Cumberland County | featured news

A banking veteran with strong community ties has been named to lead the Maine division of KeyBank.
Raymond T. (Chip) Kelley has been named Maine Market President, according to a release from the bank. He will also maintain his current role as commercial sales leader for Maine, New Hampshire, and eastern Massachusetts.
Kelley replaces Sterling Kozlowski, who died suddenly in June.

Auburn police have identified the body found in “The Basin” Sunday as 34-year-old Jessica Gallant of New Gloucester.
Gallant was found early Sunday by fishermen near the shoreline of the basin.
Gallant’s cause of death is undetermined by the Chief Medical Examiner’s Office pending toxicology exam results, which could take up to four weeks.
Auburn police are investigating the circumstances of Gallant’s death with the assistance of the Maine State Police Major Crimes Unit.
This story will be updated.

Hearst wants to buy a second television station in southern Maine.
The company, which owns WMTW (ABC affiliate channel 8) in Portland/Auburn, is buying WPXT in Portland, which airs as channel 51 on most cable systems. The station carries programming from the CW network under the names MeTV and MyNetworkTV.
Hearst is buying the station from Ironwood Communications. Terms were not disclosed, and the deal is subject to regulatory approval.

BRUNSWICK – Brunswick police say a five year old girl, two adults and a dog were all bitten by a fox on Moody Road Friday afternoon.
Another adult was also scratched by a fox and will need to be treated for rabies exposure along with those bitten, according to Brunswick Police Cmdr. Mark Waltz. He said that a chicken was also killed by a fox Friday.

CONCORD, N.H. — Gas prices have gone up slightly in northern New England.
GasBuddy’s daily survey of gas outlets in Maine and Vermont found that average retail gasoline prices in the states went up 1.5 cents last week. In Maine, the average price was $2.84 a gallon. In Vermont, it was $2.88 a gallon. In New Hampshire, the price went up less than a penny to an average price of $2.79 a gallon.
The national average is $2.84 per gallon. It’s dropped half a cent per gallon in the last month and stands 53.4 cents per gallon higher than a year ago.

BRISTOL — Archaeologists will be excavating part of a state historic site in Maine to try to uncover artifacts related to British Colonial forts.
The Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry says the digging will begin Monday and last until Aug. 10 at Colonial Pemaquid State Historic Site. Three British Colonial forts were built on the site between the 1670s and the 1720s.

An autopsy has been completed on the 22-year-old Portland man who died at the scene of a car crash on Saturday, but officials aren’t releasing his cause of death.
Patrick Lobor, a former Deering High School basketball player, was driving one of three vehicles involved in a crash Saturday afternoon on Brighton Avenue. Police said Lobor got out of his car, stumbled to the middle of the intersection and collapsed.

AUGUSTA – Gov. Paul LePage touted a state budget surplus of $175.8 million Monday, noting that Maine had concluded the fiscal year well in the black.
LePage credited his administration’s sound fiscal management for the surplus. He said $74.6 million of the surplus has been allocated to the state’s next two-year budget and $76.2 million to the state’s so-called “rainy day” or budget stabilization account. Another $19 million was sent to an account aimed at reducing Maine’s income tax rate.

Three people died Monday in a small plane crash in Piscataquis County.
The twin-propeller plane crashed shortly before noon at the Greenville Municipal Airport. Department of Public Safety Spokesman Stephen McCausland confirmed three fatalities according to News Center Maine (WCSH/WLBZ).
The Federal Aviation Administration provided a statement to News Center Maine saying it would investigate the crash.

LEWISTON — A Republican running for the state House in Lewiston is calling for his party’s state chair to resign over her role in recruiting former Androscoggin County GOP leader Stavros Mendros as a legislative candidate in York County.
Mike Lachance, a candidate in the 61st District, said that Demi Kouzounas should “immediately step down” for encouraging Mendros to challenge a state senator in Saco.