A resilient Ray Charpentier juggling while on skates
Photo: Sanford News, September 28, 2000
By Lawrence Furbish
The September 28, 2000, edition of the Sanford News featured some terrific publicity for Sanford’s Ray Charpentier with practically a full-page photo spread highlighting his interesting life and determination to keep going in the face of adversity. During his life, Ray had worked on an oil rig off the coast of Scotland, been called and flown to San Diego to repair a generator on the USS Kitty Hawk, visited the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland because of his long interest in the Holocaust, and became an accomplished in-line skater and juggler. In 1999, he suffered a heart attack and shortly after that, a stroke. But in September of 2000, there he was in a great shot in the Sanford News on his skates and still juggling.
A front-page story concerned a follow up to a September 12th fire at the American Legion Home. An arrest was made and a woman charged with setting the fire. Apparently, her boyfriend had been barred from the home three months earlier for “causing problems with other Legion members.” Two weeks before the fire, she and her boyfriend showed up at the home and were told that he had to leave. The couple became argumentative, and the woman said, “We’ll just burn the place down and you won’t have to worry about it.”
The results of a public hearing by the Planning Board showed that Sanford citizens were interested in issues concerning parking, wetlands, and communication towers but not in regulating adult entertainment. The Planning Board had proposed using an ordinance to regulate the location of adult bookstores, topless dancing establishments, and adult movie theaters. This was the result of a public controversy in Biddeford regarding an adult bookstore and the desire of the Board to get out ahead of any potential issue in Sanford. No one spoke of the proposed adult entertainment ordinance at all.
Two political items were featured. President George Bush was scheduled to open the Sanford Republican party headquarters at a special appearance. Mention was made of his long-time relationship to Sanford barber Emile Roy, said to be his favorite barber. Also, Pat Buchanan, presidential candidate for the Reform Party was scheduled to stump at Lavalley Lumber speaking on the topic of forestry.
Sleepers Market featured chicken breasts for 89 cents a pound, sirloin strip steaks for $5.99 a pound and cigarettes for $2.94 a pack.
Lawrence Furbish is president of the Sanford-Springvale Historical Society and the Sweat Morin Homestead. The Historical Society Museum in Springvale has many resources regarding Sanford’s history. It is open Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
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