Barefoot robber sentenced to six years in prison

A Dayton woman will spend almost six years in prison after pleading guilty to two 2010 pharmacy robberies in York County.
Jennifer L. Nicholas, 31, was sentenced in York County Superior Court in Alfred by Justice William Broderick after she admitted to robbing Rite Aid in Old Orchard Beach on Sept. 30, 2010, and the Hannaford Bros. store in Waterboro on Oct. 3, 2010.
Nicholas was sentenced to five years and 11 months on two counts of robbery.
York County District Attorney Kathryn Slattery said Nicholas demanded Oxycontin during both robberies and was captured on surveillance videos wearing the same white sweatshirt. Nicholas was barefoot when she robbed Rite Aid.
Slattery said Nicholas was arrested Oct. 4, 2010, after coordinated investigations by York County Sheriff’s Office and Old Orchard Beach police.

Saco movie theater fire contained quickly

Saco Deputy Fire Chief Rob Martin said a Friday fire at the Cinemagic movie theater on Portland Road was extinguished before firefighters arrived on scene.
Martin said a theater employee grabbed a fire extinguisher to put out a fire that began in an electrical outlet in an employee break room. Firefighters were called to the scene at 1:14 p.m., he said.
Damage was confined to the outlet and adjacent wall, but the theater was evacuated, Martin said. Ventilating the smoke from the fire was difficult because the break room lacked windows.
Martin said firefighters cleared the scene at 2:35 p.m.
Bob Collins, marketing director for Zyacorp Entertainment, which owns the theater, praised staff for the reaction as the fire broke out.
“Obviously, people were paying attention,” he said. “They did a great job and everything went according to procedure.”

Coastal Area Committee formally disbanded

Biddeford city councilors voted Sept. 20 to officially disband the Coastal Area Committee created to help guide development and environmental protection in shoreline areas of the city.
The second vote to repeal the 1998 ordinance that created the committee expanded the majority vote from 5-4 to 8-1. Ward 2 Councilor David Bourque voted against repealing the ordinance on Sept. 6 and Sept. 20. The Biddeford City Charter requires two council votes to create or repeal ordinances.
The second vote was conducted with no debate, although Mayor Joanne Twomey expressed her dismay at the vote and promised past and present committee members she would recognize their work at a future council meeting.
The vote to disband the committee follows three months of reviewing the role of committee members, who looked at site plans and recommended to the planning board and Code Enforcement Officer Roby Fecteau what action should be taken.
The committee was comprised of seven members from coastal neighborhoods of Hills Beach, Biddeford Pool, Granite Point, Outer Biddeford Pool and Fortunes Rocks.

Saco will look at downtown zoning

Saco City Clerk Michele Hughes said councilors tabled proposed zoning revisions for the downtown area at Monday’s meeting.
The zoning revisions would create mixed-use districts for residential and retail purposes, designate Elm Street near the Saco River as a “gateway district,” preserve the Scamman Street retail district that includes Shaw’s and Reny’s and create a waterfront district on Front Street for marine and recreational use.
Single, two-family and multi-family dwellings would be permitted in the new downtown mixed-use district, including dwellings above retail business, according to the zoning documents. The intent is to allow older residential neighborhoods to retain their character but expand uses to include retail or restaurants.
Councilors are expected to discuss a second reading of the zoning changes Monday, Hughes said.


– Compiled by Staff Writer David Harry