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WATERVILLE City officials plan to evaluate Waterville’s housing stock by forming a committee comprising two city councilors and up to six other residents who are involved in housing matters.
“We know that we have a housing crisis,” Mayor Jay Coelho said Thursday. “We don’t have enough.”
If the city wants more people to move to the area, officials must determine what the housing situation looks like, what mix of housing the city needs single-family homes, rental units and so forth and then see what can be done to effect change, according to Coelho.
“There’s a ton of housing options,” he said. “What do we want Waterville to look like in the future? I think that’s part of what this group will explore.”
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Maine Compass: Eliminate police intelligence unit, fund recovery centers
Maine should invest in community rather than failed policing programs, writes the director of the Maine Drug Policy Lab at Colby College.
By Winifred Tate
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Maine can choose to invest in community instead of failed policing programs, by eliminating the Maine Information and Analysis Center Program (MIAC) and spending that money on desperately needed recovery centers throughout the state.
The MIAC is one of the latest in state agencies created to expand failed drug interdiction efforts. More than 50 years of efforts have failed to achieve their goal, in a “whack a mole” policy. Like the boardwalk game, interdiction efforts focus on suppressing drug shipments and sales in one area whacking the mole only to have them pop up again. These efforts will not achieve our goals of reducing the negative health and economic impacts of opioid and other substance use disorders.
Maine considers a new strategy in battle against opioid epidemic: decriminalization
Proposed legislation could make Maine the second state to stop arresting people for possessing small amounts of drugs such as opioids, and instead steer them toward treatment.
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Courtney Allen, policy director for Maine Recovery Advocacy Project, poses for a portrait recently outside the Maine State House in Augusta.
Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal
“But heroin is not something you can just stop doing,” she said.
She was not able to stop for 12 years. She did sex work. She contracted HIV. She was often homeless. And she was arrested more than two dozen times, mostly for drug possession. The Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram has agreed not to name her because she works with people who use drugs and is worried about putting them at risk.
Maine considers a new strategy in battle against opioid epidemic: decriminalization pressherald.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from pressherald.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
What’s new? Crime and violence have simmered along the lengthy Colombian-Venezuelan frontier for decades. But the regional spillover of Venezuela’s political conflict and economic collapse has caused ties between the two states to fray as well, amid border closures, a migrant exodus and rival military exercises.
Why does it matter? Numerous armed groups clash with one another and harm citizens along a border marked by abundant coca crops and informal crossings. High bilateral tensions could spur escalating border hostilities while perpetuating the mistreatment of migrants and refugees whose movements have been restricted by COVID-19.
What should be done? Colombian and Venezuelan authorities should urgently establish communication channels to resolve violent incidents along the border, possibly with international backing. They should reopen formal border crossings as planned, but also increase humanitarian aid to help ensure that migrants and refugees are healthy and can m