Katrina refugee rejects return offer

Susan Rappold, who fled the ravages of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, is turning down a government deal to return to New Orleans.

Rappold, who lives at Village Square on School Street, recently received a FEMA letter, offering her $26,200 and another $4,000 to cover moving expenses, if she’d go back to the Big Easy.

“No one can offer me enough money to go back. I’ve got the bloody letter right in front of me,” the British-born Rappold said by telephone Monday. “I love Maine. I’m not going back.”

This year will mark the third Christmas in Maine for her and her terrier, Sammie.

Rappold is recovering from a mishap. She praised the speedy response of Gorham Rescue Sunday in the snowstorm after she fell at home and broke a rib. She said Village Square resident Ralph Strout, 83, braved the storm, providing her a ride home from Mercy Hospital in Portland.

Holiday trash schedule

There will be no trash pick up on Christmas Day, Dec. 25, or on New Year’s Day, Jan. 1.

During the weeks of Dec. 24 and Dec. 31, trash usually picked up on Tuesday will be picked up on Wednesday. Trash usually picked up on Wednesday will be picked up on Thursday, and trash picked up on Thursday will be picked up on Friday.

Monday trash collection will remain the same for this period.

For more information or with questions, contact the Public Works Department at 892-9062.

Closed for holidays

After Saturday, the North Gorham Public Library, 2 Standish Neck Road, will be closed for the holidays until Wednesday, Jan 2.

‘Christmas in the Barn’

Jocelia and Karl Hartwell will host “Christmas in the Barn” at 1 p.m., on Sunday, Dec. 23, at their Shady Maple Farm, 443 Sebago Lake Road.

The annual program featuring children from the Sunday school class at Faith Lutheran Church in Windham was scheduled for Sunday but the storm caused it to be postponed. Jocelia Hartwell said the program includes the farm’s animals with cattle donkeys, horses, llamas and chickens.

U.S. taxpayer debt

The Bureau of Public Debt reported on Dec. 14 that the U.S. public debt was $9,171,665,249,667.55