PARIS — The lawn of Fox Apartments, owned and operated by Avesta Housing, was full of new life Friday, Sept. 20, as freshly hatched snapping turtles emerged from their nests and began a quest to the Little Androscoggin River. This wasn’t the first time turtles have used the former school property as a nursery.

Carol Fanjoy, the building’s first apartment resident, spent ten years working as a custodian at the school.  When Fanjoy first moved in last April, she spoke of a mama turtle that had come up from the Little Androscoggin River one year to make a nest and lay eggs on what had been the playground.

This past June, residents noticed a snapping turtle digging holes and laying eggs on the lawn of the apartment complex. Management asked the maintenance worker, Jesse LaRue, to mark the areas so they wouldn’t be disturbed. Seven potential nests were identified and fenced in, LaRue said. Then the waiting for babies began.