Stories by Jen Lynds

8 years ago

Houlton council ok’s fire truck repairs

HOULTON, Maine — Town Councilors on Monday evening finalized a plan to use surplus funds to help ease the burden on taxpayers, even as they learned that they would have to unexpectedly pay for more than $18,000 worth of repairs to the Houlton Fire Department’s 23-year-old ladder truck.

Fire Chief Milton Cone came before the council during the 45-minute meeting to discuss necessary repairs to the 1993 truck, which was found to be  malfunctioning during an equipment check on July 30.

8 years ago

Stable camps spark children’s creativity

HOULTON, Maine — Amy Woods Metherell, who owns and operates Horseplay Farm, acknowledged recently that while most children love horses, they at the same time can be “really intimidated by them.”

“When you think of how a child sees a horse in a book or a drawing and then they get up beside a real one and realize how big it is in comparison to them, it can be really scary,” she said.

8 years ago

Summer reading still popular at Cary

HOULTON, Maine — For more than 60 years, the Cary Memorial Library in Houlton has held its summer reading program, enticing children from throughout southern Aroostook to enhance their reading skills during the long break from school.

8 years ago

Feed The County food drive breaks record

Feed The County food drive breaks record

PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — A statewide food drive geared toward feeding the needy in Aroostook County enjoyed a record breaking year for monetary donations, according to one of the organizers.

8 years ago

County residents weigh in on Pokemon Go craze

County residents weigh in on Pokemon Go craze

HOULTON, Maine — Tina Haggerty of Houlton has always encouraged her son, Trevor, 14, to spend more time outside during the summer.

8 years ago

Rise in temps, means upswing in pool sales

HOULTON, Maine — For the past 10 years, Jessica Plourde of Houlton has ignored her family’s request to install a pool in their expansive backyard.

“It just seemed like kind of a ‘want’ and not a ‘need,’” she said late last week. “You buy a pool that you are only going to use about four months out of the year, and I was just kind of thinking back to our past few summers, which really haven’t been that warm and sunny.”

Plourde changed her mind, however, when the mercury continued to rise this summer and she saw her friends purchasing low-maintenance above the ground pools from local retailers. By late June, Plourde said, she “took the plunge and bought a pool of her own.”

8 years ago

Houlton officials looking for grant to spruce up footbridge, park

HOULTON, Maine — More than 10 years ago, Gateway Crossing, the 187-foot pedestrian footbridge, opened in Market Square in Houlton to much fanfare. Since then, town officials have launched a massive campaign that has secured funding to create a park around the bridge, complete with a picnic area, a children’s playground, and fitness trails.

While the new park has survived several harsh winters over the past decade, the facade on the railings of the bridge has not, Nancy Ketch, grant writer and community development director said late last week.

8 years ago

Hot weather likely to last through August

HOULTON, Maine — Fifteen minutes into what was supposed to be a half-hour run Wednesday, Houlton resident Kelly Mitchell acknowledged that “it was time to call it quits.”

“I really didn’t know that it was this hot out,” she said during a rest break in Market Square. “I was hoping that the temperatures would have cooled down a bit after the rain showers we got last night.”

8 years ago

County residents weigh in on Pokemon Go craze

HOULTON, Maine — Tina Haggerty of Houlton has always encouraged her son, Trevor, 14, to spend more time outside during the summer.

“It seems like every summer break we have the same conversation,” she said recently. “I always have to practically pry game controllers out of his hand and make him go outside and play something like basketball or baseball.”

So Haggerty was especially shocked this summer when Trevor began spending hours outside, walking around the community with his friends — and it took a game to make him do it.

8 years ago

It’s about the butts: Council considers smoking ban in Riverfront Park

HOULTON, Maine — Town officials in Houlton are considering an ordinance to prohibit smoking in Riverfront Park due to an escalating issue with litter in the newest such area in the community.

Town councilors briefly discussed the issue during a meeting on July 18, 2016 after the topic was brought up by Town Manager Butch Asselin.