DRAGONST. GEORGETHE

A bi-weekly publication of Dragon’s Breath Communications, LLC

When Candy Davis first started working as an EMT in St. George nearly 25 years ago, the town’s ambulance service was an all-volunteer organization. Today she is one of the town’s paid paramedics providing 24/7 coverage for 911 calls and is in charge of a “community paramedicine” pilot project—one of 12 in Maine—that is now in its fourth year of implementation. Her long years of service to this community where she grew up has put her in a particularly good position to understand how a paramedicine program could be a real benefit to people here.

“I started with the service in about 1992,” she recounts, “I started as a basic volunteer EMT providing basic life support. Then I went back to school and obtained my intermediate license which al-lowed me to start IVs, give a limited amount of medications and use a cardiac monitor. So I worked at that level for a while. And then I obtained my paramedic certification—that was a few years prior to starting my paid position in July of 2011. So you can imag-ine if I’ve been with the service since 1992, I’ve had the opportu-nity to watch people age, to witness the services we have and to

see areas where there could be improvement. So when I looked at community paramedicine programs that were happening in rural areas across the country I could see it was a footprint that really fit us well. With our call volume in the 200-300 range, we certainly had enough down time that we could provide those community

Volume 4 Issue 11

Thursday, July 28, 2016

In St. George, community paramedicine fits well with ‘being aware and doing something about it’

Continued on page 2

paramedicine services—medication reconciliation to see that a medicine is being taken correctly, blood pressure monitoring, glu-cose level monitoring.”

Davis and other ambulance service members who have had the requisite training can provide those services to community mem-bers only if their primary care physician has ordered them. They can also assist care providers like Kno-Wal-Lin, nurse practitio-ners, and hospice. 

“Our community paramedicine care in St. George is not meant to replace any existing services,” Davis notes. “We identify our pro-gram as an opportunity to augment other services. So let’s say Kno-Wal-Lin has a client who has been discharged from the hospital and who lives alone here in St. George. They might come in once

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“When I looked at community paramedicine pro-grams that were happening in rural areas across the country I could see it was a footprint that really fit us well. With our call volume in the 200-300 range, we certainly had enough down time that we could pro-vide those community paramedicine services—medi-cation reconciliation to see that a medicine is being taken correctly, blood pressure monitoring, glucose level monitoring.”

The St. George DRAGONPage 2 July 28, 2016

a week on Monday. We would try to come in later in the week to check in on that client so both ends of the week are covered. In addition to that, when the Kno-Wal-Lin services stop, we can con-tinue to provide those services if the primary care physician has asked us to do that. We can also provide wound care if asked. For example, a Kno-Wal-Lin nurse might have someone who needs wound care in St. George, but she’s in Union during a blizzard. She can ask the patient’s doctor to give us an order to make that visit.”

The needs assessment Davis conducted while setting up the pi-lot community paramedicine program in St. George—each pilot program in Maine is community specific—identified serving the town’s aging population as a particular priority. “We have an aging population and as a result of that our community needs assess-ment identified elderly folks who really want to stay and age in place in their homes,” Davis explains. “So think of an individual in their 80s driving up the peninsula in winter to their doctor’s of-fice and they have blood drawn for testing. The round trip drive is about 42 miles. Then let’s say they get home and there’s a call from the doctor’s office saying we need you to come back for another blood draw. That is a lot for that individual. It gets dark early in the winter and the weather conditions just aren’t always feasible for driving the peninsula for an individual of that age. So that’s an area where, if the physician orders it, we can help by taking a blood draw or take a urine sample or whatever the case may be and drive that to the lab and keep that person from having to leave the peninsula again.”

Sometimes, Davis says, a paramedicine visit also has an added benefit. She cites the case of a 90-year-old woman whose blood pressure and glucose levels she was monitoring per a physician or-der. “She did not drive—she relied on her neighbors to take her to church and different social events and she went grocery shopping once a week with one of her neighbors. I called her on my way to visit her and I asked do you need anything?   I’m going by Har-

‘Paramedicine’From page 1

borside Market. She said she needed milk, didn’t know what had happened to the milk she bought two days ago but it had gone bad. When I arrived at her house I opened the refrigerator to put the milk in and noticed the light didn’t go on. The refrigerator didn’t work. And there was lots of other spoiled food. She had lost her sense of taste and had no idea she was eating bad food. So I got on the phone with her family who lived out of state and they got the ball rolling on getting the refrigerator cleaned out and repaired. That visit made it possible to circumvent a horrible event.”

There is a lot of record keeping involved with the pilot com-munity paramedicine program, Davis admits. But the hope is that between all the pilot programs in Maine and across the country there will eventually be enough data to show that the services being provided represent a real cost savings. “Medicare needs to recog-nize the benefit,” she says. “The program is preventing hospital re-admissions and reducing emergency room visits. Sometimes just having the human interaction of a regular visit prevents someone from feeling isolated and getting depressed, which can then lead them to become non-compliant with their medications.”

Davis often refers to herself as a “community paramedic,” which is perhaps a big reason that the pilot paramedicine program seems so well suited to the St. George ambulance service’s overall philoso-phy. “Everything for us circulates around attention, prevention, ac-tion. We just try to be aware of what’s going on. If we notice that someone has developed swollen ankles or has labored breathing we’ll suggest, ‘Let’s call your primary care physician and let them know.’ That’s not a community paramedicine service because the physician didn’t ask us to check on that person, that’s just being aware and doing something about it.”

Reflecting further on her approach to her work, Davis adds, “You have paramedics who like high-volume 911 calls and these are the people who live in cities where they run hundreds of calls in a month and thousands a year. It takes a certain type of individual to be a community paramedic. If you don’t have the empathy, the compassion, the understanding—that bedside manner—if you don’t have it you’re not a community paramedic.” —JW

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The St. George DRAGONPage 4 July 28, 2016

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Best in show Susan Marine

Simply GreenAmy Libby – FirstCarolyn Jayne - 2nd Lisa Gerakaris - 3rdLaurel Waters - Honorable Mention

Small Garden BountySusan Schorin - FirstAngie Hritz - 2ndBritta Pemberton - 3rdEpate – Honorable Mention

Tall Garden BountyNancy Steiner - FirstCourtney Amos - 2ndCatherine Steiner-Adair - 3rdAmy O’Donnell - Honorable Mention

Fragrant HerbsPat Smith - FirstLisa Gerakaris - 2ndKaren Carroll - 3rd

MiniaturesNancy Steiner - FirstAmy Libby - 2ndLisa Gerakaris - 3rdDrew Silverman -Honorable Mention

Wayside Bounty-WildflowersDebbie Flack – First Lorrie Landsberg - 2ndRoberta Baumann - 3rdAnne Rogers Bowlus - Honorable Mention

YouthMay Lawson - FirstBella Wickenden - 2ndSophia Wickenden - 3rdWillow McConochie - Honorable Mention

The People’s ChoiceAngie Hritz

The 2016 MartinsvilleFlower Show

2016 marked the third year the Mar-tinsville Flower Show has been part of the St. George Days celebration. Created in 2014 by Lucy Belding and Cindy Lang to be a fun, no-pressure competition for lo-cal flower-arranging enthusiasts, this year’s show attracted more than 60 entries—a third more than in the previous two years. Spirits were high as the gallery at Hedge-row, the host location for the event, filled with an intriguing and varied array of ar-rangements. Congratulations to the many prize winners, especially Susan Marine for her “Best in Show” arrangement and An-gie Hritz whose arrangement, “Teatime in Tenants Harbor,” was voted the “People’s Choice” award.

“Teatime in Tenants Harbor”

The St. George DRAGON Page 5July 28, 2016

“When people think of plumbers they think of plunging toilets,” admits Gary Minery, who with his wife, Shasta, has been running GC Minery Plumbing & Heating for the past 10 years. “But the only toilets I plunge —rarely—are in my own house,” he adds with a laugh.

In the plumbing business, jobs that might involve toilet plunging fall under the head-ing of “service calls,” and those account for only a very small percentage of the work Minery does. His specialty is, instead, de-signing and installing the plumbing and heating systems for new construction and renovation projects. Thanks to several loyal contractors such as Harbor Builders in St. George and Lorraine Construction out of Rockport, he has had plenty of opportuni-ties to hone the skills necessary for such work.

“I enjoy the new stuff the most,” Min-ery says. “A lot of it is like a big puzzle—I like to do puzzles, so it’s putting all of the pieces together. I like doing the boiler pip-ing. I guess it’s artwork in a way—running everything in straight lines and there are so many pieces that have to go together. You can do it a quick fast way and just get done or you can make it look like something.” 

A job Minery did for a client who was a nuclear engineer on a submarine, he says, is a case in point. “He said he shuts himself in the mechanical room of the house and he feels like he’s on the boat. He says he just loves it. Hearing stuff like that makes me smile. It’s about good craftsmanship.”

Calculating how all the pieces of the plumbing and heating systems should go

Enjoying the fun—and artistry—of making all the pieces go together

together can be a big challenge, Minery points out, because different types of build-ings are framed differently, use different types of building materials and are laid out differently.

“Every house has its own sort of problems that need to be figured out—how you are go-ing to run things de-pends on so many fac-tors. We had a house in Rockland that had a lot of steel in it. That took quite a lot of think-ing to get the bathrooms from the second floor connected all the way down to the basement—going through or around the steel.”

PHOTO: Julie WortmanGary Minery

“I enjoy the new stuff the most. A lot of it is like a big puzzle—I like to do puzzles, so it’s putting all of the pieces together. I guess it’s artwork in a way. You can do it a quick fast way and just get done or you can make it look like something.” 

Log cabins, Minery adds, are “horrible.” “I’ve only done a couple of them. You really have to think outside the box to figure out how to run stuff with all that solid wood—how to get from A to B to C. And post-and-beam structures pose their own problems because there is no place to hide anything.”

But even when a project poses difficul-ties, Minery likes to take an upbeat view. “All projects can be fun if you let them be,” he says. “You have to be positive. Luckily my wife helps me with part of it. I definitely couldn’t have done all this without her.” Minery’s wife, Shasta, keeps the books for the couple’s business. Three children ages 6, 9 and 14 also keep them busy.

Minery says that although he is proud of the business he and his wife have built, as a young man—he is now 43—it wasn’t his aim to become a plumber. For six-and-a-half years he lobstered with Doug Ander-son out of Port Clyde, but when Anderson began going to Florida for the winter that left Minery without a job. “I went to Mari-time Energy for a year and found I didn’t

like cleaning boilers every single day and found I wanted to do more. I ended up working for AM Plumbing and Heating in Rockland for six years and got all my licenses through all the hands-on learning I did there. Then we started our own busi-ness in 2006. But if I could do anything I’d be lobstering again. I love being on the wa-ter, not surrounded by people all the time.”

But Minery’s craving for the solitude he experienced while lobstering, he says, does sometimes still get satisfied when he comes up against a project deadline. “That often requires a lot of 4 am starts, which suits me fine. From 4 am to 7am is the best part of the day—it’s when there’s no one else around.”—JW

The St. George DRAGONPage 6 July 28, 2016

Where the cultivated meets the wild

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New lighthouse museum trail a community-minded Eagle Scout project

When Jacob Knowlton was searching for a community service project that would allow him to complete the requirements for the rank of Eagle Scout, a conversation with Mark Bartholomew convinced him that building a trail on the property of the Mar-shall Point Lighthouse Museum would be a perfect fit. 

“I used to be in the troop down here in St. George and one of the boys in that troup, Kyle Waters, had built a path from the li-brary to the school. So I thought it would be kinda cool to build a path, something that somebody had already done but that would still be different,” Knowlton says. “I love the lighthouse, it’s a re-ally nice place and I like looking out to the ocean. And building the path was a way I could learn some leadership skills because I needed to organize a work day because I needed volunteers from my troop to come help me. So I could learn some leader-ship skills along with learning a bit because I needed to figure out some information I could put on the signs we put out along the path.”

Knowlton says the only difficulty with planning and executing the project was finding a day everyone could do the work. Once that was figured out, laying out the trail and erecting the eight signs that mark it went quickly. 

“It only took us a couple of hours working with four of us boys and two adults. We were all strong, able-bodied boys so the work went fast. We were able to mix the cement and set the signs and spread the wood-chip mulch rather well. The adults ran the pow-er tools so everything was safety-oriented.”

The signs were designed to work as four pairs, the first posing a question, the next giving the answer. “Nat Lyon, the museum’s director, wrote up the first two questions,” Knowlton explains. “Then I did some research and wrote up several of my own ques-tions that I thought would be cool.” One of those questions had to do with Charles Clement Skinner, the longest serving light-

house keeper at Marshall Point, a person Knowlton says he’d like to learn more about.

At age 14, Knowlton is unusually young to achieve the rank of Eagle Scout. Although he plans to continue with the Boy Scouts, he recently also joined the Sea Scouts, which has a “ship” (a synonym for “troop”) in Bath. His goal is to achieve that organization’s high-est rank, Quarter Master, before he is 21.

Thinking about what he liked the best about the Marshall Point Lighthouse Museum project, which was unveiled on July 13, he says, “I led that project and knowing that I personally added some-thing to the community is a good feeling.”—JW

PHOTO: Julie Wortman

Diana Bolton, chair of the Marshall Point Lighthouse Museum Committee, and Museum Director Nat Lyon look on as Eagle Scout Jacob Knowlton cuts the ribbon to open the new trail at the museum’s property on July 13.

On Friday, July 29 at 4pm Georges River Land Trust invites the public to take a walk through a productive blueberry barren on top of Appleton Ridge with Francis Drum-mond, Professor of Insect Ecology and In-sect Pest Management, to explore the link between pollinators and Maine blueberry production. Drummond’s research topics have included: wild blueberry production, blueberry plant reproductive ecology, ag-ricultural production practices that affect pollination and vegetative growth, and evo-lutionary tradeoffs in flowering.

Land Trust offerspollinator walk and talk on Appleton Ridge

Continued next page

The St. George DRAGON Page 7July 28, 2016

The St. George Dragon is published by Dragon’s Breath Communications, LLC. Our mission is to promote the good things about St. George: its natural beauty, its heritage, its hard-working and creative people, its cul-tural and recreational life, its commu-nity organizations, its attractive and often unique local enterprises. Our advertisers are local businesses and groups devoted to creating a pros-perous and vital St. George. We hope you will support them!

The St. George Dragon is distributed to local retail outlets and businesses on Thursdays. The deadline for ad-vertising and copy is on Monday 10 days prior to publication date.

Submit story ideas and photos to:Julie@StGeorgeDragon.com

Julie Wortman, Editor 207 691-3234

Advertising and business office:Betsy@StGeorgeDragon.comBetsy Welch, 207 975-5072

© 2016 Dragon’s Breath Communications LLCP.O. Box 1, Tenants Harbor, ME 04860

Whose plate will you have plenty of time to memorize if you are ever driving behind them on Rt. 131? —Susan Bates

Who’s behind the wheel? Email your answer to betsy@stgeorgedragon.com. The first reader to respond correctly wins a free business-size ad in the print edition of The Dragon.

Terry Parker knew Kristin O’Neal’s plate K-OTIC in the June 30 issue.

St. George VANITZ

July 28 Farmers Market, Ocean View Grange, 9am-1pm (Every Thursday)July 28 Tour of 3 St. George Churches with the Historical Society. Meet at Town Office parking lot, 6:30pmJuly 28 St. George Death Café, 1012 River Road, 5-7pm. For more info: www.soulmilkhealingarts.com July 29 Sunset Dessert Cruise aboard the Elizabeth Ann benefits Naomi Chapter #25 OES. Reservations required, 372-0510July 30 Farmer’s Market St. George Grange Wiley’s Corner (Every Saturday), 9am-1pmAug 1 Music Jam at St. George Grange, Wiley’s Corner, 7-9pm (every Mon- day night through October)Aug 2 Da Ponte String Quartet concert Ocean View Grange, 7:30pm Aug 3 Speaker Cokie Roberts for Knox Museum at the Strand, 5:30pmAug 10 Crab Roll Luncheon Masonic Hall, Tenants Harbor, 11:30-1pmAug 18 20th Annual Tenants Harbor Poetry Reading, Odd Fellows Hall, 5pm

Upcoming Events

PHOTO: Sara Holbrook

Where in St. George...?

Do you know where this is? Email your answer to betsy@stgeorgedragon.com. The first correct answer wins a free business card-sized ad in The Dragon.

Nobody recognized the shed with the cow’s transom on it located on Turkey Cove Road in the July 14 issue.

Maine blueberry producers depend on bees to pollinate this cash crop. Blue-berries fail to produce large quantities of berries without pollination. This means blueberry producers must bring in hives of bees to pollinate these fields. In recent years Colony Collapse Disorder has led to declines in bee numbers and an increase in pollination costs to Maine producers. Drummond will discuss the challenges fac-ing pollinators like honey bees and the ef-fect on Maine blueberries.

Bring your cameras for the beautiful view and park at the gravel lot near Perry’s Pond on Appleton Ridge Road in Appleton. From the South: Drive North on Rt. 131 from Rt. 17 for 5.4 miles and take a left on Town Hill Road. Drive .8 miles and take a right on Appleton Ridge Road. The gravel parking area will be .4 miles on the left.

This walk is organized in cooperation with the University of Maine and is free and open to the public. For more informa-tion please visit www.georgesriver.org or call (207) 594-5166.

‘Walk’From page 6

The St. George DRAGONPage 8 July 28, 2016

PHOTO: Betsy Welch

Please come visit The Ocean View Grange Market Thursdays through

September. Vendors include: Headacre Farm, The Blue Tulip, The Bagel Shack

and more!

Thursdays 9:00AM-1:00PM

Neighbor to NeighborNeed a Ride? Want to Drive?

Call 691-7069

Add

See our colorful selection of Patty Levin mugs, bowls and plates hand-painted and

fired right here in Spruce Head…FUN!

to your home decor!HAPPY COLORS

10:00-5:00 Wednesday-Saturday

Rt. 131 at Barter Hill Road, Tenants Harbor, ME207.372.8102 www.bluetulipmaine.com

Thick of fog at Marshall Point