Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024

Quote of the Day

“When you walk into a store like this — especially 50 years ago — everybody knows everybody.”

— Ed Anania, whose two classic corner stores on Congress Street and Washington Avenue will close Friday.

Today’s Top Maine Stories

The residents of a Bangor mobile home park are trying to fend off a corporate sale. When big investors swoop in to purchase the properties, it tends to drastically increase the rent residents must pay.

A downtown Bangor store that sold creations from more than 260 Maine artisans unexpectedly closed Monday. Maine Micro Artisans is the latest in a string of businesses that have closed in downtown Bangor in recent months.

The last Italian family-owned corner store in Portland is closing its doors. The Libbytown and Washington Avenue Anania’s locations will serve their last sandwiches Friday.

A handful of Hancock County towns have banded together to raise concerns about the future of three dams. Local officials and residents are wary that lake levels could drop dramatically if dam ownership is ceded by Bucksport Mill LLC.

Aroostook County’s Nordic Heritage Outdoor Center will close in December. The center sits on 750 acres and features more than 30 miles of trails for cross-country skiing, hiking and mountain biking.

News from Around the State

• Ranked-choice voting tabulation begins Tuesday for Maine’s 2nd District race

• Disruptions at Hannaford stores caused by cybersecurity incident

• Maine dams face an uncertain future

• Some Maine school districts will be declaring fewer snow days

• Yale University museum will return items to Maine tribes

• Portland nonprofit is taking over struggling Bangor homeless shelter

• Box truck driver arrested after allegedly fleeing from Old Town police

• Darling’s acquires Van Syckle Kia in Bangor

• Greenville wonders what’s next after ski mountain redevelopment plan falls through

• Presque Isle TV station will no longer produce local morning newscast

• $4K reward for information on deer illegally shot on MDI

• Belfast responds to challenges from growing use of city parks

• Maine father and son plead guilty in antisemitic graffiti case

• Fire destroys abandoned midcoast home

• Storms dramatically eroded midcoast Maine’s sand dunes last winter

• Sanford looks to restrict needle exchange with emergency ordinance

• UMaine women’s soccer team says last year’s NCAA experience will help vs. Wisconsin

• Analysis: BC sweep gives UMaine hockey a valuable wake-up call

Maine Town of the Week

Note: We’re launching a new Morning Update section today, featuring a fun factoid about a different Maine town each week. Got a good one? Email us news@bangordailynews.com.

ABBOT: Let's start at the very beginning; a very good place to start. Abbot, which has long billed itself as "Maine's first town" -- it is, alphabetically speaking -- got its name from John Abbott, the first treasurer of Bowdoin College in Brunswick. Most of the land that comprises the town was granted to Bowdoin in 1794, though the town was not established until 1827. Somehow, over the past two centuries, it lost its second “t.” Perhaps someone dropped it.

Maine in Pictures

Longtime customer Ernie "Elvis" Farr (right) waves goodbye to Ed and Barb Anania in Portland on Tuesday morning. The Ananias are selling their two namesake sandwich shops — the last two family-owned, Italian-American corner stores in the city. Credit: Troy R. Bennett / BDN

From the Opinion Pages

Life in Maine

Ever since the “Maine penny” was correctly identified as Norse, it’s confounded people. Was it proof that the Vikings visited North America farther south than Newfoundland? Did it arrive in Hancock County by chance? Or was it all a big hoax?

“The presence of an invasive species, smallmouth bass, in the lake is a disappointment and a source of concern,” Outdoors contributor V. Paul Reynolds writes this week. But, he argues, the Canadian solution to invasive species may be too drastic for Moosehead Lake.

Colbie Page, 14, carried on a family tradition during this year’s deer hunt. The Dixfield teen used her grandmother’s .35-caliber Remington to harvest her first buck.

“In the fall of 1775, during the Revolutionary War, Col. Benedict Arnold led a small army on an epic march through Maine and southern Quebec to conduct an unsuccessful attack on Quebec City,” Ron Chase recounts. He and his group of Chowderheads recently paddled Flagstaff Lake, a region full of history.

Some Maine farmers are testing the lengths they can go to to keep seasonal plants alive. The practice of overwintering summer plants, such as peppers, can lead to hardier plants.

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