Dedicated to veterans

Four years of work by volunteers culminates in a ceremony for a new monument in Mill Creek Park

Metalsmith Jac Ouellette, of Anvil Jack Studios,
supervises installation of the “eternal flame”
she built for the new South Portland Veterans
Monument, shortly before its installation
in Mill Creed Park on Saturday. Helping her
are soldiers from Westbrook’s 262^nd Engineering
Battalion, who delivered the stone, Sgt. Michael
Merrill, left, and Spec. Gardner LaJoie.

South Portland has paid a high price in the military actions that have been ongoing since 9/11, as high as any community in Maine. Officially, four local soldiers have died in the ongoing wars – Marine Pfc. Angel Rosa (killed Mar. 13, 2007, age 21), Army Sgt. Jason W. Swiger (March 25, 2007, age 24), Army Spec. Justin L. Buxbaum (May 26, 2008, age 23) and Army Sgt. Joshua J. Kirk (Oct. 3, 2009, age 30).

It was partly with these men in mind that, four years ago, a group of South Portland residents began to hang yellow ribbons on the telephone pole along Broadway. The unexpected result was a lot of fuss over ribbons, with the city ultimately ruling that it could not allow the makeshift memorials, no matter how touching the sentiment.

However, the city also broached a compromise – if those making the most noise about the ribbons would raise $20,000, the city would match it and provide a place for a permanent memorial.

On Saturday, after four years of hard work in both planning and fundraising, that monument was delivered to Mill Creek Park by soldiers of the 262^nd Engineering Battalion in Westbrook, arriving at noon with an escort of more than 100 bikers from groups including Combat Veterans, the Patriot Guard and Rolling Thunder.

Dozens of people passed in and out of the citizens group that made the monument possible. But a handful stuck with the project the entire time, including Rosemarie West, Kevin Battle, Brian Hanlon, Lee Harvey and Dan Harkin.

To a person, the volunteers stress that the new monument is not a memorial. It is dedicated to all who served in the military, no matter which branch, whether they served on the front lines or the scullery line, in war time or peace, be they living or dead, and no matter if they died heroically, accidentally or of self-inflicted wounds.

“This is a thank-you message to everybody who served, no matter how or when they served, because it is their service which allows us to live the lives we get to live,” said Battle, a longtime South Portland police officer.

The monument was designed and built by local artists, with the base and overall design done by framer and art preservationist Stephen Popp, the plaques to each service branch made by Richardson Monument, and the “eternal flame” at the top made by Jac Ouellette, a metalsmith and Maine College of Art board member.

“It was a very meaningful project to me,” said Ouellette. “This is my community, and so many people spent so much time on this project. What an honor to have a piece associated with our service members that I can drive by and see every single day.”

During his dedication ceremony remarks, Hanlon noted that, when Mill Creek Park was set aside as open space after World War II, the intent was to name it Veterans Park.

“Unfortunately, that never happened,” he said, “So, this area that the monument sits on will forever be known as Veterans Green.”

Roughly 400 people attended Saturday’s unveiling of the service monument, as it was formally accepted by Mayor Rosemarie De Angelis, who broke down in tears during one of the days more touching moments, when Bernadette Manley, a military mother chosen to lay the first wreath, received a call from her son in Afghanistan.

“I’ve had such good boys,” Manley told the crowd, “but I’ve always said, their mother was their first drill sergeant.”

There has been some controversy over the placement of the service monument. It was originally meant to accompany the Maine Military Museum, which has since moved to a spot beside the Veterans of Foreign Wars hall on Peary Terrace. At recent meetings, the City Council has fielded complaints that the monument has been shunted to little used section of the park. However, West said, this is as it should be.

“There are a lot of plans to make this area a destination,” she said, “but we also didn’t want this in the middle of the park, because those who come here, we think, will want time for quiet reflection.”

A closer look

Fundraising for the new Veterans Monument in Mill Creek Park, South Portland, continues, with hopes of filling out the monument site with granite curbing, benches, walking paths to Broadway and across the creek to the larger part of the park and a handicapped-parking area.

A project also is under way to pay for those improvements by selling paving stones, which can be inscribed with the name of a service member. 

For more information, see www.servicemonument.com.

Beach parking bingo

Town mulls expansion of Higgins Beach lot, against neighbors’ protests

Saoirse Kelly of Portland and Nick Benefico of South
Portland unload at the town-owned parking lot on Ocean
Avenue for an evening of surfing at Higgins Beach. In the
background is an area of wetland the town may fill in
to create an additional 22 parking spots.

SCARBOROUGH — In the ongoing skirmish over parking spots at Higgins Beach, a new chamber has been loaded. Now, it only remains to be seen if the Scarborough Town Council will actually pull the trigger.

Last week, the town received a Tier 1 permit from the state Department of Environmental Protections, giving it permission to backfill 4,925 square feet of freshwater wetland on property the town owns next to its recently rebuilt Ocean Avenue parking lot. Once developed, that land could be used to park an additional 22 cars in the 60-space lot.

“We have everything we need to proceed,” said Community Services Director Bruce Gullifer, who has helped spearhead development of the lot in the year since it was acquired from the Vasile family. “However, whether that area ever goes under construction, that will be a council decision.”

At least one Higgins homeowner is riled over the possibility.

Last year, Richard Valdmanis and his wife Kelly bought the home at 43 Ocean Ave. If expansion of the parking lot proceeds, Valdmanis said, his home will get boxed in on three sides.

“Our bias is obvious,” Valdmanis, who is out of the country this week, said in an email to The Current, “but we feel the expansion would affect the community more broadly. There’s the basic question of whether the beach can sustain many more visitors. We all know that at high tide, there’s not much sand and not much space to move. Adding parking capacity will worsen this problem, and all of the side effects that come with it, including littering and public drinking and smoking.”

Valdmanis has begun a PR campaign to win support based on environmental concerns and fears of neighborhood degradation, what he calls “suburban death.” A letter he sent out neighbors has received a handful of responses, he said.

Town Manager Tom Hall said a decision on whether to build out the lot could come as soon as “late September.” That’s when the council will conduct a workshop session to review how this season has gone, given the number of substantial changes made to parking rules at the shorefront community.

Last year, the town paid $1.27 million to buy and improve the Ocean Avenue lot from the Vasile family, using a Land for Maine’s Future grant. It then created an unloading zone and 12 one-hour parking spots on Bayview Avenue, right at the shorefront, while eliminating on-street parking everywhere else.

The idea, Councilor Michael Wood said, was to ease congestion on the narrow beach streets, which, he said, “had become a nightmare,” while also funneling parking into the town-owned lot.

In addition to the DEP permit, the council already has money set aside for the project. About $108,000 remains of the $300,000 the town bonded last year to develop the Ocean Avenue lot. Construction of the additional 22 spaces should cost about $35,000 and could begin before the snow flies, said Hall. 

However, like Gullifer, Hall stressed that receipt of the DEP permit, good for two years, does not necessarily mean the project will move forward.

“We have the financial resources, we have the permit, it’s really just a question of whether the council wishes to proceed,” said Hall. “Last year, when this was first presented, the wisdom of council – and I think it was absolutely the right thing to do – was to gather some data first on this season before making a decision.”

Hall is working to gather that data now. Among the figures he will present to the council is one detailing just how much the improved lot has been used. So far, of the 53 days since July 1, it has filled to capacity on 43 days, he said.

However, Valdmanis argues that the council may get a false impression of the need for more parking, based on skewed data.

“The town’s premise that an expansion might be needed because demand is high is flawed,” he wrote. “They priced the lot at $5 per day this summer, sharply below the rates at nearby state parks, guaranteeing in advance the lot would be full.”

Hall concedes that point.

“I think that’s a fair comment,” he said, when told of Valdmanis’ complaint. “I think the council consciously reduced that parking fee to draw business. Keep in mind, the council also added Higgins Beach into the ‘all-beach’ pass for town residents, at not extra cost to them.”

Meanwhile, the council must weigh not only the concerns of Valdmanis and his supporters, but also the decades-old delicate balance between local homeowners and area visitors.

Hall said there have been “predictable complaints” about abuse of the one-hour limit at the Bayview parking spots, especially when the summer reserve officers are not on duty.

Hall does say it has become clear to him that “it is critically important for public safety to that we build a conventional sidewalk along Bayview Avenue.”

Still, he said, he’s received “relatively few” complaints about the parking changes.

“It’s a different thing every year, but from my perspective, the changes this year have worked out well,” said South Portland surfer Nick Benefico, as he unloaded his board late Monday afternoon.

Of course, Benefico admits that’s partly because the town has yet to install an automated gate at the Ocean Avenue lot and, because the attendant knocks off at 5 p.m., just when surfing is allowed, parking has continued to be essentially free for him, with few days when he has had any trouble finding a spot at that time.

However, his surfing partner, Saoirse Kelly of Portland, said tension between surfers and locals continues unabated.

“Most people are nice enough,” she said, “but there are a few who have made it their mission to make it clear we are not wanted here. Just last week I had one old man tell me that if I want to surf at Higgins Beach, I should buy a home here.

“I’m like, why can’t you relax? You live in one of the most beautiful places on earth. Can’t you just be happy with that?”

That conflict between people who live in a beautiful spot, people who want to visit it, and the town’s obligation to guarantee public access to the beach is unlikely to be resolved, whatever the council decides in September.

One person who knows that as well as anyone is Police Chief Robert Moulton, who began his career on the Higgins Beach foot patrol in 1977.

“I can tell you, the issues are all the same,” he said. “They’re maybe a little bit more pronounced now, I think, because a lot of the cottages have been turned into year-round homes, so there’s a little bit of a different expectation. But there’s always been a push-pull on parking down there.”

Fake cops ticketed after iPhone prank

SCARBOROUGH — Some smartphone apps claim to boost productivity, but its certain none will cop to producing a municipal fine.

However, two Westbrook men were summonsed in Scarborough last week for having a little too much fun with their iPhones.

At approximately 9 p.m. on Aug. 17, Dane A. Tupper, 20, and Bradley J. Stiles, 19, were summonsed with impersonating a public servant, a class E crime punishable by up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine.

“They had this iPhone app that emitted red and blue flashing lights, and each held them up in the windshield,” explained Detective Sgt. Rick Rouse, on Monday.

After dark, the two lights looked enough like what one might expect from a police cruiser that one man promptly pulled over. Tupper and Stiles pulled up behind the motorist, only to take off again without carrying their game any further.

However, the confused motorists – made moreso by the silver, 2004 Dodge Stratus that sped by him – was prescient enough to take down the license plate number on the pretend police car.

Tupper and Stiles were ticketed at 9:21 p.m. on Gallery Boulevard.

Although the men appear to have been up to what many might see as a harmless prank, Rouse said impersonating a police officer is no laughing matter. Someone with more sinister motives could take advantage of a motorist fooled into pulling over and lowering a window.

Rouse gives these tips to protect yourself, if you suspect the officer attempting to stop you is less than the genuine article:

•First, look to see if the vehicle signaling you to pull over is a marked police cruiser.

• If the vehicle is unmarked, or if you cannot tell, look for the officer to be wearing a uniform.

“It is rare that a plainclothes officer would be making a traffic stop whether the car is marked or not,” explains Rouse. 

• If you are suspicious, turn on your hazard lights (to signal to the officer that you are aware of his or her presence) and slowly continue to a well-lit or populated area.

• If you have a cell phone, call the police department and let the dispatcher know your concern. 

• Once you have stopped, leave your motor running. Stay in the vehicle and lock your doors. Ask for identification if you do not observe an obvious police uniform and calmly explain why you are asking.

“Any real officer will understand and act cordially,” Rouse said.

Man killed in fall from I-95 overpass

SCARBOROUGH — Police are saying the man who died in a fall from a Scarborough bridge Aug. 17 was “probably a suicide.”

Philip Faulkner, 52, of West Enfield, fell from the I-295 “Scarborough Spur” overpass, plummeting roughly 30 feet to the pavement below, where he was struck by a 2002 Buick Regal traveling south on Route 1.

Although police cannot determine if Faulkner actually jumped, his behavior at the time is indicated in a press release issued shortly after the incident by Scarborough Sgt. Eugene O’Neill. At 2:17 p.m., O’Neill wrote, police “received a report” of a man “standing on the I-295 overpass.”

There actually were multiple 911 calls, said Detective Sgt. Rick Rouse, on Monday.

“The concern appears to have been that he was standing on the outside of the railing,” said Rouse, adding that the fall occurred “within a few minutes” of the first report, before police could get on scene.

"He might have changed his mind once he got up there but still fell," said Rouse. "That's something we don't know, and might not ever know."

According to Rouse, Faulkner is believed to have walked to the site from his mother’s home on Maple Avenue, where he had been staying, roughly two miles away from the I-295 connector road. The home was searched, but no suicide note was found, said Rouse.

Faulkner was transported to Maine Medical Center, where he died shortly before 11 p.m.

“It was probably the impact with the pavement that killed him,” said Rouse, adding that the vehicle only ran over Faulkner’s arm. “He had head and hip injuries not caused by the car hitting him.

“I mean, I’m not making a determination as to cause of death, that’s the medical examiner’s job, clearly,” said Rouse. “I just think it’s important for people to know – for anyone who knows the driver involved – that there doesn’t appear to be anything he could have done. In my mind at least, the impact with the vehicle did not kill this man.”

However, because the incident was initially investigated as a fatal traffic accident, the driver, whose name has not been released, was tested to see if he was under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Blood was drawn on scene, said Rouse.

“You have to try to keep an open mind and cover all your bases,” he explained.

The driver was not detained and has not been charged in the incident.

Faulker’s name initially was withheld pending notification of relatives vacationing abroad. That had happened by Monday.

According to Rouse, Scarborough police had no prior contact with Faulkner. The incident record does not detail any prior mental health issues, he said.

“It all appears to have just come out of the blue,” said Rouse. “Unfortunately, there is one driver who, for the rest of his life, is going to look up every time he goes under an overpass.”

Route 1 southbound was closed for about two hours in the area of the incident on Aug. 17. It reopened around 4:30 p.m.