Only in Maine

Looks like Mud & I live in Honkyville...

Maine becomes more diverse, but it’s still whitest state in the nation​

pressherald.com/2021/08/12/maine-becomes-more-diverse-but-its-still-whitest-state-in-the-nation/

By MICHAEL CASEY August 12, 2021

The 2020 census shows that Maine remains the whitest state in the nation but is becoming more diverse.
Census data released Thursday showed that the state’s population of 1,362,359 remains overwhelmingly white. But the numbers decreased slightly from 95.2 percent of the population to 90.8 percent over the past decade. Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire represent three of the four whitest states in the latest data.

The state’s Hispanic population grew slightly from 1.3 percent to 2 percent of the population. The Black population increased from 1.2 percent to 1.9 percent, a 64 percent jump that was only behind North Dakota and South Dakota in terms of percentage increases.

The uptick in nonwhite populations mirrors a nationwide trend showing the country as a whole becoming more diverse.

The release of the redistricting data culled from the 2020 census is coming more than four months later than expected due to delays caused by the pandemic.

The redistricting numbers states use for redrawing congressional and legislative districts show where white, Asian, Black and Hispanic communities grew over the past decade. They also show which areas have gotten older or younger and the number of people living in dorms, prisons and nursing homes. The data covers geographies as small as neighborhoods and as large as states. An earlier set of data released in April provided state population counts and showed the U.S. had 331 million residents last year, a 7.4 percent increase from 2010.

Overall, Maine’s population grew more slowly over the past decade, increasing about 2.6 percent, or 33,998 people, from 2010. That wasn’t enough to warrant a change to the state’s congressional makeup, and Maine will continue sending two U.S. representatives to Congress.

The latest data shows population trends similar to the 2010 census, with cities in the southern part of the state gaining residents. Rural regions in the eastern and northern parts of the state saw declines.

Cumberland County, the state’s largest, saw a population increase of 7.6 percent followed closely by its southern neighbors of York and Androscoggin, which saw increases of 7.5 percent and 3.2 percent, respectively. In contrast, Aroostook County, which borders Canada, saw its population decline by 6.6 percent. The neighboring county of Washington County fell 5.4 percent while Piscataquis County saw a decline of 4.2 percent.

The state’s population, long among the oldest in the country, also continued that trend. It has the third-highest percentage of adults over 18, behind the District of Columbia and Vermont. Maine’s population 18 and over increased 5.3 percent over the past decade while those under 18 fell by 8.1 percent.
 
elsewhere in other related developments..............

The white population, meanwhile, is shrinking and aging: The "white alone" population shrunk by 8.6 percent, while the proportion of whites in combination with some other race grew by 316 percent. The under-18 population is increasingly diverse, too.

One exception? The share of the white population is growing in coastal communities in the Carolinas and Virginia, as well as in parts of Georgia and Alabama.

 
elsewhere in other related developments..............

The white population, meanwhile, is shrinking and aging: The "white alone" population shrunk by 8.6 percent, while the proportion of whites in combination with some other race grew by 316 percent. The under-18 population is increasingly diverse, too.

One exception? The share of the white population is growing in coastal communities in the Carolinas and Virginia, as well as in parts of Georgia and Alabama.

I'm not sure about the rest but keep all the crazys that come up here to go boating away !!:)
 
Coming soon to a lake/pond near you, thanks to Maine, unbelievable...

Winthrop man’s motorized floating picnic tables ready for launch​

pressherald.com/2021/09/06/winthrop-mans-motorized-floating-picnic-tables-ready-for-launch/

By Jessica Lowell September 6, 2021
26161365_20210901_picnic_3831-1024x575.jpg


WINTHROP — The first time Laura Huddy saw Lon Cameron’s floating motorized picnic tables, she knew it would be perfect for her family.

“It’s such a blast,” Huddy said. “We just love it so much.”

Right now, Huddy is part of a fairly small group who own the innovative floating craft on lakes and ponds, but a year from now, that number could grow as Cameron takes his business, Maine Float LLC, and starts to scale it up.

“I’ve grown up visiting lakes and ponds, and I’ve always loved being on the water,” Cameron, 39, said. “I’ve never been the sailor, my wife is the sailor.”

The seeds of the idea for floating picnic tables spouted several years ago when Cameron and Tyler Kidder, who are married, were taking apart an old floating dock on their property in the southwest corner of Winthrop. While the dock itself was in bad shape, the float boxes were in good condition.

When he looked to see what people were doing with float boxes on Pinterest, an online image sharing platform, he saw photos of picnic tables on blue food-grade barrels that people had built that were equipped with outboard motors.

“I was like, ‘Oh, that’s a cool idea, but I want to take it a step further,'” he said.

Using the float boxes as a platform, he built a picnic table to fit using 8-foot lengths of cedar on a pressure treated lumber frame and added a trolling motor his father-in-law gave him to pull the craft through the water.

The maiden voyage was not a success.

“We were spinning and going sideways,” he said. “We had no control over the steering on it. It was really difficult to steer, especially if the wind was up at all.”

Kidder suggested adding a center board, and they used the center board from the dingy that Kidder had built with her uncle, and that made the craft easier to handle.

Cameron and Kidder lived with that table — complete with an umbrella, cup holders and a swim ladder — for two years, while friends and family encouraged him to build and sell more of them.

When they listed it for sale on Facebook Marketplace at the start of Memorial Day weekend, Cameron had already been thinking about how the craft could be improved and was ready to work on version 2.0. He had estimated he could have four done by the start of summer.

The ad caught the attention of WJBQ and WCSH, which aired pieces on Cameron and his creation within days of one another in June, which in turn caught the attention of people across Maine.
“I just got bombarded,” he said.

He called a brief halt to advertising while he prepared a patent application and set up his LLC. He submitted his application last week, a week after the U.S. Coast Guard sent out someone to do an inspection of the craft.

Now he has his own manufacturer’s identification number, so he can create his own unique hull numbers and issue them with each craft. With these numbers buyers can register their floating picnic tables with their towns as they would any other water craft.

In the next month, he’ll launch his website, mainefloat.com, but his email, [email protected] is expected to go live before that.

“I don’t do any advertising; they advertise themselves,” he said. “It’s not something I readily saw happening.”

But that’s how it has worked out. One camp owner on Pickerel Pond in Limington bought one. The pond is too small for the really big motor boats, and they wanted something quiet. That prompted a second camp owner to buy one. Now a third camp owner has pre-ordered one for the spring.

Huddy was one of the people to contact him as soon as she saw the piece on TV and reached out on Facebook. As relatively new camp owners, Huddy said her family doesn’t have a boat, but they wanted something they could handle easily.

“I was thinking the chances of me getting this are pretty low, because it’s probably popular,” she said. “And I got one.”

Huddy said Cameron offered to have her family come out and try it out, but she took a leap of faith and committed to buy one, after messaging with Cameron, asking him a lot of questions and watching a video.

The table was delivered just before mid-July to the Huddy camp in Poland, where it was christened Big Walter. They take it out for a spin when they are at camp, or just use it as an extension of their dock where they can spend time on the water and play games.

“I can’t tell you how many people have stopped us on the lake,” she said. “I’ve seen a ton of boats come up to it when it’s docked and take pictures.”

To date, one table is in New York, one is in Massachusetts and the rest are in Maine.
Developing the table has fed Cameron’s creative drive.

Cameron earned a degree in anthropology originally, and spent some time working for the state of Maine until he was ready to try something different.

“I felt like I was at a dead end in terms of income and flexibility to pursue other creative stuff,” he said. “I really love design and dabbling with things.”

He went back to school at the University of New England and is now a physician assistant at MaineGeneral’s Express Care clinic in Winthrop.

Even as he was pursuing that, he had another business, Portland Pallet Works. He built fixtures for businesses and restaurants in the Old Port from reclaimed materials. He’s also built tiny houses, including Two Cedar Tiny House, which he operates in Winthrop as an AirBnB with its own waterfront access.

Even as he’s building version 2.0, he’s thinking about version 3.0 and what modifications that might come with, including extending the length from 8 feet to 12 feet. The tables, which currently cost $2,800, come with an electric motor that can be charged either via a solar panel or an electric outlet, as well as oars. If he adds a hibachi (a Japanese heating device), it will come with a fire extinguisher.

“So far, it’s really brought a lot of smiles to people. People love this, people who don’t want a boat and don’t know how to use a motorboat,” he said. “It’s very user-friendly.”

While he’s able to build the vehicles at his home with the help of another builder, he may move the operation to a warehouse space if demand dictates, and he’s already had some offers from people who have space to lease. That, as well as the cost of materials, will drive the price of the watercraft.

“I think there’s definitely a market for this,” he said. “I don’t know how many; I don’t know where it’s going, but I’m gonna put it out there in the world and just see what happens.”
 
Dang, there goes a great piece of License Plate viewing around here, but they did add the option of a Lighthouse Plate with the Pemaquid Point Lighthouse. Sadly it only allows 6 characters and my NACLHOH plate won't fit, and any vanity plate cannot be transferred. Tie those facts to an additional yearly fee besides the vanity fee, I won't be availing myself to it...

And, no disrespect intended, but with an extremely non-diverse population, WTH is "Juneteenth" being designated as a state holiday???

Vulgar license plates are out as hundreds of new laws take effect in Maine​

pressherald.com/2021/10/17/vulgar-license-plates-are-out-as-hundreds-of-new-laws-take-effect-in-maine/

By Scott Thistle October 17, 2021

If you want to say something nasty, hateful or violent on your license plates, you’ll have to do it in another state.

More than 500 new laws or law changes approved by the Legislature earlier this year will take effect Monday, from the creation of a new state holiday for Juneteenth to tougher penalties for domestic violence crimes involving children.

One of the new laws allows Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows to reject vanity license plates for a variety of reasons, including hate speech, violence, obscenity and those that are sexually explicit.

It also sets in place a process for Bellows to recall previously issued plates based on complaints, if they cross the line. Those complaints will be reviewed by a special panel, which will also hear appeals if a motorist wants to dispute the state’s decisions about what is or isn’t allowed.

Bellows said the state isn’t going to sift through the existing plates to find offensive tags and immediately confiscate them.

“We are not going to start yanking the plates on Monday,” Bellows said. “But people who review the law and realize their plates fall outside of the law may want to voluntarily exchange their vanity plate for another plate of their choice. No one will be grandfathered.”


A new state law allows the Maine secretary of state to reject vanity license plates for a variety of reasons, including hate speech, violence, obscenity and those that are sexually explicit. Michele McDonald/Staff Photographer, file

Bellows, a former executive director of the ACLU of Maine, supported the law change earlier this year in a break from her predecessor, Matthew Dunlap, who told legislators in the past that limiting such plates could be considered a violation of a driver’s constitutionally protected free speech and might not be defensible in court.

Dunlap was in office when the Legislature relaxed the standards in 2015, effectively allowing obscenities but barring messages that might incite violence – what he referred to as “fighting words.” That change opened the door to a wide variety of vulgar and offensive messages, according to those supporting tighter rules.

But the new law, based on a bill sponsored by Sen. Bill Diamond, D-Windham, is tightly crafted to address potential legal challenges such as one used to win a lawsuit in New Hampshire over the rejected vanity plate “COPSLIE.”

Diamond said the law is written to hold up against any legal challenges based on free speech.
“I would actually welcome a legal challenge,” Diamond said.

Vanity plate regulation varies from state to state, and legal challenges are not uncommon. Courts have struck down provisions they have deemed too vague and therefore open to arbitrary interpretation.

A federal judge issued a preliminary ruling last fall striking down Rhode Island’s law permitting administrators to make judgments based on what they deemed to be offensive to good taste or decency. Nearly identical language also was struck down by a federal judge in California late last year.

A court in New Hampshire struck down similar limits in 2014, but that state now uses a standard with more specific limits like in the new Maine law.

It’s unclear how many plates may be subject to recall or review, but in her testimony to the Legislature, Bellows said a cursory search of BMV records of the more than 119,000 vanity plates on the road she found at least 119 that included the most common “four-letter” words.

A Facebook entertainment page, dubbed the Vanity of Maine, features photos of Maine vanity plates snapped by contributors to the page including many that could be subject to the new law. The page has 15, 343 followers and features images of license plates from the obscene and hateful to social commentary, such as “OK KAREN” and “(expletive) 2020.”

The page’s creator, Morgan Alexander, 31, of Bar Harbor, said he started posting license plate photos on Instagram in 2016, and there are more than 18,000 images of plates now.

A hotel manager, Alexander said he, too, has a plate featuring a vague sexual reference that he suspects could make it subject to a recall.

“I’m OK with it,” Alexander said of the new law. Plates with expletives “have gotten way out of hand,” he said. “At first it was funny and now it’s just way out of control. … People have kids who can read and for me the plates with the f-word on them can go bye-bye.”

Diamond, who also is a former secretary of state and oversaw the agency that issues license plates, said many people don’t realize they don’t own their vanity plates the way they own bumper stickers. The fee paid to the state for the plate is for the privilege of having a custom plate message, but is not a purchase of the plate, he said.

“The plate is public property, like a public building,” Diamond said. “Individuals have a right to free speech, but they don’t have the right to deface government property in exercising that right.”
The ban on vulgar and hateful language isn’t the only new law regarding license plates. One places a moratorium on specialty plates.

Maine has more than 25 different license plate styles with several specialty plates that serve as fundraisers for nonprofit causes. Specialty plates highlight a range of causes and raise money for everything from the University of Maine System to farming and lobstering to the Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital. Motorists pay an extra $20 fee for a specialty plate and a $25 fee for a vanity plate.

The standard-issue license plate for Maine features the iconic official state bird, the chickadee. Bellows said town clerks who issue plates locally have said that because not all the plates are popular and most Maine motorists are happy to have the chickadee plate, they run into issues with finding space to store the large selection of plates Maine offers.



Yet another new law, however, adds one more specialty plate to the mix: the Maine lighthouse plate.
The plate, which depicts a lighthouse that looks like Portland Head Light, will be added to the mix this year, with the fees from the plate going to the Maine Lighthouse Trust, a nonprofit dedicated to the preservation and restoration of lighthouses on the Maine coast.
 
Phone rang last night from a "Ronald Sobel" with a 516 area code. Wouldn't have even picked it up, but since we have some friends in Nassau county I did. When I answered a recording started playing, "This is Amazon Customer Service. We have identified a suspected fraudulent order of $1015 on your Amazon Account. Please dial "1" to immediately speak with a customer service representative."

CLICK - since that smelt really fishy. First checked Amazon Account and there were no unusual orders there, then Googled that type of scam and found out has been going on for a few years. As expected if you do "dial 1", the person you talk to wants to get the CC number of your credit call attached to your Amazon account...

Of course we're backward up here and the scams take a few years to get up migrate "Downeast", LOL...
 
Phone rang last night from a "Ronald Sobel" with a 516 area code. Wouldn't have even picked it up, but since we have some friends in Nassau county I did. When I answered a recording started playing, "This is Amazon Customer Service. We have identified a suspected fraudulent order of $1015 on your Amazon Account. Please dial "1" to immediately speak with a customer service representative."

CLICK - since that smelt really fishy. First checked Amazon Account and there were no unusual orders there, then Googled that type of scam and found out has been going on for a few years. As expected if you do "dial 1", the person you talk to wants to get the CC number of your credit call attached to your Amazon account...

Of course we're backward up here and the scams take a few years to get up migrate "Downeast", LOL...
Be a skeptic, question everything. That’s my mantra.
 
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Green Crab invasion very old news. I've been known to fill up coolers off my dock in 1 hr to send to LI with folks driving back there for delivery to friends looking for bait. It's a favorite "event" when the Granddaughters visit. I slap a hunk of pogy on their Disney Princess Rods, they drop it too the bottom and slowly bring it up to net the crabs latched on. After we get around 20-30, which only takes 30 mins or so, they get on the dock ramp and I dump the crabs on the dock. They just laugh with delight watching the crabs scurry back into the water...

Although I've found them in striper and cod bellies, I've yet to have success with catching anything on them. Granted, I've never brought them out cod fishing because diamond jigging is so much easier and very effective, but on multiple occasions, I've stuck small, striped-sized ones on Circle Hooks and dropped them off the dock with no luck. Just hope that togs migrate up here as I have an unlimited and abundant bait supply...
 
Ranked Choice Voting, it's a real treat. I may tune in for the "Rock, Paper, Scissors" shoot out later, LOL...

Glad that this cluster occurred in Portland, the center of the "Ranked Choice Voting" movement...

Rare ranked-choice tie means Portland will decide at-large council race by drawing lots​

pressherald.com/2021/11/03/tied-instant-runoff-for-portland-council-seat-will-be-decided-by-drawing-lots/

By Randy Billings November 3, 2021

In what is believed to be a first in an American ranked-choice election, the race for an at-large seat on the Portland City Council ended in a tie and will be decided by drawing lots, city officials said.

School board member Roberto Rodriguez and planning board chairman Brandon Mazer, two of the four candidates for the seat, each received 8,529 votes as a result of the runoff by Election Systems & Software, the city said. Rodriguez had finished first after the initial tally of votes Tuesday, 273 votes ahead of Mazer in a citywide race in which more than 19,000 ballots were cast.

The city said in a news release Wednesday that the winner of the race would be determined Thursday morning through a public process established under city rules. The process states that a tie is decided “by lot,” which the city said is “a method of making a decision or selection by choosing something, often slips of paper, at random.” The candidate selected by lot will be the winner. And the drawing will take place at 10 a.m. Thursday in front of City Hall, the city said.

A hand recount could still be requested, but only after a winner has been named, the city said.

The city charter does not directly address ties in a ranked-choice election, but does allow the city clerk to “adopt additional regulations consistent with this subsection to implement these provisions.” The city’s rules were adopted in 2011 in conjunction with the charter amendments implementing ranked-choice voting.

State law governing statewide ranked-choice elections also calls for ties between last-place candidates to be “decided by lot” – only unlike the city’s rules, the candidate selected by lot loses.

The count was conducted using ranked-choice voting and went to an instant runoff because none of the candidates surpassed the 50 percent threshold needed to win.

COMMON WAY TO DECIDE TIES
Chris Hughes, policy director at the Ranked Choice Voting Resource Center, said Wednesday that over 400 ranked-choice elections have been held in the United States and this is the first one he’s aware of that ended in a tie. That being said, it’s common for election ties to be decided by drawing lots, whether it’s a coin toss, drawing straws or some other sort of random drawing, he said.

Hughes pointed to a 2017 election in Virginia as an example. In that race, Republican David Yancey was chosen as the winner after his name was drawn out of an artisanal bowl. His win allowed his party to retain control over the House of Delegates, according to National Public Radio.

“Ties in any kind of election are super rare,” Hughes said. “From everything I have seen, ties tend to happen in smaller elections. They don’t tend to happen when there’s like 15,000 votes cast. And every election law I have seen decides ties by lot.”

Mazer said in a statement Wednesday that he’s looking forward to following “the procedures that govern our elections.”

“I deeply appreciate all of the work that everyone has put into helping on this campaign. It’s clear that our campaign’s focus on affordable housing, property taxes, and education resonated with Portland voters,” Mazer said. “While we wait for more information – to everyone that knocked on doors, made phone calls, ranked me on their ballot, or simply said hello during the campaign – thank you so much.”

Rodriguez did not respond Wednesday to a voicemail and text message seeking comment.

The race was so close late Tuesday night that city officials delayed the instant runoff until Wednesday.
Prior to the instant runoff, Rodriguez led the at-large contest with 5,553 votes or just over 29 percent. Mazer had 5,280 votes or nearly 28 percent. Travis Curran had 4,776 votes or 25 percent. And Stuart Tisdale had 3,480 votes or 16.6 percent. About 8 percent of Portland ballots did not choose any candidates in the at-large race.

The four at-large candidates were seeking to fill outgoing Councilor Nicholas Mavodones’ seat on the council. Curran, 35, is a server and retail manager at Maine Craft Distilling who ran unsuccessfully for mayor in 2019. Mazer, 35, is an attorney and chairman of the planning board. Rodriguez, 42, owns an urban farming business and is serving his second term on the school board. Tisdale, 68, is an attorney and retired history and government teacher at Cheverus High School.

Tuesday’s election comes at a pivotal stage for Maine’s largest city. None of the three incumbent councilors sought re-election, leaving a third of the council up for grabs.

CITY AT PIVOTAL STAGE
Meanwhile, a charter commission could recommend sweeping changes to city government, including shifting more power to the elected mayor and either demoting or eliminating the city manager position. But those recommendations will not be made until next summer at the earliest and would need voter approval to take effect.

The incoming council will be charged with searching for a new city manager, a job Jon Jennings left Monday after six years to become the next city manger of Clearwater, Florida. Corporation Counsel Danielle West was sworn in as the interim city manager on Tuesday and Associate Corporation Counsel Jennifer Thompson was sworn in as interim corporation counsel.

Even with the at-large race undecided, Tuesday’s results continued a streak of wins for Portland progressives, who passed four citizen referendums last fall that ushered in rent control, a higher minimum wage and a Green New Deal for Portland and strengthened a ban on facial recognition software. Progressives also captured a majority of seats on the charter commission.

In District 2, Victoria Pelletier, a 33-year-old special projects coordinator at the Greater Portland Council of Governments whose focus is on racial equity and economic development, cruised to a decisive win over Jon Hinck, a 67-year-old attorney and former at-large city councilor and state representative. Pelletier, a political newcomer, earned nearly 59 percent of the votes to represent the West End and Parkside.

In District 1, Anna Trevorrow, a 39-year-old medical malpractice paralegal at Norman, Hanson & DeTroy serving her third term on the school board, bested political newcomer Sarah Michniewicz, a self-employed seamstress who has led the Bayside Neighborhood Association for four years. Trevorrow earned 55 percent of the votes to represent the East End, Bayside, the Old Port and islands.
 
Good thing it wasn't the ACME Moving Company!!

Beep beep! This roadrunner hitched a ride from Las Vegas to Maine​

pressherald.com/2021/11/15/beep-beep-this-roadrunner-hitched-a-ride-from-las-vegas-to-maine/

By Gillian Graham November 15, 2021
A greater roadrunner, native to the American Southwest, hitched a ride in a rental moving van from Las Vegas, and was discovered on Saturday, November 13. Volunteers got the bird to Avian Haven, which is making plans to return it to its native habitat. (Photo by Terry Heitz)

A stowaway bird went undetected for more than 2,800 miles as a moving van crossed the United States from Las Vegas to Maine.

The greater roadrunner – a bird native to the Southwest and made famous in animated run-ins with Wile E. Coyote – made its presence known when two men opened the doors of the van to unload it Saturday at a storage unit in Westbrook.

The bird, apparently unscathed by its long journey, is now safe at an avian rehabilitation center as arrangements are made to bring it back to Nevada.

The father and son who discovered the bird inside their rented van called Westbrook police and were put in contact with Avian Haven, a nonprofit avian rehabilitation center in Freedom. Karen Silverman, an Avian Haven volunteer who lives in the Portland area, was deployed to the storage unit and, with the help of the father and son, managed to catch the bird in a net.

“We were all completely taken by surprise,” said Diane Winn, executive director of Avian Haven, which has cared for 34,000 birds from more than 100 species.

This is the first time Avian Haven has cared for a roadrunner, but Chelsey Gundlach, the center’s rehabilitation manager, has experience working with roadrunners from her previous job in Oklahoma.
In the Southwest, greater roadrunners favor a desert scrub habitat. The sleek brown birds have long tail feathers and bright patches near their eyes. They’ll eat anything they catch, but their diets mainly consist of lizards and small snakes.

True to their name, they would rather walk or run than fly. The roadrunner can maintain a speed of 15 mph hour over long distances, according to the National Audubon Society, and can likely go even faster when it’s chasing a fast lizard. But this bird rode cross country, leaving the work to the drivers.

Silverman, who has volunteered with Avian Haven for seven years, typically responds to calls about injured or orphaned birds that are native to the area. She had never seen a roadrunner in person before and was surprised, and a bit excited, when she heard one had been found in a moving van.

Silverman was under the impression that the bird possibly had escaped the van and run through an open gate into the woods behind the storage facility.

“I was thinking that I probably couldn’t catch this bird,” she said.

But it turned out the bird was still inside the van. One of the men was able to flush it to the back, where Silverman caught it in the net. Once she’d done so she took extra care to make sure it couldn’t get away when it was transferred into a box, she said, because she “figured they are probably very good escape artists.'” With the help of one of the men, she was able to transfer the bird into the box to be safely moved to Freedom.

“It’s kind of exciting to be netting a roadrunner in Westbrook, Maine,” Silverman said. “It’s always an honor and pleasure for me to be part of an organization that helps birds out. This poor displaced bird definitely needed help and protection.”

As with most bird rescues, a caravan was set up to relay the bird up to Freedom as quickly as possible. Silverman and two other volunteers each transported the roadrunner for part of the drive to Avian Haven.
Staff at Avian Haven drained a pool in the pool house to create a warmer temporary space for the roadrunner, which will have minimal contact with humans during its stay. The bird is being fed a diet of mice and insects while it is in Maine.

“We don’t have any lizards in our freezer, unfortunately,” Winn said.

Winn said staff at the center have not been able to determine if the bird is male or female because that determination is based on weight. They are unsure if the bird had access to any food – perhaps a stowaway lizard or two – while in the van, or if it lost weight during the journey. The bird is in “remarkably good” shape, Winn said.

Winn is now working on the logistics of getting the bird back to Nevada. An importation permit is required whenever wildlife is transferred between states.

The Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife on Monday reached out to the Arizona Game and Fish Department about the bird. Arizona wildlife officials sent Maine officials an import permit, which will be filled out by Avian Haven, said Mark Latti, spokesman for the Maine IF&W.

Though Winn has never filed importation permits with Nevada, she anticipates that process will be easy and relatively quick. The bigger challenge is making arrangements to fly the bird across country as a busy holiday travel weekend approaches. A direct flight out of Boston, Winn said, will probably be the best option. The bird likely will make its return trip in cargo.

“We’re obviously making every effort to get it back to Nevada,” she said.
 
Just found this. Not to pretty on the outside but nice inside, with good amount of land. What do Old Mud and Roccus think?
Take a look at this home I found on Realtor.com
185 Vickery Rd, Auburn
$259,900 · 3beds · 1.5baths

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1637714079752.webp
 
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