9/11/08 Hurricane Ike

Wow. This hurricane is as big as Texas itself and heading straight towards Texas. My thoughts and prayers are with everyone who is in its path and those who have left their homes behind in order to get out of its path.

9/11/08 UMF remembers

UMF flag display remembers 9/11

By Bobbie Hanstein • Sep 11th, 2008
From The Daily Bulldog: Franklin County's First News

FARMINGTON - The UMF College Republican Club members were up early this morning.

Their mission, which began at 4 a.m., was to plant more than 2,000 small America flags to form the iconic “9/11″ numbers. The display, say organizers, is to remind those walking by of the tragic day seven years ago, on Sept. 11, 2001, when four commercial jetliners were hijacked by terrorists and flown into the World Trade Center’s twin towers in New York City, the Pentagon, with a fourth crashing into a field in Pennsylvania.

“We wanted to do something on campus,” said UMF College Republican Club’s Vice Chairwoman Angela Courchesney. “We wanted something to stand out; for people to notice it and reflect on it.”

At noon, students crossing the green from the Olsen Student Center to Mantor Library and beyond, walked by glancing at the long lines of so many small flags. A few people walked up to the sign posted that explained the display was sponsored by the UMF College Republicans and “Never Forget 9/11.” Courchesney said she was disappointed to see someone had taken the sign mentioning the republicans and had crumpled it up at some point this morning. Someone else, she said, came along and tried to smooth the wrinkles of the sign and return it.

“There’s no place for that on a day like this,” she said.

Last spring, a flag display of another sort caused quite a bit of controversy when, as part of an art project, a UMF student placed various-sized American flags on the floor in a maze-like pattern in the hallway at UMF’s student center. The idea, said the student at the time, was to see if students would walk on or around the flags on the floor. The project upset a local veteran and a few others who attempted to remove the display, but were stopped by the UMF administration. That story eventually attracted national attention.

Today’s display, Courchesney said, was the product of much discussion among club members. “No matter what your politics, everyone can understand it.”

Until the display is removed at dusk, at about 7 p .m. tonight, Republican Club members intend to keep an eye on it.

“We’re going to be checking the flags to make sure they’re not touching the ground,” Courchesney said.

Betsy Judkins and her son Sammy of Farmington, walk along the flag display the UMF College Republican Club installed today to remember 9/11.

retrieved 9/16/08 from: http://www.dailybulldog.com/db/?p=498

9/11/08 Road Construction

On the way to Dixfield, I took a detour that Dr. Grace told me about. She warned that the road construction was really bad. I had driven through it before last semester. I didn't imagine it would be that bad, but I took her advice and took the detour 'cuz I didn't want to be late for the meeting. But since it was daylight and I wasn't in a hurry, I decided to take the road construction route on the way home to see how bad it was.

Oh my. They shouldn't call it road construction, it's more like road deconstruction. In fact, where is the road?? See that big silver thing that's as big as a truck? That's going to go under the bridge. There wasn't just one pair of flagmen to stop us and direct whose turn it was on the one lane of driveable dirt, there were three pairs of flagmen over a distance of more than a mile and there was a traffic light at the temporary one lane bridge. Grace says it's going to take over a year to complete. I believe it! I will be taking that detour every time in both directions from now on!

9/11/08 Autumn Scrapbook Page 1

I'm going to teach a graduate course in Dixfield again this semester. Most of the same people that took the last one plus some new folks who heard how much fun we had are going to take it. It'll be a blast, even though I'm a little nervous to create a class totally from scratch all by myself. (I've always started with someone else's syllabus and then made it my own.) This semester we're going to meet in the brand new elementary school instead of the high school. We held our organizational meeting today in the high school library instead of the elementary school, so after the meeting I drove over to the elementary school. Wow. What an amazing facility. And that's just the outside. They're up on a hill with a gorgeous view. I took these 3 photos today and hope I can remember where I took them so that each week when I go to Dixfield, I can park in the same 3 spots and take photos and create a scrapbook of the area over time. The class won't start until october 2, so we'll miss 2 weeks worth of season change, but I still think it will be a cool photo series.

Maine's Fall Foliage Show Expected to be "Magnificent"

Whooop! that's the report from "Maine's Official Fall Foliage
Website". Of course, it's their job to say come see our fall leaves
'cuz we need your tourist dollars, but officials at the state
Department of Conservation "are forecasting a colorful season based
on the current health of Maine's forest. With a few localized
exceptions, the forest statewide is in good health, thanks to the
abundant and relatively well-distributed rain we've had since spring,"

No duh! "well-distributed rain since spring" is their PC way of
saying, "It rained all summer long!"

But that's okay. This is our payoff. It's gonna be a gorgeous fall.

I've already signed up to get a weekly email with the latest foliage
report!

http://www.state.me.us/doc/foliage/

9/11/08 The Closing of a Classic

I just heard a commercial this morning on the radio that Howard's
Rexall is closing. It's a classic downtown business establishment.
Between the current state of the economy and the building of the new
Rite-Aid close to downtown, I guess it was inevitable, but it's still
sad.

Here's the story from the Morning Sentinel:

Howard's Rexall to close Sept. 22
BY BETTY JESPERSEN
Staff Writer Kennebec Journal & Morning Sentinel 09/09/2008

FARMINGTON -- After nearly 70 years, Howard's Rexall, the last
independent pharmacy in Farmington, will close its doors on Main
Street on Sept. 22.

But owners Robert Witt, 47, and his brother, James Witt IV, 53, won't
be far away. They may have sold the business to Rite Aid, which is
opening its new store on Main Street next week, but they will be two
of the four pharmacists there serving customers.

All of Howard's customer records will be transferred to Rite Aid, so
there will be no disruption in service, Jim Witt said.

"They assured us it will be a seamless transition. They are even
absorbing our phone number," he said.

Rite Aid has offered jobs at the same rate of pay to all 13
employees, he said.

In addition to the business, the Witts have sold the property to
Foothills Management owner William Marceau. The Farmington developer
says he is negotiating with a tenant interested in opening a small
grocery store in the 7,000-square-foot space. An additional section
of the building that looks out over the municipal parking lot that is
now used for storage is being eyed for a possible restaurant or
retail space.

Jim Witt said adding to the stress of being a small business owner
has been the reductions in reimbursements from private insurance
companies and federal Medicaid, while paperwork and regulations have
increased.

"Reimbursements are constantly falling. You get paid $5 for something
one month, a month later you get $4 for it and the next month, you
get $3.50. It happens on a daily basis," he said. "We were staying
afloat and could have stayed open but you get to a point where one
day, you aren't making any money and you can't pay your bills. We
were looking ahead to see what could be coming on the horizon.

"It is time for us to scale back and go back to being pharmacists
again," he said. "We figured we needed to get out of the business
while things were still going good."

Howard's has held its own against the chain pharmacies that opened in
Farmington including Wal-Mart, Hannaford and Rite Aid. The
competition forced the Witts to diversify. They tried expanding into
medical equipment and offered video rentals, groceries and beer- and
wine-making supplies. They were also a J.C. Penney service center,
they accept utility bill payments and are a UPS shipping agent.

But it was an uphill battle.

According to a study by the Rural Health Research and Policy Analysis
Center at the University of North Carolina, between May 2006 and
April 2008, 998 independently-owned rural pharmacies in the United
States closed; during the same time, 495 opened, resulting in a net
loss of 503 independently-owned rural pharmacies.

"There is certainly a trend where independent pharmacies are closing
and reductions in MaineCare reimbursement rates are to blame," Robert
Morrissette, president of Pharmacy Group of New England, said Monday.
The organization is a buying group that represents dozens of
independent pharmacies in Maine.

He said there is a trend toward independent pharmacies closing and a
study from the National Association of Chain Drug Stores and the Food
Marketing Institute indicates more than 11,000 pharmacies in the
country are at risk of closing due to reductions in reimbursement rates.

The Witts typify hometown pharmacists who pride themselves on
service. They know customers by name and have the time to talk to
patients and answer questions, whether about a prescription or a
health problem.

"That won't change," Witt said. "In fact, I think we'll have more
time to talk to customers. We're hoping the majority of our customers
will stay with us."

Howard's was opened by South Paris pharmacist and businessman Charles
Howard in the 1940s. It was originally located next door where Trask
Jeweler's is now. It was staffed by pharmacist Merton Clifford and
then by his son, Gordon, according to local historian Paul Mills.

Kenneth Wiles bought it in the 1950s and it was purchased by James
Witt III in 1972. An earlier drug store, Marr's, was on that block
from the early 1900s and Mills' research shows there was a pharmacy
there as long ago as 1803.

Retrieved 9/10/08 from http://morningsentinel.mainetoday.com/news/
local/5391730.html