Wells

Local man dies after truck lands in brook off Post Road

A Wells man was killed in a single-vehicle accident on Post Road in Wells early Saturday morning.

Scott L. Moulton, 58, was pronounced dead at the scene, Wells police said.

Police said they were called to the accident, just north of the Wells post office, at 1:17 a.m. and found a silver Dodge pickup truck upside down in a brook.

Police said the truck had been heading north on Post Road when it crossed the centerline and went off the road.

Moulton, the sole occupant of the vehicle, was found by rescue workers.

It took several hours to remove the truck from the brook, police said.

Sanford police were helping to investigate the cause of the accident.

Caribou

MDEA discovery of meth lab in crawl space leads to arrest

A Caribou man was arrested Friday night and charged with trafficking of methamphetamine after an illegal drug-making operation was found at his home, the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency said Saturday.

A meth lab was found in a crawl space under the mobile home of Keith Tingley Jr., 47, on Old Washburn Road, according to the MDEA.

Maine State Police discovered the meth lab while searching the home during an unrelated investigation, the MDEA said in a press release.

MDEA officers then obtained a separate warrant to search the home for the illegal drug lab. Police said agents seized a significant amount of evidence during the search.

Tingley was released Saturday from the Aroostook County Jail on $20,000 cash bail.

This was the 10th time this year that the MDEA has responded to a methamphetamine lab incident, the agency said.

Gorham

USM students to perform translated Holocaust operetta

The University of Southern Maine will produce the first English-language performance of Germaine Tillion’s Holocaust operetta “In The Underworld” this month.

Students in the university’s theater department will perform the operetta. The performance runs from April 18 to 27 at the university’s Gorham campus.

Tillion, a French ethnographer, wrote the script while imprisoned in a World War II concentration camp for women. She was released from the camp in 1945. A fellow prisoner smuggled the script out of the camp and later returned it to her.

University officials say the translators of the operetta will attend the April 19 performance for a discussion with the audience.

The operetta was first produced in France in 2007. Tillion died in 2008 at age 100.

Augusta

Burn permits now available statewide online, for a fee

Maine is giving all residents the ability to obtain burn permits online.

The Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry is offering online permits to burn brush, wood debris or agricultural fields. State officials said the program is available statewide. The fee for an online permit is $7, according to the website at http://bit.ly/1oCrUkn.

The online system allows residents to obtain burn permits at any time as long as the fire danger is not high, the officials said. Gov. Paul LePage said the system will help residents save time and money.

Officials said revenues from the program will be shared with the municipality where the burn occurs. The system can notify up to 20 town fire wardens when permits are issued.

The system first became available in southern Maine counties in 2005. Traditional hand-written permits are also still available.

Grocery baggers can show their stuff at competition

A Maine organization is holding a contest for grocery baggers that it says are the unsung heroes in stores across the state.

Participants in the first Maine Bagger contest will be judged on technique, style and speed as they compete to stock bags with grocery store items.

The contest is being held by the Maine Grocers & Food Producers Association at the Maine Food Means Business Summit in September.

Organizers say it recognizes employees who are vital to customer satisfaction but are often under-appreciated. The winner gets a trip to Las Vegas to represent the state in a national competition.

Portland

Businesses’ water worries could be to Maine’s benefit

Maine is rich in one resource that lots of businesses are starting to think about.

A new survey of 50 Fortune 500 and publicly traded companies by the Pacific Institute and VOX Global finds that business leaders are increasingly concerned about how water restrictions could hurt their businesses.

The survey said that more than 80 percent of respondents indicate access to water will affect their decision on where to locate facilities. It also found that nearly 60 percent of respondents believe restricted water access will negatively affect business growth and profitability within five years.

In Maine, there’s no lack of plentiful drinking water. Mike Cuzzy from Vox International said these findings could be quite interesting from an economic development standpoint in Maine.

– From staff and news services

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