To access the report, click on FINAL CITIZENS COMMISSION REPORT 8 - 09.doc

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The Colisee, formerly the Central Maine Civic Center, has undergone substantial renovations over the past several years, and now attracts a number of special events in addition to serving as the home of the Lewiston MAINEiacs hockey team.

According to the Lewiston Sun Journal, the last time the convention was held in Lewiston was in 1984. Conventions typically attract between 1,500 and 2,000 attendees, and offer a chance for gubernatorial candidates to speak to party members about their issues prior to the June primary.

Gov. John Baldacci will be barred from seeking a third term as Maine governor due to term limits.

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In a June 16, 2008, story, reporter Daniel Michaels wrote a feature story about how volunteers and retirees of Lufthansa are recreating to the finest detail the former luxury aircraft by salvaging parts from three Starliners. The work is being done locally because the parts and aircraft shell were formerly owned by a local aviation enthusiast.

“In the 1980s, Maurice Roundy, a 63-year-old pilot, aircraft mechanic and airfield manager in Auburn, Maine, bought three Starliners for their scrap value,” wrote Michaels. “He started rebuilding them, but after spending $500,000 of his own money on the effort, he ran out of cash and last year filed for bankruptcy-court protection.”

“When Lufthansa Technik Chief Executive August Henningsen heard that three Starliners would go under the gavel, he jumped into action. After inspecting the planes last November in Maine and Florida, Mr. Henningsen sent his deputies to the auction in December. Slowed by a Maine snowstorm, they arrived just in time to land the three planes for a bid of $745,000.50.”
The project is expected to be complete by 2010.

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HAMBURG, Germany — After inspecting the latest addition to Lufthansa’s fleet, veteran airplane mechanic Jürgen Rohwer braced himself for hard work ahead.

“This is the most complicated aircraft we could get,” said the silver-haired 67-year-old engineer, studying pictures of cockpit controls and wiring at the headquarters of Deutsche Lufthansa AG’s maintenance unit here.
WSJ’s Dan Michaels reports how German carrier Lufthansa refurbished a 1936 Junkers 52 propeller plane and then sold thousands of tickets to people wanting an old-fashioned joyride.

But Mr. Rohwer isn’t working on a cutting-edge Airbus or Boeing jetliner. The task at hand demands far more ingenuity: resurrecting a grounded Eisenhower-era Lockheed propeller plane.

Lufthansa flies some of the world’s newest jetliners. But it also has a unique sideline rebuilding and flying antique aircraft. Enthusiasts wait months and pay €259 ($400) for a bumpy hourlong ride on a 1936 Junkers-52 propeller plane that Lufthansa bought in 1986. The 16-seat Ju-52 is so delicate that engineers rebuild it each winter to ensure safety.

Work is starting now on the Lockheed 1649A Super Constellation “Starliner,” which Mr. Rohwer’s bosses bought at a bankruptcy auction in Maine last December. They hope to start flying it in 2010.

Once, many carriers maintained their antiques to show off, but years of financial pressure have put an end to most of that. Today, it’s mainly consumer companies like Swiss watchmaker Breitling SA and Austrian energy-drink maker Red Bull GmbH that pay to recondition aviation relics as flying billboards.

Lufthansa, whose jetliner operations are profitable, can afford its costly projects partly because active and retired employees volunteer to reconstruct, maintain and fly the old planes. In a country that produces some of the world’s finest cars, sleekest home appliances and most-precise industrial tools, mechanical savviness is a badge of honor.

Capt. Georg Spieth, 51, is one of 20 top Lufthansa pilots who fly the Ju-52 in their spare time. “We’re quite lucky to do this,” he said before taking it up recently. “There’s a really long list of captains waiting to fly it.”

Capt. Spieth’s wife, Ingrid, volunteers as the plane’s flight attendant.

Maintenance Crew

Mr. Rohwer, whose two sons are Lufthansa mechanics, was selected from dozens of volunteers to help resuscitate the Starliner. In addition to decades of work modernizing jetliner cockpits for Lufthansa, the old-timer has a special qualification: He served on crews maintaining Lufthansa’s Starliners in the 1960s.

Lufthansa
The standard Starliner carried 86 passengers, but a swankier version could carry just 30 high-flyers in supreme luxury.

Back then, Lufthansa marketed the Starliner as its “Super Star.” A Starliner flew the longest-duration scheduled flight ever, a 23-hour-19-minute trip from London to San Francisco — a hop jetliners now cover in less than half the time.

Lufthansa’s standard Starliner flew 86 passengers, but a swankier version carried 30 highfliers in luxury. Some slept in beds, behind curtains. Newfangled in-flight entertainment included tape players and loudspeakers.

Onboard Chef

An onboard chef, squeezed into a small kitchen, whipped up meals to suit passengers’ whims. German delicacies served included potato pancakes, “a dish highly appreciated and frequently requested by passengers,” according to Lufthansa’s corporate history.

The Starliner, introduced in 1956, was the last of many Constellation versions Lockheed built over 16 years. Each had increasingly elaborate equipment such as autopilot systems, hydraulic pumps and windscreen defrosters.

The complicated four-engine Starliner had lots of problems, Mr. Rohwer recalls. The plane’s massive 3,000-horsepower engines — designed for optimal performance high in the sky — overheated regularly on the ground. The plane’s violent vibration snapped wires. Spark plugs crusted over. Starliners frequently returned to the airfield shortly after takeoff because of technical difficulties. None of the planes ever crashed.

“We had lots of trouble with that aircraft,” recalled Mr. Rohwer, who joined Lufthansa in 1957 at age 16 and retired from the airline’s maintenance arm, Lufthansa Technik, two years ago.

ON THE JOB

Engineering Veteran Plays Key Role”Some people say this was the best three-engine plane ever, because one engine was always out,” chuckled Mr. Rohwer.

Starliners last flew in the 1970s, but the iconic plane continued attracting fans. In the 1980s, Maurice Roundy, a 63-year-old pilot, aircraft mechanic and airfield manager in Auburn, Maine, bought three Starliners for their scrap value. He started rebuilding them, but after spending $500,000 of his own money on the effort, he ran out of cash and last year filed for bankruptcy-court protection.

“I think the airplanes owned me,” said Mr. Roundy, who paid his debts by getting rid of the planes.

Headed to Auction

When Lufthansa Technik Chief Executive August Henningsen heard that three Starliners would go under the gavel, he jumped into action. After inspecting the planes last November in Maine and Florida, Mr. Henningsen sent his deputies to the auction in December. Slowed by a Maine snowstorm, they arrived just in time to land the three planes for a bid of $745,000.50.

Lufthansa now plans to fully restore one Starliner in Auburn, using parts cannibalized from the other two.

To prepare, Mr. Rohwer spent two weeks in January in Auburn and at the offices of Lockheed Martin Corp. in Texas. Lockheed archivists found 11,000 boxes of the plane’s engineering drawings, certification documents and maintenance records that Mr. Rohwer and his colleagues will use for their work.

Mr. Rohwer, a private pilot who builds model steam trains for fun, will handle the Starliner’s cockpit. To get the plane certified by air-safety regulators in the U.S. and Europe, Lufthansa will install modern flight controls, as it has done on the Junkers.

New Control Panel

For safety’s sake, Mr. Rohwer must include similar consoles, dials and switches as a giant Boeing 747 has on its flight deck. To cram them into the Starliner’s far smaller space, Mr. Rohwer says he will use a handful of digital screens that can replicate dozens of different control panels.

Since the Starliner sits an ocean away in Maine, Mr. Rohwer’s team will first install equipment in a cockpit mock-up in Hamburg. Then they’ll ship that to Maine and rewire it directly to cables and hydraulic pumps that other engineers are refurbishing.

While the cockpit will glow with modern electronics, the passenger cabin will evoke a bygone era. Walls will be covered in beige leather. The large round windows will have fabric curtains.

“The cabin will look like the 1950s — but with seat belts,” promises Bernhard Conrad, who is running the project and also is chairman of the Lufthansa nonprofit foundation that owns the old planes.

Mr. Rohwer says he isn’t interested in flying on the Starliner. He’d rather just hear the engines’ low rumble as the plane cruises slowly by.

“The most unusual thing is the sound,” recalls the mechanic. “It’s much more interesting than being onboard.”

Write to Daniel Michaels at daniel.michaels@wsj.com

Corrections & Amplifications:

Red Bull GmbH is an Austrian company. The initial version of this article said it is German.

Bisson Transportation, Building Solutions, LLC, and Maine Oxy were the winners from the City of Auburn, while Estes Express and Saint Mary’s Health System (formerly Sisters of Charity Health System) were recognized by the City of Lewiston. A special Joint Economic Achievement Award was presented by both cities to WGME-13.

Bisson
Founded in 1919, Bisson Transportation, Inc. is one of Maine’s oldest, largest and most diversified transportation companies. With facilities in West Bath, Auburn, Westbrook, Fairfield, Skowhegan, Jay and Rumford, Bisson employs or contracts with over 300 individuals. Bisson’s truckload freight, freight brokerage and yard services division is headquartered in a beautiful new 103,000 square foot building located in the Auburn Industrial Park.

From this location, 80 tractor trailers transport freight throughout the continental United States. Bisson also provides on-site yard management services at three of Maine’s largest paper mills. Through its affiliate LynxUS, LLC, Bisson provides commercial warehousing, shuttle and trans-loading (truck and rail) services, paper converting/re-winding and inventory management services to a growing list of clients.

Building Solutions
Building Solutions is a design/build firm providing total turnkey projects from planning, permitting, architecture, engineering, and construction to occupancy, including landscaping and specialty equipment installation.
 
Building Solutions has become popular with out-of-state clients who don’t have time to frequently stay on-site to manage a project. Over the past five years, Business Solutions completed major development projects for Western Maine Transportation, Toddle Inn, World Harbors’ sauce production expansion, and construction of two warehouses. 

Maine Oxy
Maine Oxy was founded in 1929 under the name Maine Gas Service, providing sales and service to home propane customers. In 1935, Maine Oxy was incorporated as Maine Oxy-Acetylene Supply Company and began providing welding supplies and industrial gases.

Maine Oxy has expanded to a company with multiple sales and manufacturing sites and currently operates from eight locations in Maine, Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Further expanding in 1993, the Spec-Air Gases and Technologies division was established, leading the industry in replacing disposable calibration gas cylinders with refillables. The New England School of Metalwork is the company’s most recent addition, offering two core programs in welding and blacksmithing.

Estes Express  
It’s difficult to travel on any major highway without passing one of Estes Express Lines’ 22,000-plus trailers. Established in 1931 with a single truck making deliveries in southern Virginia, Estes has grown into one of North America’s largest and most comprehensive trucking distribution companies, with over 13,000 employees and 200 terminals in all 50 U.S. States and Canada.

When Estes began to outgrow its Maine distribution center in Scarborough in 2006, they looked to Lewiston for a site for a new facility.  Lewiston was particularly suitable because of its developable land near the Maine Turnpike and its centralized location to much of Maine’s population.  Estes settled on a site along River Road for its new 37-door, 15,000 sq. ft. facility that opened in May 2007. The new facility brought 38 new full-time jobs to Lewiston.

St. Mary’s
Since the Sisters of Charity first arrived from St. Hyacinthe, Quebec, in the late 1800s to serve the needs of Lewiston’s early mill workers, the Sisters of Charity have been diligent stewards of the area’s physical and social well-being.  Today, St. Mary’s Health System operates a state-of the-art medical facility offering a comprehensive range of medical services, including St. Marguerite d’Youville Pavilion, the largest nursing home facility north of Boston.  Last October, St. Mary’s opened its Center for Joint Replacement, Maine’s first center dedicated to this increasingly important sector. This $1.7 million facility located within St Mary’s Medical Center features 16 modern, private rooms designed in part by previous joint replacement patients.   

St. Mary’s also recently completed its new Nutrition Center in the former Wallace School in downtown Lewiston.  The Center provides nutrition-related services for residents in the community and provides resources for others providing similar services across Maine. In the coming year, the Medical Center’s Emergency Department will double in size —the first such upgrade in 17 years—and the establishment of a new ambulatory center is slated in Auburn. 

WGME-13
As evidenced by sponsorship of such events as the Great Falls Balloon Festival, the United Way of Androscoggin County’s Annual Campaign, the Androscoggin Business to Business Trade Show, and the successful “L-A: It’s Happening Here!” community branding campaign, WGME-13 intrinsically links its mission of providing TV programming with being responsible community citizens.

It has also increased its news coverage of L-A dramatically over the last five years, reporting on such trends as L-A’s economic renaissance, diverse job creation, and the community’s meteoric growth in arts and entertainment offerings. As a result, Maine has had a reawakening to L-A’s many attributes, and WGME-13’s viewership numbers have risen dramatically too.

The Economic Achievement Award winners were recently honored at the Lewiston-Auburn Economic Growth Council’s Annual Dinner and Business Forum.

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In a semi-annual listing compiled by the Office of Business Development in April, Lewiston-Auburn finished 2006 with more than $121 million of activity. Biddeford came in second at $97.2 million.

It marked the second time in five years that L-A led the state in development activity during a construction and development boom that sees little sign of letting up.

Among the major development projects in the Twin Cities over the past year include the completion of Phase 2 of Wal Mart’s Food Distribution Center estimated at $40 million, a $24 million campus expansion at Bates College, a $7 million investment in back-office operations by TD Banknorth at the Bates Mill Complex, and a spate of restaurants and retail projects, like the $6.7 million Kohl’s store.

Safe Handling Inc. has opened its new “Port of Auburn” distribution hub expansion in Auburn, ME.

The Port of Auburn expansion is a multimillion dollar warehouse and transportation project on 150-acres adjacent to the Maine Intermodal Facility. The fully permitted plans call for constructing multiple warehouses totaling 250,000 square feet and seven new rail sidings that connect with the St. Lawrence & Atlantic Railroad and the Canadian National Railroad. Current new railcar capacity on site at port of Auburn is 100 railcars.

The project, named Port of Auburn Intermodal Facility, provides Safe Handling with the space it needs for future growth. Safe Handling manufactures and distributes numerous raw materials for customers primarily in the pulp and paper industry. Related to this project is Safe Handling’s intention to initiate a study aimed at building a multimillion-dollar forest products biorefinery at the same location.

Safe Handling has several excellent lots available on our 55-acre site for compatible development. The lots are available for lease or sale.