Morning Sentinel from Waterville, Maine • 1

SPORTS Colts clinch playoff berth while eliminating the Patriots with 20 15 win Cl A3 GAY POLICY: Pentagon officials indicate ask don't tell' being reviewed IN WATERVILLE: Charter commission recommends reducing power of mayor 1 IN SKOWHEGAN: New police ordinance expected to be approved by selectmen Bl 50 Cents MONDAY DECEMBER 13 1999 Copyright 1999 Mortitna nd 24PAGES A Blethen Maine Newspaper voi96no282 Serving Northern Kennebec Waldo Somerset and ranklin county communities CMP line worker killed while restoring power By JOE RANKIN StaiT Writer INDUSTRY A Central Maine Power Co line worker was electro cuted early Sunday afternoon as he worked to restore power to homes near Clearwater Lake Brent Churchill 30 of Industry apparently died instantly when he touched a live wire while 30 feet up on a utility pole according to the rank lin County Department The accident occurred about 12:30 pm near the intersection of State Route 43 and the Camp Road Another line worker who was not identified was not injured Churchill was the second CMP line worker killed on the job in slight ly more than two years Veteran line worker Clifton Morse was electro cuted in 1997 while installing a new utility pole in Mount Vernon The federal Occupational Health and Safety Administration is expect ed to investigate accident Churchill had worked at CMP since 1990 He was a line worker first class in transmission and distribu tion based at the armington Service Center accord Please see CMP A2 Little steps at Mount Merici Vanessa Rancourt age 2 gets a helping hand from her grand father Edward Rancourt as they make their way up the stairs to the Mount Merici School Christmas program on Sunday afternoon In Waterville The Rancourts are both from Staff photo BILL LAHERTY III MmbM 4ft SENTINEL JMBMMWMSL Inside WEATHER Sun then showers x' CalendarC5 Class ifiedD1 D6 ComicsC6 CrosswordsC5 HoroscopeC5 LettersA5 LotteryA2 NationA3 ObituariesB2 SportsC1 C4 TV listingsC5 WeatherA6 or updates of top stories please call: NomdgewockSkowhegan Waterville 6344967 8774)618 Then enter your selection number Top stones 1014 1000 Late scores 2096 Weather 1001 Lottery 1002 joke 1008 Top sports 2000 Horoscopes 9006 I III III 6 16198 20050" 6 Olympic reforms ban visits to future bid cities' By STEPHEN WILSON 1 he Associated Press LAUSANNE Switzerland Exactly a year after being rocked by the biggest corruption scandal in its history the International Olympic Committee delivered on its promis es Sunday The IOC enacted sweeping reforms including a ban on visits by members to bid cities in an attempt to restore public confidence in the organization Despite complaints that the no visits rule implied members could not be trusted the 100 IOC delegates overwhelmingly approved the ban The decision eliminated the biggest perk enjoyed by IOC mem bers traveling around the globe at the expense of bid cities desperate to win their votes The vote capped a two day meet ing in which delegates passed all 50 of the proposals by a huge majority marking the biggest restructuring in the 105 year old IOC The result was a major victory for IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch who will have some ammunition when he travels to Washington to testify Wednesday before a skeptical Congress we did today marks a his toric page in our long Samaranch told the delegates The Associated Press Ipfltai BoJIBMBWl International Olympic Committee president Juan Antonio Sama ranch (left) confers with IOC sec retary general rancolse Zwelfel before the opening of the two day 110th extraordinary IOC session In Lausanne Switzerland on Saturday The IOC members voted on Sunday to revitalize the structure role and host city elec tion procedure promised to the world to change and we are delivering this change The new millennium will see a new International Olympic Rep red Upton who will be chairing the hearing before the House Investigations Subcommit Pease see OLYMPICS A2 Ward 1 ace Off Special election to break LePage Sylvester tie PAUL LePAGE (R) Age: 51 Republican Address: 438 Main St Personal: Wife Ann Children Lindsay 24 Lisa 23 Lauren 11 and Paul 10 Occupation: General manager Discount Stores Education: Bachelor's of science Husson College master of business administration University of Maine SARA SYLVESTER (D) OM Age: 48 Democrat Address: 1 Ashley Terrace Personal: Divorced Children Enn 15 Daniel 17 Occupation: Registered nurse and long term care facility administrator Education: Westbrook College reg istered nurse program By COLIN HICKEY Sial! Writer WATERVILLE Six weeks after Election Day Ward 1 voters will return to the polls Tuesday to deter mine their City Council representative for the next two years Republican incumbent Paul LePage 51 and Democratic challenger Sara Sylvester 48 are the choices the same choices voters saw on the Nov 2 ballot Although LePage appeared to prevail that day by three votes a subsequent recount determined the actual result was a 329 329 tie That deadlock forced city officials to arrange special election Ward 1 residents again will cast their votes at the George Mitchell School Polling hours are from 8 am to 8 pm The special election assuming another tie does not occur will settle one of the more eventful City Council races in recent history LePage started the intrigue when he decided to pull out of the race approximately two weeks before Election Day At the time he said he made the decision because he did not want anybody to see his opposition to the financing plan for the George Mitchell School addi tion project an issue he threatened to take to refer? endum as politically motivated Please see WARD 1 A2 Police to patrol Mt Blue halls in wake of bomb threats By BETTY JESPERSEN Staff Writer ARMINGTON On Monday uni formed police officers will start patrolling two armington schools and all phone calls will be randomly taped to try and discourage the rash of bomb threats that have emptied three buildings six times in five days Superintendent Michael Cormier informed several hundred parents and students at a meeting Sunday night at ML Blue High School And contrary to one popular that has been traveling through School Administrative District 9 school is not being canceled until after the Christmas holiday Cormier said the (threats) continue have school every day until Cormier said Police will walk the halls at Mt Blue High School and Mt Blue Middle School and Cormier said no plans were in the works to bring in metal the (bomb threats) continue well have school every day until SAD 9 Superintendent Michael Cormier detectors or handwriting experts Those options have been used in other bomb beleaguered Maine schools and may be explored if problems persist People packed the gymnasium bleachers for the informational meet ing that had been called to respond to questions and stop rampant rumors with the facts It was clear from com ments how frustrated and angry stu dents and parents were with the days lost and the disruption created for families time to stop dancing around about said one parent time to come down on them hard and One Mt Blue High student said she was worried that students rushing out of a building could be sitting duels for an outside attack might go on on the penph ery? she asked To comments from some parents that the notes should be ignored and as one parent suggested down the toilet" a high school girl said she would feel unsafe knowing there had been a note and the students were not being released Another student said it would be helpful to know these kids are Please see MEETING A2 State denies request to lower China water level By DAN McGILLVRAY Special to the Morning Sentinel AUGUSTA State regulators have denied a request by 50 China residents to lower China water level petitioners who own property along the algae clouded lake can appeal last decision by the Department of Environmental Protection in Kennebec County Superior Court or to the Board of Environmental Protection The 3832 acre lake once a pristine water body with cold water trophy fish has suffered from algae blooms for nearly 20 years The aquatic plants which thrive on phosphorous have robbed the lake of oxygen and affect ed overall water quality Al Althenn who led the petition drive to re establish lake water levels said he will meet shortly with his Brunswick attorney Marcia Cleveland to dis cuss a possible appeal you have a lake on the edge and you can make it better you do he said Earlier this year Althenn hired a Portsmouth NH consulting firm to assess the condition StoneHill Environmental Inc concluded that lower water levels would check shoreline erosion reduce phosphorous lev els prevent rewer sepuc sysiem uiseimrges into me iase and lead to restoration of former wetlands Dana Murch of the Bureau of Land and Water Quality said petitioners in any request to adjust lake lev els must present substantive new information to justify a formal reopening of water level orders The process can be time consuming and expensive he said want to make it clear that any additional informa tion gathered on any lake has to make a difference and it has to be Murch said The DEP staff and the Attorney Office reviewed the StoneHill report this fall DEP biologist Ray Bouchard said the report contained new substantive In fart the StoneHill analysis misrepresents the historic data and includes some he wrote in an office memo Bouchard acknowledges that shoreline erosion has WATER LEVEL HISTORY On June 13 1984 the Board of Environmental Protection set China summertime water level at 172 feet or six inches above the spillway at the East Vassalboro dam On Nov 12 1997 after considering a petition by China residents the board essentially voted to maintain the existing summertime level at 172 feet The petitioners had sought to lower the level to 1695 feet On Sept 16 1999 the Department of Environmental Protection received a petition to lower water levels the level necessary to reduce the adverse effects that the current water levels have on water quality in the The DEP denied the request last week The DEP and BEP have established water levels on 29 lakes and ponds occurred because of high water levels but he said that action not the main controlling that has dete riorated water quality Based on his observations of the lake since Bouchard said the lake has stabilized even slightly in the past 12 years Soil ripped fropi a shore line increases phosphorous concentrations in the upperlevels Bouchard said China Lake's algae blooms are largely the result of phosphorous entering from the watershel and from the recycling of phosphorous below the surface Althenn 55 said he has watched the lake deteriorate for years His family has owned land along China Lake since the late 1800s (water quality) was terrible this year Just two weeks ago it was cloudy near the said Althenn An unusual late season algae bloom hit the lake in the Please see WATER A2.