Issue for December 19, 2024

Celebrating 36 years of local news

Erskine announces Renaissance awards

On Friday, December 13, 2024, Erskine Academy students and staff attended a Renaissance Assembly to honor their peers with Renaissance Awards…

Malcolm Glidden American Legion Post members place wreaths on veterans’ graves

Malcolm Glidden Post #163 and Auxiliary, of Palermo, spent Saturday, December 14, putting wreaths at veterans’ headstones at local cemeteries. The wreaths came from Wreaths Across America…

Town News

Board gets update on student staff wellness team

VASSALBORO – The Vassalboro School Board’s Dec. 10 meeting featured a virtual presentation by two of the three members of the student and staff wellness team at Vassalboro Community School (VCS)…

Select board undertakes several ongoing issues

VASSALBORO – Vassalboro select board members discussed many ongoing issues at their Dec. 12 meeting, and settled five…

Local resident expands on community garden plans

CHINA – China select board members heard two presentations at their Dec. 16 meeting. Resident James Hsiang expanded on the plan for a community garden that he presented in November; and Dr. Timothy Pieh, of Rome, Maine, and MaineGeneral Medical Center, summarized the first year of Kennebec County’s MD3 program…

Transfer station committee tackles two unusually argumentative discussions

CHINA – The Dec. 10 China Transfer Station Committee included two unusually argumentative discussions. The first was on recycling, sparked by station manager Thomas Maraggio’s report that China’s new plastics baler should arrive in a couple months. The baler will let the transfer station accept No. 1 plastic for recycling; it will be baled and stored until a load is ready to be shipped out…

No issue on December 26

There will be no issue of The Town Line on Thursday, December 26, 2024, so the staff can enjoy its annual winter vacation week. The next issue will be published on January 2, 2025. Also, The Town Line office will be closed during that week. The office will reopen on Monday, December 30, 2024, at 9 a.m. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Webber’s Pond Comic

Webber’s Pond is a comic drawn by a local central Maine resident…

Name that film!

Identify the film in which this famous line originated and qualify to win FREE passes to The Maine Film Center, in Waterville: “I’ll get you, my pretty, and your little dog, too.” Email us at townline@townline.org with subject “Name that film!” Deadline for submission is January 9, 2025.

The Remembrance Tree

Thank you for helping us commemorate loved ones who have passed!

Local happenings

EVENTS: Blue Christmas ceremony shines light

CENTRAL ME – The ShineOnCass Foundation will host its 4th Annual Blue Christmas Ceremony for grieving families and friends, and those who support them, Saturday, December 21, at sunset, starting at 4 p.m., on the Winter Solstice – the longest and darkest night of the year. Blue Christmas will feature music, speakers, and a reading of submitted names of loved ones’ lost and the lighting of memorial blue candles…

Obituaries

VASSALBORO – Thomas Frank Siviski, 79, passed away peacefully on Thursday, December 5, 2024, following a brave battle with Alzheimer’s. Tom was born on June 12, 1945, the son of Joseph Siviski and Clara (Terrio) Hapworth…

CALENDAR OF EVENTS: Mother’s Circle in Vassalboro

VASSALBORO – Weekly on Mondays from December 16, 2024 to March 31, 2025, 2:30 p.m. 12 Priest Hill Rd., Vassalboro. Bottom floor of Maine Family Natural Health. FMI please contact Hattie : hattie.welch.ot@gmail.comand many other local events!

Up and Down the Kennebec Valley: Fairfield high schools  (new)

FAIRFIELD HISTORY — This article continues the history of schooling in Fairfield with information on the town’s high schools. It begins with conflicting information about where the first high school classes were held… by Mary Grow

Up and Down the Kennebec Valley: Education in Fairfield

FAIRFIELD HISTORY — After multiple postponements, this article really is about the history of education – elementary education; high schools next week – in Fairfield, the town next upstream from Waterville on the west bank of the Kennebec River. Your writer thanks the Fairfield Historical Society for generously sharing material on the topic… by Mary Grow

Up and Down the Kennebec Valley: William Mathews of Waterville

WATERVILLE HISTORY — As noted last week, this biographical sketch of Professor William Mathews, LL.D. (Doctor of Laws), is another follow-up to an earlier account, the Nov. 21 article on Waterville residents Jeremiah Chaplin and James Hobbs Hanson. Mathews was mentioned as a critic of Rev. Chaplin’s preaching… by Mary Grow

Up and Down the Kennebec Valley: Education in Winslow Schools – Continued

WINSLOW HISTORY — This week’s article was to be a discussion of early schools in Fairfield, continuing the subseries on early education, but again your writer has been distracted. The first diversion, this week, is back to Winslow elementary schools, about which summary information was provided in the Nov. 7 issue… by Mary Grow

Town Line Original Columnists

Roland D. HalleeSCORES & OUTDOORS

by Roland D. Hallee | With all of our Christmas chores wrapped up (pun intended) on Saturday and Sunday mornings, my wife and I binged watched various old, standard Christmas-related films in the evening. While watching these, the thought went through my mind about where did the myth of Santa Claus and his reindeer come from, and when did they start to fly?…

CRITTER CHATTER

by Jayne Winters | As part of our continued stroll down Memory Lane, I found several articles written by Carleen Cote about students who have raised money for Duck Pond Wildlife Care Center. Here is one from August 4, 2001…

A BIBLE MOMENT

by The Village Parson | There was a Texas billionaire whose daughter attended a youth group at a local church. As was their customer, they met at each persons house and it was her turn that week. The father decided to give everyone a tour of his mansion and as he was ending a boy asked what was in the room they hadn’t shown…

Peter CatesREVIEW POTPOURRI

by Peter Cates | Al Jolson – Tell That To The Marines (recorded September 10, 1918); Arthur Fields – You Can’t Beat Us (If It Takes Ten Million More, recorded September 19, 1918). Columbia A2657, ten-inch acoustic shellac disc. Born in Lithuania to a Jewish family, Asa Yoelson (1886-1950), better known as Al Jolson, was a singer who had extraordinary stage presence, vocal power and delivery, and would become extremely successful through stage, film, radio, records and touring…