Construction is Expected to be Completed in the Fall of 2013

Construction of Phase 2 Expected to Begin in Early September

“The footprint of this building is larger than the Hampton Inn building. That’s why we’ve made the whole building look like several smaller buildings,” said Mark Wolgrom, president of Opechee Construction at a neighborhood meeting held at the Hampton Inn last night. The proposed building sits on just over an acre, while the adjoining Hampton Inn was built on 3/4 of an acre. Most of those 15 or so attending the meeting were residents of the condominiums already atop the adjoining Hampton Inn. The meeting is required by the city’s planning board.

Greg Kirsch, VP for Opechee said the building will be five stories high, but the overall height will be slightly less than the Hampton Inn, which was finished last August. The top three floors will be dedicated to office space and condominiums with separate entrances for each on each floor. There will be six condominiums on each of three floors for a total of 18 units. They will be more expensive than the units above the Inn because they are larger with more elaborate finishings and have large and outside decks. The entrance to the units will be at 40 India Street.

The first two floors of the brick building will be dedicated to retail space and office space. While no one has yet committed to the office space, the developers are talking to one grocer who might purchase one of the retail units – with an entrance on Middle Street. Not only the condominiums are for sale, but the office space and the retail space is for sale. Sebago Brewery purchased the restaurant space at the Hampton Inn and according to Kirsch it is finding this arrangement less expensive than renting in its former Old Port location. “This is a great opportunity for a small business,” Kersch said.

One hundred seventy parking spaces will be included in Phase 2. It will be parking for the Inn, all condominium units, office and retail space. It does not include parking for the Sebago Brewery Co. Pub, however.

Concerns from the public focused mostly on disrupted traffic in the area during construction and parking for construction workers during construction. Wolgrom said that normally construction occurrs between 7 am and 3:30 pm. However, in order to accommodate hotel guests, construction might occur on weekdays from 8:30 am – 5 pm. Little, if any, Saturday construction is anticipated.

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Jared A. Clark, Consultant, May be Reached at jared1007@maine.rr.com

Mayor Michael Brennan announced this afternoon that he and several consultants along with Greg Mitchell, city’s economic deveopment chair, have already started implementing several programs designed to spur economic growth and create jobs in Portland. The programs support the goals of the city’s Economic Development Vision and Plan, adopted by the City Council last fall. The setting of the press conference was at the Intermed offices, Marginal Way, Portland.

Intermed was chosen as the location for the press conference because it was the first participant in the Business Visitation Program. It is intended to help the city retain local bvusinesses and support efforts to expand. Feedback will be used to adjust economic strategies and activities and through this outreach, local businesses will become better informed of resources and opportunities available at City Hall. One visit a week to a business is planned – with a hope of visiting 40 businesses by the end of the year. The method by which businesses will be chosen was not described and appears to be by random selection.

The Mayor also announced he wants to streamline the city’s permitting process. However, he didn’t go into anymore specifics other than to say that Jared A. Clark, Government Consulting Group has been retained to improve and streamline this process. Dr. Charles Colgan, USM economics professor, has been retained as well as a consultant on the project. The two will be compensated $15,000. for their consulting work.

These efforts will apply to companies with growth and expansion potential. Apparently, the small, food oriented start-up businesss such as coffee shops and small restaurants will not find any relief from their frustrations with the city’s food inspection division. No final report will be filed with anyone and there is no time frame involved according to the Mayor; it’s an open ended project with no ending.

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Mayor Michael Brennan has voiced concern over the proposed thirty percent cut to programs funded by the Fund for a Healthy Maine (FHM) and administered by the City of Portland. FHM, funds received by the state from the Master Tobacco Settlement, are the only dollars dedicated to prevent chronic disease and health promotion in Maine. While details are not complete, the Republican Legislative Leadership budget proposal calls for cuts of at least $250,000 to city programs specifically Healthy Maine Partnerships, school-based health centers and home visitation, according to a press released issued yesterday by the City’s spokeswoman, Nicole Clegg. Mayor Brennan is an LCSW.

“As a legislator, I was proud to be a part of the effort to invest the monies coming from the tobacco settlement into programs that would prevent disease and help Mainers live healthy and acative lives, and as Mayor, I see the direct benefit of these investments in our community,” stated Mayor Brennan. “This simple fact of the matter is that the old adage penny wise and pound foolish applies to these cuts. For every dollar the state has invested in these prevention efforts, Maine has saved approximately $7.50 in costs, the highest return of investment of any state in the country.”

“Healthy families are the key to a healthy economy. Children do better in school, workers are more productive and businesses can add jobs because their health care costs are lower. I consistently hear from businesses leaders that health care costs are holding them back from expanding. If we want to be aggressive about building our economy for the future we need to adopt policies that help businesses control these costs and investments in prevention and health promotion are key.”

The budget proposal calls for $185,000 in cuts to the city’s Healthy Maine Partnerships, Healthy Portland and Healthy Casco Bay. These programs are community coalitions that focus on preventing tobacco use, eliminating involuntary expposure to second hand smoke, increasing physical activity and improving nutrition. Beyond the direct health benefit, the Healthy Maine Partnerships in Cumberland County have been able to bring in more than $4.5 million of additional local, state and federal prevention dollars to the region.

the impact of the proposed cuts to FHM would result in a 14% reduction of funding for the city’s Home Visitation program, which serves three hundred and fifty families annually with home visits and nine hundred families per year with support groups. This program helps to ensure that from birth Maine children’s health is a priority.

Please visit Post # 1,072, dated 1/30/12 for more background on this subject of budget cuts.

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Ft. Gorges From the Eastern Promenade - Named for an Englishman Who Never Stepped Foot in America

The public is invited to attend a roundtable on climate change. The roundtable is set for Thursday, May 17, from 10:30 am to noon at the Cumberland County Civic Center, Maine Lobby Meeting Room, Portland. The event is sponsored by the Natural Resources Council of Maine. Reservations are needed by Tuesday, May 15th via online.

A distinguished panel of experts have voluntered to participate in the event. Some of them are city councilor David Marshall, Steve Rowe, former Maine Attorney General, Stephen Mulkey, Ph.D. President of Unity College, Mark Green, Ph.D. ocean acidification expert, etc. Curt Spalding, EPA Regional Administrator will be the featured speaker and the roundtable will be moderated by Lisa Ohlmann, NRCM, executive director.

The EPA wants to hear from you about climate changes of particular interest to you. It’s well known that there are increasing signs of how vulnerable our health, environment and economy are to climate change and Maine is especially at risk because of our coastlines and natural resource-based economy. The US EPA recently proposed new standards to limit carbon pollution from new power plants. These standards are critical to addressing climate change, reducing air pollution and providing a path toward cleaner energy investments. Your presence will help demonstrate that combating climate change is important to Maine people!

To attend this roundtable, please make your reservation online at: emmie@nrcm.org or 430-0105

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The Bay View Lady Returns to the Marine Trade Center Following Its Training Session on May 5th

In a public hearing held by the Harbor Commission this afternoon at City Council chambers, there was little discussion of the training session for owners and captains of small passenger vessels based in Portland Harbor; little since this was the first meeting of the Commission since the training session happened on Saturday, May 5th. No follow-up discussion was listed on the Commission’s agenda for the meeting.

During the public hearing which deteriorated into more of a private conversation among the Commissioners, it was apparent that the training session had not been as successful as was hoped. About fifteen or so captains showed up for the free and voluntary session, but there was little participation or interest among them. About fourteen of the captains were already seasoned with only one captain new to Casco Bay which may have accounted for the lack of participation and interest. One Commissioner suggested that perhaps the training session could be available during the summer when there might be more new captains working on Casco Bay. The possibility of using a video rather than a hands on training session was discussed by the all male Commission.

With no amplification in use, it appeared that additional discussion and a decision on whether or not to continue the vessel training program just initiated, would be discussed and a decision made by email – thus eliminating public access.

The training session came about because of the concerns of the Commission over the grounds of two different schooners owned by Portland Schooner Co. last year. At an October 27th meeting last fall, Chairman Thomas W. Dobbins asked for recommendations from attendees on how to eliminate such grounds. A lack of knowledge of the waters of Casco Bay was cited as the reason for the groundings.

Portland Schooner Co. registered four of its personnel for the training session on May 5th. However, the Commission could not say how many had showed up for it.

For more background information, please visit Post # 1,006, dated 10/26/ll.

editor’s note: Transparency has LONG been missing from this Commission and it is hoped that this will improve in the future. Agendas are not on-line and when mhn.com does see one, it is so vague as to be useless.

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Kevin Bunker, partner, in the five year old DevelopersCollaborative

Proposed 25 Unit Condominiums to Front on Franklin Street

“Condominiums are best to build here and that’s what we are proposing,” said Kevin Bunker, DevelopersCollaborative, said of the current plans to develop the properties owned by millionaire businessman S. Donald Sussman. (He’s also married to US Representative Chellie Pingree and a majority stockholder in The Portland Press Herald.) Bunker was talking to members of the India Street Neighborhood Association at its monthly meeting last night.

Bunker said he has been working closely with Tom Federle, Sussman’s representative in the proposed development. An application for rezoning will be submitted soon and following that there will need to be site plan approval by the city’s planning board. If all goes as anticipated, city council approval could come in August with construction starting in September. And completion of the development could come in the spring of 2013.

Because of the anticipated changes to come to the Franklin Street corridor through the work of Markos Miller and the Franklin Street Study Group, it was decided that the 25 condominium units would front on Franklin Street – not on Hampshire Street. So far, there is underground parking for 24 of the 25 units. Although the original idea, included art studios to be incorporated in the development, it does not appear that these 25 units will include them. Bunker has met with a few city councilor members, including Kevin Donoghue, and they support the project as proposed so far.

First on the agenda at the meeting, Mayor Michael Brennan outlined some of the work he has done and will be announced in the near future: The Mayor described the city’s restructuring its committees so there are now four members of each committee rather than three. Next Wednesday at a press conference, the city will announce two new programs that place emphasis on the business community and an effort to correct problems therein. United Way of Portland will be announcing a new program to help with social concerns in the City as well.

Hugh Nazor of the Association told the Mayor that this neighborhood has no comprehensive vision or plan for our future. Allison Brown, president, said: “We were totally ignored for a long time. And we didn’t like that.” Joe Malone, who was the organizer behind the Association and owns property in the area said: “We have different issues from Munjoy Hill. The city needs to pay attention to us. We are nothing like any other neighborhood. We need to get on the city’s radar.” The Association members were encouraged to develop their own comprehensive plan to submit to the city.

One woman told the Mayor she felt “uncomfortable” passing by Milestones on India Street. Mayor Brennan, LCSW, told her that in the future that facility could become more of an “out patient” treatment facility than it currently is.

Bill Needleman, city senior planner, said that his office is currently very busy. “We like it like that.”

For more background information on the Hampshire Street Development, please visit Post # 1,080, dated 2/8/12.

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Co-owners of Haberdashery Resale Heather Sheldon and Jenny Davis

229 Congress Street to House Two Businesses Soon

Heather and Sheldon Ashby live on the Eastern Promenade and soon they will be sharing a store front at 229 Congress Street, a building that the couple own as well.

Heather and a business partner, Jenny Davis, will run Haberdashery Resale. The smaller space will be the office for Sheldon’s business – Ashby Realty – which specializes in multi-family buildngs.

Although the “for lease” sign remains in the window of the Congress Street property within a week or two, Heather and Jenny expect to replace it with a new one announcing Haberdashery Resale; an upscale mens and womens used clothing store with a different twist. The two women will buy the items outright from the seller rather than wait to reimburse them upon the sale of the items. Some of the labels the store will sell include: Pendleton, J. Crew, Ann Taylor Ralph Lauren and Forever XX1. All of these items will be sold at reasonable prices, said Jenny in a telephone conversation last night. Women’s shoes and bags will be a significant part of the inventory as well. Formerly, Portland Fiber was in this location.

A smaller percentage of the total inventory will be created by local artists according to Jenny. She’s been talking to many of them and has agreed to sell earrings by Emily Phillips and cashmere baby clothes by Nikaline Iacono. The two women intend to participate eventually in the First Friday Art Walk; however, not initially.

Adjustments may be made as summer approaches, but tentatively the store will be open Tuesday – Sunday and closed on Monday. Hours are from 10:00 am – 6:00 pm. A website is under construction.

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A Sniper Atop the Public Market Parking Garage

Police Chief Michael Sauschuck Briefs the Press

19 Cedar Street Following the Standoff

Just before 5:30 pm this afternoon the Portland Swat Team removed a man from 19 Cedar Street on the East End and took him into custody. He’d been hold up in the mustard color house since this morning after shooting a woman passing by the house outside. At 5:00 pm, Police began shooting off cannisters of tear gas which could be heard all over the neighborhood; a total of 6 were shot off.

Police Chief Michael Sauschuck briefed the press on Cumberland Avenue at 4:40 pm. The police department received a phone call at 11:05 am saying that a woman had been shot and was “bleeding heavily.” He did not know of the relationship between the woman and the alleged shooter in the house. At that time, Sauschuck said police were “having a conversation with a gentleman involved in the shooting.” Police had closed off an extensive perimeter around the 19 Cedar Street location.

It appears that the woman was shot by a pellet gun which could be part of a rifle. She will survive. There were reports that she was shot about 10:20 am. Residents in the immediate area were evacuated from their homes while there was a lockdown at Portland High School and the Salvation Army. Students were at PHS taking SAT tests, but were released from the back door into the back yard where they participated in a planned barbeque.

At 5:30, police removed the yellow tapes and traffic returned to normal. Shortly after that, residents of the 19 Cedar Street house began returning to the building and the street was opened up to traffic.

editor’s note: Due to an unexpected power loss, earlier this week, MHN.com lost two articles which has not been retrievable. One was on the latest on the development of the former Adams School and the other on the training session sponsored by the Harbor Commission for waterfront captains.

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City manager Mark Rees Thanks Patrons as PSO Director Robert Moody Listens

The 4th of July fireworks will be launched from a barge in Casco Bay said Jack Quirk, President of Quirk Cheverolet, at a brief press conference this morning at the Cumberland Club, Portland. Quirk is one of the founders of the Stars and Stripes Spectacular which for the last two years has seriously ramped up the city’s annual Fourth of July Fireworks on the Eastern Promenade on the Hill.

The Fore River Dock & Dredge Company has donated a barge from which the fireworks will be launched. The barge will be located about 200′ feet off the Eastern Promenade, near Pomeroy Rock in Casco Bay for the annual spectacular. Traditionally, they have been launched from East End Beach. The City’s fire department, police department, the US Coast Guard and Portland Tugs have all been working together to insure that this will be a safe event for all. Robert Moody, director of the Portland Symphony Orchestra said the Orchestra will play all the great music of the day. This year the 60-voice Magic of Christmas chorus will be added to the program replacing soloists of past years. The concert will begin about 7:40 pm and continue through the finale of the fireworks display over Casco Bay.

City manager Mark Rees said he’s looking forward to seeing his first fireworks on the Eastern Promenade since he has been on the job for less than a year. He thanked all the parties involved for making this come true. According to Jon Jennings, last year there were between 60,000 and 80,000 who attended the Fireworks. Launching them from a barge will open up the area much more and allow many more people to enjoy the spectacular. The group is working with two area charities to hopefully add a fun charitable event during the day.

But this is not the first time that fireworks have been launched from a barge in Casco Bay. It used to be a tradition until about 17 years ago, when there was an accident on the barge. “Something misfired or there was a malfunction of some kind”, said Troy Daigle, a former city employee for the Department of Public Services. He was in the crowd that night setting up barriers and cleaning up after the event was over. Early into the fireworks show, they all went sort of crazy. People panicked. No one in the audience was hurt.

“This event has become a passion for all of us. We want to make it better and better each year,” said Jon Jennings at the press conference.

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Concierge David Costa of the Portland Harbor Hotel

David Pulido, Owner of the Popular Portland Lobster Co. Prepares to Open 5/3/12

“There are so many people on the streets here that we decided to open early this year,” said David Pulido, owner of the Portland Lobster Co. this afternoon. He and his wife, Debra, were cleaning the popular seafood resturant/take-out in anticipation of their opening on Thursday, May 3 – about two weeks ahead of schedule. It is open for lunch and dinner, seven days a week with live music on the dock all summer.

Across Commercial Street from the Portland Lobster Co. is Vervacious, a tantalizing store specializing in condiments for use with weekday cooking and holiday entertaining recipes. Mark Stanvick, proprietor, said “compared to last year, there are a lot more people around and they are buying. Not just looking around. A lot of folks are up here for restaurants as well as food related purchases. People come from Boston and New York. Vervacious is located at 227 Commercial Street vervacious.com

Jacques deVillier, the owner of Old Port Wine & Cigars said his business is way up from last year. In fact, January to March of this year it was up 20% over last year; March of this year business was up 37% and April has been average. He believes the reason for that is the cooler weather Portland has experienced during April. “Portland is becoming a destination for people from New York, Boston and Providence. It’s safe and friendly. This is a great weekend getaway. The weather played a huge part in improving our economy as well,” deVillier said.

Down at Portland Harbor Hotel, Concierge David W. Costa said: “Every hotel in town was sold out last night and we don’t know why. There were no special events going on. We can also tell business is better than previously because we’ve been sold out for the past 6 or more Saturdays. On a continum from last summer and every season thereafter, it has been appreciably busier with any comparable season. Mild weather is a significant factor in that. Twenty % of our guests are here explicitly for the purpose of sampling restaurant food,” Costa said.

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