BRIDGTON

Police: Man killed in crash was habitual offender

Bridgton police have identified the driver killed in a one-car crash as Travis W. Horan, 22, of Naples.
Horan, whose license was suspended, was driving a 2001 Hyundai east on Route 302 at 12:26 p.m.

Sunday when an officer tried to pull him over for allegedly speeding, police said. Horan sped up, passing several cars on Route 302 before turning left onto Kansas Road, police said.

Witnesses said Horan drove down Kansas Road, a paved, two-lane rural road, at a very high speed. When the officer caught up, the car had already crashed.

Police say it appears he drifted onto the road’s shoulder and overcorrected, losing control, going off the road and severing a pine tree.

Horan’s license had been suspended several times, initially for failing to appear in court and pay fines, and he later was cited for disregarding traffic signals, driving the wrong way on the road, driving to endanger and driving under the influence. He was classified as a habitual offender.

ROCKPORT

Student carelessness blamed for high laptop repair costs

Administrators at Camden Hills Regional High School say a $56,000 bill for laptop repairs last year is “astronomically” high and are blaming students’ carelessness.

The school is one of 69 statewide that participate in a program under the Maine Department of Education that makes laptops available to high school students. Camden Hills spends about $150,000 to lease 778 laptop computers each year from the state.

State officials told the Bangor Daily News that the school’s repair bill is one of the highest in the state.
Superintendent William Shuttleworth said students are careless with the laptops, carrying them in the palm of one hand, knocking them off tables and desks, or leaving them on the ground where they get stepped on.

WATERBORO

Boy accidentally shoots his own foot while hunting

Authorities say a 12-year-old boy accidentally shot himself in the foot while hunting with his uncle.

The Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife said the boy was resting the barrel of a .243-caliber rifle on his right foot while hunting in Waterboro on Saturday afternoon, and it went off while the boy was playing with the safety.

Saturday was Youth Deer Hunting Day in Maine.

The boy was taken to a hospital by ambulance.

He was listed in good condition Sunday. His name was not released because of his age.

EAST MILLINOCKET

Governor greets workers at reopened paper mill

Gov. Paul LePage greeted dozens of paperworkers who have returned to work in northern Maine mills that have reopened under a sale brokered by the state.

LePage greeted workers at Great Northern Paper’s East Millinocket mill Monday. The sale of the long-shuttered Katahdin paper mills in Millinocket and East Millinocket to Cate Street Capital of Portsmouth, N.H., was completed in late September.

LePage said Monday that the sale was a “very long and complicated process,” and he thanked the workers for their patience.

The mills were sold by Toronto-based Brookfield Asset Management.

The new company will be called Great Northern Paper Co. LLC.