New Dimensions FCU awards two area high school students with scholarships

Sage Clukey left, accepted her scholarship certificate on Wednesday, April 27. Thomas Dean received his scholarship certificate at the Skowhegan location on April 25. (contributed photo)

New Dimensions FCU has announced that Sage Clukey, from Winslow High School, and Thomas Dean, from Skowhegan Area High School, have been selected as New Dimensions FCU’s 2022 Scholarship Program winners who have earned $2,500 each for their first year in college.

New Dimensions FCU awards scholarships to deserving high school seniors that demonstrate strong character, community involvement, and academic success. This year we found two exceptional candidates who went above and beyond in their academics and community. They both came highly recommended by school officials, and their essays showed that their character and assessment of financial literacy aligned with our mission and values.

Sage Clukey plans on studying to be a nurse at Franklin Pierce University, while Thomas Dean will study finance at the University of Maine at Orono. The staff and directors of NDFCU wish them both the best of luck in all their educational endeavors.

Ryan Poulin, Chief Executive Officer, states, “Our scholarship program is just one of the many ways we support our community. We hear many times from students that financial education is an underdeveloped skill they feel they’d like to hone, so we try to give them the tools and resources at the local level by adding financial fitness into their curriculum as well as offering our Scholarship Program to show the importance of financial success.”

For more information, contact NDFCU at (800) 326-6190 or visit www.newdimensionsfcu.com.

Issue for April 28, 2022

Issue for April 28, 2022

Celebrating 34 years of local news

PHOTOS: Area food pantries walk to feed ME

The China Community Food Pantry and Vassalboro Food Station’s teams participated in the Feed ME 5K walk…Meanwhile, volunteers back at the China Food Pantry held down the fort and prepared to serve clients…

Volunteer Program cleans up after a storm

The volunteer program of the China For A Lifetime (CFAL) committee helps local eldery and people with physical challenges who may not be able to otherwise afford certain seasonal help. During last week’s storm, an enormous pine tree fell across the driveway of an older couple on Pleasant View Ridge… by Jeanne Marquis

Your Local News

Budget could show a slight decrease in mil rate

VASSALBORO — At their April 19 meeting, Vassalboro Budget Committee were faced with a proposed 2022-23 budget, including municipal and school requests and an estimated Kennebec County tax, which (if approved by voters) would be expected to result in a slight decrease in the town tax rate…

Spirit of America awards presented at select board meeting

CHINA — The three China Select Board members present at the April 25 meeting unanimously approved new transfer station hours. Town Manager Rebecca Hapgood hopes to implement the change by the middle of May, when summer people begin arriving…

New president named at Inland Hospital

WATERVILLE Northern Light Health has announced that Tricia Mercer will become the next president of Northern Light Inland Hospital and Northern Light Continuing Care, Lakewood. In this role, Mercer will also serve as a Northern Light senior vice president. She will succeed Terri Vieira, who retired earlier this month…

Chamber names customer service specialist

WATERVILLE Mid-Maine Chamber of Commerce located in Waterville, Maine, welcomes Katelyn Hood as its new customer service specialist. Katelyn has been named to the position, replacing Patricia Michaud, who retired following nearly eight years with the Chamber…

LETTERS: Supports Tuminaro

from Bonnie Haiss (China) – Having known Jen Tuminaro for the last 7 years, I have witnessed many exemplary qualities of a true leader. We initially became acquainted when Jen organized and began directing a local campus of Classical Conversations – a classical homeschool program designed to support families home educating their children, through an intentional and community-based approach…

Name that film!

Identify the film in which this line originated and qualify to win FREE passes to Railroad Square Cinema in Waterville: “You’ve got to ask yourself one question. Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya punk?” Email us at townline@townline.org with subject “Name that film!” Deadline for submission is May 13, 2022…

Pointers on purchasing a zero-turn mower

HOME IMPROVEMENT – More time spent at home is prompting homeowners across America to improve their property’s curb appeal. With an increased focus on their yards, many individuals are looking to upgrade their old lawn mowers to something newer and equipped with more features…

What to ask when hiring a contractor

HOME IMPROVEMENT – With record-high real estate prices, a growing number of homeowners are remodeling or renovating their existing homes rather than buying new. Increased demand and continued supply chain issues, however, have led to delays in getting quotes, uncertainties in the availability of materials, rising costs and an increase in homeowner frustration…

Be cool and save money

HOME IMPROVEMENT – Many Americans may be surprised to learn that almost half their utility bill goes toward heating and cooling their home. Fortunately, the U.S. EPA’s ENERGY STAR Program offers resources to help you beat the heat—all while saving a, saving money and protecting the climate. Here’s how…

What’s your backyard personality?

HOME IMPROVEMENT – Backyarding, the trend to move many indoor activities outdoors, is now a permanent way of life. During the pandemic, learning to work, entertain, vacation, work out and more right in one’s own backyard, became a necessity—and people are learning it’s often a better way to live…

What to know about mold and mildew

HOME IMPROVEMENT – If you’re like a lot of homeowners, your domicile is in danger from an insidious, invisible growth—mold—and you don’t even know it. That’s because for many people, mold conjures up images of smelly, green and black growth that can cause serious respiratory issues. It is often found in a home after an intrusive water event, such as a flood or a severe rainstorm. The reality is, just about every home has mold…

Up and down the Kennebec Valley: Blacks in Maine – Part 3 (new)

MAINE HISTORY — Records tell of a Kennebec Valley slave-owner, Captain Abiel or Abial Lovejoy (Dec. 15, 1731 – July 4, 1811), who lived in Vassalboro from 1776 and in Sidney after the west side of the Kennebec River became a separate town in 1792. He was a native of Andover, Massachusetts, who came to the lower Kennebec Valley as a Massachusetts soldier (rising to the rank of captain) in the 1750s… by Mary Grow [2050 words]

Up and down the Kennebec Valley: Blacks in Maine – Part 2

MAINE HISTORY — The first two Black men recorded in Augusta, according to Anthony Douin, one of the contributors to H. H. Price and Gerald Talbot’s Maine’s Visible Black History, were “York Bunker and Cuff.” They were in the garrison at Fort Western, built in 1754, “listed as servants and paid as privates”… by Mary Grow [2021 words]

Up and down the Kennebec Valley: Blacks in Maine – Part 1

MAINE HISTORY — So far, people in this history series have been almost entirely the group that is still Maine’s majority population: white people descended mostly from inhabitants of the British Isles, plus representatives of other northern and western European countries. For example, Millard Howard wrote in his Palermo history that early settlers in that town came mostly from Massachusetts or New Hampshire, sometimes via coastal Maine… by Mary Grow [1944 words]

Up and down the Kennebec Valley: Wars – Part 14

MAINE HISTORY — The wars on which this series has provided information so far began with fighting against the European power that once claimed the United States and continued with the 1861-1865 war between two parts of the United States… by Mary Grow [1747 words]

Town Meetings Schedule for 2022

A list of local town meetings for Albion, China, Fairfield, Palermo, Sidney, Solon, Vassalboro and Windsor…

Webber’s Pond

Webber’s Pond is a comic drawn by an anonymous central Maine resident (click thumbnail to enlarge)…

CALENDAR OF EVENTS: China Baptist Church announces Vacation Bible School for 2022

CHINA — The Board of Christian Education of China Baptist Church, in China Village, is already busy planning this year’s vacation Bible school, scheduled from August 1 to August 5. The board is excited about this year’s theme: Rocky Railway “Jesus’ Power Pulls us Through”… and many other local events!

Obituaries

WEEKS MILLS – Lorie J. Sproul, 62, of Weeks Mills, passed away on Monday, April 18, 2022, at the Alfond Center for Health, in Augusta. She was born December 14, 1959, the daughter of Norman and Marguerite (Morang) Grant… and remembering 9 others.

Town Line Original Columnists

Roland D. HalleeSCORES & OUTDOORS

by Roland D. Hallee | This is the time of year that is the moment of truth. To those of you who own campers, and it has been closed up all winter, either in a field, or in storage, you almost dread the first time you open it up in the spring. The question: Did mice get in over the winter? If so, how much damage did they do?…

CRITTER CHATTER

by Jayne Winters | When visiting at the Duck Pond Wildlife Rehab Center a couple of weeks ago, I asked Don Cote if he had any thoughts about what we should submit for the April column. Without missing a beat, he said spring is the time we need to alert people that not all young animals that appear lost or orphaned actually need to be rescued. So, as in the past, I’m going to use Carleen Cote’s words of wisdom from many years ago…

Peter CatesREVIEW POTPOURRI

by Peter Cates | Since 1946, the Prague Spring Festival has been a renowned annual gathering of top notch classical artists in the Czech Re­public. The An­dante label re­leased a nicely packaged set of four CDs and a hardcover book consisting of broadcasts from 1947 to 1968 featuring 11 great conductors with the extraordinarily accomplished…

I’M JUST CURIOUS

by Debbie Walker | My mind has been interested in odds and ends again this week. I have only had time for quick reads, but I do enjoy these times. It’s a time I can do a little research on maybe just a word I have never heard before or a website new to me…

FOR YOUR HEALTH

(NAPSI) | After a few weeks without rain, most people don’t throw out their umbrella. Just because someone has driven thousands of accident-free miles, that doesn’t mean seatbelts should be abandoned. Similarly, health officials encourage people to think about such prevention measures as wearing masks in the same way that we think about our umbrellas. People shouldn’t stop taking steps to protect themselves and others from COVID-19, even if there is a lull in cases…

Vassalboro budget could show a slight decrease in mil rate

Majority does not support lowering taxes

by Mary Grow

At their April 19 meeting, Vassalboro Budget Committee were faced with a proposed 2022-23 budget, including municipal and school requests and an estimated Kennebec County tax, which (if approved by voters) would be expected to result in a slight decrease in the town tax rate.

The current rate is 14.48 mils ($14.48 for each $1,000 of property valuation). Town Manager Mary Sabins’ preliminary calculation showed that because of increased revenues from other sources, Vassalboro’s $7 million budget could be covered if the tax rate were reduced to 13.93 mils.

The manager reminded budget committee members that the Kennebec County assessment hadn’t been received. And, she said, the final tax rate depends on the town assessor’s property valuations.

Budget committee members were pleased with the news, but a majority did not support lowering the tax rate. Instead, they approved Peggy Shaffer’s motion to endorse the budget, to leave the tax rate at 14.48 mils and to add the difference (around $156,000) to a capital reserve account.

The majority argument was that, given present economic uncertainties, setting aside extra money would cover a variety of possible contingencies. State and federal funding might be cut, or paving costs might increase more than anticipated, for example. Several said they would rather keep taxes level for 2022-23 than lower them and then have to raise them again, maybe substantially, for 2023-24.

William Browne objected, fearing the extra capital reserves could become “a slush fund.”

Some committee members expressed reservations about the proposed municipal expenditures they discussed at their March 31 meeting (see The Town Line, April 7, p. 3). The increased library budget (see The Town Line, March 24, p. 3), money to develop a small park by Outlet Stream and Road Foreman Gene Field’s requested roadside mower were all briefly re-discussed.

Library representatives had asked for time to speak again about their plans, committee Chairman Rick Denico, Jr., said. A majority of committee members saw no need for another presentation.

Most of the April 19 meeting was spent reviewing the proposed 2022-23 school budget with school board members, Superintendent Alan Pfeiffer and resident Paula Gravelle. Gravelle is the Maine Department of Education administrator in charge of calculating the Essential Programs and Services funding model, which determines each school department’s annual state funding. A document called an ED 279 report then tells each superintendent how much state aid to expect.

Gravelle explained that the basis for each school’s state subsidy is based on enrollment (as of Oct. 1 each year), staffing and finances. A complicated formula tells her how to use this information to make sure each school gets its fair share.

The number of applicants for free and reduced-price lunches, determined by parents who fill out a form every fall, has been an important financial input, Gravelle said. But since all lunches became free during the pandemic, few people fill out the forms. The department has been improvising, using three-year averages, and staff are considering an alternative method to evaluate financial conditions.

Gravelle told Browne each school’s allocation is calculated near the beginning of the calendar year. When Browne asked why the budget committee had not received the 2022-23 school budget request until April, Pfeiffer accepted responsibility, saying his time had gone to staffing issues at Vassalboro Community School (see The Town Line, April 21, p. 11).

Budget committee and school board members discussed a variety of budget-related issues, especially salaries and building maintenance needs. Pfeiffer said contract negotiations with several employee groups will start soon. Currently, he said Vassalboro’s educational technicians’ pay is “at the low end” of the area pay range; bus drivers’ and custodians’ compensation is comparable to pay in neighboring school units.

School Board Chairman Kevin Levasseur said as the 1992 school building ages, maintenance needs increase. Pandemic funding has helped with projects like converting the unused industrial arts area into a pre-kindergarten space, he added.

Pfeiffer said Vassalboro has received $1.7 million in extra pandemic funds. Spending the money has been “very restricted” by federal guidelines and timetables, he said. The school department had three months to spend the first installment; it was used for new buses.

“Our bus drivers have been really awesome,” the superintendent added. He praised them for staying on the job and for delivering meals to students’ homes while the building was closed.

Some federal funds have provided additional staff, teachers and a part-time custodian (because of new sanitization requirements). These positions will not become a town responsibility when federal money goes away, Pfeiffer said; it is clearly understood that they are temporary.

Levasseur is not running for re-election to the school board this year, after serving for 21 years. Other residents thanked him for his long service.

Budget committee members unanimously supported the school budget. It will go to select board members at their Thursday, April 28, meeting, with the budget committee’s recommendation, in the form of warrant articles for the annual town meeting. Select board members are scheduled to sign the town meeting warrant that evening.

Voters will make the final decisions on the 2022-23 budget at the open part of the annual town meeting, scheduled for June 6 at 6:30 p.m. at Vassalboro Community School.

Budget committee members are elected at the open meeting. Those whose two-year terms end this year, according to the town website, are Denico, Richard Bradstreet, Douglas Phillips, Mike Poulin and Frank Richards.

The school budget approved June 6 will appear on the June 14 written ballot, where voters will re-approve or reject it. Local elections for select board and school board are also on June 14. June 14 voting will be at the town office from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

FOR YOUR HEALTH: Vaccines Continue To Be Essential To Our Safety

Protect yourself and your family from COVID with a vaccine.

By We Can Do This COVID-19 Public Education Campaign

 (NAPSI)—After a few weeks without rain, most people don’t throw out their umbrella. Just because someone has driven thousands of accident-free miles, that doesn’t mean seatbelts should be abandoned. Similarly, health officials encourage people to think about such prevention measures as wearing masks in the same way that we think about our umbrellas. People shouldn’t stop taking steps to protect themselves and others from COVID-19, even if there is a lull in cases.

“COVID changes over time, and what we know about the virus causing it has expanded, providing effective tools for preventing severe illness, hospitalizations, and deaths,” said Dr. David Banach, associate professor of medicine at UConn School of Medicine and hospital epidemiologist at UConn Health/John Dempsey Hospital. “It is vital that we continue to layer prevention strategies based on local COVID transmission rates coupled with individualized measures for high-risk populations to reduce the impact of the virus on individuals and the larger community.”

The most effective ways to prevent COVID are simple and widely available to all Americans.

Stay up to date on vaccines. Vaccines and boosters protect people from the worst outcomes of COVID and help reduce the spread of the virus in communities, further reducing risks for the most vulnerable populations. Boosters provide extra protection. Like seatbelts prevent injuries in accidents, vaccines are highly effective at preventing hospitalization and death from COVID, but they don’t work if you don’t use them. Vaccination is the best way to slow the spread of COVID and prevent hospitalizations and deaths. COVID vaccines are available to anyone age 5 and older in the United States.

Wear a mask. After vaccines, wearing a mask is one of the most effective ways to help reduce the spread of COVID. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends wearing a mask in public indoor spaces, especially in areas where community transmission is high. A mask should fit closely on the face, covering the nose and mouth, without any gaps along the edges or around the nose. Masks are still required on most methods of public transportation.

Keep your distance. If you are not up to date on COVID vaccines, stay at least six feet away from other people, especially if you are at higher risk of getting very sick with COVID. In areas where community levels are high, it is best to avoid crowded places where it is difficult to stay distanced from others who may not be vaccinated. When spending time with people who don’t live with you, outdoors is the safer choice. Holding gatherings outdoors decreases the chance of COVID exposure.

Layering these proven prevention strategies in line with your personal health risk and current community levels of COVID transmission, is the best way to prevent severe illness, hospitalization, and death. Don’t throw away that umbrella, keep wearing a seatbelt, and stay current on COVID vaccines even when cases are lower in your community.

For accurate, science-based information about vaccines, visit www.vaccines.gov.

I’M JUST CURIOUS: Just a lazy Sunday

by Debbie Walker

My mind has been interested in odds and ends again this week. I have only had time for quick reads, but I do enjoy these times. It’s a time I can do a little research on maybe just a word I have never heard before or a website new to me. I admit to being behind the times when it comes to YouTube and Roku, new TV channels to me and oh,my! Oh, what I have found there! More neat projects.

There are many things that are common to us so we don’t even think to wonder where they came from originally. My example today is one thing I think we have all enjoyed, the popsicle. Stephani Butler wrote a column for The Country Register titled The History of Popsicles for the July/August 2017 issue. I mean, what’s to think about? It’s just Kool-aide or juice, frozen on a couple of sticks or in a tube.

We got them thanks to an 11-year-old boy, but they actually go back as far as Ancient Rome. Can you imagine what a welcome treat they must have been to people just coming out of the Depression years. Cherry seems to be the favorite flavor (I say orange) however, I can’t imagine why you would want Avacado, Mango chili, or Mohito flavored. I don’t know if those will be available near-by. They are still a cheap treat on a hot day (and for babies cutting teeth).

Have you started cleaning up outside, getting ready for summer or is it too soon yet? People here are busy planting (86-degrees this afternoon). Not me, I am inside writing this afternoon.

When you are ready, I did read a few bits about that. Like bird baths: soak the bowl with 1/3 cup white vinegar to four cups of water. Cover for one hour, then dump and rinse. Vinegar is a natural disinfectant and is non-toxic to birds.

For yellow and brown patches of grass pour 1 can of beer into one gallon of water and sprinkle on those areas. You can have your beer when you are all done.

For weeds and grass coming up around steps and along walk-ways, heat water to boiling and pour on these areas. Kills without harsh chemicals.

I wanted to remember to tell you and remind myself to get some extra dryer sheets. I read to put plant and hummingbird poles in the ground, throw a couple of dryer sheets, also under the feet of any picnic table. From what I read that will keep ants where they belong. You can bet I will be trying that one out.

Also, I have heard quite a few people complaining about flies. I just read to use geraniums to ward away the flies. I will be trying that, too. I want to use pretty, bright red plants.

To finish this off I would like to go back to the first paragraph. I spoke of YouTube and Roku but did not tell you what I find, and when I finish with this I am going to be going to the TV. I am hooked on the sections referred to as hacks for the Dollar Tree store goodies. I imagine you know they actually charge $1.25 now. But people are showing you all these neat things you can make for decorating or gifts. You can’t believe how much there is. Well, I hear it calling my name now.

I am just curious what other things we take for granted without questioning where it originated. Let me know what you come up with. Contact me at DebbieWalker@townline.org with questions or comments. Have a great week!

REVIEW POTPOURRI: Prague Spring Festival

Yevgeni Mravinsky

Peter Catesby Peter Cates

Prague Spring Festival

Since 1946, the Prague Spring Festival has been a renowned annual gathering of top notch classical artists in the Czech Re­public. The An­dante label re­leased a nicely packaged set of four CDs and a hardcover book consisting of broadcasts from 1947 to 1968 featuring 11 great conductors with the extraordinarily accomplished Czech Philharmonic. I offer one anecdote of a fascinating guest Maestro and, due to space, brief comments on the others:

A 1957 Tchaikovsky 4th Symphony had the longtime conductor of the Leningrad Philharmonic, Yevgeni Mravinsky (1903-1988), delivering an especially riveting performance of what has become my favorite symphony by this composer, even more than his Pathetique or 6th.

YouTubes of Mravinsky reveal a poker-faced gentleman using the tiniest hand and finger gestures while drawing the most exciting playing. Just about every other conductor in the profession admired him.

Mravinsky also had the ability to make a piece always sound fresh, no matter how many times he had conducted it before. One player told of participating in 113 performances of the Tchaikovsky 5th under Mravinsky and each one was different from the others in some special way.

Mravinsky also had the longest tenure of any conductor, serving over 50 years as music director in Leningrad, before it changed back to being the Saint Petersburg Philharmonic after the early ‘90s collapse of the Soviet Union.

Leopold Stokowski (1882-1977) collaborated with pianist Lev Oborin (1908-1974) in a dazzling 1961 Rachmaninoff 3rd Piano Concerto. The charismatic Stokowski contrasted vividly with the jovially obese and bespectacled Oborin, who partnered in concerts and recordings with violinist David Oistrakh (1907-1974).

Longtime Boston Symphony Maestro Charles Munch (1891-1968) conducted a powerful rendition in 1967 of the captivating 6th Sym­phony of Czech com­poser Bohuslav Martinu, which Munch recorded ten years earlier in Boston for RCA Victor.

Munch preferred minimal rehearsals so as to give the players and himself greater reserves of energy and excitement during the concert itself. His YouTube videos reveal a man who could dance and jump like his younger colleague Leonard Bernstein.

The remaining conductors:

Igor Markevitch (1912-1983) with a blazing 1959 Stravinsky Rite of Spring and who was married to an heiress whose family made millions in the French perfume industry.

The irascible perfectionist George Szell (1897-1970), of Cleveland Orchestra fame, in a gripping Beethoven Coriolan Overture also from 1959. Somebody once commented that Szell was his own worst enemy to which Metropolitan Opera general manager Rudolf Bing retorted, “Not while I’m alive!”

Next, my personal favorite of the Maestros assembled here as one to collect recordings of, Belgium born Andre Cluytens (1905-1967) spent most of his adult years in Paris. He was a radical contrast to Szell, being a very kind man whose death from lung cancer because of his chain smoking saddened so many friends.

He was also incredibly brilliant at drawing exquisite performances and a 1955 Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique is one of five he left us, and all of them on my shelves.

Former Czech Philharmonic Music Director Vaclav Talich (1883-1961) recorded some fine 78 sets of Dvorak and Smetana that were released by Victor Red Seal here in the U.S. and conducts a lovely 1954 performance of Dvorak’s tone poem The Wood Dove.

He was wrongfully thrown into jail just after World War II for so-called “unpatriotic conduct” during the Nazi occupation but was released and exonerated by former Czech President Benes.

Another former CPO Music Director Karel Ancerl (1908-1973) conducts the 1968 very ravishing Smetana piece From Bohemia’s Meadows and Forests.

Ancerl was an emaciated Holocaust survivor when the camps were liberated. Not long after this 1968 concert, he and his wife and children emigrated to Toronto, Canada, just as the Russian tanks were rolling into Czechoslovakia.

Russian conductor Kirill Kondrashin (1914-1981) collaborated with pianist Sviatoslav Richter (1914-1998) in an elegant 1950 Mozart 20th Piano Concerto, although interestingly Richter detested most of Mozart’s music while much preferring the music of his teacher Franz Josef Haydn.

Kondrashin defected to the west during the late 1970s and was forging a wonderful relationship with the Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam but tragically died of a sudden heart attack on his 67th birthday just after conducting a concert with them.

The most well known Russian violinist David Oistrakh (1908-1974) delivered a powerful 1947 Prokofiev 1st Violin Concerto with Rafael Kubelik (1914-1996) conducting. Kubelik first conducted the Czech Philharmonic at the age of 19. Later he would be music director of the Chicago Symphony, the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden and the Bavarian Radio Orchestra of Munich.

LETTERS: Supports Tuminaro

To the editor:

Having known Jen Tuminaro for the last 7 years, I have witnessed many exemplary qualities of a true leader.

We initially became acquainted when Jen organized and began directing a local campus of Classical Conversations – a classical homeschool program designed to support families home educating their children, through an intentional and community-based approach. Being that this Classical Conversations community was a novel campus to the area, there were innumerable responsibilities Jen had to undertake as it came into existence.

Jen took on the role of personally engaging local families who had a common interest in such an academic program. Jen was responsible for hiring tutors to work within our classroom settings – even dedicating time to tutor some of our classes herself. Jen was relationally engaging with our families on such a genuine level that she would offer her time to help in our home projects, make regular phone calls to keep open lines of communication, and even help to fundraise to offset costs for families in need of financial assistance. Her abilities to delegate tasks and be an assertive director of our campus allowed the program to be a smoothly run, academically challenging and rigorous community, that helped our students and parents to learn and grow in ways that pushed and nurtured our gifts and talents.

As the needs and desires of our campus began to change, Jen was attentive and proactive in changes that began to take shape. Stepping away from Classical Conversations allowed us as a community of families to design a more desirable and suitable cooperative setting for the likes of those involved. Jen again did a fantastic job heading up our co-op.

In all of my experiences under Jen’s guidance and direction leading an academic program my family has been part of, I have extremely benefited from her level of precision, authority and organization. She has exceeded my personal expectations of a leader in this avenue, and it has been a blessing to be a part of these programs.

Bonnie Haiss
China

CRITTER CHATTER: An April reminder from the wildlife center

A fawn at the Duck Pond Wildlife Center. (photo by Jayne Winters)

by Jayne Winters

When visiting at the Duck Pond Wildlife Rehab Center a couple of weeks ago, I asked Don Cote if he had any thoughts about what we should submit for the April column. Without missing a beat, he said spring is the time we need to alert people that not all young animals that appear lost or orphaned actually need to be rescued. So, as in the past, I’m going to use Carleen Cote’s words of wisdom from many years ago:

With the return of warmer days, our feathered friends are returning from their southern hiatus and native wildlife are becoming more active. This is an appropriate time for a reminder about whether or not young wildlife that appear to need rescuing really need human intervention.

White-tail fawns are often rescued when they should be left where they were found. A very young fawn will not move until given a signal from its mother. It has no odor, so if it is found by a dog, coyote or other potential predator, it’s by accident, not from a scent. The doe does not remain with her fawn(s) at all times; she leaves to feed herself and may not return for several hours.

If you’re walking in the fields and woods and spot a fawn, don’t immediately assume that it needs to be rescued. Mark the spot where it was seen and leave; return after a few hours or the next day. If the fawn is in the exact same spot, it’s probably safe to assume something has happened to the doe. Contact a game warden or rehabber and follow the advice given.

If you find a young bird on the ground and no nest is found, make a substitute from a berry box or basket; be sure there are holes for drainage and hang it in a tree close to the spot where the bird was found. The adults will respond to the feeding calls of their youngsters. If cats are prowling or stalking birds, especially when there may be young birds in a nest that can’t survive without being fed, the cat should be confined rather than removing the birds. Fledg­lings – young birds that are feathered and out of the nest – need time to master the art of flying. Though they may spend time on the ground, this is not necessarily an indication they need human intervention. Observe whether there are adult birds flying around as they could be the parents, bringing food to the young or coaxing them to take their first flight.

Of course, there are times when rescue is necessary such as when an adult female has died, but her young survive, or when young animals have been observed for some time with no adult arriving to care for them and lead them to safety. If you do rescue wildlife, as cute as they may be, bring them to someone who has the necessary permits and knowledge to give them a greater chance of survival. If you’re in doubt about the need to rescue any bird or animal, or have questions about the critters we enjoy and for which we are concerned, please call a local rehabber or warden.

Don continues to keep admissions and long-term residents at a more practical number by transferring many rescued critters to other rehabbers who have generously offered to assist in their care. Please check these websites to see if there is a rehabber closer to you to help make critter care at Duck Pond more manageable: https://www.mainevetmed.org/wildlife-rehabilitation or https://www.maine.gov/ifw/fish-wildlife/wildlife/living-with-wildlife/orphaned-injured-wildlife/index.html

Donald Cote operates Duck Pond Wildlife Care Center on Rte. 3 in Vassalboro. It is a non-profit state permitted rehab facility supported by his own resources & outside donations. Mailing address: 1787 North Belfast Ave., Vassalboro ME 04989 TEL: (207) 445-4326. PLEASE NOTE THE PRIOR wildlifecarecenter EMAIL ADDRESS IS NOT BEING MONITORED AT THIS TIME.

Up and down the Kennebec Valley: Blacks in Maine – Part 3

(Luther Jotham: A Journey for Country and Community) An excerpt from the paper: On paper, Luther Jotham’s Revolutionary War service record reads like a typical service record of a Minute Man from rural Massachusetts in 1775. Volunteering to serve at a minute’s notice in case of an emergency, Jotham trained weekly with his neighbors in battle tactics. On April 19, 1775, when the alarm sounded at Lexington and Concord, Jotham joined his company of Bridgewater Minute Men in defense of their community.
Luther Jotham, however, differed from most Minute Men. As a free man of color, Massachusetts law excluded men like Jotham from participating in militia training days in peacetime. Yet in the midst of a looming emergency, he volunteered to protect his neighbors. Following the April 19 alarm, Jotham ultimately signed up to serve on four different occasions during the Revolutionary War. (photo courtesy of National Park Seervice)

by Mary Grow

Vassalboro

Records tell of a Kennebec Valley slave-owner, Captain Abiel or Abial Lovejoy (Dec. 15, 1731 – July 4, 1811), who lived in Vassalboro from 1776 and in Sidney after the west side of the Kennebec River became a separate town in 1792 (see the Feb. 3 issue of The Town Line). He was a native of Andover, Massachusetts, who came to the lower Kennebec Valley as a Massachusetts soldier (rising to the rank of captain) in the 1750s.

An on-line source says when Lovejoy and his wife Mary (Brown) married in 1758, they were given their first two slaves, a man named Boston and an unnamed woman who became Boston’s wife. After they moved to Dresden in 1761, Mary’s father gave them two more slaves, Salem and Venus.

In 1776 the household moved to a farm on the west side of the Kennebec, where Lovejoy became a leading Vassalboro citizen. Henry Kingsbury, in his 1892 Kennebec County history, listed him as a selectman from 1779 through 1784, apparently doubling as town treasurer in 1780. The on-line source tells two stories from those days.

Capt. Abiel Lovejoy

One is Lovejoy’s reaction when told Massachusetts ordered slaves freed, in 1788: he summoned “Salem and Venus, and offered them their liberty. They refused to leave and Salem’s answer to the Squire was, ‘You’ve had all de meat, now pick de bones.'”

The second story is about the time Lovejoy brought a jug of liquor to the field where a mixed group of slaves and hired hands was cutting hay, not to his satisfaction. When he demanded to know who did the poor job, the hands blamed Boston. Lovejoy said since Boston did all the work, “he shall have all the grog.”

The Lovejoys, their child who was born and died in 1784 and Boston, Venus and Salem were all buried in a family cemetery on the Sidney farm. The on-line source says, “As similar stones marked the burial place of the negroes, it is impossible to know which are the graves of the master and mistress and which are the graves of their servants.”

Remington Hobby (also Hobbey or Hobbie) was another Vassalboro slave-owner, briefly. Kingsbury called him a prominent Vassalboro citizen, listing him as town meeting moderator in 1774, selectman in 1777 and treasurer in 1778.

One on-line genealogy says Hobby was born in 1746 and was a Harvard College graduate. Converted to Quakerism, he became a “powerful” preacher, and died in Winslow in 1839. Different sources list his wife’s name was Anstrus or Anstress. The genealogy writer just cited said he married her about 1837, pointed out that by then he was in his 90s and wondered if there were a father and son of the same name and it was the son who got married in 1837.

The story in the Vassalboro Historical Society records (in the form of a letter in the Feb. 12, 1910, “Kennebec Journal”, reprinted in the Feb. 2, 1997, issue of what was by then the Central Maine Newspapers) says that a Boston merchant who owed Hobby money gave him as part payment an enslaved Black man from Guinea named Denmark. Hobby gave Denmark his freedom and sent him to join the Black “colony” in northeastern China.

Denmark soon returned to Vassalboro, claiming his new neighbors had robbed him, the story continues. After Hobby’s death, Hobby’s son John and John’s brother-in-law, Steven Jenkins from China, took care of Denmark. When he died, they arranged his burial in the Friends Cemetery on the east (lake) side of Neck Road in China.

Kingsbury’s history talks about a Black section of a cemetery in East Vassalboro in the early 1800s. He wrote that the cemetery was beside the First Baptist Church building on Elm Street.

(The1856 map of East Vassalboro shows the south end of present-day Main Street, from the four corners south, as Elm Street; north of the four corners is Water Street. Kingsbury wrote in 1892 that John Greenlowe was “well remembered” by East Vassalboro residents for the iron plows he patented and manufactured at the dam and for planting “most of the trees that so beautifully shade the streets of the village.”)

The First Baptist Church was organized June 3, 1788, and prospered for about a decade. In the 19th century membership declined, and about 1832 the building was sold for $43 to Ezeziel or Ezekiel Small, who let it deteriorate until it was removed.

This church building was “north of the old grave yard and south of the outlet landing,” Kingsbury wrote. The cemetery had not been maintained, and after the church was torn down, it was ignored, “except that the portion next to the mill [one of several owned by members of the Butterfield family] has been used by the colored people.”

By 1892, Kingsbury wrote, the area north of the mill was “an enclosure called the Baptist burying ground,” without headstones or grave mounds, shaded by tall elms along the street. The site of the former church had become “John Warren Butterfield’s garden.”

In her Vassalboro history, Alma Pierce Robbins gave the First Baptist Church a few paragraphs, including a reference to “the Baptist Burying Yard at the outlet of 12 Mile Pond [China Lake].”

At the Vassalboro Historical Society, the following Black families are listed from the 1810 census: James Bennett, with a three-person household; Prince Brown, 10 people; John Foy, six people; Luther Jotham, seven people.

In 1820, census-taker Abijah Smith listed Jotham with two others in his household, an adult woman and a male child. In 1830, he was living with two adult women and two male children. Smith also listed Bennett, but not Brown nor Foy.

Your writer has found information on only one of these families, the Jothams.

The author of an on-line paper by the Boston National Historical Park (hereafter BNHP), titled Luther Jotham: A Journey for Country and Community, used military, census and other records to find details about Jotham’s life.

The BNHP writer said Jotham was born a free Black in Middleborough, Massachusetts, about 1751. Sometime before 1775 the family moved to Bridgewater, Massachusetts. As tension with Great Britain increased, rules were changed to allowed Colored men to join the militia; when the Revolution began April 19, 1775, Jotham was a member of the Bridgewater Minute Men.

The essayist surmised he might have joined for the shilling he earned for every half day of training, or because “For men of color, joining a military community helped forge a more equal status with their white counterparts.”

After this first stint, Jotham enlisted in militia units three more times. On Aug. 1, 1775, he began five months’ service as a private “in Josiah Hayden’s company in the Plymouth County regiment of militia, stationed in Roxbury.” From January to March 21, 1776, he was again in Roxbury as a member of “Captain Mitchell’s company in Colonel Simeon Cary’s regiment,” identified in another on-line source as the Plymouth and Barnstable County Regiment (Cary was also from Bridgewater, which is in Plymouth County).

In September 1776 Jotham re-enlisted in Cary’s regiment. The regiment was ordered to New York City, then partly under British control.

On Sept. 16, British forces attacked near Harlem Heights, and General George Washington ordered several regiments, including Cary’s, to counter-attack. This was Jotham’s first experience of battle, the BNHP writer said; it was soon followed by another at White Plains. Jotham then “faithfully completed his term of service on December 1, 1776 and returned home to Bridgewater.”

Jotham’s fourth enlistment, in October 1777, put him in “Captain Nathan Snow’s company, in Colonel [Cyprian] Hawes’ regiment,” which was sent to Rhode Island in an unsuccessful effort to chase the British out of Newport. The American success at Saratoga, New York, on Oct.17, 1777, took enough pressure off New England that militia units were sent home that fall.

The BNHP writer found that Jotham and Mary Dunbar were married soon after he came home. In January 1779, he wrote, Jotham paid 320 pounds for “about 15 acres of land.” He thereby elevated his status from “labourer” (who worked for someone else) to “yeoman” (who “farmed his own land”) in relevant documents.

The couple had three children, Loriana, Lucy and Nathan.

The BNHP writer found records that Bridgewater officials “warned out” Jotham – and many others – in November 1789. Such a warning, the writer explained, was a notice to anyone who might become a town charge that he or she was not eligible for town support, and a demand for evidence of self-sufficiency. Since Jotham was a landowner, the writer surmised that his getting such a notice might be evidence of racial discrimination.

Jotham apparently satisfied the selectmen, because the 1790 and 1800 censuses showed his family in Bridgewater.

Sometime in the early 1800s, the Jothams moved to Vassalboro, where he bought 20 acres and presumably continued farming. The BNHP writer did not know why he moved to Maine, nor why he chose Vassalboro.

Mary Jotham died before 1816, and all three children by 1820. On May 25, 1816, Jotham married his second wife, Reliance Squibbs; they had two more children, Mary Anne and Orlando. Rachel and both her children had also died by May 1820, when Jotham applied for one of the veterans’ pensions the U. S. Congress approved in 1818.

(Robbins said that the 1818 federal law set pension payments for anyone who had served at least nine months during the Revolution and was in “reduced circumstances:” privates got eight dollars a month, officers twenty dollars a month.)

The BNHP writer found Jotham’s application, in which he wrote that his property consisted of “a house, small hut, a few tools and household items, and several animals, including one cow, three sheep, and one pig.” He said his annual income was $5; at age 69, he was unable to work much.

“Jotham seemed well connected to other Black families living in Vassalboro and the surrounding area. His pension application includes many testimonies from friends and acquaintances who vouched for his military service,” the BNHP writer said.

Jotham was awarded an annual pension of $96.

On Dec. 20, 1821, Jotham (by then about 70 years old) married for the third time, to a woman information at the Vassalboro Historical Society identifies as Rhoda Parker or Rhoda Dunbar. The BNHP writer did not list a last name for Rhoda; he said the couple had “at least” three children.

The next set of documents the writer found date from August 1827, when a Vassalboro overseer of the poor found that Jotham was mentally incompetent and arranged for a man named Abijah Newhall to be his legal guardian. Sometime after the 1830 census, the Jothams moved to China, where Luther died on June 22, 1832, aged 81, and, the writer said, was buried in the Talbot Cemetery.

Rhoda applied for a widow’s pension in 1860, when she was 73. The BNHP writer did not say whether her application was successful.

The writer concluded with a summary that applied to many Black veterans.

“Jotham attempted to build a better life for himself in the new nation he helped fight for. Though respected for his service by those who knew him personally, his honorable status as a Revolutionary War veteran did not make him invulnerable to the “colorphobia” that plagued many in his community.”

The writer continued by pointing out that many veterans, regardless of their race, eventually had to go through the humiliating process of demonstrating that they were so poor they needed a federal pension.

“Luther Jotham’s story is just one of many post-war experiences of ordinary soldiers who later struggled to support themselves, despite the valiant sacrifices they made while serving this country in its fight for liberty and democracy.”

Main sources

Kingsbury, Henry D., ed. , Illustrated History of Kennebec County Maine 1625-1892 (1892).
Robbins, Alma Pierce, History of Vassalborough Maine 1771 1971 n.d. (1971).

Websites, miscellaneous.

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