You know it’s been a lively year for news when some of the wildest stories don’t even make the year-end top 10 list.

There was the dubious case of dogs being stolen around Oxford County. There was the hoopla over the casino vote and then the anti-climax as the measure was shot down.

In Auburn, City Administrator Glenn Aho was fired, while across the bridge exploding propane injured four at the yearly Great Falls Balloon Festival.

A western Maine paper mill declared bankruptcy, fireworks were made legal, a popular animal control agent was deemed a hero and then relieved of duty.

There were all varieties of news over the course of 2011. There was sad and solemn, unusual and uplifting. Our job is to whittle it down to the top 10 stories.

The governor and the mural

Gov. Paul LePage’s decision to remove a 36-foot mural from the Department of Labor sparked outrage and spurred protests that would last through most of the spring. The decision was announced in mid-March, and the outcry was immediate.

Worker advocates described the move as a “mean-spirited” provocation amid the administration’s high-tension standoff with unions. A lawyer for the Maine People’s Voting Coalition insisted the removal of the mural was not even legal.

LePage defended the move, saying the mural and the conference room monikers showed “one-sided decor” not in keeping with the department’s pro-business goals. He had been alerted to the mural by a “secret admirer” who claimed it was an affront.

LePage determined it presented a one-sided view that bowed to organized labor. The flap came on the heels of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s introduction of a bill that stripped away the right of most public employees to collectively bargain for their benefits and working conditions, whipping up emotions of labor supporters to lash out at both governors.

The debate went on through April and May and grew to involve people and groups from around the country. The artist who created the mural vowed to assemble a human chain to prevent the removal. Finally, the governor appeared to relent, saying he would keep the mural where it was.

But then, during a weekend when the department was not occupied, the mural was removed. The governor did not say where it was stashed. It’s whereabouts remain a mystery.

Maineiacs leave Lewiston

After months of rumors, it happened in early June. The Quebec Major Junior Hockey League’s owners approved the sale of the club to the league itself, ending the franchise’s existence.

It ended not with a bang but a whimper. In spite of a solid base of rabid fans, the Maineiacs ceased to exist. The end of the franchise in Lewiston marked the end of a turbulent, two-year stretch during which one relocation attempt failed and another failed to materialize, despite reports that such a move was imminent.

The team, which won the 2007 President’s Cup as the league’s champion, fell into disarray less than two years later, when rumors of a move to Boisbriand, Quebec, surfaced. Attendance the following season plummeted and failed to recover as the Maineiacs finished 16th of 18 teams in two consecutive campaigns.

With the Maineiacs gone, nobody bothered to make ice at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee near the end of summer, the first time since 2003.

Three of the players from last year’s Lewiston team — Olivier Dame-Malka, Nick Champion and Antoine Houde-Caron — are ineligible to return to the QMJHL due to age. The remaining 25, including prospects and invited players — have latched on elsewhere. Fourteen of the 17 QMJHL teams have at least one former Maineiac in training camp, as does Saskatoon of the Western Hockey League — goalie Andrey Makarov.

Lewy’s Legion, ironically, did not evaporate once the team was gone. Many fans of the Maineiacs continue to follow their favorite players into Canada and as a group, Lewy’s Legion remains tight.

“It’s funny,” fan Gail Tarr of Auburn said. “After eight years of hockey, my best friends are people I met at the games. We are still like family.

“For me, I was surprised at how I felt the first time I went to a QMJHL game in Canada this year,” Tarr said. “I was super excited to get there and see the kids play, but once the game started, I felt left out, like a big piece of my heart was missing.”

Lewiston mayoral race

Nothing is easy in Lewiston. In the fall, it appeared there would be just another race for mayor in Lewiston. There were five contenders, and a strong possibility that none of them would snag 50 percent of the vote, forcing a December runoff.

That’s what happened. No candidate won the majority, and so the top two contenders — former cop Robert Macdonald and Marc Paradis, a service manager at Longchamps and Sons in Lisbon — squared off in December.

Debates between the men were lively. Just about everybody following the race expected it to be close. But then, just days before the election, the 59-year-old Paradis announced that he had been diagnosed with cancer. He had started radiation treatments, he told the public at a news conference. He would almost certainly live long enough to serve out a two-year term should he be elected.

But Paradis died days later, throwing the mayoral race into disarray. While Paradis’ family, and a good portion of the public, grieved, election officials scrambled to find a resolution.

They found one — Paradis would remain on the ballot, and the election would go ahead as planned. If Macdonald were to win outright, he would become mayor. Should Paradis garner the most votes, the city would schedule a special election because the seat would be declared vacant.

In the end, even though one of the candidates was deceased, it was close. Macdonald won, but by only 70 votes.

Weird weather

As it’s known to do, Maine weather unleashed a few surprises over the course of the year. Summer was mostly moderate and predictable, but in late August, Hurricane Irene barreled north and took aim at New England. Maine didn’t get hit nearly as hard as other areas — at least 31 people died nationally in connection with the storm — but Irene made herself known, even as she was downgraded to tropical storm status.

Thousands lost power, some for several days, when whipping winds and driving rain came sweeping through. The brunt of storm damage was felt by farmers, who woke up to find ripening fruit blown to the ground, apple trees snapped off, and fields of hay and vegetables coated with silt left behind by receding flood waters.

There was snow for Halloween and Thanksgiving. But beyond that, there was not much in autumn to complain about. A string of warm days in November made it one of the warmest ever in Maine.

And if that wasn’t freaky enough, the month saved the truly astounding for the last day — for a period on Nov. 30, Maine had the highest temperature in the continental U.S. It was 62 in Bangor that day and in the high 60s just about everywhere else.

December didn’t come in like a lion, either. By late in the month, it was still uncertain whether there would be any snow at all for Christmas. The mystery ended Dec. 23 when most of the state received a dusting of snow, and it was plenty cold enough to keep it around for the holiday.

iPads for Auburn students

Opinions were mixed in the spring when Auburn school officials announced they would shell out $240,000 to get iPads for kindergarten students. Half the population seemed to think it was foolhardy to put expensive technology in the hands of 5-year-olds, especially when there were budgetary problems already.

But educators were quick to point out that the iPad can be an invaluable tool for teachers tasked with educating large groups of children. The gadgets, they insisted, would revolutionize learning.

The debate went on all summer and then, in September, educators began handing over iPad2 tablets to the kids. There was still opposition, but it wasn’t very loud. And in November, the kids began to demonstrate what they could do with the tablets.

Educators from as near as Gray-New Gloucester and as far as India went to Sherwood Heights Elementary School to watch the kids at work on their tablets as part of a three-day national conference on iPads in education. So impressed were city leaders, they are now mulling replacing their own notebooks, pens and other office supplies with iPads.

Police shootings

November was a troubling time in law enforcement as police shot and killed two men in separate incidents.

On Nov. 19 in Farmington, 28-year-old Justin Crowley-Smilek was shot and killed when, police said, he pulled a knife on an officer. The usual shock of a police shooting was intensified by the details of Crowley-Smilek’s life — the young man was a war veteran who had recently mulled getting help for psychological afflictions.

Just one day before the fatal confrontation with police, a Farmington judge ordered Crowley-Smilek to undergo a full psychological evaluation when he went to court over a February assault charge. For a time, his family felt hope that he would get help for troubles that arose when he returned from duty in the Middle East.

On Nov. 10, 46-year-old Eric Richard, an administrative officer with the Rumford Police Department, was shot three times by a Maine warden. Richard died from his wounds.

Richard had been well-known in the community for conducting the police department’s Child Identification Program at public events. But on the day of the shooting, police and wardens had been searching for him after Richard was reported to have fled into the woods near his Cedar Lane home in a despondent state. When he was found, police said, an armed confrontation ensued, at which point Richard was shot and killed.

Women go missing

Throughout the year, several women went missing. Some were found, one of them after nearly three decades. The body of one remains missing, though a Lewiston man has been charged in her killing.

In July, the body of a 38-year-old woman was found in the basement of a Main Street apartment building in Lewiston. She was later identified as Danita Brown of New Gloucester, said to be a prostitute who sometimes worked in downtown Lewiston.

It didn’t take police long to find their suspect. They said 20-year-old Bob Ryder had confessed to his AA sponsor that he killed Brown and stashed her body in the basement of his home. The motive: Police said Ryan became enraged over his financial arrangement with Brown so he struck her over the head with a clock, killing her.

Since the start of summer, friends of 22-year-old Christiana Fesmire had worried about the Lewiston woman. She had gone missing, they said, and had been depressed. Police searched for her, but no trace was found. Her friends shared information and hope through Facebook and other online means, expressing hope that Fesmire would be found alive.

Then, in mid-October, police announced that a local man had been charged with murdering Fesmire. Buddy Robinson, 30, was accused of beating the woman and drowning her in a tub before dumping her body in a swamp.

Fesmire’s body has not been found, and the motive for the killing remains murky. Police said Fesmire was friends with Robinson’s sister, and the two women lived in the same building on Highland Avenue. There were also reports that Fesmire worked as an escort and that she and Robinson did not get along.

Robinson remains jailed. Police, wardens and volunteers continue to search for Fesmire’s body.

On Oct. 22, a grisly discovery was made at a storage unit on Lisbon Road in Lewiston. There, inside a freezer, the body of a long-dead woman was discovered as the storage unit was being cleaned out.

From the start, police suspected the body might be that of 29-year-old Kitty Wardwell, who went missing in 1983. The Maine Medical Examiner’s Officer later proved that to be the case.

The discovery drew national attention, but there was little mystery about the death of Wardwell. The last person known to have seen her alive nearly three decades ago was Francis “Frank” Julian, the man who had rented the storage unit where the body was found and who had recently died.

It was Julian’s family who found the body as they were cleaning out the storage locker. Police said Julian had rented the storage space in 1992. It remained unknown where Wardwell’s body was located before then.

The death of a woman whose body was found in a closet on Oxford Street in Lewiston in November remained unexplained as the year came to a close. The body of 26-year-old Samantha Folsom of Greene was discovered by her parents, who went to her Ste. Place Marie apartment after failing to hear from her over several days. Her death remains under investigation.

Grace Burton

Early in the morning on June 21, 81-year-old Grace Burton called for help as she lay battered and bleeding inside her Farmington home. When police arrived, Burton was still hanging on. She was able to tell them a few things about the man who had attacked her. A short time later, she died at a Lewiston hospital.

The information Burton provided — plus the fact that she had defended herself and wounded the assailant — helped police find their suspect months later in Massachusetts.

Juan A. Contreras, a 27-year-old dog groomer who had been living in Farmington, was arrested and charged with killing Burton. The arrest on Nov. 17 brought an end to nearly five months of uneasiness among the people of Farmington and nearby communities.

Police said they are certain Burton’s killer has been caught. DNA evidence submitted by Contreras, investigators said, matched that found in blood left in Burton’s Fairbanks Road home.

Contreras has since been returned to Maine, where he remains jailed while awaiting trial.

Sex scandal comes to Lewiston

The sex scandal at Syracuse University got a local flavor when a Lewiston man told the media he also had been molested by associate basketball coach Bernie Fine.

When 23-year-old Zachary Tomaselli came forward as Fine’s third accuser, news organizations from around the country sought him out for interviews. But this was no simple case of one man telling his story. Soon after Tomaselli became linked to the Fine case, it was learned that Tomaselli was part of another case of sexual misbehavior — this time as a suspect rather than accuser.

Police said in 2009 Tomaselli befriended and then sexually abused a boy he had met at a day camp where Tomaselli worked as an assistant soccer coach. In Androscoggin County Tomaselli was facing those charges while getting a taste of the limelight due to his involvement with Fine.

What that involvement entails remains unknown. Tomaselli said he was a victim of sexual abuse when he was 13, saying Fine invited him to accompany the team to a game in Pittsburgh and later molested him in a hotel room. But some doubt has been cast on Tomaselli’s story, with one prosecutor implying that there may be proof that Tomaselli and Fine were not together on the day in question.

Locally, Tomaselli has bigger problems. On Dec. 20, he pleaded guilty to four counts in an 11-count indictment, including gross sexual assault. That charge alone carries a 30-year maximum sentence. Under a plea agreement with prosecutors, Tomaselli will serve no more than three years and three months of a 12-year sentence, followed by six years of probation. He also pleaded guilty to unlawful sexual contact and two counts of visual sexual aggression against a child.

Tomaselli remains free pending sentencing scheduled for the start of the year.

Wind power

In the middle of August, a convoy of police cars and trucks toting massive equipment rolled down Routes 2 and 108 in Mexico and Rumford. For a time, it was a parade of trucks hauling parts few people could recognize. And the scene would be repeated in coming weeks as similar trucks carrying similar equipment lumbered through West Paris and other western parts of the state.

In West Paris, it was a 240-foot wind turbine interrupting traffic and causing many to scratch their heads in wonder. In Rumford, it was turbine tower sections followed by gigantic blades. There were dozens of big rigs carrying gadgets that looked like toys for giants.

It was an odd scene, but one that will be repeated all over central and western Maine as several wind power projects are getting off the ground. Construction got under way in Roxbury and Woodstock. Work is in progress — permits obtained and town meetings held — for ones in Carthage, Canton and Dixfield. Peru had a test wind turbine from EPA, and the Wind Ordinance Committee was beginning to explore the possibility of bringing wind farms to the town.

But where there is talk of wind power, debate can also be expected. In Sumner at the beginning of December, town leaders voted to extend a moratorium on wind power.

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