Topsham Fair Begins 164th Year August 7th-12th

Topsham, Maine - Topsham Fair begins their 164th year on Tuesday, August 7th, 2018 through Sunday, August 12th, 2018 in Topsham, Maine.

2018 FULL SCHEDULE

MONDAY August 6th:

5:00PM FREE Harness Racing Area 1

TUESDAY August 7th SENIOR DAY

6:30 Weigh In

9:00 4-H Horse Show Registration Ring B

9:00 Steer and Oxen Judging Pulling Ring

10:00 4-H Horse Show Show Ring B

10:00 Maine Antique Power Association Demo

11:00 Sheep Herding Demonstration

12:00 Merry Go Roundup Area 3

1:00 Blueberry Pie Judging Exhibition Hall

1:00 Sheep Herding Demonstration Area 6

1:30 Coastal Cloggers Area 3

2:00 Chocolate Chip Cookie Judging Exhibition Hall

3:00 4-H Working Steer Show Pulling Ring

3:00 Sheep Herding Demonstration

2:30 4-H Dance Area 3

3:30 Cliff Gelina (Country/Blues)  Area 3

5:00 Harness Racing Area 1

6:00 Pig Scramble 6 yr olds Pulling Ring

6:00 Wild Horse Band (Country Music) Area 3

6:50 Kids Bike Drawing Area 6

7:00 Log Hauling Steer & Oxen Pulling Ring

7:00 ATV MUD RUNS Area 6 Sponsored by Woody’s 

WEDNESDAY August 8th

2016 13-Year-Old District 2 Babe Ruth All Star Tournament at Mt. Ararat Middle School in Topsham

Topsham, Maine - The following is scheduling information regarding the 2016 13-Year Old District 2 Babe Ruth All Star Tournament that will be held at Mt. Ararat Middle School in Topsham, Maine from Thursday July 7th through Sunday, July 10th, 2016.

Thursday July 7th

Game 1 – Apple Valley vs. Central Maine - 9:00 AM             

Game 2 – Coastal East vs Midcoast - 11:45 AM

Game 3 – Augusta vs Winner of Game 1 - 2:30 PM

Game 4 – Coastal North vs Winner of Game 2 - 5:15 PM

Friday July 8th

Game 5 – Loser Game 1 vs. Loser Game 4 - 9:00 AM

Game 6 – Loser Game 2 vs Loser Game  3  11:45 AM

Game 7 – Winner Game 3 vs Winner Game 4 - 2:30 PM

Game 8 – Winner Game 5 vs. Winner Game 6 - 5:15 PM

Saturday July 9th

Game 9 – Loser Game 7 vs Winner Game 8 – 12 00 P.M.

Game 10 – Winner Game 7 vs Winner Game 9 – 3:00 P.M.

Sunday July 10^th

Game 11- Winner of Game 10 vs. Loser Game 10 – 2:00 P.

Scott Dickerson recognized with Espy Land Heritage Award

Scott Dickerson was awarded the annual Espy Land Heritage Award
at the Maine Land Conservation Conference. 

Topsham, Maine - Maine Coast Heritage Trust (MCHT), a statewide land conservation organization, has honored Scott Dickerson as the recipient of the 2014 Espy Land Heritage Award.  Each year MCHT presents the award to an individual, organization, or coalition for exemplary conservation efforts in Maine.

Scott has worked long and hard to ensure that his land trust not only accomplished a number of impressive conservation projects, but also has much of the knowledge, capabilities, and resources to carry the trust's work forward over the long haul, said Tim Glidden, President of MCHT, when presenting the award at the Maine Land Conservation Conference this past weekend in Topsham.  His hard work, intelligence, and maybe just the right amount of stubbornness has resulted in a conservation legacy that has made an enormous difference in Maine.

Dickerson served for 16 years as Land Trust director before retiring from that position in February. Over the course of his career, he increased the amount of conserved land from 2,000 to almost 10,000 acres throughout western Penobscot Bay. He formed a 20-member coalition to protect the Ducktrap River, launched a campaign to protect Bald and Ragged Mountains, oversaw the rehabilitation of the 100-year-old stone hut on Beech Hill, and began a partnership with the City of Belfast that will yield a rails to trails greenway project.

"Thank you to everyone at Maine Coast Heritage Trust for this honor, which is actually a collective award earned by all who work together to accomplish land conservation," said Dickerson upon receiving this award.  "Ambitious supporters, volunteers, board members, and staff are the key ingredients of this award."

In honoring past President Jay Espy, the Board of Directors at MCHT created a fund that awards $5,000 per year with the winner able to direct the funds to the conservation charity of their choice. Dickerson has chosen to divide the cash award to benefit three recipients:  the Belfast Bay Watershed Coalition, to honor Cloe Chunn; the Friends of Sears Island, to honor Marietta Ramsdell--both Chunn and Ramsdell were key founders of their respective organizations--and Coastal Mountains Land Trust to support its permanent land conservation achievements.

Maine Coast Heritage Trust is a statewide land conservation organization dedicated to protecting land that is essential to the character of Maine, its coastline and islands in particular.  Since 1970, more than 142,000 acres and 300 entire coastal islands have been permanently protected.  For more information, contact Rich Knox, Director of Communications and Public Policy at 207-729-7366, or visit www.mcht.org.

Coastal Mountains Land Trust has worked since 1986 to permanently conserve land to benefit the natural and human communities of western Penobscot Bay. The Land Trust has protected over 9,500 acres to date. For more information about the Land Trust, its land conservation program, or extensive outings calendar please call (207) 236-7091 or visit www.coastalmountains.org.

Coastal Plastic Surgery sets open house for May 7

The entire Coastal Plastic Surgery team will be available to offer tours of the newly opened office suite at 4 Horton Place, Suite 202, in Topsham. Cosmetic and skin care experts from Obagi, Sculptra, Jane Iredale, Juvederm, Voluma, Botox and Latisse will also be on hand.

Those attending the open house will have the opportunity to meet plastic surgeons Sarah Holland, M.D., Alan Harmatz, M.D., and Charles Foley, M.D., certified physician assistant Sarah Greven, and massage therapist and aesthetician Kate Conner.

Botox and filler demonstrations will be offered at 6:30 p.m. and again at 7 p.m.

Refreshments, door prizes, raffles and giveaways will be offered. A complimentary gift bag will be offered to the first 50 attendees.

Anyone wishing to attend the event is urged to RSVP by calling 795-7524, emailing coastalplasticsurgery@cmhc.org, or registering online at www.coastalplasticsurgerymaine.org/rsvp

Lisa Belisle, M.D., Joins Topsham And Brunswick Practices‏

Topsham, Maine - Lisa Belisle, M.D., a family physician, has joined Topsham Family Medicine and Brunswick Family Medicine.

Before beginning her work in Topsham, Belisle maintained her own private practice in Yarmouth and Portland for more than 10 years. In 2007 she expanded her practice to include medical acupuncture and integrative health.

She has an enduring interest in whole-person healthcare and wellness education. She maintains a website dedicated to integrative and preventive healthcare, and she hosts The Dr. Lisa Radio Hour & Podcast. The show airs on Sundays at 7 a.m. on WPEI 95.5 FM 95.9 FM, at noon on WLOB 1310 AM and can be streamed from wlobradio.com, listened to at doctorlisa.org and downloaded from iTunes.

Belisle also writes about various healthcare topics through her work as Wellness Editor for Maine Magazine.

Her professional experience includes eight years as a family medicine teacher at Maine Medical Center while also serving as an associate professor at the University of Vermont College of Medicine. For two years she was an associate professor at St. Matthew's University School of Medicine in West Bay, Cayman Islands. She has received awards for her work as a medical educator.  Belisle was affiliated with MaineHealth for ten years, and worked as a physician advisor for the Learning Resource Center and Raising Readers.

A graduate of Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Belisle earned her medical degree at the University of Vermont College of Medicine in Burlington, Vt. She later earned a master’s degree in public health from the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee.

She served a family medicine residency at Maine Medical Center in Portland, and a preventive medicine fellowship at the University of Massachusetts in Worcester, Mass. She studied medical acupuncture at the Academy for Pain Research in San Francisco, California, and structural acupuncture at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass. She also studied mindfulness-based stress reduction at the University of Massachusetts in Worcester, Mass.

She is certified by the American Board of Family Medicine.

She lives in Yarmouth and is the mother of three.

At Topsham Family Medicine, Belisle practices in association with family doctors Cynthia J. Dechenes, M.D., and David L. Salko, M.D., and nurse practitioner Carleen Knight. The practice can be reached at 798-6200. At Brunswick Family Medicine, she works with family physician Rick A. Marden, M.D. The practice can be reached at 721-9323.

Topsham elementary named National Blue Ribbon School

The Williams-Cone School is the only in the state honored and also earned an “A” in the report cards recently released by the Maine Department of Education
Topsham, Maine - An elementary school in Topsham that has seen double-digit increases over the last five years in the percentage of its students deemed proficient is Maine’s National Blue Ribbon School.

The Williams-Cone School in RSU 75 was one of 236 public schools across the country named this morning by U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan into the prestigious program that recognizes schools where students perform at very high levels or show significant improvements in closing achievement gaps.

In the 2011-12 school year, 81 percent of Williams-Cone students achieved proficiency or above on the State assessment in reading and 77 percent did in math, up from 66 percent in both reading and math in 2007-08.

The K-5 school, which serves just over 200 students under the leadership of Principal Randa Rineer, has shown especially significant gains among its third graders. In that grade, students scoring higher than proficient in math increased from 26 percent in 2007-08 to 51 percent in 2011-12 and in reading from 3 percent in 2007-08 to 37 percent in 2011-12.

Last spring, Williams-Cone earned an “A” in the Maine Department of Education’s School Performance Grading System, with its proficiency and growth above state averages and 100 percent participation on State assessments. The school also had remarkable growth among its most struggling 25 percent of students, with 77.1 percent of those students improving in math and 69 percent in reading, well above the state averages of 48 percent and 58 percent respectively.

“The Williams-Cone School is committed to high student achievement and has the results to prove it,” said Maine Deputy Education Commissioner Jim Rier. “This blue ribbon is just the latest well-deserved recognition for this school that is continuously improving because of its dedication to supporting the success of every child, no matter their challenges. The students, staff and community of Williams-Cone should be proud of their excellence, and other schools in Maine should look to them as a shining example of effective, engaging learner-centered education.”    

The school’s accomplishments in recent years have come amidst a backdrop of great change in the region with the closure of the Brunswick Naval Air Station. That led to the loss of many students and shifts in student needs as former military housing became public low-income housing.

But school leaders have overcome those challenges by committing to high standards for all students, using achievement data to drive decision-making, and engaging families and the community to enrich student learning and development.

The U.S. Department of Education will honor Williams-Cone and the other distinguished schools in a ceremony in Washington D.C. in November.  Now in its 31st year, the National Blue Ribbon Schools Program has recognized more than 7,000 schools, including more than 50 from Maine.

For more information about the National Blue Ribbon Schools program in Maine, visit www.maine.gov/doe/recognition/.

Topsham Park and Ride Lot Now Open

Topsham, Maine - MaineDOT is pleased to announce that a new Park & Ride lot located at the Home Depot store in the Topsham Fair Mall is now open for public use. Home Depot has agreed to partner with MaineDOT by designating a portion of their parking lot to provide a place for ridesharing and carpooling opportunities. 

The Park & Ride lot is located at 154 Topsham Fair Mall Road in Topsham, Maine and provides for 40 parking spaces. The facility is open to the general public and does provide for overnight parking, but requires permission from MaineDOT to use the facility beyond a 24 hour period.

To date, there are 54 Park & Ride lots available to the public and they provide for safe, secure and convenient commuter facilities for the traveling public and encourage carpooling, vanpooling, and use of public transportation systems, thus reducing congestion, improving air quality, and reducing dependence on foreign oil. MaineDOT works in conjunction with the Maine Turnpike Authority in administering the statewide program.

For more information regarding the Park & Ride Lot Program, please visit the department's website: http://www.exploremaine.org/commuters/parknride/index.shtml or contact Penny Vaillancourt, Program Manager at 207.624.3240 or penny.vaillancourt@maine.gov