OLD ORCHARD BEACH

Man killed in motorcycle crash after being hit by car

Police are investigating a crash that killed an Old Orchard Beach man Tuesday morning.

Garon Murphy, 38, was killed when he was hit by a car at the intersection of Cascade and Ross roads, said police Lt. Timothy DeLuca.

DeLuca said Murphy, who was riding a motorcycle, was pronounced dead at the scene. The other driver, Jane M. Brennick, 58, of Saco, was taken to Southern Maine Medical Center in Biddeford for observation. She was later released.

The accident occurred around 10 a.m.

AUGUSTA

DEP rejects wind farm on Bowers Mountain

The Maine Department of Environmental Protection has rejected First Wind’s proposal for a wind farm on Bowers Mountain, citing its harmful impact on the area’s scenery.

Commissioner Patricia Aho signed off on the decision by DEP staff to deny scaled-down proposal for 16 turbines by Maine’s largest wind energy developer. The Land Use Regulation Commission denied First Winds’ original proposal for 27 turbines in Carroll Plantation, Penobscot County, and Kossuth Township, Washington County.

A DEP spokeswoman said Tuesday that the revised proposal was rejected because of “scenic impacts.”

Maine is New England’s wind power leader with as much as 500 megawatts of capacity. First Wind’s proposal called for turbines producing 48 to 62 megawatts of electricity.

 

Police make drug arrests, nab $25,000-worth of crack

State drug agents announced arrests in two separate investigations, one of which yielded $25,000 in crack cocaine destined for Lewiston.

Acting on information from the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency, state police troopers stopped a car on the Maine Turnpike near the Gray exit Sunday, police said. The driver, Tanya Cahill, 27, and William Murchison, 29, both of Lewiston, were charged with aggravated trafficking in cocaine base after police found 9 ounces of prepackaged cocaine, police said in a news release.

Bail was set at $10,000 each.

In another operation, MDEA agents with the Aroostook County task force, along with county, state and federal law enforcement, charged two Michigan men in Smyrna after the car they were in was pulled over on Interstate 95 Friday, police said.

Police charged Ricci Wafford, 32, and Eric Martin, 41, with trafficking in oxycodone after officers found 150 tablets of the painkiller, worth about $12,000 when sold illicitly, police said.

Wafford is being held on $5,000 bail and Martin on $10,000.

BANGOR

Police arrest 8, seek 6 more for bath salts conspiracy

Authorities have arrested eight people and have warrants for six more in connection with an 18-month state and federal investigation into the introduction of the drug commonly known as bath salts into the Bangor area in 2011.

Those arrested are: Ryan Ellis, 34, formerly of Greenbush; Alan Ketchen, 40, formerly of Bangor; Jamie Lewis, 38, formerly of Bangor; Jacob Gagnon, 24, of Van Buren; Adam Hathorn, 33, of Bangor; Daniel Hines, 37, formerly of Bangor; April Kane, 27, of Gorham; and Gina Nelson, formerly of Bangor.

All have been charged with drug conspiracy, punishable by up to 20 years in prison.

Ellis also was charged with using a home in Old Town for distributing and using bath salts, possessing firearms while using or being addicted to a controlled substance and carrying firearms during and in relation to a drug trafficking crime, according to court records.

Ketchen was charged with using a home in Bangor for distributing and using bath salts.

The investigation focused on criminal activity from April 1, 2011, to the end of 201l, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office and court records.

All 14 people have been indicted by a federal grand jury in U.S. District Court in Bangor. So far only Gagnon has been arraigned. Gagnon pleaded not guilty.

 

Man gets 6 years for traveling to have sex with 13-year-old

A Fayette man has been sentenced to over six years in prison after pleading guilty to traveling to Pennsylvania to have sex with a 13-year-old girl.

Court records show that starting in October 2010, Patrick Gaffney-Kessell, 29, started an online relationship with the girl in Pennsylvania. Gaffney-Kessell and the girl exchanged multiple text messages, Facebook chats, emails and phone calls involving the exchange of sexually explicit text and images.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office said Gaffney-Kessell went to Pennsylvania in January 2011 with the intent of having sex with the girl. However, when he got there, she refused to meet with him. The girl’s parents reported his activities to police.

Gaffney-Kessell pleaded guilty in February. He was sentenced Friday in U.S. District Court in Bangor.

FREEPORT

RSU 5 board member Kielty resigns after move

Brenda Kielty has resigned her post on the Regional School Unit 5 school board, she confirmed Tuesday.

Kielty’s departure, announced to the superintendent and chair of the board in an email in late July, follows a decision to move to Portland, making her ineligible to serve.

The district encompasses students from Freeport, Durham and Pownal.

“I wasn’t taking papers out (to run again),” said Kielty. “Then my living situation was changing and I wanted to give the town plenty of time to find a replacement for those last few months.”

The Freeport Town Council, which next meets Aug. 20, is responsible for selecting a temporary replacement before the seat can be filled in a regular upcoming election in November.

Kielty spent four years on the school board. In her professional life, she serves as the public access ombudsman in the Office of the Maine Attorney General, where she is responsible for mediating disputes about the release of public records before such matters reach the court system.

LEWISTON

Collins commends fire department for arson work

U.S. Sen. Susan Collins has honored the Lewiston Fire Department for its actions during a string of arson fires this past spring. The Republican senator from Maine recently visited the department to present Chief Paul LeClair with a copy of the statement she read in Congress commending the firefighters. She also gave the department a flag that had flown above the U.S. Capitol.

Three major fires in one week in Lewiston in May destroyed nine apartment buildings, damaged others, left more than 180 people homeless and lead to a crackdown on abandoned and neglected apartment houses in this former mill city.

In her statement, Collins says the firefighters “answered those cruel attacks with skill and courage” and “saved their city with no loss of life or serious injury.”

MOUNT DESERT ISLAND

Travel & Leisure ranks MDI 25th best island getaway

Maine’s largest island and an island to the north are receiving accolades from an international travel magazine that rates them as two of the world’s best island destinations, alongside such exotic getaways as Nantucket, Sicily, Bali, Bora-Bora and the Fiji Islands.

Mount Desert Island is included in Travel & Leisure magazine’s article, “World’s Best Islands.” It was ranked 25th out of 30 island getaways.

Palawan, an archipelago of 1,780 islands in the Philippines, was ranked as the best island in the world.

The magazine describes Mount Desert Island, which is home to Acadia National Park and the town of Bar Harbor, as a great place to hike, bike or kayak. Each island profile in the magazine has a photo attached, with the Mount Desert profile featuring a picture of a freshwater swimming hole, Echo Lake.

The best islands’ list was determined by the magazine’s readers, according to Travel & Leisure’s website.