New home, more jobs, expanded services on horizon for Port Resources

SOUTH PORTLAND — After 32 years, social service agency Port Resources is finally getting a home of its own.

Founded in December 1979, Port Resources opened its first six-bed group home for developmentally disabled adults in July 1980. Today, it operates 20 homes staffed round-the-clock in the greater Portland area, providing 120 adults and children with residential care and serving another 50 via outreach programs.

“Our mission and goal is to help these wonderful people we work with achieve their independence,” said Dianne Procida, president of the company’s board of directors.

Housed in cramped quarters on John Roberts Road in South Portland, Port Resources broke ground Friday on a 20,000–square-foot facility on Gannett Drive that should open in July at a cost pegged by Procida at “more than $2 million.”

“It’s been the board’s vision for years that we wouldn’t rent, that we’d have our own space,” said Karen MacDonald, executive director. “This allows us to continue thrive and grow in tough times when a lot of organizations are taking a wait-and-see approach, which is a hard choice because there already are not enough resources for the services we provide.”

MacDonald said Port Resources has “about 1,000 people” on a waiting list for its developmentally disabled and mental-health services. The new facility, she said, will allow the company to “double and quadruple our mental-health programs over time,” with increased revenue from expanded offerings making construction costs “a wash.”

“We’re looking for ways to support ourselves rather than wait for the state to solve our problems,” she said, referencing recent and expected cuts in funding from Augusta.

In addition to providing space for administration and mental-health programming, the new facility also will serve as a training center for those who work with the mentally challenged, not only at Port Resources but also throughout the industry.

“Our primary goal is to service folks with developmental disabilities, but we’ve taken it a step further,” explained Procida. “We dealing with not only training those folks with disabilities [for life skills and job placement], but training the staff that works with the folks, as well as developing software programs that help other agencies with billing.”

The new building also means new jobs.

MacDonald said Port Resources now employs 10 people in mental health outpatient services – providing assessment and evaluations, dispensing medications and counseling, as well as family and group therapy. As the new building gets up and running, that “could double in a year’s time.”

“This new building is going to allow us to take it to another level, and provide the training that now we have to give in shifts, because we don’t have the accommodations to handle every one,” said Procida. “This is going to open up a whole new world for us.”

Looking to the future

Participants at a community forum in South Portland help shape the goals of new comprehensive plan.

Erik Carson, assistant city manager for South Portland,
leads a group of residents through recommendations made
 by the city’s comprehensive planning committee during a
visioning session held Thursday at the Community Center.

SOUTH PORTLAND — South Portland’s comprehensive plan is due for its decennial update next year. Even so, says City Planner Tex Haeuser, the document hasn’t had a really thorough rethink in more than 20 years.

Recall for a moment what South Portland looked like in 1991, and you can get some sense of the urgency that permeated the Community Center Thursday evening, when 74 residents gathered to pass thumbs up, or thumbs down, on a list of 21 broad goals drafted by the city’s Comprehensive Planning Committee. Those goals are designed to shape how the city grows, and what it should look like in 2035.

The committee has targeted seven “focus areas” for rezoning attention. Rules incorporated into the new growth plan will drive development in those regions of South Portland for at least the next 10 years. Therefore, citizens were eager to have their say, separating into smaller groups that questioned seven of the 21 concepts floated at Thursday’s public forum.

“What we’ll do now,” consultant Mark Eyerman said Monday, “is examine those areas of concern, breaking down the questions that were raised for the comprehensive planning committee to address at its next meeting, Dec. 6.”

Eyerman – whose firm, Portland-based Planning Decisions, was paid $20,000 to lead the rewrite of the plan, according to Haeuser – began the evening by reviewing how South Portland has changed, according to recent Census Bureau data.

Eyermen pointed out that, despite the popular conception of Maine as stagnant and aging population, South Portland is actually growing, and getting younger.

Over the past decade, the city’s population grew to 25,002 – 4.3 percent higher than computer models had predicted. Much of that growth came west of Interstate 295 (up 16.4 percent) and in the Highland Avenue area (up 15.8 percent).

At the same time, the city grew younger. The percent of people age 65 and older fell from 15.5 to 13.7, while the segment age 25 and younger held steady at roughly 30 percent of the population. The median age of all South Portland residents is now 39.4 – about three years younger than the Census Bureau was expecting.

But, as Eyerman pointed out, that shift in demographics came with a shift in values. The number of people per household fell from 2.42 in 2000 to 2.26 in 2010. Fewer people in more homes means South Portland is pretty well filled to capacity as far as housing stock. From here on in, he said, most development in South Portland will be redevelopment, or “in-fill,” as section by section of the city gets a makeover.

The seven sections isolated by the comprehensive planning committee are its established single-family neighborhoods; the “neighborhood centers,” like Willard Square, where a few central stores serve nearby homes; the Broadway and Cottage Road corridors; the Main Street corridor; the East End waterfront; the downtown Knightville and Mill Creek districts; and the area around the Maine Mall.

Neighborhoods

The regions of the city that are no zoned A, or AA, are those that are almost exclusively the domain of residential lots, many of which sprouted up long before zoning came into fashion and do not conform to current rules. The idea here (endorsed by forum participants by a 46-3 vote) is to allow development on lots of less than 5,000 square feet, with setback requirements similar to surrounding homes.

Getting considerably more kickback (33-18 approval) was the idea of requiring so-called “mini-site plans” for all new or renovated homes in the neighborhood districts.  The proposal endorsed by the comp plan committee is to mandate that all neighborhood development must get an OK from the Planning Board, whether or not it qualifies as a subdivision. Under this proposal, all new and refurbished homes “must be compatible with the existing homes in the immediate neighborhood.”

Activity centers

In places where neighborhood shops exist, the plan is to encourage more business development in the current commercial hubs, again using the “mini-site plan” approach. By a 33-7 split, forum participants okayed the idea of favoring “urban development” in these areas, meaning imposing requirements that buildings be located close to the street, with parking to the side or rear.

Using the mini-site plan approach for small-scale business development won approval 47-3, possibly because it was married to the idea of making the city invest in infrastructure improvements to compliment growth, with new sidewalks, trees and shared parking lots.

Broadway and Cottage

As a group, the forum favored allowing outer Cottage Road neat the Cape Elizabeth town line to evolve into a low-intensity” commercial area so long as businesses maintain the current building character (37-5), encouraging multi-family and other high-density development along the portion of Broadway between Cottage and Mussey Roads (30-17) and letting that part of Broadway between Anthoine and Evans Streets evolve into a mixed-use area with office and apartment buildings up to five stories tall (34-9).

However, participants split evenly (21-21) on the idea of allowing duplex and multi-family housing, as well as allowing redevelopment of residential property to limited commercial use on Broadway from Lincoln Street to Cash Corner.

Main Street

Participants hedged somewhat (38-10) on letting Cash Corner – called “Crash Corner” by one gaffer – “continue to be an auto-orientated commercial area.” The question of what needs to be done to improve traffic flow through Cash Corner became a significant debate at many tables, with more than one person suggesting a rotary.

Less divisive (46-4) was the idea of letting Main Street between Westbrook Street and the railroad overpass become a “city street” with larger buildings situated close to the sidewalk. Mixed-use buildings of up to five stories were deemed appropriate (40-7) for the outer Main Street.

East End waterfront

There was almost no disagreement on this section of the city, where the forum agreed that the Front Street area in Ferry Village should evolve into a mixed-use area with “water-related” uses at street level and apartments on the upper floors (45-2); that the city should “actively work to encourage” redevelopment of former shipyard land by offering to pay for infrastructure and traffic improvements (38-3), that the Cacoulidis-owned property on Spring Point is a high priority for “a wide range of uses as long as the project expands the tax base,” (38-0), and that the Southern Maine Community College campus, now in four separate zoning districts, should be placed in a single zone under one master plan (44-1).

Knightville/Mil Creek

The forum was somewhat divided (20-12) on the declaration that the city should “encourage and facilitate” construction of more housing in this area, while also resisting (30-9) the idea of allowing townhouses and multi-family dwellings on the so-called “letter streets.” Less controversial (42-3) was the concept of making the area “more of a pedestrian urban village with the park as a focal point.” Gaining even more support (43-2) was the call for a “detailed study” of how to create this urban village feel.

Maine Mall

Finally, there was broad support (41-3) for zoning rules aimed at making the Maine Mall area “a more attractive destination,” as well as “the premier retail center in the state.” Establishing design standards to make the region around the Mall “attractive and pedestrian friendly” was backed 36-2.

Fireworks ban blocked

Against a regional trend, Scarborough councilors vote to allow sale and use starting Jan. 1.

SCARBOROUGH — An attempt to ban the sale and use of consumer fireworks was narrowly defeated in Scarborough Wednesday in a 3-2 vote that very easily could have swung the other way, had a full complement of councilors been on hand.

Many communities in the area have instituted some sort of ban, including Portland (which did so Sept. 19), South Portland (Oct. 17), North Yarmouth (Oct. 18), Cape Elizabeth (Nov. 14) and Falmouth (Nov. 14).

Councilors Carol Rancourt and Michael Wood both spoke in favor of a total ban when the enabling ordinance was presented for a first reading Nov. 2. In fact, Rancourt was instrumental in getting the issue on the table at all, teaming with Councilor Karen D’Andrea to maneuver the change through the town’s Ordinance Committee over the objection of its third member, Jessica Holbrook, who favored a Sept. 7 consensus decision of the council to pursue limited regulation over an outright ban.

But for a death in the family, Rancourt would have been present, undoubtedly resulting in a tie vote. That still would have meant defeat of the ordinance, but the result could have gone the other way had Wood somehow had foresight enough to see the debate coming when tendering his resignation last summer.

Citing time conflicts with a recent job promotion, Wood announced Aug. 17 that he would resign, but not until regular balloting Nov. 8. That way, he reasoned, a replacement could found without incurring the cost of a special election. However, newly elected councilors are not sworn into office until the second meeting following an election. Thus, Wood’s seat sat empty Nov. 16, with neither he nor his replacement, James Benedict, there to fill it.

If Wood had stayed on until a replacement was sworn in, not merely elected, his “strong support,” along with Rancourt’s, almost certainly would have resulted in a 4-3 vote to institute a fireworks ban in Scarborough.

Instead, it appears Scarborough has resumed the course it first set Sept. 7, when Town Manager Tom Hall recommend only a zoning change to mandate the addition of a sprinkler system to any building set up to sell fireworks. Hall said Monday that two companies – Ohio-based Phantom Fireworks and TNT Fireworks of Alabama – have expressed interest in opening stores in Scarborough.

After Wednesday’s meeting, Hall said he will prepare sprinkler rules for the council to consider at its Dec. 7 meeting, along with changes to the town’s Noise Abatement Ordinance, which he also with craft.

Hall said changes may include the addition of certain excessive or inappropriate uses of consumer fireworks to the list of “specific prohibitions” in the Noise Ordinance, making enforcement a “discretionary matter” for local police.

Under the new state law, consumer fireworks could be lit on private property any day of the year from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m., except on July 4 and Dec. 31, when use is permitted until 12:30 the following morning.

During Wednesday’s public hearing, several residents spoke in favor of the ban, but only Beech Ridge Road resident David Green turned out against it.

“I don’t appreciate the council telling me what I can and cannot have that’s allowed by state law on my own property,” he said, while reminding the council that what has been decriminalized is small explosives only, not to include “missile” products, such as bottle rockets, skyrockets and aerial spinners.

“The only thing that’s going to be allowed is the sparklers we get now at the corner store and a few small firecrackers,” said Green. “Let’s not confuse the issue, that there’s going to be kids out there with M-80s. It’s not going to happen.”

“Just because they are littler doesn’t mean they can’t still do damage,” countered D’Andrea. “It doesn’t mean they can’t still catch fires. It’s doesn’t mean can’t still injure and maim people. It doesn’t mean they don’t make a lot of noise.

“We need to protect the rights of our citizens to enjoy their property,” said D’Andrea. “They have a right to that. People do not have a right to have fireworks and blow them off wherever they want.”

Holbrook said she is “prepared and willing” to vote for rules to control the use of consumer fireworks in Scarborough’s more densely populated areas. However, D’Andrea, continuing to stump for a total ban, insisted, “It needs to be black or white.” It would be too confusing, for police and citizens alike, she said, if fireworks end up allowed in some neighborhoods, but not others.

Extending that argument, East Grand Avenue resident Steve McKelvey pointed out that most nearby communities have already approved bans.

“Why would our town want to become a local magnet for this activity?” he asked. “I’m not against economic growth in our town, but to allow an out-of-state fireworks company to open a store in Scarborough, and to allow their use in our town, is the wrong idea.

“I ask the council to be mindful of the right of residents to the peaceable enjoyment of our homes and neighborhoods,” said McKelvey. “This right outweighs any pursuant right that may exist to set off fireworks.”

Still dressed in scrubs from her job as a certified nurse, Pine Brook Lane resident Sue Delisle said she has cared for patients burned by fireworks, both as user and innocent bystander. She predicted a high cost to all citizens if use of consumer fireworks is allowed because, “in Maine, a high percentage of the population is uninsured or state insured and the cost of these burns are then passed directly to the taxpayer.”

“People with burns utilize ICU and OR space and sometimes thousands of dollars just in dressing supplies,” she warned, going on to indirectly chastise Councilor Richard Sullivan Jr.

“I find it disappointing that a member of the Portland Fire Department believes that a wait-and-see attitude is the right approach,” said Delisle. “A year from now, will it be one or 20 people who need to be injured for it to be realized that fireworks are dangerous?”

“I don’t think consumer fireworks are going to pose that kind of a problem to Scarborough,” said Sullivan, referring to the nightly noise he endured while living near Old Orchard Beach. “Why don’t we give it a year? If we have a problem, then we’ll do something about it, but this jumping the gun, coming through with an ordinance like this – I’m totally against it.”

As both sides weighed in, it may have been Planning Board member Kerry Corthell who elicited the most nods, while arguing against a total ban and for “a more reasoned approach.”

“You cannot regulate society such that all the idiots of the world will not hurt themselves or others,” she said. “If you were going to do that, you would outlaw knives and cars and plastic bags and a million other things. But regulating the use of fireworks higher than sparklers does make sense on the public safety side.

“Most of the places that I have lived have had only a few restrictions on fireworks, and there were no hoards of raging fireworks aficionados running amok,” said Corthell. “When their use was inappropriate, the users were dealt with by law enforcement.”

Hard times, helping hands

Business owners, organizations aid residents in trying times

SOUTH PORTLAND — For anyone else, it might have been a simple homework assignment, but for Christina Guimond it was a call to action.

A social work major at the University of Southern Maine, Guimond was reviewing relevant news articles for a class assignment when she read about recent cuts to the state’s home-heating subsidy.

“It just spiked something in my mind,” said Guimond, “and it was while on my way to work one day that I had an idea.”

Guimond, of Lyman, works her way through college by waiting tables at Thatcher’s Restaurant & Sports Pub, on Foden Road in South Portland. Normally, Thatcher’s is closed on Thanksgiving Day, but Guimond wondered if her boss would be willing to both open the doors, and give meals away for free. As a result of Guimond’s charitable idea, Thatcher’s South Portland location will be open noon-2 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day, joining other area efforts to feed the hungry this holiday season, all with the help of generous business owners and dedicated volunteers.

And it couldn’t come at a better time, as the budget cuts that spurred Guimond to action are threatening to burden Mainers with a tough winter.

Created in 1980 and now serving more than 70,000 Mainers, the Low-income Home Energy Assistance Program (LiHEAP) has been slated for a 59 percent slash in funding by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, from $55.6 million last year, down to $23 million. The cut is due partly to the fact that Congress has so far failed to pass a budget for the fiscal year that started Oct.1, doing the nation’s business instead by means of a “continuing resolution.”

However, LiHEAP funding for Maine remains in jeopardy, even if the impasse is breached by Congress’ newly minted “Super Committee.” Budget bills now on the table would allocate between $33.9 and $45.7 million to Maine’s LiHEAP program, depending on whether the House or Senate version gains requisite support.

Even a seeming best-case hack of $9.9 million in aid comes at a hard time for Maine’s neediest families, given a concurrent spike in heating oil prices – up 19 percent from the beginning of the year to a statewide average of $3.66 per gallon (as of Nov. 14) and projected to jump another 10 percent before the spring thaw, all according to the Governor’s Office of Energy Independence and Security.

It was a sense of the tough times around her that led Cindy Boolay, who owns the Thatcher’s in South Portland, Westbook and Gorham, to quickly give an OK to Guimond’s plan, lining up donations from some of her vendors, including Sysco Northern New England, US Foods and Coca-Cola.

“I just think it’s a good thing right now to do,” said Boolay. “I think there are a lot of people out there who will be needing this.”

“We’ll have enough to serve between 300 and 500,” said Guimond. “We’re hoping we don’t run out.”

“Everyone is welcome, we’re not limiting [to income] it in any way,” said Guimond, adding that donations made by diners, in any denomination, will be passed on to Preble Street, a Portland-based social service agency that operates a year-round soup kitchen and food pantry.

On this side of the Fore River, another act of culinary altruism is in its 16^th year. On Thanksgiving Day, the South Portland Community Volunteers will once again feed all comers from noon-3 p.m. at VFW Post 832, on Peary Terrace.

“Every year I fear we are going to run out of food,” said event organizer Debbie Hubbard, who helped found the annual tradition out of concern elderly residents of South Portland would not bother to prepare a full holiday meal for themselves.

This year, Hubbard and her helpers will buy 24 turkeys and all the associated side dishes using gift cards provided by NextEra Energy Resources and the South Portland Police Patrolmen’s Association. Evergreen Credit Union pays for the veggies, while many of its employees will bake and donate the 34 homemade pies to be served. Smaha’s Legion Square Market also chips in, donating the cranberry sauce. Meanwhile, the city provides a school bus and volunteer driver to transport shut-ins who might not make it otherwise.

“We can serve up to 300,” said Hubbard, noting, “We started getting reservations three weeks ago – way earlier than usual.”

Elsewhere in the city, Sybil Riemensnider runs the South Portland Food Cupboard out of the basement of St. John the Evangelist Church, on Main Street. 

Riemensnider’s all-volunteer group of about 45 – mostly retirees, many in their 80s – has spent the last 16 years collecting food donations and discounted items from various sources – including Hannaford’s, Smaha’s, the Good Shepherd Food Bank, Native Maine Produce & Specialty Foods and Jordan’s Family Farm – and distributing to the needy every Thursday.

Because it is closed Thanksgiving Day, the food cupboard makes a special effort to send each applicant away with a full turkey-day feast every other day it’s open in November, in addition to the usual week’s work of groceries it makes available for up to four people, per request.

This November, however, distribution is up dramatically, said Riemensnider.

Food Cupboard patrons must meet eligibility criteria, including proof of an income level that is no more than 150 percent of the federally-defined poverty level. That comes to about $1,300 per month for a single person, said Riemensnider. Rules limit beneficiaries to one visit per month. Even so, between 40 and 50 families, on average, are able to take advantage of the service each month.

But on Nov. 3, 73 families qualified for help. On Nov. 10 it was 99, and on Nov. 17, 113.

“Those 296 families included 721 individuals, including 149 children,” Riemensnider said.

“We always have more requests in November, but never in this amount,” she added. “And, while we knew we were going to have a lot this time, we never imagined how much.

“Normally, we’ll take people from anywhere,” said Riemensnider, but this year we had to limit turkey to South Portland people, because we didn’t have enough for everybody.”

According to Riemensnider, many of the November applicants were first-time visitors to a food-pantry of any kind.

“They thanked us over and over again,” she recalled. “This is a bad time for a lot of people. Really, I think what we are seeing here [at the food cupboard] is worse then when the recession first hit.”

By contrast, Mary Rollo, executive director of Scarborough’s Project GRACE, said her group has seen only a small uptick in the number of calls for its holiday meal service.

“It’s a little bit of a moving target, but it looks like the need is about 50 families this year. I’d say that’s about average,” she said, allowing requests, “may be a little bit higher [than last year], but it does fluctuate up and down every year.”

Unlike the South Portland Food Cupboard, Project GRACE has no set eligibility threshold for its holiday service, in which donors “adopt a family,” albeit anonymously, by creating their own Thanksgiving basket or donating cash, which the group uses to build baskets on its own.

“Many donors create a whole Thanksgiving dinner,” said Rollo. “Some I’ve seen come complete with candles and napkins.”

Project GRACE donors who made baskets dropped them off at the nonprofit’s office Tuesday, for pickup by recipients Wednesday. Those giving and receiving aid never meet, said Rollo, partly because Project GRACE is presumed to thrive on anonymity. There’s a fear, Rollo said, that donors might shy away if their names are publicized.

As is, Rollo acknowledges that Project GRACE will end up building about 30 baskets using funds from its own coffers, because it does not have enough donors to adopt every family in need of a Thanksgiving benefactor.

Rollo will not say what makes certain people eligible for aid, although she does say donations are based more on sudden shortfalls in family income than systemic poverty, for which there are other state and federal programs available.

“The recipients show a need through conversation with one of our volunteers, but that’s all very private and confidential,” she explains. “We don’t want to give people an idea that they are not worthy or eligible before they even try.”

Rollo does not expect the drying of LiHEAP dollars will affect either meal of heating assistance programs offered by her group.

“Those who qualify for programs like LiHEAP would not normally come to us,” she explains, “And, if they do, we would first direct them to the town’s general assistance program, or other resources.”

Instead, Project GRACE, since its founding in 2000, tends to focus on short-term needs among folks who would not normally qualify for existing programs, but whose needs are no less acute.

“There are many hands that make this happen, and that’s how we function best with an almost all-volunteer organization,” said Rollo. “There are folks who have been hugely generous. But the important thing is that we try to find donors who want to give in any way, to better foster community participation, neighbor helping neighbor.”

In South Portland, the feeling is the same.

“We are very grateful of our community, who is so supportive of us,” said Riemensnider. “It is because of their generosity that we are able to help any people at all. If we did that support – from the community, the churches, the banks, the city – we would not be able to do anything with the number of people we have in need.”