Copies of the Livermore Falls Advertiser from 75 and 50 years ago are not available. Information from 49 and 25 years ago will be shared here.

49 years ago    

The heat and humidity Friday didn’t dampen the enthusiasm of the 300 guests at the dedication of the Allagash Tree Farm. The dedication of the 362,000 acre tree farm was held in Raymond Allen’s field.

From the field there was a view of the new Androscoggin Mill, view blurred by the haze. Guests were transported from the mill to the field by bus. They were fed a woods style meal, specially chosen beef, cooked in a bean hole for 12 hours with a hot barbecue sauce.

Seventeen youngsters who will begin school this fall are enrolled in the summer Head Start program which is being held this year in the First Baptist Church, sponsored by the Androscoggin County Task Force. This year’s program has a small enrollment, though many other youngsters would be eligible, due to the limited funds available when the application was made.

Dr Rubinstein of Harvard University and Mass General Hospital, has almost completed the medical part of the hospital services survey in the three participating towns. Other parts of the survey will be completed before September 15, when a report will be made to the three towns.

One of the colder symbols in the field of life is the firefly’s lamp.

Perhaps too few of us see fireflies in this era when the most common eerie light is the bluish emanation from a television tube. But, back in the days when houses had front porches that supported creaky wooden swings, fireflies were the cheapest nocturnal attraction available to a generation not yet surfeited by entertainment.

It may be advisable to tell what fireflies are. In many neighborhoods which receive regular DDT attention, fireflies no longer exist. So, if you live in one of these biological deserts, think of fireflies as slender beetles capable of moving slowly in the air like a helicopter.

While in flight, the male firefly blinks a signal from the lantern that is built into his abdomen. When a female sees the proper number of dots-and-dashes signaled from a gentleman of her species, she responds by turning on her lamp. Most females seem to be poor fliers, some cannot fly at all, so are often found hidden in grasses.

25 years ago

Initial programming is beginning for a local public access cable television channel which hopes to be broadcasting by early September.

The Community Television Committee met this week to discuss priorities for local programming, and chose the channels call-letters.

Everyone agreed that WJLF was appropriate because the letters stand for jay, Livermore Falls, Livermore and Fayette – and it is people in those towns who will be involved in the project.

WJLF plans to start the broadcasting line-up with local sports coverage, a science program featuring actual NASA footage, and a Read-A-Loud story program for children.

In a last minute flurry of campaigning before the decertification vote is held, union officials raised two issues – health premium overcharges and back pay due workers.

Last week, United Paperworkers International Union Local 14 president Felix Jacques raised the issue of $550,000 in excess health care premiums due employees.

Members of UPIU Local 14 and the International Brotherhood of Firemen and Oilers Local 246 were affected by the overcharge, Mr. Jacques said. 

Mr. Jacques said the union had an agreement with the mill that called for the company to pay $142 each month for individual coverage and $175 each month for family coverage for workers.

“It turns out that in fact, IP only had to pay $100 a month per employee, regardless o f type of coverage, yet still required employees to co-pay $5.54 a month for individual coverage and $124.13 a month for family coverage. Without union representation, employees never would have learned about his overcharge,” Mr. Jacques said.

Brad Peters, Communications Manager for the Androscoggin Mill, said there is no basis for the allegations of health premium overcharges. He said the charge was nothing more than a campaign tactic designed to influence employees’ decisions in the decertification votes.

In a second issue, Mr. Jacques said distribution of roughly $2 million in back pay to workers at International Paper had begun.

Peters said the pay back is expected to total slightly more than $600,000.

The checks are to compensate 203 mill employees the National Labor Relations Board found should have been recalled to work after the strike ended on Oct. 10, 1988, union officials said. Instead, IP promoted the wrong employees, Mr. Jacques said.

Fayette selectmen gave the Starling Hall Committee approval to sell the wood stove in the kitchen. Work will begin within three months on the Hall, paid for  in part by a $42,7760 Jobs Bond State grant.

Operating staff for the new biomass plant in Livermore Falls has been hired.

Plant Manager David Leavitt said 19 people have been hired – 10 of them locally.

Mr. Leavitt said construction of the plant is on schedule. By mid-August, the plant should begin its initial wood burning, with “turbine roll” set for the end of August.

Workers from International Paper Company did some erosion control work to save the bank near the POW/MIA remembrance Bridge monument on the Riley Road in Jay.

Over 500 men, women and children from 69 Maine towns and cities, eight states, Russia and Canada came together for Dick and Becky Pelletier’s Musicale Place in Fayette. The bluegrass festival featured the 1991 National Instrumentalist of the Year, members of the Maine Country Music Hall of Fame, and a musician who had traveled with a Smithsonian Institute musical tour. The youngest musicians present were Jenny LeClerc, Livermore Falls, and Chad Cormier, Waterville. Both were eight years old. 

Compiled by Pam Harnden