BELFAST - Front Street Shipyard and the City of Belfast learned recently that they have been awarded a $200,000 grant from the State of Maine’s Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Economic Development Program. These funds will be used to fund improvements to the waterfront facility of the former Belfast Boatyard, including strengthening its existing wooden dock, purchasing a 30-ton capacity crane and forming and pouring a structural concrete pad to support that crane. These improvements will greatly enhance Front Street Shipyard’s capabilities for unstepping (removing) masts from ships. These funds will also be used to assist the yard in acquiring a custom marine heated spray paint booth that will dramatically enhance its ability to perform consistently high-quality paint work. Overall, this project will allow Front Street Shipyard to maintain its competitiveness with the many other yards that are located around the world.

Rudman Winchell Attorney Joins Bangor YMCA Board of Directors

BANGOR - Rudman Winchell Attorney and Partner Anne-Marie Storey is proud to be joining the Bangor YMCA's Board of Directors.

Mike Seile, CEO of the Bangor YMCA, recently notified Storey that she was selected to join the board "unanimously and with excitement" by current board members at the September meeting.

BANGOR - The Eastern Maine Community College golf team has been awarded the 2012 Yankee Small College Conference YSCC Sportsmanship Award. Players are peer-nominated for this award which ties directly to the EMCC Golden Eagle philosophy of recognizing that there is more to the game than winning, both on the field and in the classroom.

ORONO - As part of its 2012 national concert tour, "The President's Own" United States Marine Band will perform at 7:30 p.m., Tuesday, Oct. 16, at the Collins Center for the Arts at the University of Maine in Orono. The concert, sponsored by the UMaine School of Performing Arts and the Bangor Daily News, is free and open to the public.

Patrons may reserve tickets (limit four per request) by sending a self-addressed, stamped envelope to Marine Band Tickets, University of Maine, School of Performing Arts, Room 208 Class of 1944 Hall, Orono, ME 04469-5788. Seating is on a first come, first served basis. Ticket holders must be seated by 7:15 p.m.; non-ticket holders will be admitted at that time.

ORONO - The University of Maine School of Performing Arts theatre department opens their 2012-13 season with the award-winning play “How I Learned to Drive,” written by Paula Vogel. The play opens on Friday, Oct. 19 at 7:30 p.m in the Cyrus Pavilion Theatre. Additional performances are Oct. 20, 26, 27 at 7:30 p.m. , Oct. 21 and 28 at 2 p.m. and Oct. 25 at noon. Tickets are $15 (or free with a student MaineCard) and are available online at http://www.umaine.edu/spa or at the door.

The play follows the strained, sexual relationship between Li’l Bit and her aunt’s husband, Uncle Peck, from her adolescence through her teenage years into college and beyond. Using the metaphor of driving and the issues of pedophilia, incest and misogyny, the play explores the ideas of control and manipulation.

Never nude

SAN FRANCISCO - A San Francisco supervisor, fed up with the almost-daily displays of nudity in one city neighborhood, introduced legislation Tuesday that would make it illegal to walk around naked on San Francisco streets.

The city allows nudity except in parks, on port property and in restaurants, but under the ordinance by Supervisor Scott Wiener, nudity at city plazas, parklets, sidewalks, streets and public transit would be banned. The legislation would, however, allow nudity at parades and street festivals.

The legislation was spurred by an increase in nudity in the Castro neighborhood, where nudists gather almost every day at a plaza, Wiener said.

BAR HARBOR - College of the Atlantic’s Educational Studies Program is celebrating its 25th year of graduating state-certified educators this year. To commemorate, the college is hosting a series of workshops and panel discussions on education in Maine on Oct. 6 and 7.

Students at COA have studied education since 1972, when the college began; in 1987, under the leadership of Peter Blaze Corcoran, the Maine Department of Education approved COA’s teacher certification program. Since then, alumni of the program have held positions as classroom teachers in private and public schools in the United States and overseas, as principals and as leaders of educational programs in national parks, farms, community gardens, museums and nature centers, in addition to many other occupations.

WATERVILLE - United Way of Mid-Maine President Tina Chapman announced that the organization has recently hired two new staff members: Stacy Saucier as finance director and Fran Mullin as director of Community Transformation.

Stacy Saucier is the daughter of Dennis and Sylvia Luce. She was born in Camden, Maine and grew up in Waterville, graduating from Waterville Senior High School in 1990. She has 16 years of financial experience and was most recently with The Bank of Maine. She has also worked as the office manager for her husband’s construction company for six years. Saucier has been very involved in her community as a volunteer, some of which were with United Way of Mid-Maine partner agencies.

ELLSWORTH - The Grand announces the next in a series of high-definition simulcast performances from The National Theatre of London – a production of the eagerly anticipated new play “The Last of the Haussmans” starring Julie Walters and Rory Kinnear on Tuesday, Oct. 11 at 2 p.m.

Directed by Howard Davies, “The Last of the Haussmans” tells the story of anarchic, high society drop-out Judy Haussman (Julie Walters, “Educating Rita,” “Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows”) who remains in spirit with the Ashrams of the 1960s while holding court in her dilapidated Art Deco house on the Devon coast. After an operation, she’s joined by wayward offspring Nick (Rory Kinnear) and Libby (Helen McCrory), sharp-eyed granddaughter Summer, local doctor Peter and Daniel, a troubled teenager who makes use of the family’s crumbling swimming pool. Together they share a few sweltering months in this chaotic world of all-day drinking, infatuations, long-held resentments, free love and failure.

ELLSWORTH - The Grand’s film program of documentary and independent films, CineGrand, continues with the independent film smash “Sleepwalk with Me,” screening on Wednesday, Oct. 10 through Friday, Oct. 12 at 7 p.m. with a 2 p.m. matinee on Wednesday, Oct. 10.

Mike Birbiglia plays “Mike Birbiglia,” an aspiring stand-up who fails to express his true feelings about his girlfriend and his stalled career and finds his anxiety coming out in increasingly funny and dangerous sleepwalking incidents. Winner of a 2012 Audience Award at Sundance, comedian Birbiglia co-wrote, directed and stars in this sincere and hilarious film based on his off-Broadway show and bestselling book. It's also the first movie co-written by Ira Glass and co-produced by "This American Life."