Beyond the South End

By TED SYLVESTER

This column appeared in the Bangor Daily News on December 28, 1973. I have chosen excerpts from that column. The fictional Fanny was often a character in his columns.

Fanny Vance

Blotville  Mt., Maine

Dear Aunt Fanny:

It’s that time of year again when we will bring you up-to-date on the major news events around these here parts. Guess you probably saw where the Associated Press picked the suspension and reactivation of the state prison furlough program as one of the top 10 Maine stories of the year.

The furlough suspension was triggered by the roadblock death of a Thomaston police officer by a car carrying a furloughed inmate and a parolee. At year’s end the program had been reactivated with almost 80 inmates given Christmas leaves without incident.

By far the story from this area which gained the most national, and even international, coverage was Judge Paul A. MacDonald’s famous five-cent fine in a littering case. Calling the charge of littering the street with a bottle cap a five-cent crime, the judge levied a five-cent fine. The judge received mail from all over the country on his decision.

During the year there were five armed robberies, almost 150 breaks into homes and businesses, a near mid-summer riot over use of a so-called park, and more than 125 broken windows.

The Nov. 29 robbery and shooting at Mazzeo’s rocked the community. A public $1,000 reward was quickly raised for information leading to conviction of those responsible. Also at year’s end, Rockland city councilman, Frank Lawrence, said he would “throw on the table for discussion” a proposal to enact and strictly enforce a city curfew.

Undoubtedly the worst fire in the mid-coast area during the year was the death of seven persons, five of them children, at St. George on April 7. A faulty heater was blamed for the home fire which claimed the seven lives.

Five cases of arson to buildings in Thomaston and Rockland within a few weeks’ span gained considerable news coverage in late November and early December, To date all are under investigation with no arrests made.

Of course all the news in the mid-coast area was not bad in 1973. Successful summer events: the Seafoods Festival at Rockland, the Broiler Festival at Belfast and a huge bicentennial celebration at Waldoboro were held.

Also during the year construction of a $17 million complex at the Samoset was started with a hotel and golf course scheduled to be in operation in mid-1974; and construction of an $8 million Penobscot Bay Medical Center was started with a 1975 completion date. Both projects are in Rockport, which at year’s end had competed plans for the start of a $200,000 marina on the waterfront. Plans to build a Holliday Inn at Rockland were revealed during the year, but as yet have failed to materialize.

Honors for the greatest personal gain during the year goes to a Tenants Harbor businessman, Hugh (Sonny) Lehtinen Jr. He lost almost 235 pounds, trimming his weight from 468 [pounds to 231 on a 66-week diet. He is able to enjoy many activities restricted because of his former heavy weight. One of these was flying. After being grounded for 12 years, he is able to once again pilot his own plane.

Another personal accomplishment worthy of note was that of 18-year-old Lewis Dublin of Belfast. The high school senior was named by the city to fill out a vacancy on the School Administration District 34 board of directors. He, therefore, became the first high school student in the state named to a school board and will have a hand in directing the future of a school system in which he is enrolled.

Several police chiefs in the area gained headlines in 1973. Rockland’s chief, Maurice Benner, was named police chief of the year. And the Camden chief, Albert Smith, was elected president of the Maine Chiefs of Police Association. Police Chief John Hutchison of Belfast resigned his position amid a storm of controversy and Thomaston Chief Herb Laatz was fired from his job, amid another controversy.

In the world of fisheries, proposed clam and lobster fishing bills had thorough airings at Augusta. After all the hoopla and jam-packed, smoke-filled hearing-room testimony on what should or should not be done to regulate clam flats and restrict lobstering in the name of conservation, little came of it. Rep. David Emery’s clam bill was shelved to another session of the legislature, and a watered-down version of a proposed lobster bill finally died a natural death.

There are many other news events of this area which we could elaborate on, including homicides at Swanville, Liberty and Union; controversies of a Belfast property revaluation; a spite fence at Camden; proposed by-pass for Camden which is undoubtedly collecting dust on a forgotten shelf; retirement resignations of SAD 28 Supt. Casper Ciaravino and Rockland City Manager Henry G. Bouchard; local steps to combat the energy crisis; the Methodist Home property tax hassle; and political happenings of the year.

However, we could not close out our letter, Aunt Fanny, without reviewing the continued exploits of the friendly do-it-yourselfer.

Among his better accomplishments in 1973 were to plant his wife’s shrubbery with cement instead of fertilizer. They grew better than the vegetable garden in which the right stuff was used. He made out his own income tax and neglected to deduct allowances for his children. He fixed the brakes on his kid’s mini-bike so that when the brake pedal was pushed the brakes released, and when the pedal was released the brakes worked.

But truly his finest hour of the year, was unplugging his wife’s kitchen sink drain. He never gave up and finally succeeded—in blowing murky goo all over the kitchen cabinets, all over the pots and pans, all over the floor and all over himself.

Happy New Year, Aunt Fanny.