SOUTH PORTLAND — Police, the city manager and residents who claim Free Street is a hive of drug use, squatters, violence and other illegal activity successfully lobbied city councilors this week to pass the first reading of an ordinance giving the city power to deal with “disorderly houses.”  “The situation is, in a word, terrifying,” […]

BRUNSWICK — The Midcoast Regional Redevelopment Authority has reached an agreement with the U.S. Navy for acquisition of the remaining property on the former Brunswick Naval Air Station. Approximately 1,100 acres will be transferred to MRRA over the next few months. Instead of paying the Navy up front for the fair-market value of the land, […]

Longfellow School rezoning heads to public hearing BRUNSWICK — If a new police station is built anywhere in town, it will be at the corner of Pleasant and Stanwood streets. The Town Council on Monday unanimously reaffirmed its intention to put the police station there, ending, at least temporarily, the debate about where the police […]

HARPSWELL — Access to Cedar and Robinhood beaches on Bailey Island, once tricky, is now all but impossible. For three weeks, the path leading to both the little and big beaches on the north end of Bailey has been blocked off with a chain and no-trespassing sign. Charles and Sally Abrahamson, who own the adjacent […]

HARPSWELL — Residents are serious about their streetlights, and their safety. That was the message about 60 of them conveyed to the Board of Selectmen Sept. 15 during a public hearing on streetlight removals. The town’s Energy Committee has proposed adding, moving or removing about 80 of the town’s streetlights. The changes would save the […]

BATH — Proposed ordinance language regulating wireless communications facilities may go to the City Council in November, City Planner Jim Upham said Wednesday. The Planning Board discussed the language Tuesday. Upham said he plans to work further on the document, and the board may vote next month to recommend the ordinance to the City Council. […]

BRUNSWICK — First they offered coal and firewood. Then they switched to propane and oil. Now Downeast Energy is offering its customers a solar option through a new partnership with Portland-based ReVision Energy. Although Downeast isn’t shifting away from its foundation in home heating oil, the company is responding to customer interest in solar power. […]

BATH — Bath Iron Works’ parent company and the U.S. Navy have signed the final construction contract for the second and third ships in a line of DDG-1000 destroyers. General Dynamics and the Navy reached agreement in July on the price and major terms for the Zumwalt-class vessels, known as DDG-1001 and DDG-1002. U.S. Sen. […]

FREEPORT — At-large Town Councilor Rich DeGrandpre could lose his place on the Nov. 8 ballot. The Town Council will decide if more than 70 of DeGrandpre’s 112 nominating signatures are invalid, after residents Peter and Sandra Thompson of 7 Byram Ave. challenged the papers on Tuesday, Sept. 20. The Thompsons claim DeGrandpre neglected to […]

CUMBERLAND — A 58-lot housing project proposed for the center of town received unanimous major subdivision approval Tuesday from the Planning Board. Bateman Partners of Portland plans to develop the 40.7-acre Doane property into a mix of single-family and duplex homes. The project is the first of three phases in the Village Green Revitalization Master […]