initiative
Bridgton-You are welcome to attend the Healthy Communitites meeting to help listen to others who have successfully inventoried existing trails, brainstormed funding and set up an organization. The meeting will be on Friday, March 4. Bridie McGreavy, organizer of the morning workshop, and Watershed Educator for Lakes Environmental Association, has applied for a grant to build local trails.

The meeting will be held at Bridgton's Community Center, on Depot Street behind Renys, at 9 a.m. and runs until noon. Light refreshments will be on hand.

Carmen Lone, Healthy Communities Organizer, hopes that, everyone will come with their ideas and enthusiasm. The group will work on bike trails, walking trails, snowshoe trails.

David Kinsman is leading the charge to convert the old road bed from Fryeburg to Hiram. Kinsman will show how the national Rails to Trails system works at the local level. David represents the Mountain Division Alliance, based in Fryeburg.

At the state level, John Balicki, bicycle and pedestrian coordinator for the Department of Transportation, presents an overview of how other groups have set up and accomplished their goals.

The summit's sponsors include Healthy Maine Partnerships, Lake Region Healthy Communities Coalition, Lakes Environmental Association, as well as Casco Open Space Committee. Citizens from Bridgton, Casco, Denmark, Naples and Waterford are also helping to organize the summit. .
Anyone is welcome to attend. To reserve a space, or for more information about this initiative, please call Bridie McGreavy at 207-647-8580.

Caption: Snow showers at Holt Pond Photo Credit: Lakes Environmental Association

Maine Receives $2.6 Million in LIHEAP Funding Requested by Senator Collins

WASHINGTON, DC -- Senator Collins today announced that Maine has received an additional $2,628,208 in Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) funding. This additional funding follows a letter led by Senator Susan Collins and Jack Reed (D-RI). The letter urged the Administration to release further emergency funds to help working families and the elderly pay their heating bills. The Department of Health and Human Services announced today that $100 million of these emergency funds will be provided to states.

LIHEAP is a federal block grant program that provides states with annual funding to operate home energy assistance programs for low-income households. In addition to helping to pay energy bills for low-income families and the elderly, LIHEAP helps to fund energy crisis intervention programs, low-cost residential weatherization and other energy-related home repairs. Each year, 4.5 million low-income families rely on LIHEAP to assist with the costs of heating their homes.
SOURCE Office of Senator Susan Collins
/CONTACT: Elissa Davidson or Amy Swanstrom of the Office of Senator Susan Collins, +1-202-224-2523/
/Web site: http://www.collins.state.gov/

Slow Down in New Gloucester
DOT Adjusts speed limits

New Gloucester--Town Manager Rosemary Kulow was advised that requested speed zone adjustments she made to the Department on behalf of the Selectmen have been approved. Within the next few weeks, Maine DOT personnel will remove any old signage and install the appropriate new signage associate with these changes.

The official speed limits for the section of Route 231, described in the memorandum, have been established as 45 mph, 30 mph, and 45 mph. The 30 mph speed zone has been extended in length on both the northerly and southerly ends and the two adjacent 45 mph speed zones shortened.
Be advised that the Department found, during its review, vehicles exceeding the posted speed limit of 30 mph in the vicinity of Gloucester Hill Road. This is an item that must be handled by law enforcement.

45 mph starting at a point 0.84 miles north of the junction with North Pownal Rd (Node 06336) and extending northerly to a point 0.91 miles beyond the junction with Woodman Rd 9Node 06387), a total distance of 1.35 miles,
30 mph starting at a point 0.84 miles north of the junction with Woodman Road (Node 06337) and extending northerly to a point 0.50 miles beyond the junction with Gloucester Hill Road and Cobb's Bridge Road (Node 06339), a total distance of 0.76 miles, and 45 mph beginning at a point 0.50 miles north of the junction with Gloucester Hill Road and Cobb's Bridge Road (Node 0639) and extending northerly to a point 0.37 miles beyond the junction with Estes Road (Node 06340), a total distance of 0.85 miles.

You Can Help In A Disaster Shelter
Tsunamis, landslides, hurricanes, ice storms, floods -- disasters that we've either seen on television or witnessed here in Maine. When disasters happen, neighbors pull together and help each other. One way is by volunteering to serve food, sweep floors, or just tell stories to entertain kids at a Red Cross shelter in the local high school.

A class will soon be held to certify anyone interested in helping at any emergency Red Cross disaster shelters. The class takes only one evening and is completely free of charge. Taking this class now will enable the Red Cross to put you right to work helping others if another disaster strikes without warning in Maine, such as the floods of 1996 and the ice storm of 1998. This class is being sponsored by the Gray Region Citizen Corps as part of its monthly safety education seminar series. The class will be held Friday, February 11th beginning at 6:30 PM in Stimson Hall in the center of Gray next to the civil war monument. There is no need to enroll in advance - just show up!

The non-profit Gray Region Citizen Corps (GRCC) volunteers provide monthly safety and emergency preparedness seminars on the second Friday of the month to residents from Yarmouth to Casco. Past monthly seminar topics have included chainsaw safety, home fire extinguisher practice, pet first aid, and cooking without electricity.

Future seminars are scheduled on identity theft and on family preparedness. More information about the federal Citizen Corps program may be found at www.citizencorps.gov. Their motto is "Uniting Communities -- Preparing the Nation". The local group publishes a monthly electronic newsletter. Messages for the GRCC may be left with Gray Public Safety at 657-3931.