By Suzanne Hodgson
Staff Writer

Shiloh Pepin, the 10-year-old from Kennebunk, with sirenomelia, died Oct. 23 from complications of pneumonia after spending almost two weeks in Maine Medical Center.
People with sirenomelia, also known as Mermaid Syndrome, have fused limbs that give the appearance of a mermaid tail as well as other complications.
Pepin was one of only three people living with sirenomelia and was the only one who did not have her legs surgically separated. Pepin’s parents, Leslie and Elmer Pepin, were afraid the risky surgery would damage vital blood vessels crossing her body.
 Pepin was born with a partial kidney. She had her first kidney transplant at four and a half months old, and received a second transplant in 2007.
In September, after appearing on the Oprah Winfrey show, Pepin and her mother spoke with the Post and said the girl’s kidneys “work beautifully.”
During the Prelude Christmas celebration in Kennebunkport, Town Manager Larry Mead dedicated the town’s tree in memory of Pepin.

Stop & Shop in Kennebunk, the chain’s only Maine store, closed its doors at the end of October, putting 140 employees out of work.
The 65,665-square-foot building was the largest in Kennebunk plaza’s The Shops at Long Bank in the Tax Increment Financing or TIF district, developed in 2005.
It took four years from the time the Massachusetts-based company first approached the town about a store until the store was opened. The store was open for 2 1/2 years.
As of April 1, the land and building owned by GI Kennebunk LLC that housed Stop & Shop was valued at $2.89 million, according to assessment records.
On Dec. 22 Hannaford announced the purchase of the building and a smaller building adjacent to the property. The Hannaford store is expected to be open in the spring.

A group of more than 30 homeowners on Oct. 23 filed a lawsuit against the town of Kennebunkport over a land dispute at Goose Rocks Beach.
The homeowners claim an area of the beach between Sand Point and the Batson River is private. Some of the homeowners own land down to the low-water mark and say they have the right to put up signs warning the beach is privately owned.
Kennebunkport filed a counter claim Nov. 26 against the group.
In the counter claim, the town of Kennebunkport defends the rights of access to the beach for the public by way of title to Goose Rocks Beach, easement to the beach and a royal grant by King Charles II.
A settlement has yet to be reached between Kennebunkport and the homeowners.

Maine successfully issued its first Amber Alert this year after a Kennebunk man allegedly took his daughter to New Hampshire.
Gary Traynham, 38, allegedly took Hailey Nov. 9 after police say he sexually assaulted his ex-girlfriend.
Traynham was ordered held without bail Nov. 25 during his initial appearance in York County Supreme Court. He is being charged with one count of sexual assault.
According to an affidavit filed by Sanford Police Detective Sarah Roberts, Traynham was hiding behind the door of his ex-girlfriend’s apartment on Nov. 9 when she came home with their daughter.
The next morning, Michael M. Grant Jr., 40, of New Hampshire, came upon the truck Traynham was driving in the woods, according to Sanford Police Deputy Chief Craig Sanford.
Traynham is expected to enter a plea at his next court appearance on Feb. 26. He is being held at the York County Jail.

After the U.S. declared a public health emergency in the spring due to H1N1 outbreaks and a Kennebunk school closed because of a suspected case, the H1N1 flu outbreak seems peaked in the fall.
On April 29, Kennebunk Elementary School closed for one week after a “suspicious case” was announced by Gov. John Baldacci.
More than 900 students at RSU 21 were able to receive the H1N1 vaccinations in September.
Maine hospitals reported 10 percent of hospital patients with influenza-like symptoms in October, but the percentage has since dropped to around 2 percent. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention still shows Maine has having widespread flu activity.
H1N1 shots are now available to the general public.

Tim Donovan of Kennebunk sustained serious injury earlier this year after he was pinned beneath a 2,000-pound boulder near the Mousam River Bridge.
On Sept. 7, Donovan was on the Cumberland Farms side of the bridge near the shore taking pictures when a loose boulder fell on him, pinning him for two and a half hours.
Donovan was taken to Maine Medical Center in critical condition after suffering extensive injuries to his legs, arms, abdomen and chest, with a collapsed lung.
More than 40 rescue workers helped remove the boulder from Donovan, including Kennebunk’s Fire Rescue, Police Department, Biddeford Fire Department, Kennebunkport and Wells Water District.
The Kennebunk Fire Rescue squad was awarded the Emergency Medical Services Extraordinary Call of the Year Award on Nov. 14 for the rescue.

After a heated year-long battle between Poland Springs and organized opposition throughout York County, the spring water bottling company has retreated from extracting water from the Vernon Walker Wildlife Management Area in Newfield.
Twenty-three pipes from 16 sites were removed from Vernon at the end of July.
The wells were initially drilled in 2006 without public notice because they would only be used to evaluate the water.
The removal was one of several setbacks the company faced in its efforts to find new water sources needed to expand its operation,
York County residents will likely see more Poland Springs activity in the year ahead, according to Mark Dubois, a natural resource manager at Poland Springs.
“We are looking ahead to 2012 and 2013 for growth in York County. We want to invest in the Maine economy and its people,” Dubois said in July.

This year, the first day of school for students, teachers and administrators in the Kennebunks and Arundel was more than just heading back to class – it was the first day for a new district.
After a vote last November in favor of the consolidation, RSU 21 combined Arundel and Maine School Administrative District 71 that included Kennebunk and Kennebunkport.
In Arundel, 64 percent approved the plan for consolidation, while 62 percent of Kennebunk residents, and 67 percent of Kennebunkport voters agreed to consolidate the school districts.
The new district merged the MSAD 71 and Arundel district business operations technology and new school board, along with a new superintendent.
Now that school consolidation is complete, the new 12-member school board has established a Strategic Planning Committee to evaluate schools in the district and determine which need improvements, including building utilization and efficiency.

The  schools in Kennebunk, Kennebunkport and Arundel faced budget cuts twice in 2009, once as separate districts in the spring and once as a consolidated district as the mid-year mark approached this fall.
While the spring curtailment was narrowly avoided by President Obama’s stimulus package, next year’s budget may be a different story.
School administrators are still trying to balance RSU 21’s budget for the current school year as it faces the fifth largest curtailment statewide.
An unexpected out-of-district student placement for special services and continued reimbursement from Medicaid along with a reduction in line-item spending for the remainder of the year is expected to negate the $883,392 curtailment, according to RSU 21 Superintendent Andrew Dolloff.
The school board on Dec. 7 unanimously passed Dolloff’s recommended cuts.

Kennebunk and Kennebunkport will hire land surveyors to review what the municipality calls significant changes to the town’s flood elevation map by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Selectmen on Nov. 24 unanimously voted to hire the engineering firm Sebago Technics to research the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s flood plain findings and determine whether any parcels of land may not need reevaluation as FEMA suggested.
Code Enforcement Officer Paul Demers presented the proposal for an engineer’s review of how FEMA determined the new flood plain designations.
The analysis will cost the town about $10,000 to complete, a greatly reduced cost from the average $15,000 per property cost because the two towns are working together.

    
Staff Writer Suzanne Hodgson can be reached at 282-4337, ext. 233.