Casco Bay Weekly : 13 July 1989
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Portland Public Library Portland Public Library Digital Commons Casco Bay Weekly (1989) Casco Bay Weekly 7-13-1989 Casco Bay Weekly : 13 July 1989 Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.portlandlibrary.com/cbw_1989 Recommended Citation "Casco Bay Weekly : 13 July 1989" (1989). Casco Bay Weekly (1989). 28. http://digitalcommons.portlandlibrary.com/cbw_1989/28 This Newspaper is brought to you for free and open access by the Casco Bay Weekly at Portland Public Library Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Casco Bay Weekly (1989) by an authorized administrator of Portland Public Library Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Greater Portland's news and arts weekly JULY 13, 1989 FREE ... that don't make THE NEWS (OYER STOll by Kelly Nelson PHOTOS by Tonet! Harbert One night last April Michael Metevier got off work at midnight and headed over to Raoul's to hear some blues. An hour later he was cruising home, feeling good. His tune changed when he got home. His door was smashed open. The lock lay useless on the floor. The lights were -. glaring. "It was quite a bunch of mixed emotions - shock and being violated. I was kind of in a daze," says Metevier of finding his home burglarized. He didn't sleep well that night. He kept thinking that someone he didn't know had been in his home - and had stolen his telephone, answering machine, flashlight, calculator, candy dish, towel!! and electric shaver. You probably heard every gory detail of the four murders in the Portland area last year. But you probably didn't hear about Metevier geHing ripped off. Nor did you hear about the 2,437 thefts from residences, businesses and other assorted places and the 2,564 thefts from motor vehicles in 1988. Of the 329 U.S. metropolitan areas rated by Places Rated Almanac, Portland ranks 122nd in the crime category. But looking only at the property crime num bers, Portland has a higher rate of inci dence per 100,000 people (5285) than Chicago (4729) and Newark N.J. (4845). , And Portland isn't too far behind Boston (5351). Portland ranks safer overall than those cities because Portland's incidence of violent crimes is much lower. So while you're more likely to get stabbed in Newark, you're more likely to lose your car stereo in Portland. Michael Metevler peers from his now well-ICKked apartment. (ONTINUED on page 8 INSIDE: UPDATES page 2 CALENDAR page 12 WEIRD NEWS page3 LISTINGS page 14 TALK page 4 TUNES page 16 VIEWS page 6 CLASSIFIEDS page 21 COVER pageS PUZZLE page 23 ART SEEN page 10 POOK page 23 Complete Deering Oaks Family Festival listings. Complete Yarmouth Clam Festival listings. Seepage 19 Seepage 11 / July 13, 1989 3 2 C!sco &y W~k1y Troubled waters run deeper THE WEEK IN BRIEF: Water District dragged to court Permanent home for homeless Alexander House, a permanent home for people with psychi While wading in Casco Bay with his two young Taylor in a press release. "But the whole proc atric or alcohol problems, opened in early July at 275 State St. At daughters during the long Fourth of July week ess ... could take a year or two before the improve capacity the home provides eight people with private bedrooms end, Jeff Thaler worried about "the thousands ments are completed." and three meals a day in a communal dining room. Jeannine and thousands of ganons of pollutants that are Taylor said he is disappointed that the groups Jordan, who established the Jordan House homeless shelter in pumped into the bay every day." bringing the lawsuit have not recognized the 1986 and the Alexander House, said the program helps unskilled On Wednesday morning, July 5, the Lewiston progress PWD has made. Taylor said that both the people become more "functional and social." But she finds state based attorney brought the Portland Water Dis state Attorney General's office and the Maine funding inadequate for the growing demand. Residents give trict to court. Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) social security or disability checks to the home as payment, and The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in have recognized that the plant's license cannot be are encouraged to seek employment. Portland by the Boston-based Conservation Law met as it is presently written, and have tolerated Foundation (CLF), the Island Institute in Rock its violations. land and the Maine Audubon Society in Fal In response to that, Shelley said that "two Adams hailed as hero mouth. It charges that the Portland Water District wrongs don't make a right." Shelley speculated Portlander Herb Adams, a state legislator and crusader for (PWD) is in violation of the federal Clean Water that the DEP, which earlier this year won $98,500 quality of life, has been named by Newsweek magazine as one of Act at its Portland and Westbrook operations. If in fines for water violations at the S.D. Warren America's50 heroes. Adams was in the front ranks of the Parkside found guilty, those violations could cost the PWD paper mill in Westbrook, has been reticent to Neighborhood Association when it attacked the problems of $25,000 a day in fines. apply the same strict standards to the PWD be absentee landlords, drugs and prostitution that tormentParkside. "It's time we raised the stakes," said Peter cause the water district, like the DEP, is a govern The efforts of the association have resulted in a stricter trash Shelley, senior attorney forCLF, at a press confer mental agency. The district is a cooperative effort ordinance, an ordinance requiring landlords to register their ence held the day the suit was filed. The crux of by Greater Portland municipalities, and is paid names with the ci ty, and state-level prostitution legislation. Adams the problem, according to Shelley, is the decade for with water fees. passed the credit to the entire association, but acknowledged, old waste water treatment plant located above Thaler added that "there are other municipali "They put the (Adams') picture up in the Mellen Street Market. East End Beach in Portland. ties in Greater Portland who are also violating the That's really the height of achievement." "As built," said Shelley, "this plant has never conditions of their permits." He warned other, .................................. been capable of meeting the limi ts established by perhaps smaller polluting communities that "this MERe fined $300,000 ~ BOOKS ETC its permit." The PWD plant does not have a hold is the first but not the last lawsuit against a mu :-- ing chamber where chlorine can make contact nicipality." The MERC trash-to-energy plant in Biddeford has agreed to . - with the waste water to kill bacteria, nor does it Taylor said that the planned improvements to make $2 million worth of improvements and pay $300,000 in fines .................................. have a subsequent device to dechlorinate that the Portland treatment plant will cost the PWD for repeated environmental violations. Biddeford residents have water before releasing it into the bay. Conse about $8 million and will raise water rates about been subjected to showers of toxic ash from MERC, according the quently, the plant discharges too much chlorine 16 percent. The average household bill would rise Department of Environmental Protection, which brought suit for and too much bacteria. Shelley and Thaler, who from $132 to $154 per year. Those figures could nine violations. MERC will have to develop an air monitoring represents the Island Institute, insist that these rise if penalties are assessed. A previous CLF J program. MERC will also have to assess and pay for "health risks repairs be made by next summer's swimming lawsuit cost Boston $1.2 million in fines. .' associated with plant operation," a DEP statement said. season. Protesting the suit, Joe Taylor pointed out that !, Joseph Taylor, generaJ'manager of the Port there wasn't even a treatment plant in existence land Water District, agfees that the plant needs until 1979. Time raises cable rates chlorination and declorination chambers. But Although Shelley agreed that the PWD is Public Cable Co., with a monopoly in the Portland area, just Taylor, who had been negotiating with the three announced a 5 to 8 percent rate increase in Southern Maine. ART AND DRAFTING cleaner than it used to be, he called that argument environmental groups since January, does not Deregulation of public utilities in 1984 left Portland with no a red herring. "Compared to Boston, they're Share your special pictures! supplies sale think the work can be completed by next summer. saints," said Shelley. "But they're still not good bargaining power over rates. Things may get worse. Paramount "We hope, weather permitting, to begin construc enough." Communications asked Portland's approval of a takeover bid for FREE FILM plus FREE EXTRA PRINTS tion in November or December of this year," said Mont< PllUlsen Time Inc., which owns Public Cable. City Attorney David Lourie every day of the week with said it's too early for Portland to take a position, but Portland op posed a merger of the two corporations because a heavy debt The Portland stuck in the slow lane might have resulted. It was feared the debt would cause a rise in cable subscription fees with no corresponding rise in services. New bridge's traffic unwelcome Lourie said that may also happen with a takeover. The Oty of South Portland will get better traf tricts in Portland. Noise, air pollution, the split Parkside housing sweep fic flow when the Million Dollar Bridge is re ting of a neighborhood and danger to pedestrians Stop in and find out about our Two Convenient Locations: placed, but Portlat)d win get more of a bad thing.