Good morning, Bangor.

Bangor High School juniors sworn in to serve as poll workers will staff check-in tables to ballot boxes on Election Day, Nov.

3, at polling places across the city. City Clerk Lisa Goodwin has run the program for nearly 10 years to give AP Government students hands-on voting experience and encourage future volunteers.

A Hancock Street resident says trash + needles near the railroad tracks have worsened in recent months, and CSX says crews cleaned the encampment last December, worked again this summer, and are planning additional cleanup.

After feeling ignored by city officials, she spoke with City Council candidates and says she will vote for accountability.

Ben and Malorie Sprague, who already ran the Bangor edition of Coffee News, acquired the worldwide Coffee News franchise about six months ago and will keep the paper’s familiar look while tweaking content to reach the next generation of readers.

Ellsworth artist Mischa Ostberg turns used climbing rope into sculptures and was commissioned to make two Acadia-themed pieces for the U.S. Department of the Interior museum in Washington, D.C.; the works have arrived in D.C. and will be framed and unveiled there.

Ostberg also teaches rope-art classes in Ellsworth.

The University of Maine System received $303.5 million from the state this fiscal year, but that 4% bump and a decade-high 44% increase still won’t keep pace with rising costs; UMaine faces a $19 million shortfall as campuses plan cuts while the system presses the Legislature for more research & capital funding.

A statewide bell-to-bell cellphone ban that took effect Aug.

1 is cutting phone use and boosting attention in classrooms, and Bangor High reported just two or three infractions as of Oct. 7 while schools use lockboxes + powered-off policies to keep devices out of class.

Maine will keep the quarantine banning transport of hardwood firewood and regulated ash products after officials reviewed 80+ public comments and objections from tribal nations and conservation groups; enforcement continues statewide except Washington County.

Bangor Fire added a fourth staffed ambulance into full-time rotation on Sunday after a four-month pilot, and city funding created eight new EMS-only positions to tackle rising medical calls (nearly 90% of calls; on track for roughly 9,000 this year).

Bangor Public Works crews will begin curbside leaf pickup Monday and will vacuum piles through November; residents should keep rocks, branches, and other debris out of leaf piles.