PORTLAND — Plans to reconfigure travel lanes on Washington Avenue are unnecessary, former City Councilor Cheryl Leeman said Friday. “It appears to be an overly excessive reconfiguration of the road, and a complicated, expensive solution to a problem that doesn’t exist,” Leeman said in a statement. The repaving and reconfiguration of lanes from Presumpscot Street to […]

PORTLAND — The $103.6 million school budget drew no public comment at Monday night’s City Council meeting before it was sent to a May 10 referendum. A new three-year lease with Bay Ferries Ltd. to restore ferry service to Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, was approved in a flash, also without public comment. But the proposed shift […]

PORTLAND — Neighbors and developers of 1945 Congress St. will meet again Thursday, days before the master development plan is presented at a Planning Board workshop. On Monday, Josh Benthien, a principal of Northland Enterprises, expressed optimism the master plan to construct two office buildings on the site of Elks Lodge No. 188 will pass muster […]

PORTLAND — Last month, voters overwhelmingly backed replacing the Fred P. Hall Elementary School at a cost of nearly $30 million. But Hall is just one piece of a larger facilities puzzle included in a School Department study titled “Buildings For Our Future,” created by Oak Point Associate in 2013. The study looked at the […]

PORTLAND — It was a dark and stormy night Monday at the Miss Portland Diner. Rain pounded the windows and people huddled inside the Marginal Way restaurant. The perfect setup for a scary movie. Which was fine with those huddled in the diner, since they were all there to film a scary movie. Maine native […]

PORTLAND — It is an enduring piece of an island community, the people who value it, and the city that found a way to support it. “This is the island’s living room,” Portland Public Library Executive Director Sarah Campbell said April 29 about the Peaks Island branch and its adjacent recreation center. The “living room” is […]

PORTLAND — The School Department on Monday identified the two finalists for superintendent of schools. Xavier Botana, an associate superintendent in Indiana, and Teresa A. Lance, an assistant superintendent in Colorado, are the candidates selected after a nationwide search. The School Board hired Illinois-base BWP & Associates as the search firm in January. More than […]

PORTLAND — All polling places will be open May 10 for the annual school budget referendum. The $103.6 million budget for fiscal year 2017, which the City Council approved Monday and was unanimously recommended by the School Board at the end of March, is a 0.8 percent increase over the current budget, or about $826,000. The proposed […]