Armstrong Dental hosts pumpkin contest - By Michelle Libby

From a teeth brushing Dracula to a minion, Dr. Stanley D. Armstrong, a dentist at 744 Roosevelt Trail has been celebrating Halloween by having his staff create one of a kind pumpkin sculptures for nine years. For the past week, clients, guests and visitors have been voting in the office for their favorite pumpkin creation. This year, the office upped the stakes by hosting the contest online through Facebook as well.

“Some people make sure their recall appointment falls on the pumpkin week,” said office manager Robbyn Mooradian.

The pumpkins were brought into the office last Friday while the office was closed. Each person snuck the creation in so no one would know whose was whose.

“We’re a competitive bunch,” said hygienist Brandy Stubbs. 

At press time, one day before the final votes are to be tallied, Linus from “It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown” was in first place in the office and online.

 

            The winning creation creator will receive a gift certificate, according to Mooradian. For those who voted, there will be two random drawings for the two contests with a dozen whoopie pies from Molly’s Cupcakes on the line for the winners.

Green signs mean darkness for streetlights in Windham - By Michelle Libby

Last week 107 streetlights in Windham were tagged with green signs announcing that the lights did not meet the criteria of the policy written by the energy advisory committee and approved by the Windham Town Council last June. 

Windham has been upgrading lights in all of its buildings to become more energy efficient and will continue to do so, including the types of vehicles it will buy in the future, according to town manager Tony Plante. So far none of the changes have had a direct impact on anyone living in Windham, but this time many in the community are concerned. 

Ken Cook on Kelly Lane took up a petition and got 100 percent participation from the people on his street which stands to lose all of their lights. “They’re going to put the neighborhoods into darkness. In these times of increased vandalism and crime I can’t believe they want to turn the lights out,” Cook said.

When assessing all of the streetlights in the community systematically, it was found that eight additional lights were needed and would be added to make intersections, dangerous curves or hills or other hazardous areas safer for drivers and pedestrians. 

 “A couple of years ago the town got a grant from Efficiency Maine to study its energy usage and come up with strategies for reducing its energy usage, its energy footprint, its exposure to future energy price fluctuations, and its energy costs. The town council adopted an energy plan in 2011, and later formally created an energy advisory committee. The committee has conducted energy audits of municipal buildings, and we have made many improvements to reduce the town's energy use. More work still needs to be done, and the streetlight review process is part of that broader effort,” said Plante.

 “It is not the policy of the Town of Windham to use public funded street lights as ‘security lighting’ for private property, or to illuminate business entrances or entrances to private streets,” according to the written policy. This policy is adopted to balance the important public safety purpose that street lighting serves with the cost of renting 335 streetlights in Windham.

“Public safety is number one in priorities. It’s one of the reasons for having streetlights – to see and be seen,” Plante said. He explained that lights have been added over the last 25 years where they might not have been needed. 

There will be a public meeting on the streetlight review process on November 4 at 6:30 p.m. in the town council chambers before the lights are turned off for good. There are options for keeping the lights on, according to the town. Individuals may request that lights remain on town accounts, or have the lights transferred to private accounts managed by Central Maine Power (CMP). This is the opportunity for the community to make a legitimate plea for keeping a light. 

The town’s streetlights are owned and managed by CMP, according to Plante. Windham rents the lights from CMP By turning off these lights, Windham will see a savings of approximately $12,000, he said.

CMP does not rent LED lights, which use less energy, according to Plante. However, all of Windham’s traffic signals have been converted to LED lights. 

“We are using energy that doesn’t need to be used,” Plante said. The town is concerned about its energy footprint. How much energy does it use? Why is Windham paying for lights that don’t meet its written policy? These are the questions the council and town officials are wrestling with.  

“This is not a done deal,” Plante said. “As energy prices go up, motor fuel, heating oil, it creates budget stress. We want to have less exposure to those kinds of financial fluctuations,” Plante said. 

The town is encouraging everyone with concerns attend the Monday night meeting at 6:30 p.m.

The policy and a map showing which lights meet the policy, and which lights do not can be found at http://www.windhamweb.com/Windham_News/Streetlight_Review_Process.html . A large format hard copy of the map is available for review in the Planning office.

For more information on this process, please contact Ben Smith in the planning department at 894-5900, ext. 6123.

Windham Primary's first new playground nears completion - By Michelle Libby

One of the two new playground pods being constructed at the Windham Primary School A-house playground has been “basically completed,” according to organizer Michelle Jordan. Since last spring Jordan has been working diligently to raise money to contribute to the playground structures that needed to replace the over 20-year-old equipment in place now.

“We completed our community build for the playground this weekend. We had 38 volunteers throughout the day help to finish the play pod. To date, we have raised $33,000 with plans underway for the next events,” Jordan said. 

There will be a grand opening/ribbon cutting ceremony, she said. 

The second part of the project, another playground pod will be added during the summer. The old one will remain in place through the end of the school year. 

The plans also call for more play areas. “In addition to baseball field, a grass playing field, they still need to be funded through the school board. The hope is that all the work will be done next summer,” Jordan said.

The playground was purchased through Miracle Playground Systems. More funds are needed to complete the project, said Jordan. On November 15, there will be a family pasta dinner for $5 per person. “It’s for families to come out, have dinner and raise more funds for the playground,” she added. 

The only part left before the children can play there is spreading woodchips, which arrived on Wednesday.

Samantha Cowens-Gasbarro helps bring local, whole food focus to school lunch - By Elizabeth Richards

School lunch is changing and RSU 14 is ready. With Samantha Cowens-Gasbarro, chef and school nutrition and wellness coordinator, on the job, students and staff alike will see exciting new initiatives in the district’s nutrition program. 
 

Cowens-Gasbarro has a degree in culinary arts and nutrition from Johnson and Wales University in Rhode Island. She worked for several years in the Boston area as a personal chef, as well as helping to run a cooking school, teaching classes, working on menu development and more. Cowens-Gasbarro said this job seemed like a perfect fit between what Jeanne Reilly, RSU 14’s director of school nutrition, was looking for and what Cowens-Gasbarro had been doing in menu development, nutrition work and her work with kids.

Cowens-Gasbarro attended a “Chefs Move to Schools” training in Mississipi before jumping into her position. This program is a part of first lady Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” initiative to fight childhood obesity. Chefs Move to Schools teaches chefs about the new federal school nutrition guidelines, and how they can work with partner schools. While Cowens-Gasbarro said there are not many school districts who have hired chefs at this point, she believes the concept will catch on. In the meantime, there are chefs who are visiting classrooms and doing guest chef appearances at schools. The program is great for bringing an awareness of what is involved in school nutrition, said Cowens-Gasbarro. 

School nutrition is a whole different level of food preparation that many chefs are not familiar with, she said. “You’re working with such strict limitations and yet you still have to feed them enough calories. It’s really a whole different world. This whole training was a crash course introduction to school nutrition and the obstacles they face, the deadlines, the time limits,” said Cowens-Gasbarro.

Her job has many moving parts, she said, including working with kitchen staff, helping to redesign the kitchens and move towards more from scratch cooking, organizing farm to school days and other special lunches for all the schools in the district, working directly with students to teach cooking and nutrition, organizing the gardens at all the schools and the backpack program. “That keeps it interesting every day. No day is the same, and that’s what I like. That’s the best part,” she said.

Cowens-Gasbarro said Reilly has made the transition really easy. She was also pleasantly surprised by the dedication of the food service staff. “They really care what the kids think, and they care when they don’t like it. They care about what they’re doing, and they care about doing it to the best of their ability. I thought that was awesome that they were so into it,” she said. “Their dedication is just unbelievable.”

Training the kitchen staff and giving them the confidence that they can make things from scratch is one part of her job. “These women do amazing things. They are on a tight, tight, tight - I can’t say it enough- tight timeline in terms of getting food out for hundreds of kids. It’s really amazing and they do such a wonderful job. To say to them we’re going to do this from scratch, of course that’s frightening, it’s frightening for me,” said Cowens-Gasbarro. 

And yet, about a month ago, the kitchen team at the high school made fresh pasta lasagna, and it was a big hit. “That’s kind of a nice team building activity for the kitchens, even though it’s kind of scary when you go into it. It is nice to know on the other side that we did it and we survived. We got the food out and it was great. The kids liked it. Doing little things like that instills confidence,” said Cowens-Gasbarro.

She hasn’t faced too many challenges yet, but because she was new to school nutrition, she had a lot to learn, said Cowens-Gasbarro. She didn’t know anything about the requirements of school nutrition and reimbursements when she began. And, she added, because the standards shift and change, that kind of learning will be a constant. 

Figuring out ways to work with the students to get them involved and help them make them feel a part of the process is what Cowens-Gasbarro said she is most excited about. “You don’t want them to feel like it’s something that’s happening to them that they have to deal with. You want them to be a part of it, and I think that’s really how you’re going to reach the kids and start to tweak the system,” she said. While she doesn’t yet know the best way to do this, she said, “I’m ready to try all ways to get there, and I really do think it’s through the kids getting their hands dirty.”

In addition to events like farm to school days at the high school and middle school, Cowens-Gasbarro will be planning things for the elementary schools, such as an “animal day” in Raymond, where they are making frog shaped sandwiches, and trying to tie lunch in with the curriculum in fun ways. “We want to get kids more into the lunch, and that’s kind of the way to their heart at that age, is to make food fun,” she said.