Maine
‘Not only with tears, but with action’: Maine DOT honors two workers killed on duty
AUGUSTA, Maine (WABI) – An emotional day from Fairfield to Augusta, but felt throughout Maine and beyond, as state officials, community members and loved ones honored the lives of two Department of Transportation workers who tragically died in the field.
Maine DOT Commissioner Dale Doughty described the accident as “the nightmare that commissioners worry about.”
While working on Interstate 95 in January, Maine DOT workers James “Jimmy” Brown, 60, and Dwayne Campbell, 51, died after a driver failed to brake at a stop sign and crashed into a tractor-trailer traveling on the highway.
To honor the men’s commitment to public service and their legacy as fathers, outdoorsmen and Mainers, a procession including DOT officials, family members and more traveled to the Augusta Civic Center Saturday for a memorial service.
Among those in attendance was Gov. Janet Mills, who remarked on who Brown and Campbell were and their dedication to their profession.
“Jimmy, as you know, worked for the Maine Department of Transportation for 12 years. Dwayne for more than 23 years,” Mills described. “We could count on Jimmy and Dwayne just as we could count on the 1,600 Maine dot workers who keep our roads and bridges safe every day.”
Brown was known for his humor and love of fishing, cars and his children.
Campbell got his start in the DOT by following in his father’s footsteps. Mills said at the service that Campbell loved his daughters and time spent outdoors.
For Commissioner Doughty, losses like this hit hard because of the closely bonded “family business” that DOT is.
That family expands past state lines, as departments of transportation from New Hampshire and Vermont were present to show their support.
New Hampshire DOT State Maintenance Engineer Alan Hanscom said he called Maine DOT just hours after hearing of the accident to see what his crews could do to help.
“My employees are impacted or subject to the same dangers that Maine and every other state is,” Hanscom said of the importance of his attendance. “I have an employee that was killed in a motor vehicle crash some years ago, so it kind of hits home.”
Unfortunately, Doughty says accidents happen “quite frequently.”
Saturday’s event served not only as a commemoration but also as a call to action. Despite DOT’s training, Doughty says it is rendered useless if motorists put right-of-way employees in danger through reckless or distracted driving.
Hanscom expanded: “People don’t realize that this is our office. You’re driving through our office space. We’d like you to give us some consideration and slow down and be mindful of where we are. Give us a little respect.”
Doughty mentioned that these dangers extend beyond DOT workers to everyone who does roadside work. Because of this, he says, agencies must join forces to develop solutions.
“I really think it’s time, and we have a meeting coming up in April, where we pull all agencies and all companies that work in the right-of-way, contractors, utilities, everyone to start to talk about that message,” Doughty said.
On the podium, Doughty told audiences: “Please help us carry forward their memory, not only with tears, but with action.”
On Thursday, the Joint Standing Committee on Transportation authorized the Maine Turnpike Authority to conduct a pilot program for speed enforcement in work zones. The legislation is now headed to the House and Senate.
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KENNEBUNK (WGME) — A national wildlife refuge in Maine has a new center for its visitors.
At a ribbon cutting in Kennebunk Wednesday, Maine leaders celebrated the grand opening of the Rachel Carson Center for People and Nature.
The new center offers exhibits and programs for the nearly 300,000 visitors that stop by the refuge each year.
The center’s grand opening coincides with the late author Rachel Carson’s birthday.
Carson’s research helped to spur conservation efforts and environmental policy changes in the 1960s, something Congresswoman Chellie Pingree says she’s now fighting for decades later.
“We’ve actually come 180 degrees, we think science is wrong and we shouldn’t believe in it and climate change doesn’t exist,” Pingree said. “We’re battling an anti-science battle, and we have to continue to take it on, but one of the best ways to do that is to bring people right here in touch with nature.”
The refuge in total spans more than 6,000 acres across several cities and towns in southern Maine.
The typical home in Maine’s largest city costs nearly $300,000 more than it would have a decade ago, a new study revealed.
Median home prices in Portland surged from $263,000 to $558,000 over the past 10 years, according to an analysis of nationwide real estate data from Construction Coverage. That’s a 112% spike in the last decade, earning the city the 85th spot among all small U.S. cities ranked by housing price growth.
Meanwhile, the median Maine home cost about $193,000 in 2016 and $407,000 in 2026. That 111% growth makes Maine the state with the third highest real estate price jump over the last decade.
The report reveals that Maine’s housing has not only become unaffordable to most people in the state, but that Mainers are feeling the pressure of rising home prices more than almost every other state while wages have struggled to keep up. Nationwide, home values jumped more than 81% in the last decade.
The report includes data from Zillow, the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
While median housing prices across the state rose 110% over the last 10 years, median household income rose by 53%. It shows that many Mainers aren’t able to afford the rising costs.
The Maine Housing Outlook Report, released in January by MaineHousing, noted housing prices outpacing wages as an “ongoing concern.”
“In 2015, the median income in Maine exceeded by 21% what was needed to afford the median home price in the state. In other words, an average earner could afford an average home,” the report stated. “This is no longer the case.”
Only Idaho and New Hampshire have seen housing prices grow more than Maine, according to the analysis.
Idaho saw the highest jump, as median property values rose 137% to surpass $473,000 this year when the same home there would’ve cost just under $200,000 in 2016.
In New Hampshire, median home prices rose more than $270,000 over the last 10 years to $507,000 this year — a 114% spike.
Meanwhile, median household income in Idaho and New Hampshire climbed by 64% and 50%, respectively, during the same period.
PORTLAND (WGME) — A legal battle between the University of New England and the City of Biddeford is now headed to the Maine Supreme Judicial Court.
UNE is suing the city after leaders approved a 180-day moratorium on university development earlier this year.
“Litigation wasn’t our first choice,” UNE VP for Legal Affairs Ron Schneider said.
UNE is suing the city for disrupting approved projects through a development moratorium the city established in January.
Schneider says while they believe there is no straightforward reason for the moratoria, they think it was sparked by the university’s push to replace an existing pier with a new one along the Saco River.
“The full year-round permanent pier will allow students to engage in research and work on the water year-round,” Schneider said.
A legal battle between the University of New England and the City of Biddeford is now headed to the Maine Supreme Judicial Court. (WGME)
The project first initiated in 2009 is still being debated by city leaders. According to the city’s website, the project violates a long-standing permit that requires new developments to “retain and maintain a 250-foot-wide vegetative buffer along the entire shoreline,” the pier’s proposed access road would violate that permit.
However, the project has already been approved by the city planning board.
“Now politics seems to have taken over,” Schneider said.
The city held a meeting just for public comment on the pier in October, with many opposed to the location of it, and at least one other saying it could affect boat moorings.
“There are at least seven that have to move so UNE can even use this pier,” Sean Tibbets, who has a mooring near the UNE pier, said.
A legal battle between the University of New England and the City of Biddeford is now headed to the Maine Supreme Judicial Court. (WGME)
Meanwhile, the university disagrees.
“In many respects, it’s a false narrative,” Schneider said. “A narrative that says, ‘This pier is going to go out into the federal channel, into the middle of the river,’ and it’s not.”
The City of Biddeford says it does not comment on ongoing litigation. When CBS13 asked UNE if they think this has affected their relationship with the city, they said with city leaders, but not the city itself.
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