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Source: Bangor Daily News
Published: Thursday, May 31, 2007
Photos: Graphics package
Page: A1 (front-page lead)
Headline: Citizen Cohen: Former defense secretary, Maine native still taking global pulse
BY ANDREW KNAPP
SPECIAL TO THE NEWS
WASHINGTON — Six years after leaving his post as secretary of defense, William S.
Cohen still strolls into the “Pentagon” each morning for intelligence briefings.
But this Pentagon isn’t where Cohen served as President Clinton’s defense chief from 1997
to 2001. Instead, it’s a room in the downtown headquarters of The Cohen Group, a global businessconsulting firm Cohen started when he left the real Pentagon.
He takes his place around a circular conference table with former generals and admirals.
They exchange business intelligence on China, India and the Middle East.
“Everyone has to be aware of what’s going on,” Cohen said. “We have to be on the same
page.”
In his own little Pentagon, Cohen debriefs his team of 46 mostly ex-government and military
personnel. Some connect by telephone from two offices in China and one in England.
Cohen, 66, recruited the high-caliber squad from his 24 years as a Maine congressman and
senator and from his four years at the Pentagon. Together, they advise Fortune 500 companies
seeking contracts with the Defense Department in places such as Iraq or offer strategies for global
businesses in places such as China, India and Japan.
“I’ve tried to look at the best and brightest throughout my career,” Cohen said in an
interview at his office. “When they retire, I ask them to come here and serve us.”
During the past six years, Cohen has built his firm from “ground zero” into a high-priced
service. He started with an unconventional business model in mind. In territory where lobbying is
common, he aimed to recruit former high-level government employees with a wealth of foreignrelations knowledge. They would devise international business strategies instead of advocating for
legislation that benefits their clients’ industries.
“He trusts people to do their jobs without micromanaging them or second-guessing them,”
said Robert Tyrer, 50, chief operating officer of The Cohen Group, who has worked under Cohen
for 32 years. “It’s nice to work in an environment where you don’t have somebody who’s hectoring
you every five minutes.”
Symbols of the past
Three rooms in Cohen’s office bear the same names as three stages of his career in
Washington: the Capitol, the Senate and the Pentagon. As chief executive officer of The Cohen
Group, he draws from experiences gained during each stage.
In the House of Representatives, Cohen instilled loyalty among his staffers, many of whom
followed him to The Cohen Group. In the Senate, he plunged into national defense,
pharmaceuticals and agriculture, industries his firm now represents. In the Pentagon, he kindled
relationships with foreign leaders, military commanders and politicians, who now are some of his
closest advisers or business partners.
“He picked front-row people,” said John Hamre, Cohen’s deputy defense secretary from
1997 to 1999. “They were some of the very best in the Department [of Defense].”
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Throughout six years in the House and 18 in the Senate, Cohen had always aspired to found
The Cohen Group. When he left the Senate in 1997, he had business cards printed and signed a
lease for office space when Clinton asked him to become defense secretary. He couldn’t pass it up.
“The next four years were probably the best four years of my life,” Cohen said. “Being
secretary of defense is the best job in the world.”
Cohen said he’s just as busy now as he was during his 28 years in the federal government,
but he’s not fixated on past triumphs.
“Sometimes, people can be a little bit stuck in the glory days, but he’s not stuck,” Tyrer said.
“People don’t pay for reminiscing.”
The business life
By the time Cohen left the Pentagon, he had incurred tens of thousands of dollars of credit
card debt, according to The Washington Post. Jill O’Donnell, a Cohen Group spokeswoman,
declined to comment on the report.
But now, Cohen serves on the CBS board of directors and on the supervisory board of
Head, a company known for its tennis rackets. Last year, after leaving the board of insurance giant
American International Group, or AIG, Cohen accepted more than $100,000 in cash and stock
options, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
And from 2002 to 2006, his firm’s list of lobbying clients grew from four to 33, while its
annual lobbying income, which Cohen said makes up only a “small fraction” of the business, swelled
from $155,000 to $1.6 million, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. The Cohen Group
lobbies mainly the Defense Department and Congress on issues ranging from national defense to
real estate.
According to Senate records, about 80 percent of employees listed on the firm’s Web site
have registered to lobby, and many have lobbied the same government sectors they once were a part
of.
Cohen, who does not lobby, recruited some of the highest ex-military commanders and
former administration officials who do. They include retired Air Force Gen. Joseph Ralston, who
served as vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 1996 to 2000, and retired Coast Guard
Adm. James Loy, former deputy secretary of homeland security under the current President Bush.
“Most people we knew in government have gone somewhere else, so it’s less useful than you
might think,” Tyrer said. “But even the people that [Cohen] doesn’t know will meet with him
because they regard him as a senior statesman from the U.S.”
A loyal staff
Despite Washington’s transient political work force, many employees in Cohen’s office have
been with him for years.
Tyrer, a University of Maine graduate, began working as an 18-year-old volunteer for Cohen
in 1975 during the first of his three terms in the House. Tyrer went on to become Cohen’s chief of
staff for three terms in the Senate and again at the Pentagon, then followed him to The Cohen
Group in 2001.
“If I didn’t enjoy working with him, I’d really require some serious psychiatric care,” said
Tyrer, who took a year off from working with Cohen to run Susan Collins’ successful Senate bid in
1996.
Some of Cohen’s business partners also resulted from friendships he developed as a
politician.
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When Maine Democrat George Mitchell was appointed to the Senate in 1980, Cohen, a
Republican, helped the inexperienced politician adjust.
“When I ran [for re-election], he supported my opponent. When he ran, I supported his
opponent,” said Mitchell, 73. “Our relationship endured through all of that.”
It also endured into private business.
In 2003, Cohen teamed with Mitchell, chairman of global law firm DLA Piper, to offer legal
advice to clients interested in the reconstruction of Iraq. In the past four years, DLA Piper has paid
The Cohen Group $720,000 in lobbying fees. Both firms have done business with some of the
largest military contractors, including aerospace manufacturer Lockheed Martin.
Though Mitchell and Cohen have disagreed in the past, they have been “more concerned
with working together than letting our differences dominate,” Mitchell said in an interview.
Beyond the ‘Pentagon’
Cohen’s influence transcends The Cohen Group.
He displays his media savvy as an analyst on CNN, his leadership as an international
spokesman for UMaine’s William S. Cohen Center and his intellectualism as an author.
“He was always a man who excelled in whatever he did,” said retired Air Force Gen. Nelson
Durgin of Bangor, a member of the city’s urban renewal authority during Cohen’s 1971-72 mayoral
administration.
Cohen, who now lives in Chevy Chase, Md., has penned 11 books. His most recent memoir,
“Love in Black and White,” chronicles his interracial marriage with Janet Langhart Cohen. He plans
to write at least one more book.
“But there’s very little time to do much of anything today other than to continue to build the
business,” Cohen said. “It’s just part of my being — sleeping little, working hard and trying to do
the best I can.”
The sources interviewed for this article struggled to provide personal descriptions of Cohen,
a Bowdoin College and Boston University law graduate. Most said he’s a respectful, down-to-earth
leader but a “complicated intellectual.”
“His favorite thing in the whole world must be going into his library and reading books,”
Hamre said. “That’s unusual for a politician because politicians generally aren’t the kind to sit and
read in a private room. They like to go out and shake hands.”
On the wall of Cohen’s own Pentagon, pictures of Maine’s famed Civil War hero, Joshua
Chamberlain, hang near a world map speckled with dozens of dots, each denoting Cohen’s
destinations as secretary of defense. He traveled 800,000 miles during his time at the Pentagon but
has far exceeded that with The Cohen Group.
“No matter where I go, I’m always from Maine,” Cohen said. “Maine is always a part of me.
I carry it with me wherever I go.”
###
Source: Stateline.org
Published: Tuesday May 15, 2007
Photos: 1 graphic
Web site: http://www.stateline.org/live/details/story?contentId=207914 (lead)
Headline: Govs’ salaries range from $1 to $206,500
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By Andrew Knapp
Special to Stateline.org
WASHINGTON — Compared with the pay of captains of industry or college football
coaches, the $124,398 average salary earned by U.S. governors in 2007 isn’t so spectacular. But for
many, that’s not a problem. Three governors are donating their salaries back to the state, and others
are fighting against a raise.
A list of 2007 gubernatorial salaries compiled by the Council of State Governments shows
the largest at $206,500 in California, though the governor doesn’t accept it, and the smallest at
$70,000 in Maine, where the governor hasn’t gotten a raise in 20 years. At $179,000, New York Gov.
Eliot Spitzer (D) draws the largest salary among governors who actually accept one.
“When people run for governor, they know what the salary is,” said Ingrid Reed, a political
scientist at Rutgers University in New Jersey. “They’re not doing it for the money. They’re doing it
for the power to do good deeds.”
Maine Gov. John Baldacci (D) took an $80,000 pay cut in 2003 when he traded a U.S. House
seat for the governor’s mansion. Now, he’s the lowest-paid head of state in the nation at $70,000
annually.
In fact, Baldacci’s pay is less than that of 426 state employees, including his own assistant,
who earned nearly $102,000 in 2005, according to the Maine Heritage Policy Center, a research
group dedicated to less government spending. Baldacci opposed a proposed pay raise for himself
last year and instead supported a teacher pay hike.
He’s also one of 10 current governors who once served in the U.S. Congress, positions that
come with a $165,200 salary, higher than 45 gubernatorial pay rates.
“(Baldacci) could do very well if he chose another profession,” said his spokesman, David
Farmer. “But people who become governor aren’t doing it to be rich. They do it out of public
service.”
Considering the position’s perks, such as travel assistance and free housing, being governor
is “not a bad deal,” said Jason Fortin of the Maine Heritage Policy Center. Forty-six states subsidize
governors’ travel, while 44 have official residences, according to the Council of State Governments.
At $206,500 a year, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R), who made hundreds of millions of
dollars in Hollywood, gets a bigger state paycheck than any other governor, but he gives it back to
California. Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen (D), founder of health insurer HealthAmerica, gives his
$85,000 paycheck back to his home state, where he accumulated much of his wealth.
Another multimillionaire, New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine (D), accepts a salary each year, but
it’s only $1. That’s less than three-tenths of a cent per day. If he chose to take the maximum
statutory salary, he would get $175,000, the fourth-largest in the nation.
“It’s a good political ploy to (not accept a salary),” said Thad Beyle, a University of North
Carolina professor who studies U.S. governors. He said politicians run for the top state job not for
the money, but sometimes to parlay the post into higher office, including the presidency. Four of the
last five U.S. presidents served in the governor’s office before the Oval Office. “It’s just the next
step to bigger things,” Beyle said.
Corzine, a former chief executive officer of financing giant Goldman Sachs, reported income
of about $6 million in 2006 mostly through stocks, bonds and real estate. Current Goldman Sachs
CEO Lloyd Blankfein received a $54 million salary in 2006, making him the best-paid executive on
Wall Street, according to Securities and Exchange Commission filings.
Corzine spokesman Brendan Gilfillan said her boss in “no way” has been put into a financial
bind as governor. As a U.S. senator from New Jersey from 2000 to 2005, Corzine was forced by law
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to accept a salary, but he donated it to charity. He also has said he personally will pay for his medical
care after an April automobile accident left him critically injured.
“He has been blessed in his life,” Gilfillan said. “He wants to give something back.”
Head football coaches at NCAA Division 1A schools are paid about $900,000 annually, the
largest salary among all state employees, according to an April study by the American Association of
University Professors. Though not shooting for top coaches’ pay, at least seven states have
proposed a salary increase for their chief executives in 2008. They are Arizona, Hawaii, Illinois,
Indiana, Minnesota, Missouri and Washington.
Republican leaders in Arizona’s Senate said the governor’s $95,000 salary, No. 41 in the
nation, will reduce the quality of candidates. If a bill to raise the pay to $112,500 is defeated, the
sheriff and attorney of Arizona’s two largest counties will be paid more than the head of state.
Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano (D) opposes the pay raise, which would go into effect for
her successor in 2011. Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D) and Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels (R)
similarly indicated they would turn down a proposed raise.
“With an accelerating cost of living, sooner or later, things will suffer,” said pay-raise
proponent Marian McClure (R), a state senator in Arizona, one of six states that don’t provide the
governor with a place to live. “It gets to a point that you get what you pay for.”
###
Source: American Observer
Published: Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Photos: 2 by Andrew Knapp
Web site: http://americanobserver.net/2007/04/25/greenteam/
Headline: Green Team leaves troubled pasts behind by cleaning up lives, city
BY ANDREW KNAPP
Beautifying Washington one can at a time
WASHINGTON — From S Street N.W., they walk a few blocks up Ninth Street, snatching
trash from the sidewalk with plastic claws and throwing it into a can on wheels. Litter from the
restaurant-heavy area of Shaw fills the can quickly.
Milk crates. Pennies. Vodka bottles. Condoms.
“A lot of condoms,” Alonzo Pleze says.
“Yeah, mainly condoms,” says his co-worker, Marcitta Thompson.
As part of the nine-member Green Team formed in October, the duo cleans the main
business corridors of Shaw five days a week. On some days, they might also shovel snow, plant
flowers or paint over graffiti. Their salaries and tools are funded through a one-year $350,000
municipal grant administered by the Columbia Heights/Shaw Family Support Collaborative.
And after one block, one can is full.
Panasonic batteries. Duck sauce packets. Metrobus tickets. Needles.
“No one wanted to work here because it’s drug-infested,” Thompson says. “They’ll do it
downtown because it’s quiet. We see a lot of dealers here. They see us and move. Sometimes they
help.”
Both Pleze and Thompson grew up in the area – watched its ups, its downs. Residents have
suffered from unemployment, but in the Green Team, Thompson and Pleze found steady jobs –
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ones that give back to the community and give them decent wages, paid vacations and health
insurance.
Passing rows of shops, they speak of economic recovery, but drugs, crime and dinginess
linger.
“It’s been like this since I was a child,” Thompson says. “I used to play on this street. I went
to that park. I had an aunt that lived right here, and I cried when my mom dropped me off. I didn’t
want to be here.”
Business owners stand in their doorways as the two pass. Outside her liquor store, Beletsch
Ogbe sweeps cigarette butts into a pile and deplores the people who dropped them.
“They can’t smoke inside, so they come out here,” she says. “It looks ugly.”
Most owners don’t clean. Lettering on sidewalk garbage cans reads: “A Clean City: It’s
Everyone’s Job!”
“You couldn’t tell,” Thompson says.
One shop owner tells Thompson she looks pretty. She’s wearing red lipstick, gold earrings
and sparkly green eyeliner to match her Green Team sweatshirt.
“People tell me I shouldn’t be picking up trash because I’m too pretty,” she says. “I make
myself beautiful, but I make the city beautiful, too.”
She points out a rotting tree stump that doesn’t fit into the can. If she was young again, she’d
“sand it, shellac it and make it into a beautiful end table.”
But most rubbish isn’t salvageable.
Wendy’s soda cups. Big Mac boxes. Extension cords. About 50 lottery tickets.
“This all happened last night,” Thompson says, rolling the trashcan. “It’ll happen again
tonight, and we’ll pick it up tomorrow.”
Painting a new face on an old problem
Two blocks away on Seventh Street, Green Team members Allen Davis and Michael Pye
drive to their job site in a white minivan. En route, Davis points out landmarks he remembers in
their glory days. The fenced-off Howard Theatre is tagged liberally with graffiti. “And there’s the
Dunbar Hotel,” he says, pointing to another vacant building. “They’re going to put a bank there.”
The Seventh Street corridor is targeted for re-development, much like Ninth Street. But
some residents don’t like the growth, so they spray-paint curse words, genitalia and gang symbols
onto buildings, Davis says. It’s up to him and Pye to paint over them.
Graffiti over graffiti make some buildings look kaleidoscopic. Davis and Pye try their best to
match paint colors to the collages.
The duo attacks two storefronts on the 1800 block of Seventh Street. “Magic-2,” a gang
symbol pronounced “Magic Deuce,” is scrawled beneath a broken window of the now-defunct Sam
“K” Records. The symbol appears throughout Shaw.
Pye rolls white paint over it, then walks 15 feet to Ballard’s Barber Service to cover another.
Owner Gennaro Ballard steps outside.
“Do you have a permit to do that?” Ballard says. “Let me talk to your boss.”
Pye hands Ballard a business card. Green Team members often act as liaisons between
business owners, residents and city officials.
“We don’t usually have people come out and complain,” Pye says. “They want it done
because it makes their establishment look better.”
While aged places like Ballard’s serve as prime targets for graffiti artists, newer buildings
aren’t immune. “Magic-2” hit CVS/pharmacy, too.
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“All this happened recently,” Davis says, hopping into the van. “It’ll be back here this
weekend, and we’ll be back, too.”
Why this job? To help the children
Thompson, 44, has stayed clean since she started cleaning the city. Before last year, she was
into crack cocaine, something she began as a teenager. But her unsteady employment didn’t pay the
rent or feed her six children.
“My son’s in the drug game,” she says of her 20-year-old. “I worry about him because I was
in it. But he’s young. He has a chance. I just try to guide him.”
Eight months ago, she told her caseworker a steady job would keep her out of trouble. The
Green Team employs mostly people who can’t find employment because of criminal records or drug
histories.
Thompson still struggles with her children but not with cocaine.
To buy a house
Pye, 48, never did hard time, just a few months in jail. He first was arrested at 17 when he
burglarized an apartment. A past of selling heroin, he says, ended with his most recent arrest last
Easter for which he’s serving two years of probation.
“My friends ask me if I like my job,” he says. “I say, ‘No, I love my job.’”
Pye plans to buy a house for his wife and six children.
To ‘do something positive’
Davis, 47, first was arrested at 14 for stealing a car. Of the 33 years since then, he has spent
25 in prison for using and selling drugs. This is his first “real” job.
“It’s time to settle down and do something positive,” he says, “because I’ve already done
everything negative.”
In six months, Davis hasn’t missed a day of work.
To make Washington ‘a great place’
Breaking for lunch, crew members return to their Seventh Street office. They check in with
their supervisors – crew chief Ed Hammer, 41, and project coordinator Charlie Whitaker, 34.
The break room is too cramped, so they sit in the lobby area with fluorescent-yellow Green
Team jackets, a red snow blower and a maroon bicycle.
They all grew up in the District. They’ve been in trouble in the past, but they speak candidly
about how their new jobs have kept them out of it since.
“I’d like to say we’re in the construction business,” Hammer says. “We build lives.”
Hammer went to Mount Aloysius College in Pennsylvania from 1996 to 2000 but, after a
failed wedding engagement, dropped out – 15 credits shy of a degree in management. He wants to
finish, then earn his law degree. That’s his lifelong goal.
But a conviction for dealing powder cocaine in 1986 continues to shut doors. He served six
months in prison, and ever since, he has checked “yes” to that last question on job applications:
“Have you ever been convicted of a felony?”
“I always wanted to do corporate America,” he says. “Corporate America never wanted to
do me.”
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Everyone laughs, but they take it seriously: They’ve been through the same ordeal.
“This man was selling drugs 20 years ago, and he hasn’t done anything wrong since, but it’s
still popping up on him,” Whitaker says. “I don’t think that’s fair.”
Whitaker, the Green Team captain, has been arrested four times for offenses like assaulting a
police officer, but he was never convicted. He holds a degree in criminal justice.
“The Green Team allows people who have the money and influence to meet with the longtime residents of the community like us who don’t have those things,” Whitaker says. “We all want
the same for Washington, D.C. We want it to be a great place.”
To protect the future
Pleze, 24, is the only Green Team member without an arrest record. He’s working to feed
his 5-year-old daughter, Maiya, but also to avoid jail.
“I’m here to stay out of there,” he says. “The Green Team caught me before it was too late.
That police piece doesn’t really apply to me.”
“And we’re going to make sure it stays that way,” Hammer says.
In six months, Pleze hasn’t missed a day of work.
###
Published: Monday, Jan. 29, 2007
Photos: 3 by Andrew Knapp
Edition: All
Section and Page: A1 (front-page lead)
Headline: Mainers rally in D.C.
BY ANDREW KNAPP
SPECIAL TO THE NEWS
WASHINGTON — A passionate and boisterous contingent of about 150 Mainers joined
tens of thousands more demonstrators on Saturday to advocate withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq
and urge concentration on domestic issues. On Monday, some of them will lobby Congress to that
end.
The protesters, including infants, college students, veterans, military parents, senior citizens,
gathered in the center of the National Mall during the morning after a 12-hour overnight bus ride.
Half of them were from the Bangor area, while others were from Down East and northern Maine.
During a pre-march rally on the Mall, with the Capitol dome and a pale blue sky as the
backdrop, they listened to speakers including the Rev. Jesse Jackson and actors Sean Penn, Tim
Robbins, Jane Fonda and Susan Sarandon.
“Peace is controversial, but so is war,” Jackson said, rousing a crowd that lulled at times.
“The fruit of peace is so much sweeter.”
Each celebrity denounced President Bush’s plan to send an additional 21,500 troops to Iraq.
Each expressed grief for the 3,075 U.S. fatalities there, including 14 from Maine. Some called for the
president’s impeachment.
“It’s important for us to gather together with others from all over the country to send a
message that this war’s got to end,” said Diane Kay, 33, of Orrington. Kay’s cheeks were adorned
with peace symbols as she sat on the trampled Mall grass and wielded a fluorescent green placard.
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“There’s something amazing about being in a place like this and sharing this experience with so
many people.”
Expecting similar cold weather that plagued Maine last week, many protesters came
overdressed, as morning temperatures in Washington rose from below freezing to the mid-50s by
noon. New York City-based United for Peace and Justice, an advocacy coalition that organized the
protest, expected a half-million people. Initial predictions appeared off that mark, despite tranquil
weather.
Maine’s largest recent presence in Washington came in January 2003, when 1,000 activists
traveled here, according to Ilze Peterson, coordinator of the Peace and Justice Center in Bangor, a
trip organizer.
Five of the Maine protesters, including Tim McCormick, 60, of Ellsworth, are expected on
Monday to lobby Maine’s House delegation.
McCormick circulated pieces of notebook paper among 60 bus occupants who signed their
names in blue ink. The petition, which promotes sponsorship of legislation to fast-track troop
withdrawal, will be delivered to the offices of Democratic Reps. Michael Michaud and Tom Allen.
“I want to listen to what they have to say, so I can go back to Maine and let people know
what our representatives are doing here,” McCormick said.
McCormick is a veteran on the protest scene. He came to Washington in September 2005
and twice during the Vietnam War “when you could smell tear gas in the streets,” he said. “This isn’t
as controversial as that, but it’s getting there fast.”
After rallying, McCormick and his Vacationland cohorts marched. They marched with
“Maine pride,” they said.
Many donned unique hats — one of a lobster, another of a moose — while others showed
off L.L. Bean boots and backpacks. Another carried a bottle of Moxie, Maine’s official soft drink.
Pippa Stanley speckled her unzipped winter coat and underlying T-shirt with buttons, each
emblazoned with a political statement. The 15-year-old made the 700-mile trip, which cost bus riders
$75 each, without her parents because she “just had to do something about this war,” she said.
Marching past walls of policemen who cordoned off adjacent streets, Stanley was flanked by
Steve Leighton, 57, of Fort Fairfield. Wearing a brown cowboy hat and bobbing a makeshift sign
into the air, the bearded man, who also protested during Vietnam in the 1960s and ’70s, feared only
“old people who have been peaceniks for years” would attend, he said.
But activists of all ages clung to a tattered 20-foot canvas as they marched. Scrawled onto the
banner, black and red X’s denoted dead Americans and Iraqis. Since 2004, the Peace and Justice
Center has made eight such banners, according to Kathryn Gaianguest, 67, of Lamoine, a member
of the center.
“We consider this sacred,” Gaianguest said as she clinched it tightly in her left hand. “We
can’t let it touch the ground.”
Onlookers lined the parade route, which spanned sections of Pennsylvania, Constitution and
Independence avenues, and pointed out the “group from Maine.” Others approached them and
complimented the banner.
“You guys are from Maine?” one woman asked skeptically.
“Yes,” they said in unison.
“Wow,” the woman said.
The two-mile, two-hour march led them around the backside of the Capitol and past
legislative office buildings and the U.S. Supreme Court.
For Michele Roy, 48, of West Gardiner, the protest “was a great way to experience the city
for the first time.”
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A mother of a 29-year-old Army soldier who served two tours in Iraq, Roy said she “agrees
to disagree” with her son, who remains committed to the conflict.
Along the way, dozens of counterprotesters sported signs that read “God bless our troops.”
Some of them waved American flags and shouted patriotic calls and some curses, which were
smothered by chants initiated by Roy and bolstered by the group.
“No more war,” she yelled.
“No more war,” the rest yelled.
Then they sang “Down by the Riverside,” a chorus that nearby protesters mimicked.
“Mainers like to sing,” one said.
Pamphleteers dished out information about the Iraq war. But hands were already laden with
signs, cameras and superfluous clothing. One man stuffed a pocket with his lunch and carried a twoliter bottle of seltzer water in his hand.
The Mainers — or “Mainahs,” as they stressed to people — walked the final stretch with the
same vigor they displayed on the first. But chants weren’t as easy to ignite. Their volume fell. They
were tired, hungry, thirsty. One song turned somber, not because of fatigue, but because of
sympathy for lives lost, including three U.S. troops killed in Iraq on the day of the protest.
“For the sake of my children and grandchildren,” said Marsha Lyons, 57, of Mount Desert,
“I hope this makes a difference.”
###
Source: Bangor Daily News
Published: Wednesday, July 19, 2006
Photos: 1 with graphic
Edition: All
Section and Page: A1 (front-page lead)
Headline: Wal-Mart: Round 2: As officials confirm a new proposal for a supercenter in Bangor,
environmentalists claim the planning process was ‘circumvented’
BY ANDREW KNAPP
OF THE NEWS STAFF
BANGOR, Maine — More than three years after state regulators cited environmental
concerns in scuttling a proposed Wal-Mart Supercenter in the Bangor Mall area, a project engineer
and city official confirmed Tuesday a new plan, embittering the same activists who opposed the first.
The new proposal calls for a 210,000-square-foot shopping center to be constructed on a 50acre site behind the Blue Seal Feeds store on Stillwater Avenue just down the road from the initially
proposed site, according to project engineer Jeff Allen of the James W. Sewall Co. of Old Town.
Wal-Mart representatives could not be reached for comment Tuesday, but local officials
expect the supercenter will replace an existing 114,000-square-foot Wal-Mart store located less than
a mile away on Springer Drive. That store was described by a company official as “bursting at the
seams” in 2003 when Wal-Mart opened a 158,000-square-foot supercenter in Brewer.
In spring 2003, the Maine Board of Environmental Protection denied a state permit to build
the initially proposed 224,000-square-foot store on 28 acres behind Circuit City off Stillwater
Avenue. That planned development abutted the Penjajawoc Marsh, a popular habitat for rare bird
species.
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Area residents and environmental activists, including Maine Audubon Society members,
began protesting that first project as soon as it was announced in 2000. They warned of irreversible
damage to the watershed surrounding the marsh.
Allen stressed Tuesday that the portion of property now slated for the Wal-Mart
development won’t influence the wetlands or alter nearby woodlands.
Only about 20 acres of the 50-acre parcel under consideration would be used for parking
and the building that will offer general merchandise, automotive services and grocery items.
Remaining acreage will be set aside for open-space mitigation, Allen said.
The Sewall Co. will submit applications for location of development and natural resources
permits later this month, he said.
Engineers have worked closely with the Maine Department of Environmental protection to
establish a site that doesn’t encroach on the Penjajawoc Marsh, according to Allen. Only the
grassland in front of a stand of trees behind the Blue Seal store will be used. The rest will be
preserved, he said.
“We have a reasonable expectation that the permits will be approved this time,” Allen said
Tuesday.
Despite his assertions, some complained Tuesday that the developers had circumvented a
15-member commission the city established last fall to recommend properties suitable for
commercial development near the watershed. The Penjajawoc Marsh-Bangor Mall Management
Commission, which is made up of landowners, developers, business owners and city officials, was
designed to balance environmental and economic concerns.
Commission member Cindy DeBeck, who also owns 70 acres abutting the marsh and the
proposed development site, said she received a letter Monday from the Sewall Co. indicating plans
to file for construction permits. All landowners near the parcel were informed by certified mail, she
said. DeBeck was surprised, however, that the commission was not informed of the new proposal.
“They would have a much easier time because [the commission] can make recommendations
and offer support for a developer’s plans,” DeBeck said. “I guess they just want to see the public’s
reaction.”
Members of Bangor Area Citizens Organized for Responsible Development, which was
formed in 2000 to combat the first Wal-Mart Supercenter plan, also were caught off guard.
BACORD spokeswoman Valerie Carter of Newburgh said the engineers failed to consult
with the commission early in the current planning process, as city guidelines now stipulate.
Considering the company aims to apply for permits within the next few weeks, she said, the project
is now well-developed. Planners have “circumvented” an organization the city spent time and
money to create, Carter said.
“Their actions show a disrespect and disregard for the whole process,” she said Tuesday.
“They’re really rushing this.”
Allen explained that the state permits were applied for first because that process takes about
six months while city approvals can be obtained within four months. Bangor officials, including the
commission, will be presented details within the coming weeks.
“It just makes more sense to get the longer process started first,” Allen said.
Storm water regulations adopted last year by the DEP pose the greatest roadblock for the
project, the engineer said. He added that plans call for five storm water retention ponds to collect
runoff and prevent pollution from entering Penjajawoc Stream. Though the stream borders the
southwest corner of the 50-acre property, the Wal-Mart complex will be erected far from the stream,
Allen stressed.
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Carter worried, however, that if an access route to the Wal-Mart site is built near the stream
it could endanger the already impaired watershed. The stream runs beneath Stillwater Avenue
between the Blue Seal store and the Means Investment building.
Land trust Penn-York Associates owns the acreage eyed for the new Wal-Mart. Dr. Francis
Kittredge, a Bangor neurologist and the land’s trustee, was unavailable for comment Tuesday.
Assessors valued the land at $1.8 million in 2006, according to Bangor Code Enforcement
Officer Dan Wellington.
Wal-Mart now operates 12 supercenters in Maine — including facilities in Augusta, Brewer,
Palmyra, Presque Isle and Waterville — and 11 discount stores.
Recent speculation has indicated that W/S Associates of Massachusetts is interested in
building a supercenter in Ellsworth. The same company has had limited involvement with the
Bangor project, according to Allen.
When the Brewer store opened in June 2003, the Bangor site saw only a minute decrease in
sales volume, Wellington said. Despite increased competition from Brewer, the Bangor store
remains one of the highest-grossing Wal-Mart locations in the state, he said.
“If the Brewer superstore brought business down significantly, they wouldn’t be going
through with plans for a new store in Bangor,” Wellington said.
Allen will conduct a public information meeting at 10 a.m. Wednesday, July 26, at the
Stillwater Avenue site. At that time, engineers will release detailed maps and monetary estimates for
the project.
If approved, the multimillion-dollar construction project will begin sometime next year, he
said.
###
Source: Bangor Daily News
Published: Friday, July 21, 2006
Photos: None
Edition: All
Section and Page: B1 (state front lead)
Headline: Drainage concerns critics of project: Wal-Mart: Less than 1 acre to be disturbed
BY ANDREW KNAPP
OF THE NEWS STAFF
BANGOR, Maine — Company representatives officially announced plans on Wednesday
night to construct a Wal-Mart Supercenter on a 50-acre parcel off Stillwater Avenue, disturbing a
small portion of the surrounding wetlands that serve as a habitat for rare bird species.
City officials and environmentalists said Thursday, however, that drainage designs for the
project are outdated. Local activists are concerned that the proposed system won’t effectively divert
storm water pollution from the marsh.
Wal-Mart officials will meet in August with a city commission designed to balance economic
and environmental concerns in the Bangor Mall area, according to Christopher Buchanan, senior
manager of public affairs for the retailer that operates 26 stores in Maine.
The Penjajawoc Marsh-Bangor Mall Management Commission formed last fall to
recommend acreage suitable for commercial development.
“We listened to local residents’ previous concerns and have found a site that will disturb less
than 1 acre of wetlands,” Buchanan said in a press release issued this week.
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The company will expand its dialogue with the overall Bangor community throughout the
coming months, according to Wal-Mart spokeswoman Daphne Moore.
“There’s a long process ahead of us, and it’s certainly far from complete,” Moore said
Thursday night.
After city officials and a project engineer confirmed on Tuesday the proposal for a new
218,000-square-foot supercenter, however, environmentalists and commission members claimed the
planning process was circumvented.
Valerie Carter, spokeswoman for the Bangor Area Citizens for Organized Development, or
BACORD, said potential developers should have presented plans to the panel earlier in the process.
“[Wal-Mart is] making an effort, but it’s still late in the game,” Carter said Thursday.
The James W. Sewall Co. in Old Town, which serves as Wal-Mart’s land agent, will apply for
state permits within the next two weeks, according to project engineer Jeff Allen.
Citing environmental implications, state regulators sunk plans in 2003 to build a supercenter
behind Circuit City on Stillwater Avenue. Area residents and environmentalists protested that initial
project as soon as it was announced in 2000. They feared irreversible damage to the nearby
watershed.
Allen said the new construction will be confined to grassland behind Blue Seal Feeds and
Crossroads Mall and won’t encroach on the marsh or Penjajawoc Stream, which forms the parcel’s
southwest border.
According to Carter, however, that grassy area may serve as a vital nesting habitat for the
birds occupying the marsh.
Attempts made Thursday to confirm that information with the Maine Audubon Society and
Bangor Land Trust were unsuccessful.
Developers do have plans, they said, to protect the peripheral environment. To stop
pollution from seeping into the impaired marshland, engineers will install five retention ponds
designed to collect storm water runoff, Allen said this week.
Some, however, have claimed that drainage system is outdated.
Commission member Cindy DeBeck of Newburgh, owner of 70 acres near the marsh, said
diffusion drainage systems that allow storm water to seep through a treatment system in the ground
would be much more conducive to environmental sustainability.
“We’re not receptive to retention ponds because of this new technology,” DeBeck said.
Efforts made Thursday to reach Allen, city engineers and other commission members were not
successful.
Dan Wellington, Bangor’s code enforcement officer, had hoped the new supercenter would
utilize a storm water diffusion system for the first time in the city. Retention ponds, like the one
currently on the Home Depot site, are a decade old. Even though that system meets city code and
strict water-quality standards, better methods exist, he said.
“Based on early talks with developers, I thought we might see a novel, new approach,”
Wellington said Thursday. “I’m disappointed by this.”
The proposed development also poses traffic questions, which Carter said would be the
most pressing issue if plans progress.
When the Bangor Parkade, a development a half-mile from the potential supercenter site,
opened last fall, motorists on Stillwater Avenue were met with gridlock. Measures to add another
traffic lane to the route eased congestion.
“It’s going to be a nightmare again,” Carter said. “How many cars can Stillwater handle?”
City officials said traffic concerns aren’t unfounded but also aren’t unique to Bangor,
especially during the holiday season.
“Every city gets that congestion,” Wellington said.
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Dave Gould, the city’s planning officer, said the project‘s magnitude demands improved
infrastructure. Otherwise, severe traffic impairments will arise. Developers will pay for any roadway
alterations, he said.
Herb Thompson, spokesman for the Maine Department of Transportation, declined to
comment Thursday on the project because the organization hasn’t received an application for traffic
movement permits.
###
Source: Bangor Daily News
Published: Saturday, July 8, 2006
Photos: 1
Edition: All
Section and Page: C1 (state front)
Headline: Motley crew storms cinema for ‘Pirates:’ Sequel-hungry fans treasure experience of
midnight show
BY ANDREW KNAPP
OF THE NEWS STAFF
BANGOR, Maine — A crew of unruly miscreants leapt aboard a makeshift vessel adorned
with two Jolly Rogers. Capt. Mark Gonyar, 20, of Bangor took the helm alongside his first mate.
Three sailors clung to the ship’s stern, wielding bowed swords that gleamed in dim, artificial light.
With all hands on deck, they heaved away from the craft’s curbside moorings.
They were pirates — for Thursday night and early Friday morning, at least.
The savvy fellows encircled the parking lot in their boat — a white Ford Ranger. Plastic
swords cut through the air above their heads. The five hollered “Arrr!” to every innocent man,
woman and child inquisitively witnessing the spectacle.
Dropping anchor in a parking space, the men abandoned their dinghy and boarded the
mother ship — Bangor Mall Cinemas 10.
The prized loot each carried was a paper ticket, the key unlocking a long-awaited treasure —
a midnight showing of “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest.”
Gonyar and his able-bodied crew were five of about 660 people who attended the cinemas’
showing at 12:01 a.m. Friday. It was the only early-bird viewing offered in the Bangor area for a
movie that opened Friday nationwide. Cinemas manager Don Pete said tickets went on sale last
week, and by 11:30 p.m. Thursday, fans had claimed all seats aboard three 220-seat theaters featuring
the highly anticipated sequel.
The movie was only secondary to the journey to the theater, Gonyar said. Earlier that day,
his crew impulsively bought tickets and searched stores high and low for get-ups resembling the
movie’s main character, Capt. Jack Sparrow, played by actor Johnny Depp. Clad in purple pants,
leather boots and a red vest, Gonyar sacrificed a fine spot in line to patrol the parking lot in his
pickup.
“It’s much better when you dress up,” says he. “Even if the movie is terrible, this is fun.”
The piratical people were joined by hundreds of hearty souls — mostly teenagers and college
students. They looted buckets of golden popcorn and boxes of Junior Mints from the concession
stand and then weighed anchor for their seats.
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Outside, Michelle Foose, 23, of Bangor separated herself from the madness. Foose attended
the midnight showing after she saw Gonyar’s shipmates eating at a local restaurant earlier Thursday
night.
“There were five people dressed like pirates,” she said. “I said to myself, ‘There must be a
showing of ‘Pirates of the Caribbean,’’ so I decided to go.”
Waiting in line, Gonyar’s crew continued yelling “Arrr!” Their spirit was contagious.
“Arrr?” Foose asked, timidly trying to induce a response.
“Arrr!” they responded.
“This reminds me of midnight showings when I was a kid,” she said.
Inside the lobby, young pirates scurried around energetically. A girl sitting on a wooden
bench adjusted an eye patch. Two boys dueled with plastic swords in the middle of a carpeted sea.
One teenage girl, head wrapped tightly in a red handkerchief, hobbled on crutches amid the motley
crowd.
Mary Hughes, 16, settled in Windham about seven months ago. She journeyed back by bus
to her original stomping grounds just to see the movie. Dressed in a frilly white smock, maroon vest
and black hat with skull and crossbones, Hughes said she wanted to be with friends.
“I couldn’t miss this,” she said, giggling with her mates.
By midnight, a battle had concluded in the lobby. Moviegoers left the concessions plundered
of Twizzlers and Raisinettes and the floor littered with plastic bags and candy wrappers. All tickets
had been claimed, and the mad rush was over.
But it was a polite melee. The pirates drew no blood.
Clutching their edible spoils, stragglers handed tickets to a young woman who permitted
their entrance into the theater.
“Enjoy the movie,” she said.
“Arrr!” the pirates replied enthusiastically.
Their cinematic voyage was under way.
###
Source: Bangor Daily News
Published: Saturday, July 8, 2006
Photos: 1
Edition: All
Section and Page: C1 (state front)
Headline: Remembering Charlie Howard: Dozens gather at bridge to pay tribute to slain Bangor
man
BY ANDREW KNAPP
OF THE NEWS STAFF
BANGOR, Maine — Grasping the railing of the State Street bridge in Bangor on Friday
night, about 35 people gazed over a placid Kenduskeag Stream, remembering the life and reflecting
upon the aftermath of the death of Charlie Howard.
Howard died on July 7, 1984, when he was attacked by three local teenagers and thrown
from the bridge into the water where he suffered a severe asthma attack. Each year since the
nationally infamous incident, people who knew Howard and others who have never met him walk to
the bridge to pay tribute to the openly gay man who was killed by arrogance and ignorance,
according to Anne Clark, 49, of Bangor.
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Clark stared 20 feet downward into the waters where Howard died 22 years ago. She cried
and softly ran her fingers through the hair of her two daughters standing next to her. To Clark’s
right, her partner, Marie Harrington, 34, looked supportively at Clark’s tear-burdened cheeks.
Clark was a friend to Howard for a year before his death. In the time since, she has attended
the memorial service sporadically — sometimes afraid to participate and afraid to feel the pain of
loss all over again.
“It was hard to hear them talk about how broken he was,” Clark said from the sidewalk,
referring to speakers at a service 15 minutes earlier at Hammond Street Congregational Church.
“It was hard to hear that [the teenagers] thought it was OK,” she continued, pausing to dab
her tears with a tissue, “that it was just a joke. It just wasn’t OK.”
Clark said the community slowly has started to accept homosexuality. Education of the issue
starts with children, she said, but schools have fallen short of that task.
Dan Williams, executive director of the Howard Foundation, organized the event for the
third year. He still views discrimination as inherent in society, no matter the size of the community.
While posting flyers last week for Friday’s event, he was told by many local business owners to “get
lost.”
“I came out and faced my demons and survived,” Williams said, waving at a car that passed
over the span and honked in support of the group. “I can’t understand why people can’t face their
fears of homosexuality.”
Lois Reed, 72, of Carmel was the president of a now-closed Bangor church that Howard
attended at the time of his death. Over the past 22 years, Reed has journeyed to the bridge for 20 of
the annual events.
“This never gets any easier,” Reed said. “I hate being on this bridge.”
In the last three years, no passersby have yelled epithets at the group, indicating an improving
societal attitude, she said.
To commemorate a man she described as proud and memorialize all gays, lesbians, bisexuals
and transgender people who have been murdered, she dropped a white rose into the stream and
asked others to cast away the flowers they also held.
Clark, her two daughters and her partner each released tiny orange carnations that floated
downstream, leaving behind 35 people somberly thinking about days past and a family longing for
equality in the years to come.
“Just live and let live,” Clark said. “Just live and let live.”
###
Source: Bangor Daily News
Published: Saturday, June 24, 2006
Photos: 1
Edition: All
Section and Page: B1 (state front lead)
Headline: They’re selling (on the side): A rarely enforced ordinance in Bangor prohibits roadside
peddling on city property, but the practice endures
BY ANDREW KNAPP
OF THE NEWS STAFF
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BANGOR, Maine — His rusty blue wagon, covered with golf balls, sat in a parking lot
facing the busy roadway. On its fenders, hot-pink poster board featured the words “GOLF BALLS”
scrawled in black marker.
From the driver’s seat, Lou Tardiff scouted potential customers, his eyes peering through
cracked spectacles. He was trying to sell golf balls collected from the woods at local courses.
“I cleaned them up beautiful,” he said recently. “I wouldn’t sell them with stains.”
Tardiff, 57, is one of many vendors in Bangor who set up shop in their vehicles throughout
the summer. Offerings range from strawberries and clams to fiddleheads and corn.
He thought the city-owned parking lot on Maine Avenue near University College of Bangor
was one of the few areas he could market his wares without paying a fee.
But he was wrong. Instead, he was unknowingly breaking a municipal code that forbids
peddling on city property. Since its inception in 1992, however, the ordinance rarely has been
enforced, allowing vendors to sell unabatedly.
About 100 yards down the crumbling pavement, Colleen Butera, 32, of Brewer operated
from her Jeep, selling fresh rhubarb that grows in her yard.
Neither vendor is an aspiring entrepreneur.
Tardiff has hit up the location eight times this season. It’s just a way to get some exercise —
to “keep the weight off,” he said — and put gasoline in his Ford.
“It’s not enough to pad my retirement, though,” he acknowledged.
Tardiff tried selling his merchandise in Brewer, where he lives. And business was good, until
police asked him to leave. At the time, Brewer charged $100 to peddle in the city, he said. He
respected the ordinance and abandoned his temporary enterprise.
“Ever since I’ve been in Bangor, I haven’t had any problems with anyone,” Tardiff said.
For Butera, a substitute teacher in Brewer, it was her first time. If she didn’t sell the rhubarb,
it would go to waste. The tart stalks go for $2.99 per pound at Shaw’s Supermarkets. Her price of $1
per bundle, which she figured to be equivalent to a pound, was a steal. Without sales tax and other
fees, she said, vendors can keep prices low, so patrons will buy.
That’s precisely one of the city’s gripes, however. It motivated the City Council to adopt a
policy in 1992 to forbid peddling on city property except during Bangor’s 20 special events, such as
the American Folk Festival.
Because they don’t pay taxes, energy bills or rental fees, vendors pose unfair competition to
established businesses, according to Dan Wellington, the city’s code enforcement officer.
“People were even coming from out of state thinking they could sell things,” he said
recently. “That forced us to look at who was doing business on city property.”
The council also addressed myriad public-safety issues while pondering the policy 14 years
ago. People were peddling shellfish, a strictly regulated commodity. In one case, the tailgate of a
vendor’s pickup was jutting into Maine Avenue, threatening traffic. Others were selling
“inappropriate” materials, namely adult movies.
Maine Avenue, which serves as one gateway to Bangor International Airport, was of
particular concern. Wellington, who has worked in the code enforcement office since 1983, said he
and councilors were motivated by aesthetics when they drafted the ordinance. They didn’t want the
airport entrance lined with peddlers or littered with leftover produce.
Butera didn’t know who owned the land, nor was she aware of signs near the three entrances
reading: “No selling vehicles or vending this area.”
“There’s a sign? I didn’t see it,” she said.
The property has been posted since the ordinance was enacted, Wellington said.
There is a legal way to peddle in Bangor. Vendors must first acquire written permission from
business owners to sell on their property, then pay an $11 fee at Wellington’s office.
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City land is off-limits, however.
Wellington urged the coordination of a farmer’s market. The Bangor-Brewer Farmer’s
Market in Bass Park closed seven years ago, prompting unlawful peddling, he said. A new one may
alleviate the problem.
Tardiff was taken aback when he heard his actions were illegal. Paying money to peddle isn’t
worth it, he said.
“Police were asked to stop and tell them to move,” Wellington said.
But the ball scavenger remains.
“I could see it if I was trying to sell a truckload of potatoes,” Tardiff said of the ordinance,
“but I’m just trying to sell a few golf balls.”
Disrupting the monotony of a slow sales day, a man in a red SUV pulled into the lot and
parked beside Tardiff’s Ford.
“What can I do for ya?” Tardiff asked the potential buyer.
“I just need something that won’t mind being hit into the woods,” the man answered.
The salesman found a package of Nike golf balls with “Super Far” embossed on their
dimpled surfaces.
“Are those legal?” the customer asked.
Tardiff guaranteed compliance with golf standards, sealing the deal and collecting the man’s
$8.
Sitting in his makeshift roadside store, the ball hawker knew one thing very well: If the
customer hits the golf balls back into the woods, Tardiff could find himself selling the same golf
balls all over again.
“It’s a cutthroat business,” he said, snickering.
###
Source: Bangor Daily News
Published: Wednesday, June 21, 2006
Photos: None
Edition: 2, 3
Section and Page: B1 (state front)
Headline: Firefighting exercise turns real after lightning strike
BY ANDREW KNAPP
OF THE NEWS STAFF
CORINTH, Maine — A fire sparked by lightning at Morrison Elementary School would
have gone unnoticed Tuesday night if firefighters were not conducting training exercises nearby,
according to Corinth Fire Chief Scott Bragdon.
As a result, he said, the town is fortunate to have an elementary school today.
While practicing on the town’s new ladder truck at Central Middle School, a firefighter
noticed a visual fire alarm around 6:39 p.m. at the elementary school about 200 yards away. Upon
investigation, crews found a blaze in the attic and managed to extinguish it before flames spread
elsewhere.
The school’s attic area and electrical, computer and telephone systems had about $100,000 in
damage, Bragdon estimated.
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Bragdon said lightning struck the roof of the building, blew mortar and bricks off the
chimney and ignited insulation.
When firefighters entered the building, they smelled smoldering electrical wires and noticed a
charred telephone junction box through which external lines enter the school.
The smell led firefighters to the attic, which was filled with smoke from burning insulation
and wooden rafters. Crews promptly doused the blaze.
“It was a close call — closer than what I care to have,” Bragdon said Tuesday night. “It was
one of those cases when we were at the right place at the right time.”
If they weren’t close by, firefighters wouldn’t have responded until it was too late, Bragdon
said. When activated, the school’s fire alarm automatically dials 911. Because lightning fried the
telephone lines, however, dispatchers never received the call.
“No one would have seen it; no one would have called if we weren’t there,” he said.
About 30 members of the Corinth Fire Department and five vehicles were on hand for the
training exercise, facilitating a swift response, according to Bragdon.
The Kenduskeag Fire Department also responded.
No one was injured.
Bragdon said hidden problems in the school’s electrical system may boost initial damage
estimates. Custodians will survey the destruction today.
“They’ve got a lot of work ahead of them,” he said.
Firefighters contained water damage to the top floor and prevented the fire from entering
the lower level.
Rain fell while crews fought the blaze. Fierce lightning also struck nearby several times
during the training exercise, Bragdon said. Crews didn’t notice any problems until they saw flashing
lights at the elementary school about 10 minutes after the storm moved out of the region.
A cold front that moved across Maine on Tuesday afternoon brought severe thunderstorms,
according to meteorologist Derrick Weitlich of the National Weather Service in Caribou.
Two severe thunderstorm warnings were issued Tuesday for central Penobscot County. The
first started at 4:42 p.m. and ended at 5:45 p.m. The second was issued at 5:52 p.m. and expired at
6:30 p.m.
###