Young Girl & Grandfather Save Man, Dog from Piscataqua River

Terry Adams and his grand-daughter Hillary Adams-Wainwright, local heroes (photo by Michelle Kingston)

By Michelle Kingston

Staff Columnist

YORK -

As if running your own lobster boat at thirteen years old isn’t impressive enough, Hillary Adams-Wainwright, of York, is now considered a local Seacoast hero after saving two lives on Monday, July 11, from the Piscataqua River.

“Everyone kind of made it seem like it was (a big deal), but I don’t really think it was at all. It was just kind of like, it happened,” she said.

She had just finished dropping off a load of lobsters at Chrissy D. Lobster Company in Kittery with her grandfather, Terry Adams, 66, when she spotted Portsmouth Naval Shipyard workers whistling and motioning them to turn around.

As the pair began to rotate the boat, scanning the river for what they thought would be divers, Adams-Wainwright spotted a small, scared and struggling four-legged friend searching for help.

“We went and grabbed the dog, and we were heading back, and they were still telling us to go back,” she said.

A woman on Peirce Island was also frantically screaming for Adams-Wainwright and her grandfather to continue looking around.

“She was hysterical,” said Adams.

Penny, the small pup, who Adams-Wainwright believed was an English Terrier, was recovering on the boat when Adams spotted a hand pop up out of the river. Penny’s owner was also gasping for air, requiring assistance and hoping to be rescued.

“We found him, and we had him catch his breath on the side of the boat when we got up to him and then we pulled him in,” said Adams-Wainwright.

Penny and her owner, Chris Stephens, 27, of Haverhill, Massachusetts, were playing fetch on Peirce Island when a long toss took Penny out into the current. Stephens swam out to save Penny when he was caught up in the current as well.

They were both brought to safety very quickly. Adams feared that if he didn’t move away from the shore fast his boat was going to ground out.

“I just wanted to get out of there before we ruined the boat,” he said. “We got him out of the boat. We got the dog out of the boat. Then we got out of there. I was afraid I was getting hung up, and I would be in trouble. We just got out of there as soon as we could,” said Adams.

Steve Achilles, Portsmouth Deputy Fire Chief, said Stephens refused medical treatment from Portsmouth paramedics at the scene and chose not to be transported to Portsmouth Regional Hospital.

Both Stephens and his dog appeared to be okay at the scene. However, both Adams-Wainwright and Adams do not think they would have been if it weren’t for them being there.

“There were other boats,” said Adams-Wainwright. “But no one noticed.”

“They just kept right on going,” said Adams.

Adams believed the dog and her owner had been distressed in the water for at least fifteen minutes before he and his granddaughter saved them. They had drifted off land about 100-150 yards, according to Adams.

The owner and the dog are both safe, but have not contacted the Maine heroes who saved their lives last week.

“Haven’t heard from him,” said Adams, a bit surprised.

Adams-Wainwright and Adams have been fishing together for more than five years now and have never had to rescue anyone from the river before.

However, Adams did save a kayaker in the York River a few years ago.

“He was just exhausted. He was going out with the tide,” said Adams.

They both caution all swimmers, local and from away, to be cautious of the tides in our area.

Adams-Wainwright has spent her summer days since she was eight years old with her grandfather, pulling in traps, bonding, and making hard-earned cash as she gains experience for her dream job as a marine biologist.

“She’ll have up to 150 traps next year,” said Adams.

After all these years, she says she has never caught anyone quite like she did last week. Just lobsters.

Kennebunk High School Welcomes Chinese Students from Sister School

Chinese students from the Tangshan Foreign Language School were in Kennebunk this past week. Here, students listen as Glenn Black, from the science department at KHS, teaches a morning class. (Photo by Tim Gillis)

By Timothy Gillis

Staff Columnist

KENNEBUNK –

Thirteen Chinese students and their chaperone are in town this week for a summer camp at Kennebunk High School. They are from Kennebunk High’s sister school in Tangshan, China.

They arrived a little later than scheduled when a connecting flight to Maine was cancelled at the last minute. So their first night in the United States was spent stuck in a Washington, D.C. airport, but the tired travelers finally arrived in Maine and were greeted by their host families from Kennebunk.

Principal Susan Cressey went to China last March and visited the Tangshan Foreign Language School, located north of Beijing. It was then that she set up the exchange.

“Students are fluent in English,” Cressey said. “I got to attend classes there. I was very interested in the discussions.” Classes are held in English in many schools in the area, Cressey said, and most classes have forty-five to fifty students in them.

“The classes stay put, and the teachers move from class to class,” she said, adding that – despite the large class size – behavior was not a problem.

“Only the motivated and brightest get to go to high school in China,” she said.

While they are here, the Chinese students will take part in science and math classes, tour the University of New England, and meet with a guidance counselor about the American college application process.

Each morning, the students will have about four hours of classes before they head out into the community to take in local arts and culture.

On Tuesday morning, July 16, Kennebunk High School science teacher Glenn Black got the students started on a lesson, with some help from KHS students Jace Valls (senior), Colby Harrison (senior), Kimberly Keithley (senior), and Caroline Smith (sophomore). Keithley is originally from China.

Also lending a hand is Sandy Cheng, a native of Beijing, who has been staying with a Kennebunk family for four months now, and plans to stay a couple more. When she heard about the visiting students, it just seemed natural to offer to help out.

She created a lesson for the Chinese students’ first morning session, but the flight delay has caused that lesson to be shelved for now.

“We will definitely find a way to fit it in this week,” Cressey said.

Black teaches a course called International Baccalaureate biology, which emphasizes looking at subject matter from a global perspective, so his involvement was also a natural fit.

Emma Liu, the director of Tangshan’s international department, is chaperoning the kids this week. She watched attentively as her students took in Black’s lecture, looking interested and engaged, albeit a bit sleepy.

The group plans to kayaking as part of an L.L. Bean outdoor classroom, visit Portland harbor, and have a farewell reception on July 20 at the Nonantum. They return to China early the next morning.

Portsmouth Naval Shipyard First Responders Honored, Commended for Work Battling USS Miami Fire

New Hampshire’s U.S. Senators Jeanne Shaheen (D) and Kelly Ayotte (R) at ceremony honoring first responders at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard (courtesy photo)

KITTERY -

New Hampshire’s U.S. Senators Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) and Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) were in Portsmouth Monday, July 16, to honor the emergency first responders responsible for containing the fire aboard the USS Miami this past May. Shaheen and Ayotte presented a Senate Resolution recognizing the responders, which they introduced along with U.S. Senators Olympia J. Snowe (R-ME), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Scott Brown (R-MA), Susan Collins (R-ME), John Kerry (D-MA) and Joe Lieberman (I-CT). The June 7 resolution commends the service of all those who responded to the fire, minimized damage to the submarine and ensured there was no loss of life.

Shaheen and Ayotte presented the Senate resolution they and other New England senators sponsored to commend the first responders at a ceremony at Prescott Park in Portsmouth.

Last week, the Navy convened a special panel to investigate the May 23 fire that damaged the USS Miami while it was in dry dock for an overhaul at the shipyard in Kittery, Maine. The investigation was ordered by U.S. Fleet Forces Command in Norfolk, Virginia. Early estimates put the fire damage at $400 million. It damaged the torpedo room, crew quarters, and command and control areas.

“Your swift response and commitment to containing the fire helped minimize damage to the submarine and more importantly, ensured that no one lost a life that day,” Senator Shaheen said. “The men and women who work at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard have an incredible track record of working together and getting the job done. To everyone who worked together to respond to May’s fire: thank you for your professionalism, your quick response, and your continued commitment to serving and protecting our country. The courage and cooperation we saw in May stands as inspiration for all of us.”

Maine U.S. Senator Susan Collins said “When the alarm rings, as it did on May 23rd at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, we see just how brave our first responders are.  They never hesitate to put themselves in harm’s way.  They risk their lives to save others.” Collins, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee added in a prepared statement “I am hopeful the USS Miami can be repaired in Kittery because the shipyard workers are the best at what they do.  The sooner this submarine returns to the fleet, the sooner it will be available to complete missions essential to our national security throughout the world.”

USM Student Uncovers Centuries-Old Spanish Coin

Whitney Parrish, a University of Southern Maine student from Portland, discovered a Spanish coin dating to the 1600s or 1700s at the Old Berwick Historical Society’s archaeology dig in South Berwick. 

SOUTH BERWICK, Maine – It was small and thin.  Caked with dirt and found a few feet down, it looked like a stone and could easily have been discarded.

But, out on her first day digging at the possible site of a 17th century tavern, Whitney Parrish wiped off the dirt and saw a silver gleam and intricate markings.  She had found a Spanish coin, known as a real, or “piece of eight.”

“A piece of eight basically means the silver was worth a lot so they would divide it into eight pieces,” Parrish said. “We found a pretty good section where the Spanish cross is still visible and a few numbers of the date. It’s not definitive at this point. It’s pretty worn.” The coin has indistinct markings but reveals the digits 6 and 8 and a cross characteristic of Spanish coins of the 1600s and early 1700s.

Parrish, who is working on a degree in the classics and anthropology (with a minor in archaeology) at the University of Southern Maine, commutes from Portland to take part in the Old Berwick Historical Society’s archaeology project directed by Dr. Neill De Paoli.

Parrish said the group was looking for the tavern and what they think was a garrison used to shelter civilians during attacks.

“Where I was digging when I found it seemed to be a walking area, so someone could have dropped it while walking,” she said. “We also found pieces of pots, pipe stems, pipe bowls, drinking vessels, shoe buckles. Essentially we’re looking for walls, some kind of structure. We haven’t found anything definitive at this point, but we are finding some interesting things.”

De Paoli explained that in the 1600s and early 1700s, a shortage of currency led to Spanish coins making their way into the English colonies after being minted in South America and traded in the Caribbean. He has seen only a few in his thirty-five years of experience as a historical archaeologist in Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts.

“This find is an example of how an artifact helps tell the story of a region’s economy and people’s livelihood hundreds of years ago,” said De Paoli, adding that historic information, not monetary value, is the goal of the archaeology project.

“On the nearby Salmon Falls River, at a place called Pipe Stave Landing, local materials for making barrels shipped through Portsmouth to the Caribbean, and products like rum came back.  Someone involved with that trade, directly or indirectly, must have come here to Old Fields, the oldest part of what is now South Berwick.”

De Paoli is adding the coin to other evidence that the site was the dwelling and tavern of Humphrey and Mary Spencer from about 1696 until 1727.  A later house, home today to South Berwick residents Paula and Harvey Bennett, stands a few feet from where archaeologists are digging on their property.

“Perhaps,” De Paoli speculated, “the coin was lost by someone enjoying a tankard of ale at the Spencer tavern.”

In addition to the coin, the dig so far has turned up foundation stones as well as fragments of clay pipes and stoneware dishes and flasks, and other artifacts supporting the theory that the site was a tavern three centuries ago.  At that time, South Berwick was not yet a separate town. Today’s Berwick, South Berwick and North Berwick were collectively called Berwick, and are now nearing the tricentennial of their separation from Kittery in 1713.

Parrish is one of sixteen enrollees and four field assistants working in a three-week field school De Paoli organized to explore Old Fields, an area that at that time was a small hamlet of several homes, a tavern, meetinghouse, burial ground, wharves, and expansive hay fields.

Historical documents suggest this locale contained a fortified garrison during the conflict-ridden 1690s and early 1700s. In 1690 and 1691, Wabanaki war parties in separate incidents attacked the Spencer garrison and two men working in a nearby field.

DePaoli is an adjunct professor at Southern Maine Community College and has devoted most of his career to the study of English settlement and Anglo-Indian and English-French relations in early northern New England.

The current field school ends on July 13, but volunteers are needed to process artifacts at the Counting House Museum during the coming months. No experience is necessary, and information is available by contacting the historical society at info@oldberwick.org or 207-384-0000.

The Old Berwick Historical Society owns the Counting House Museum, which exhibits artifacts from another 17th century homestead, that of Humphrey and Lucy Chadbourne.  The museum is open on weekend afternoons from 1:00-4:00 pm through the end of October, and year round by appointment.

Though she was the one to find the coin, Parrish seemed shy about the media spotlight, and was quick to credit her classmates and Dr. DePaoli for their work. “It’s really exciting to have found this coin, but we’re all finding a lot of good stuff here.”

YCCC to get $257,000 for precision machining program

WELLS - Legislation sponsored by Rep. Devin Beliveau, D-Kittery, to establish a jointly-operated Precision Tool program between York County Community College (YCCC) and Southern Maine Community College (SMCC) received start up funding from the Appropriations Committee on May 16. The bill was then passed unanimously in the House and Senate.

The legislation provides $257,000 in start-up costs for the new precision machine tool program in 2012-2013 and also provides for ongoing funding to the community college system going forward. In addition, there is $1 million earmarked in the education bond to pay for infrastructure improvement and equipment needed to start the program.

“This education bond will enable YCCC to purchase the machinery needed for a cutting edge precision machine tool program,” said Beliveau.  “This is a wise investment that will create great new jobs in York County. I am both thrilled and grateful that the Appropriations Committee and the Maine Legislature voted to pass LD 627 and fund this fantastic job creating opportunity.”

The three of the largest employers in York County are Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Pratt & Whitney and General Dynamics. All three heavily depend on the technical skills of Precision Machinists and no postsecondary program currently exists in York County for this type of training. The new program will produce Precision Machinists who have the technical skills that are needed for these well-paying jobs that start at $18-$20 an hour.

This program will provide residents of York County with the opportunity to earn an associate degree in their backyard and be qualified for high skill high wage jobs. Pratt & Whitney contributed an initial $100,000 to The Foundation for Maine’s Community Colleges designated specifically for the program.

“York County Community College is absolutely delighted with the support of the York County legislative delegation for the bill initiated by Rep. Devin Beliveau to support a Precision Tool program in York County,” said Charles Lyons, president of YCCC. “This industry, throughout York County, provides an endless stream of great jobs for entrants over the next several years. Without the support of the legislature and Governor LePage we would have had a very difficult time supporting the needs of these new workers.”

Both LD 627 and the education bond are awaiting the governor’s signature. The education bond would then need to be approved by the voters.

23rd Annual Decorator Show House Opens in York

By Larry Favringer
 

YORK – The largest fund-raiser of the season for the Old York Historical Society kicks off this weekend with the opening of the 23rd Annual Decorator Show House.

This year’s showplace is Harmon House at 19 Harmon Park Road in York Harbor.

The show house will be open to the public beginning tomorrow (Saturday, July 14) through August 11.

The house will be open Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Thursdays until 7 p.m. and Sunday from 1 to 4 p.m. It will be closed Tuesdays,

Tickets are $20 and are available at the door.

Tickets to the house include free admission to the 5th Annual Old York Antiques Show July 21-22. Free admission to the Museum’s exhibit upstairs in the Parsons Center Gallery, 3 Lindsay Road from July 30 to the close of our season, and a discounted admission of $5 to visit all of the museums’ buildings.

Designer from throughout New England apply to take part in the house and if selected are given areas of the home and/or gardens to redo within certain guidelines.

New Hampshire designers taking part this year include Helen Hanan Interior Design of Newmarket, Meredith Bohn Interiors of Hollis, Jay Goldsmith Photography of Portsmouth, Ethan Allen Design Center of Portsmouth, and Bartlett Design Associates of Dover

Maine participants include Anne Cowenhoven of York, Museums of Old York, Georgie’s Home and Garden of York, Charles C. Hugo Landscape Design of South Berwick, York Art Association, The Daisy Trading Company and Daisy Jane’s of York.

Massachusetts firms include Mary O’Neill Interior Design of North Andover, Gerald Pomeroy Design of Boston, and Finn-Martens Designs of Beverly.

Items used in redecorating will be available for sale and a boutique will be open in the garage on the property.

The chairwoman for this year’s show house is Beverly Young.

Old York has also scheduled a lecture series during the next month.

It starts with a luncheon at Stonewall Kitchen Cooking School July 18 with chef Beth Kozemchak. The session is scheduled from 11:10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

July 19 there will be a cocktail party at York Harbor Inn from 6 to 8:30 p.m. with Don Cresswelll and Behind the Scenes at the Antiques Road Show.

A July 25 luncheon will be held at the Stage Neck Inn and includes a fashion show by Daisy Jane’s. The session is scheduled from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.

There is an August 1 Luncheon at Dockside Restaurant with Mary Ann Esposito, cookbook author and creator/host of Ciao Italia, the nationally televised PBS series. That too is from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.

There will be an evening cocktail cruise August 2 on board the gundalow Piscataqua. In partnership with Discover Portsmouth and the Gundalow Company, the cruise will include a tour of the “Under the Shoals” exhibit followed by a river cruise with historian/author Dennis Robinson. Exhibit tour meets at 4:15 p.m. at Discover Portsmouth. Cruise leaves Gundalow dock at Prescott Park at 5:30 p.m.

Aug. 8 there will be a luncheon at York Harbor Reading Room with a designer panel discussion with Sue Bartlett, Gerald Pomeroy, Michael Engelhard and Linda Zukav. It will be held from 11:30 a.m.to 1:30 p.m.

There will be evening cocktail party August 9 at Stage Neck Inn with designer Val Jorgensen discussing “Antiques and Today’s Design Aesthetic.” The party will run from 6 to 8:30 p.m.

Life in Milltown Maine Explored

Book Review by Theresa Gillis

KENNEBUNK –

Monica Wood is a Maine author and my former high school guidance counselor.  While she probably doesn’t remember me as a student, I have been an avid reader of her fiction.  Her latest book, “When We Were the Kennedys: A Memoir from Mexico, Maine” is a step back into. Wood’s childhood and a revealing look at life in a Maine milltown. 

For those of us who spent time growing up in “milltowns,” the descriptions of smoke-filled skies and towering smoke stacks is familiar.  Mexico, Maine, like many of the milltowns in Maine, was made up of families, often with deep ties to each other, to the mill and to a local church.  And like other paper mills, the Oxford Paper Company provided security then uncertainty as times changed. 

Within the backdrop of her hometown, Wood shares her deeply personal memories of both her father and mother. These memories include her brother, her sisters and a treasured uncle and a slew of relatives from Prince Edward Island. Wood recounts time in her Catholic school and the trip her family takes to Washington DC just after the assassination of President Kennedy.

As a reader, I was drawn into this memoir because it felt like a familiar story - the story of a Catholic family growing up in milltown Maine.  This could have been my story - with many exceptions of course.  My parents still live in their milltown of Westbrook, but neither worked at the mill; my siblings and I have moved away from the mill while remaining in Maine; and I don’t have an uncle who is a priest.  You don’t need to have a family like Monica Wood’s to enjoy this deeply engaging memoir, however.  For those of us from Maine, there is the flavor that may not be present in all memoirs (including the frequent mention of Moxie).  But Moxie and gumption are with the Woods family throughout “When We Were the Kennedys.”  You will be rooting for Monica and her family as you enjoy her touching memoir.

Monica Wood will be at Kennebooks, 149 Port Road in Kennebunk, on Thursday, July 12, at 7 p.m. reading from “When We Were the Kennedys,” and signing this new book.