CENTER LOVELL, Maine (AP) — A Virgin Islands couple will be trading the Caribbean breezes of St. John for the rigors of Maine's four seasons after winning a "Win an Inn" essay contest. Janice Sage, the Maine innkeeper who held the essay contest, said Prince and Rose Adams were chosen from thousands of entrants who each submitted a 200-word essay and $125 entry fee. The Boston Globe reports (bit.ly/1IQUHLX) that the Adamses were notified last week that they had been picked by a local panel of judges assembled by Sage. The retiring owner of the Center Lovell Inn had won the restaurant and hostelry in a similar writing contest 22 years ago.
– Maine State Police are investigating whether an innkeeper violated state law in an essay contest with her 210-year-old country inn as the prize. Maine Department of Public Safety spokesman Steve McCausland said today an investigation was opened into whether the "Win an Inn" contest violated laws governing games of chance. The Boston Globe first reported that some contest losers felt the odds were stacked against them, contending that Center Lovell Inn owner Janice Sage marketed the contest to "dreamers" but instead awarded the prize to a couple with hospitality business experience in the Virgin Islands. "One of the many allegations against Janice Sage and the contest she sponsored is that the advertising of the contest ... was illegally deceptive and violated consumer-rights regulations, intentionally coercing thousands of people to enter a contest that they never had an actual chance of winning," says the founder of the Center Lovell Contest Fair Practices Commission, a group made up of dozens of unhappy contestants. The entry fee was $125. Sage told the Globe she received fewer than the 7,500 entries she sought, but it was still enough to fund her retirement.