As extra freight trains journey throughout Maine between northern Washington County and northern Somerset County, rural cities alongside the route have needed to steadiness their hopes for bettering their native economies with logistical challenges offered by the elevated rail visitors.
Vanceboro, the place Canadian trains from the rising Port of Saint John cross into Maine en path to Quebec, could face the most important logistical complication of all of them.
U.S. Customs and Border Patrol has stated it should begin closing the car crossing there for 12 hours a day, as an alternative of maintaining it open across the clock, so it could possibly “higher serve rail visitors” that crosses the Saint Croix River from Canada.
“The port of Vanceboro has seen a considerable enhance in rail visitors whereas demonstrating a lower in car visitors,” an company spokesperson stated just lately. “These officers at present devoted to processing passengers in the course of the discount interval will probably be reallocated to inspecting cargo and rail visitors.”
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That doesn’t sit properly with native officers in Vanceboro and McAdam, 5 miles throughout the border in New Brunswick, who say that the lowered entry would vastly disrupt life for space residents, a lot of whom have twin citizenship and family on reverse sides of the border. About 100 folks dwell in Vanceboro and 1,000 dwell in McAdam.
Cheryl Lengthy, a Vanceboro selectman and former native railroad worker, stated that regardless of the company’s claims about declining car visitors, she has seen that extra folks have moved to the city previously two years. She stated the soar in practice visitors throughout the border ought to be a motive for increasing border patrol sources in Vanceboro, not decreasing car entry.
“I don’t suppose there may be even one home on the market on the town,” Lengthy stated. “I hope the practice visitors will continue to grow. There ought to be much more jobs out there.”
Cheryl Nadeau, Jackman’s city supervisor, stated that after Canadian Pacific purchased the previous Central Maine and Quebec Railway line in 2020, it despatched crews to city for just a few months to improve the road. Many of the native lodging companies had been full and the eating places had been busy whereas the work was being executed, which helped the native economic system, she stated.
The corporate additionally has added two new jobs which are based mostly in Jackman.
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However the trains are lengthy, and every time they cross Essential Avenue in Jackman — three or 4 instances a day — they bring about native visitors to a halt for half-hour or extra. Additionally they are required to blast their horns on the crossing, which wakes up close by residents at night time.
The repeated practice crossings at Essential Avenue will not be only a matter of inconvenience, Nadeau stated. What worries native officers most is that the city’s ambulance service and fireplace station are positioned on one aspect of the tracks, and the native well being heart is on the opposite. Having them minimize off from one another whereas a practice is passing by way of city might hamper response instances in an emergency, she stated.
“That’s our largest challenge,” Nadeau stated. “The trains have been two miles lengthy, and typically they’re longer than that. We’re going to speak to Maine DOT about a few of our issues.”
In Brownville, which lengthy has hosted an operations junction for the railroads which have owned the road, the rise in rail visitors has not posed any important issues for native residents. The influence of Canadian Pacific coming to city has been constructive, stated Felice Lyford, Brownville’s city supervisor.
“They’ve put in cash,” Lyford stated, including that the corporate constructed a brand new operations constructing on the town final yr. “There are a substantial amount of residents on this space who work for the railroad.”
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The variety of folks employed by rail firms has fluctuated through the years, however trains have at all times been a significant a part of the city’s id, she stated. For many years, many native residents who didn’t work for the railroad commuted jobs on the paper mill in Millinocket or the shoe manufacturing facility in Dexter. These companies shut down within the early 2000s, across the identical time that Bangor and Aroostook Railroad, the native rail operator on the time, went bankrupt.
“It was fairly devastating to this space,” Lyford stated. “Exercise dwindled down a lot. To have the railroad choose up and are available again is a giant deal.”
River otters are members of the weasel family, and are equally comfortable on land or in the water.
They probably are the most fun mammal Maine has, just because they like to play. But their play antics have a more serious purpose too. They teach their young survival skills, and hone their own, that way.
You will see them slide down riverbanks and muddy or snowy hills, wrestle with each other, bellyflop, somersault or juggle rocks while lying on their backs, according to the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute.
The otters in this video courtesy of Colin Chase have found a fun log to include in their games.
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Otters are social creatures but usually live alone in pairs. Parents raise two or three kits that are born in spring in a den near a river or stream, the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife website says.
They primarily eat fish, but also shellfish, crayfish and sometimes turtles, snakes, muskrats and small beavers, according to the MDIF&W.
Otters can swim up to a quarter mile under water, and their noses and ears close while they are submerged. They also have a membrane that closes over their eyes so they can see better under water, the Smithsonian said.
They are mostly nocturnal so it’s a treat to see them during the day, playing or hunting for food.
Maine State Police responded to more than 50 crashes and road slide-offs Saturday after southern Maine woke up to some light snowfall.
Police were responding to several crashes on the Maine Turnpike (Interstate 95) and Interstate 295 south of Augusta, state police said in a Facebook message posted around 10 a.m. Saturday.
Maine State Police spokesperson Shannon Moss said that as of early Saturday afternoon, more than 50 crashes had been reported on the turnpike and I-295.
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“The Turnpike has seen 24 crashes and slide offs primarily between Kittery and Falmouth with a higher concentration in Saco,” Moss wrote in an email. “The interstate has seen about 30 crashes and slide offs also in the Falmouth area but now in Lincoln and heading north.”
Moss said no injuries have been reported in any of the crashes.
“So far it appears visibility and driving too fast for road conditions are the causation factors,” Moss said.
State police reminded drivers to take caution, especially during snowy conditions, in the Facebook post.
“Please drive with extra care and give yourself plenty of space between you and the other vehicles on the roadway,” the post said. “Give the MDOT and Turnpike plows extra consideration and space to do their jobs to clear the roadway. Drive slow, plan for the extra time to get to your destination and be safe.”
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New rules that went into effect in August changing who pays real estate commissions have resulted in more paperwork and some anxiety for home buyers and sellers but have had little, if any, impact on home prices in the state’s hot real estate market.
The changes, which stem from a settlement in a lawsuit accusing real estate agents of conspiring to keep their commissions high, altered the way commission fees are set nationally.
For decades, most home sales in the United States have included a commission fee, typically between 5 and 6 percent of the sale price.
The typical Maine home went for around $400,000 this fall. A 5 to 6 percent commission on a $400,000 home would be between $20,000 and $24,000, split between the agents for the buyer and the seller.
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Before the changes in August, the split for each agent was predetermined by the seller, who paid the fee for both agents. That usually resulted in fees being baked into the list price of a home.
In some states (although not in Maine) agents were able to search the multiple listing service, a catalogue of homes for sale, by the commission split, which critics said incentivized agents to steer clients toward more expensive properties with higher commissions.
Now, fees are negotiated sale-by-sale. Buyers and sellers are now each responsible for paying their own agents, meaning a buyer may have to come with more cash up front if a seller doesn’t want to pay the commission fee for a buyer’s agent. Sellers are also no longer allowed to include commission fees in their listings.
Tacy Ridlon, a listing agent with Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate The Masiello Group in Ellsworth, who has been in real estate for 32 years, said it is a bit jarring to have a conversation with buyers about whether they are willing to pay part of their agent’s commission.
Once the commission is established and the agreement signed, she said, the buyer’s agent then approaches the seller’s agent to see what part of their commission the seller is willing to cover, if any.
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Ridlon said 3 percent for the buyer’s agent is a typical starting point.
“We have to start high. If the seller is willing to offer 2 percent for the buyer’s agent, then our buyer only has to pay one percent… If the seller is not offering anything, then we ask the buyer to pay a certain amount. Some can pay and some can’t. For some it’s very difficult because they don’t have a lot of money to play around with.”
The change has resulted in some confusion for many buyers and even some agents around the country, as rules differ from state-to-state. Photo by Kate Cough.
Some agents said they found the changes minimal; others find the paperwork and negotiating with buyers daunting. One agency owner said the ruling has done little to bring prices down.
“This ruling has done nothing to save buyers or sellers any money,” said Billy Milliken, a designated broker and owner of Bold Coast Properties, LLC, in Jonesport. “If anything, it’s made the cost of buying a home even more expensive.”
Milliken said his sellers have had no problem agreeing to pay both buyers’ and sellers’ commissions. The cost has been embedded in the price of the property.
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“The real loser is first time home buyers who are not educated in buying a home and also have limited cash resources,” said Milliken. “It puts them at a disadvantage.”
The change has resulted in some confusion for many buyers and even some agents around the country, as rules differ from state-to-state.
People are slowly getting used to the changes, said Monet Yarnell, president of the Midcoast Board of Realtors, who owns her own agency, Sell 207 in Belfast, adding that Maine’s real estate practices were already more transparent than many other areas of the country.
“I think it was a little confusing in the beginning, more doom and gloom,” said Yarnell. But sellers are still incentivized to offer something to the buyers’ agents, she said. And the changes have increased the level of communication between agents and their clients.
“It’s more how the money flows rather than the actual dollars.”
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Ridlon, in Ellsworth, said she has been fortunate that most sellers have offered some compensation toward the buyer’s agent commission. “I have not had a buyer who can’t do the 3 percent.”
Ridlon had one seller who was not willing to pay any part of the buyer’s agent’s commission. The property had a lot of showings, but many of the buyers asked for closing costs to be covered or for concessions in lieu of picking up part of the commission.
“That didn’t really work for my seller either,” she said. “Then he relented and said he would pay one percent.”
The property sold.
Debbie Walter sold her condominium in Stockton Springs via Yarnell and then bought another condominium in New London, N.H., with another real estate agent.
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“We’re kind of guinea pigs,” said Walter. “We were very concerned about that whole piece, both as sellers and buyers.”
Fearful the sale of their house might not proceed smoothly the couple readily agreed to pay a 3 percent commission for the buyer’s agent.
When they made their offer to buy the condominium in N.H., they offered as buyers to cover their buyer’s agent’s commission as well. But the seller in that case took an equally cautious approach and offered to cover 2.5 percent of the buyer’s agent’s commission, which Walters’ agent accepted.
“It was very stressful,” Walter said. Offering to cover their buyer’s agent’s commission, she said, created “one less headache for the whole closing procedure.”
Tom McKee, president of the Maine Realtors Association, said the settlement and new rules have had little impact.
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“It hasn’t changed anything for me,” said McKee, who is with Keller Williams in Portland. Now that the commission split is no longer listed in the M.L.S., said McKee, “there are just more questions in the transaction.”
McKee said there is no set percentage, that everything is negotiable.
“If we do our job right and are meeting with the client first, they already understand.”
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