Raymond Shopping Center and other projects draw positive attention to the town - By Michelle Libby

One of the buzz words around Raymond recently is revitalization. Raymond, through various methods, is undergoing a change in physical appearance and in mindset. Starting with the sprucing up of the Raymond Shopping Center by K.P. Gagnon Company and the construction of new buildings like the one that houses Premier Properties, and the creation of the Raymond Revitalization Committee, Raymond is growing and looking for more people and businesses to see the opportunity in the community and move there. They are actively courting businesses to make Raymond a place locals and vacationers can do all of their business without leaving town. 

“We want to keep the momentum going,” said Kevin Gagnon, owner of the Raymond Shopping Center and lifetime resident of Raymond. “Chipman did a wonderful job,” Gagnon said about the new Chipman Farm building on Route 302. He also pointed out the building owned by Mike Meyer that houses Raymond Florist and Premier Properties all help to add to the new feel of Raymond. 

“We’re starting to brand the town,” said Nick Hardy. “The town as the home of the landlocked salmon is no longer going to cut it.” 

“We really are four season,” said Gagnon. He has looked to find a variety of businesses to go into his properties to make Raymond a destination for shopping. “The mix is so important. The businesses have to feed off one another,” he added. 

Gagnon wanted to thank the Town of Raymond for being so supportive as the reconstruction was taking place. He didn’t ask for tax benefits and worked with the code enforcement officer to benefit everyone. “I wanted no free passes,” Gagnon said. Raymond is becoming pro-business and committed to maintaining the quality of life for its residents. 

Raymond is still in need of a few businesses like a pizza shop, a bank, and perhaps a mini-Kittery trading post, Gagnon mused. “We want people to go there, meet a need, and have an inviting place to shop.”

“We want to tailor the growth and protect the quality of life. We have a really good town government and I’m comfortable and confident in the direction we’re going,” he said.

“It means we’re moving forward when we formed the Raymond Revitalization Committee,” said selectman Sam Gifford. 

“We want to increase residential and commercial development to give the town a better tax base,” said Wayne Holmquist, a member of the Raymond Revitalization Committee. “We surveyed the town to see what people wanted and they said more place to shop and be serviced.”

One of the newest projects is to repurpose the Chipco Building on Route 302 using a $25,188 grant. The building would become a manufacturing incubator. Utilizing the students from USM ventures program, the Town of Raymond and others will help develop business ideas and technology to take plans from concept to reality with the hope that the businesses would grow up and find their own location within Raymond, said Danielle Loring who works in the assessing department for the town. The building would house many different tools from a 3-D printer to a lathe. “We would develop and incubate Raymond as a new home,” said Loring. 

The sidewalk system within Raymond also is helping the development. From the library to the beach and the stores, people can walk around Raymond safely. 

The comprehensive town plan for Raymond expires this year, so the town officials will start looking at where additional development and rezoning might happen. Gagnon mentioned that he still has one 6,000 square foot and one 2,000 square foot business to rent.  

 
“If we can meet the needs in Raymond, it’s a homerun for everybody,” said Gagnon. 

Village Green approved by planning board - by Elizabeth Richards

The Windham Historical Society is one step closer to their goal of creating the Village Green living history park after obtaining Planning Board approval for the project on Monday evening. 
 

Twenty members and supporters of the historical society attended the meeting, and applauded the unanimous vote to approve the plan. The decision comes after several years of negotiations, said Linda Griffin, president of the historical society. One of the challenges was to obtain a right of way from RSU14 so that the entrance to the park could come off Windham Center Road rather than busy Route 202. 

Engineer Jon Whitten of Teradign Engineering has led the historical society through the process, which is similar to planning a subdivision, said Griffin. He presented the final plan at the meeting, complete with a large color map. 

Now that the plan has approval, the hard work of fundraising for the project begins in earnest. “Everything is going to cost money,” Griffin said. “As soon as we can raise funds we’ll move buildings on and put them on foundations and do sidewalks and do parking lots.” How long that will take is unknown at this point. The project will be expensive, said Griffin, and the goals include building an addition onto the meeting house eventually. 

Griffin said the historical society hopes that the townspeople will get involved and participate in their upcoming activities, which include a large plant sale at Windham High School on Memorial Day weekend, as well as a civil war encampment that same weekend. That encampment will give people a chance to see where Village Green will be, said Griffin. A full slate of activities is planned with programs every hour on life as a soldier during the Civil War.

Griffin said the Village Green will be a smaller scale Sturbridge Village or Willowbrook, offering great opportunities for the local school children to learn history. “We’re hoping we are going to put Windham on the map, and we’ll put the center back in Windham again,” she said. 

The Village Green will be on Windham Center Road, which was Main Street many years ago. It will be recreated to depict Windham in the late 1800s, just after the Civil War, said Griffin.

Saint Joseph's 101st Commencement celebrates the achievements of 564 graduates

On Saturday, May 10, Saint Joseph’s College held its 101st Commencement, from its Standish campus on the shores of Sebago Lake. This year, the College recognized the accomplishments of 564 graduates: 202 from its on-campus programs and 362 from its online programs.
 

Special guests included Bishop Robert P. Deeley, the 12th bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland, and three honorary degree recipients — Peter Geiger, the editor of Farmers’ Almanac and the executive vice president of Geiger, Inc.; Maureen McCullough, JD, the Northeast/Mid-Atlantic regional director of Catholic Relief Services; and Dr. Ann Lemire, the medical director of the India Street Clinic for the Health and Human Services Division of Public Health for the city of Portland. Peter Geiger was the Commencement speaker.

Dr. Ann Lemire and Maureen McCullough, JD were presented with honorary Doctor of Public Service degrees. Peter Geiger received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters.

At the opening of the ceremony, Saint Joseph’s president, Dr. James Dlugos, recalled the College’s humble beginnings, when, in 1912, students of Saint Joseph’s Academy asked Sister Xaveria Toohey to prepare them to become teachers, “a request that led to the founding of our wonderful institution,” said Dlugos.

Geiger continued, encouraging the Class of 2014, if they hadn’t already done so, to volunteer. “It’s a powerful experience,” Geiger said. “I have volunteered all my life…. As graduates of Saint Joseph’s College, you have the skills to live a full life and the foundation to exhibit compassion for others.”

The Class valedictorian, Shannon Chisholm, gave an emotional address to her fellow graduates: “It is both a joyful and sad day for a lot of us. We have finally attained our ultimate goal, but we must also say goodbye to the place that has been our home for the last four years and the people who have become our family. After today, we will all part ways and chase after new dreams and new goals. Our paths in life will lead us all in different directions. But no matter where life takes us, Saint Joseph’s will be the place that keeps us connected. It is where we discovered ourselves, and it is the place our paths will branch out from.”

Camp Hinds brings the military to Raymond - By Michelle Libby

After only two weeks on site, the United States military has taken over Camp Hinds in Raymond and begun transforming the grounds. 
 

Through a partnership with the Department of Defense Innovative Readiness Training Program (IRT), Camp Hinds and its Executive Director Eric Tarbox, the camp is set to have at least eight projects completed over the next five years, making Camp Hinds better ready to fulfill the Boy Scouts of America mission and vision. 

People who have walked or driven into the camp before will be surprised at the transformation after only two weeks. Trees have been taken down, large equipment has been brought in and future work sites have been marked. 

According to camp ranger Scott Martin, there will be a new 129-car parking lot, a change to the traffic pattern to help with speed control, four multi-purpose ranges and a 100-meter rifle range. There will be two new multi-purpose sports fields and a new archery range. 

One of the missions the Boy Scouts are trying to teach is “the safe handling of firearms,” said Martin. He also said that the camp is considering offering gun safety courses to the community through the NRA and the Boy Scouts. 

The military has moved into tents on the old baseball field just off Plains Road. This week, there are 32 Marines on the premises. The troops in camp will change every two weeks depending on the projects that need to be done. This week the two groups in camp are the 6^th Engineering Battalion from Oregon and the 126^th Civil Engineering Squadron based out of Michigan, who are working on taking down trees and moving earth. When it is time for things to be built, a different group, which specializes in building, will arrive. 

 

For the military, the set up and work at this site is training for doing the same work in a war zone. To arrive at a location, set up shelter, create a way to disperse food, dig a septic system, place a grease trap and become a self-sufficient entity, is exactly what they could do overseas. There are also two EMTs and a Navy Corpsman (a medic) on site. The kitchen set up that will be in use within the next few weeks will be able to serve 6,000 meals in an emergency situation, according to Tarbox.   

Everything being done at Camp Hinds can be found on the Town of Raymond website in a 97-page write up that had to be done detailing all of the permitting and studies that were done, including an archeological study that found that nothing of pre-historic or historic significance happened on the property. The information was posted in December of 2013. 

“It’s the entire game plan. It’s the wish wall, everything we’d want to do,” said Tarbox. From designing and permitting, the process was done in about four months, he added. 

One of the projects for next summer will be the creation of a 9,600 square foot four-season dining hall on one of the former campsites. Other projects include adding a full dormer to the training center and a new fire monitoring system, constructing new utility roads, and shoring up and replacing aging buildings in the camp. 

Martin said that all wood that is taken from the property is being used. Some will go to Hancock Lumber, pulp will be recycled locally, wood chips will go to a power plant in New Hampshire and other wood chips from stump grinding will be used as erosion mulch for Camp Hinds. 

One of the other benefits of having the military in camp is that the Boy Scouts who come to Camp Hinds this summer will be able to work with the military personnel for certain merit badges. For the environmental sciences badge, the boys will see how it can be applied in the real world. Boys doing the heavy equipment merit badge will have many different types of trucks and movers to observe. 

During the camp season, the work will change from larger projects to smaller, building type projects, so as to not affect the Scouts, said Tarbox. 

As far as the Town of Raymond is concerned, “We are really integral to one another,” said executive assistant in code enforcement Danielle Loring. The impact has been minimal to the surrounding neighbors, Loring said. The town hasn’t received any complaints.

“Raymond has been wonderful to work with the whole time,” said Tarbox. The Boy Scouts have invited the public and the selectboard to come see what’s happening and they were asked for input on everything being done at Camp Hinds, Tarbox said. 

When the town was told that the military would be living at Camp Hinds for the next five years, with help from Tarbox, they decided to apply to have projects done in Raymond. The best part of the IRT program is that the town or camp as the case may be only pays for the supplies for the project. The military provides the equipment and personnel. 

The camp is closed to the public at this time, but community members can contact Martin or the Pine Tree Council of the Boys Scouts for private tours.

Where the new shooting ranges will be.

Cadigan Parking Lot

Former archery range