Bangor, Maine News Update: July 31, 2018

FAA investigators will be in Greenville today, trying to determine what caused a twin-engine plane to crash into a field while on approach to the local airport. Three people were killed in the accident. The plane was traveling from Ontario to Prince Edward Island and witnesses say appeared to be having some difficulty before it went down.

A Hancock family lost their house, barn, and tool sheds to fire while they were away on vacation. The Ellsworth American reports the owner’s brother lives next door on Mud Creek Road and said neighbors were awakened just after 1:00 Monday morning to an explosion. Fire officials say the cause may never be determined due to the extent of the damage.

State wildlife officials will drop packets of vaccine from airplanes into rural woods this month, in an effort to eliminate raccoon rabies. The baits are coated with brown fishmeal, making them appealing to raccoons. Maine has seen 42 cases of animal rabies in 13 out of 16 counties this year, involving rabid bats, raccoons, striped skunks, gray foxes, otters, domestic cats, and woodchucks.

Governor Paul Lepage’s administration announced this week that the state ended the fiscal year with a surplus of more than 175 million dollars. Now, the question is, what to do with it. Some fell it should go back to the taxpayers or into the rainy day fund while others feel it should be put toward social programs, like Medicaid expansion.

It was a happy ending to a search for two brothers from Berwick who were reported missing yesterday morning, and possibly headed out of town on their bicycles. Police say family members believed 9-year-old Charles Cameron and his 11-year-old brother Christopher were running away from home. They were located just after 5:00 yesterday at a small camp on Rochester Street in Berwick when someone noticed their bikes hidden behind the building.