Blog - Local / Community News Items and Commentary

Mid Coast Hospital Administers First Doses of COVID-19 Vaccine to Front-Line Caregivers

Brunswick, Maine – Mid Coast Hospital administered the first vaccinations for COVID-19 to its front-line caregivers today. At 7:30 a.m. Paul LaPrad, MD, became the first care team member at Mid Coast Hospital to receive the vaccine. LaPrad has been a pulmonologist in the community for 25 years, and has been caring for COVID-19 patients at Mid Coast Hospital since March.

This week marks the 19th Anniversary of Amtrak Downeaster service between Portland, Maine and Boston, Massachusetts. Since December 15, 2001, more than 65,000 Downeaster trains have operated, transporting more than 7.62 million passengers the equivalent of nearly 658 million passenger miles.  The Downeaster transports a diverse cross-section of riders who travel for a variety of purposes including commuter, college students, senior citizens, school kids on educational trips, sports fans, beach goers and tourists and more.

Bar Harbor Bank & Trust Opens New Branch in Brunswick, Maine

Brunswick, Maine – Bar Harbor Bank & Trust was joined today by officials from the Town of Brunswick and Southern Midcoast Maine Chamber for a ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the grand opening of the Bank’s new branch located at 148 Bath Road in Brunswick, Maine.

Mid Coast Senior Health Named Best Nursing Home

Brunswick, ME – Mid Coast Senior Health has been recognized as a Best Nursing Home for 2020-21 by U.S. News & World Report. Only 21% of U.S. skilled nursing facilities have achieved this designation.

Part of Mid Coast–Parkview Health, Mid Coast Senior Health earned Best Nursing Homes status by achieving a rating of “High Performing,” the highest possible rating, for its Long-Term Care at Mere Point and Rehabilitation at Bodwell communities. U.S. News gives the designation of Best Nursing Home only to those homes that satisfy U.S. News’s assessment of the appropriate use of key services and consistent performance in quality measures.

It is with excitement that we announce that Dr. Michael Carl will be joining Dr. Guernelli, Kristen, and Alisa to help maintain and grow the Interventional Pain Management practice…

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 In addition to Dr. Carl’s arrival, Dr. Michael Kulju will be joining Coastal Ortho as a Fellowship Trained Primary Care Sports Medicine provider on November 16th. Dr. Kulju also specializes in Non-Surgical Orthopaedics and Concussion Management and utilizes Diagnostic and Interventional Musculoskeletal Ultrasound in the care of his patients.

CareerCenter Hiring Events are Back…Virtually!

Maine CareerCenters are pleased to announce the return of Hiring Events using a virtual format.  Events will run on a weekly basis each Thursday from 2:00 pm to 3:00 pm.  These hiring events are open to all businesses in the state of Maine and will be based on industry per the following schedule:

October 15, 2020 – Construction Trades (Electrical/Carpentry/Plumbing/Roofing)
October 22, 2020 – Education/Custodial/Janitorial
October 29, 2020 – Medical/Medical Staffing/Home Care

Gardens Aglow 2020: The Show Will Go On in a Whole New Light

For Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens, the show will indeed go on this year. Recently, the Gardens announced that, after careful planning, research, communication with state and town officials, and in conjunction with COVID-19 safety protocols, Gardens Aglow will light up the peninsula for the sixth year in a row—with one important change: what has been a walking tour in previous years will become a driving experience in 2020.

“We wanted to find a safe way of continuing and honoring what’s become an annual tradition for so many families,” says Gardens’ President and CEO, Gretchen Ostherr. “Our committee has worked hard to map out the safest, most accessible route, taking traffic and congestion very much into consideration.”

To ensure that traffic will flow smoothly, both on the peninsula and along the Gardens Aglow route, CMBG made the decision to establish limited entries per 15-minute intervals. “We worked with the town of Boothbay, and this system will help us avoid backups onto the road,” says Ostherr.

Tickets are sold by the car, not by the individual, and are only available in advance for a specific time slot.

MEDIA ALERT / PHOTO OPPORTUNITY

Thursday, September 10

Contact:  Joyce Fehl, Curtis Memorial Library

207.504.4797

jfehl@curtislibrary.com

FOR OVER 30 YEARS, TAPE ARTISTS HAVE BEEN MAKING ...

Curtis Library to Reopen the Building to Patrons

Beginning Friday, August 7 and Saturday, August 8

Curbside Service to Continue Monday through Saturday

BRUNSWICK, Maine – For the month of August, Curtis Memorial Library looks forward to welcoming patrons back inside for the first time since March, when the building closed due to Maine CDC directives as part of the COVID-19 shutdown.

The library building will be open for limited browsing and computer use on Fridays in August from 9:30 am to 6:00 pm beginning August 7, and Saturdays in August from 9:30 am to 1:00 pm beginning August 8.  Opening additional hours and days will be considered in September.

Social distancing and the choice of wearing a mask in public has become a hotly debated and
divisive topic recently.  As the State of Maine looks to re-open our economy, one key aspect not
being addressed is consumer confidence.  Through reading social media posts, conversations with friends and discussions with colleagues, the Southern Midcoast Maine Chamber discovered this was an issue for the Maine consumer.  If we want to return to any sense of normalcy we need to address concerns the consumers may have so they can feel confident to patronize Maine
businesses.  Anecdotally, we knew there was uneasiness from some consumers, but we had no way to gauge how much uneasiness there was, and if it was wide spread or regional.   

On the afternoon of June 4, 2020 we released a 20-question online survey created through Survey Planet, to gather consumer attitudes on social distancing in Maine businesses.  Partner agencies statewide also sent the survey out to their contact lists.  Our hope was to get 500 responses in a week to make it a statistically significant survey.  When the survey closed June 12, we had 2,939 responses.