All veterans and community members are invited to participate in the Waterville Veterans Day parade on Monday, November 11, 2024. Lineup begins at 10 a.m., at The Elm, 21 College Ave. Waterville. A ceremony will be held at Castonguay Square, on Main St., at 11 a.m. It will be followed by lunch at MacCrillis-Rousseau Veterans of Foreign Wars Post #8835, on Veterans Drive, in Winslow.
Railroad owner Carson Peck and his party, on an inspection trip, around 1910 or so, in Windsor. (courtesy of the WW&F Museum)
The China Historical Society is pleased to invite the public to an engaging presentation on the history of the Wiscasset, Waterville & Farmington (WW&F) narrow gauge railway. This event, featuring local experts Bob Wallace and Phil Dow, from the Albion Historical Society, will take place next Thursday, October 17, at 7 p.m., at the China Baptist Church.
The presentation will offer a unique opportunity to explore the history of the narrow gauge railway that once played a vital role in connecting China to other towns in the region. Wallace will provide an in-depth look at the railway’s development and its significance to local communities, particularly the Weeks Mills station. In addition to the talk, attendees will be treated to a slideshow of historical photographs, offering a glimpse into the past and showcasing the railway’s impact on the area.
The WW&F railway, launched in the 1890s, was an essential transportation route for residents and businesses, ferrying people, produce, and goods between towns from Wiscasset to Windsor.
However, as automobiles and gasoline-powered trucks became more widespread in the mid-20th century, the narrow gauge railway could no longer compete, and it eventually ceased operations. While the tracks are no longer in use, the history of the railway continues to be an important part of the town’s heritage, offering a window into a time when the railroad was the lifeblood of rural Maine.
In addition to the historical insights provided by Bob Wallace, attendees will have the opportunity to see rare, archival photographs that capture the daily workings of the railway, including images of the Weeks Mills station and the railway’s trains.
The event is free and open to the public, although the China Historical Society encourages donations to support its ongoing work in preserving local history, and attendees are invited to consider joining the society as members. Annual membership dues are a modest $10, and these contributions help ensure that important stories like that of the WW&F railway continue to be shared with future generations.
The China Historical Society’s Narrow Gauge Railway Presentation will be held on Thursday, October 17, at 7 p.m., at the China Baptist Church, at the north end of the lake. Whether you’re a history enthusiast or simply curious about the role the railway played in shaping the town’s development, this event promises to be an informative and engaging look into a fascinating chapter in China’s past.
Attend the presentation to meet other members of the community who are passionate about preserving and sharing China’s rich heritage, and for more information about upcoming events, follow the China Historical Society Facebook page.
by Mary GrowChina select board members approved a concept plan for the new storage vault they’ve discussed for three years, and will have an engineer’s plan prepared as soon as possible.
Building committee chairman Sheldon Goodine presented the plan at the board’s Oct. 7 meeting, after he outlined it for the board on Sept. 23. The vault will be in a new room added on the south side of the town office building, close to the east end.
Goodine said the room would be 26-by-28-feet. Adding it would cover two windows in what is currently deputy clerk and assistant to the assessor Kelly Grotton’s office, and would require a corridor to a second east-end door.
Select board chairman Wayne Chadwick queried the price. Glad you asked, Goodine replied: about $80,000 less than the original plan, which he said would have cost around $267,500.
At the 2023 and 2024 town business meetings, China voters appropriated more than $255,000 from federal ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) funds for the vault.
Board members voted unanimously to ask Keith Whitaker, the engineer from Presque Isle based B. R. Smith Associates who has been working on the project, to convert the concept plan to an engineered plan. With that plan, they will decide whether to seek bids from contractors for the whole project or to act as the main contractor and seek bids for specific tasks.
The vault will provide storage space for paper records that the state requires municipal offices to keep forever. Whitaker said in earlier discussions that it needs to be all concrete, with temperature and humidity controls.
Another ongoing town project is relocating the ice rink from the school grounds to the town-owned lot south of the town office, on the north side of the intersection of Lakeview Drive and Alder Park Road. Town Manager Rebecc Hapgood said she, recreation committee chairman Martha Wentworth and Director of Public Services Shawn Reed inspected the lot recently and tentatively sited the rink, minimizing tree-cutting.
Hapgood revived another topic: in May 2023, after board and public discussion, select board members unanimously agreed to join the Community Resilience Project (CRP), a state program administered in this area by the Kennebec Valley Council of Governments.
Hapgood summarized progress on China’s seven chosen projects. The first, minimizing erosion at the South China boat landing, has been started, but work is delayed until spring by the unavailability of concrete planks.
The Thurston Park Committee has been working on improvements in Thurston Park, and town office staff are investigating digitizing town records. Board member Janet Preston has been looking for sites for electric vehicle charging stations.
Adding sidewalks in China Village appears prohibitively expensive. So far little has been done toward installing solar panels on the school forest building or improving public transportation.
Select board members appointed Melissa Cowing, one of China’s representatives on the Regional School Unit #18 board of directors. She will serve until the Nov. 5 election, succeeding T. James Bachinski, who has resigned. At the election, she is a declared write-in candidate for a full term on the board.
Hapgood asked board members’ opinions on Delta Ambulance’s offering member towns a discount if they pay their 2024-25 accounts in advance. Voters at the June town business meeting approved $110,200 as part of the public safety budget, based on Delta’s bill of $25 per resident. The manager estimated paying by the Nov. 1 deadline would save China about $5,500.
Hapgood said if Delta’s board of directors has a contingency plan in case the organization’s funding situation becomes unmanageable, she would recommend the pre-payment. She hopes to have more information before the next select board meeting, scheduled for 6 p.m. Monday, Oct. 21.
The four Vassalboro Planning Board members at the Oct. 1 meeting unanimously approved ReVision Energy’s plan for a community solar farm on Eileen Flanagan’s property, at 1026 Webber Pond Road.
As first presented in November 2023, the plan required a waiver from boundary setback requirements. A revised plan, submitted at the planning board’s February 2024 meeting, relocated the solar panels so no waiver was needed.
At the Sept. 3 meeting, ReVision spokesman Annalise Kukor said a final plan should be ready for Oct. 1. By then, she said, ownership might have changed; and it did.
The applicant is now Community Solar of New England, LLC (CSNE). This organization, Kukor said, is staffed and run by ReVision Energy employees; its eight community solar farms include one on Main Street, in Vassalboro.
Planning board members found that the application met all requirements in Vassalboro ordinances, including the recently-added amendments tailored specifically to solar farms.
The project still needs four out-of-town approvals, Kukor said:
— A new Maine Department of Transportation highway entrance permit, because although the solar farm will use an existing driveway onto the property, the purpose has changed.
— From the state Department of Environmental Protection, a stormwater permit and a decommissioning permit.
— From Bangor Savings Bank, confirmation of a letter of credit to cover decommissioning costs.
Board members made their unanimous approval of the community solar farm conditional on receipt of these four documents, plus a copy of the lease that allows CSNE to use the land.
Kukor expects construction to begin in the spring of 2025.
The decommissioning plan was the only requirement discussed at length by planning board members. Several thought the estimated cost, $33,714, low.
Dan Bradstreet wanted assurance that “removal” of components once their useful life ended included taking them off the property, as the ordinance requires. Others discussed recycling possibilities. Kukor said she would find the answer to Bradstreet’s question.
Town Manager and acting Codes Enforcement Officer Aaron Miller reminded board members that the letter of credit was only a back-up to fund decommissioning, in case CSNE and ReVision were out of business or otherwise unable to cover the costs.
The town ordinance says the financial guarantee is to be 125 percent of the estimated decommissioning cost. It is to be updated after seven years and every five years thereafter.
by Mary GrowVassalboro select board members began their Oct. 3 meeting with a public hearing that drew nine residents to learn about three Nov. 5 local referendum questions.
The first question asks residents to approve matching funds to be available if the town receives grants to help replace the Dunlap Bridge on Mill Hill Road. Specifically, if voters approve it, select board members will be allowed to appropriate $360,000 from TIF (Tax Increment Financing) money or from the town’s undesignated fund (surplus), as they choose.
The second question asks voters to amend the Vassalboro TIF program to allow TIF money to fund “environmental improvement projects” in town.
As Town Manager Aaron Miller explained, the two questions are related. Amending the TIF document under the second question will allow use of TIF money for the Dunlap Bridge under the first question.
Select board member Chris French talked about three alternative bridge plans. The currently preferred option, dependent on more grant money, would cost a total of $1.8 million, of which the town would pay $360,000, he said.
Last summer, Vassalboro received a $200,000 Municipal Stream Crossing Grant to help with the bridge. An application for a larger grant has been filed and is awaiting approval or rejection.
Resident Douglas Phillips asked why the proposed TIF amendment is limited to environmental improvements. Miller replied that authority to use the money for the Dunlap Bridge is needed urgently, because the sructure is in such poor shape. A more comprehensive overhaul of the TIF program would take “a tremendous amount of time.”
Holly Weidner asked for a clearer explanation of local funding. Board members and Miller said they are working on explanatory background documents, and discussed ways of making it easy for residents to obtain them before Nov. 5.
During previous discussions, and on Oct. 3, board members emphasized that approving the bridge funding is appropriating money the town already has, not asking taxpayers for more money.
The third ballot question asks voters to amend the Vassalboro Sanitary District’s charter, specifically how the district’s trustees are chosen, their organization and their duties and responsibilities. There were no comments on this question. Copies of the proposed changes are attached to the local ballot and available from Town Clerk Cathy Coyne.
During the meeting that followed the hearing, select board members talked briefly about the bridge. Board chairman Frederick “Rick” Denico endorsed French’s statement at the Sept. 19 board meeting: board members should postpone further action until they hear from voters on Nov. 5.
Board members made three unanimous decisions.
— They accepted the lower of two prices for a new pole barn for the public works department, $141,140 from All Season Home Improvements, of Augusta. Miller said, in response to concerns about a nearby wetland, that someone from the Maine Department of Environmental Protection had visited the site. Work is not scheduled to start for six to eight months.
— They prepared an instruction for K & K Land Surveyors, of Oakland, expected next week to survey the tax-acquired property on Lombard Dam Road adjoining the transfer station. Board members want them to draw a lot line 25-feet from the property’s westernmost building, unless a well or other structure is in the way. The goal is to maximize the transfer station lot to allow for future expansion.
— They appointed Cara Kent a new member of the Vassalboro Cemetery Committee.
The next Vassalboro select board meeting is scheduled for Thursday evening, Oct. 17.
Zach Glidden
Former local resident Zach Glidden, along with two other biologists, has been presented with the 2024 award from the Maine Department of Fisheries and Wildlife for a rescue last year.
On September 7, 2023, at approximately 3:30 p.m., retired fisheries biologist Nels Kramer took a direct phone call of a missing angler on Cold Stream Pond. The angler, an amputee of the leg, was reported missing by his wife. She called Nels, who is well known in the town, and said her husband had gone fishing on the lake and had not returned home, and was not answering his cell phone. Nels retrieved his personal boat and headed to the lake to initiate a search for the individual. While en route, Nels contacted his former colleagues in Enfield and asked for some help. Fisheries biologist Kevin Dunham and Zach Glidden immediately responded to assist in the search.
“This incident highlights that employees of MDIFW, even retirees, are truly committed to serving the public.”
– Maine Game Warden Joseph E. Bailey
About 45 minutes after the initial call, Nels, Kevin and Zach found the fisherman’s boat drifting in Sand Beach Cove with him aboard. The boater had fallen in the area of the transom and was in such a position that he was unable to get up or yell for help. He told the trio of rescuers he had fallen in the boat and later lost consciousness due to the heat.The three biologists were able to upright the fisherman and get him to shore. The estimation is that he was stuck there for up to five hours.
According to the nomination letter, “These three members of DIFW went outside of their wheelhouse to assist someone in need. Nels, Kevin and Zach acted quickly to rescue a boater in distress. Their decisive action saved the angler from further harm and potentially extended search incident by [the] warden service.”
According to Game Warden Joseph E. Bailey, who submitted the nomination letter, “this incident highlights that employees of MDIFW, even retirees, are truly committed to serving the public.”
Zach is the son of Rodney and Jane Glidden, of Palermo. He attended Erskine Academy, in South China, and was an Eagle Scout. He grew up in Palermo and now resides in Howland.
More than 30 area residents gathered at China Baptist Church Park* for a Shoreline Buffer Workshop on August 21, as part of ongoing efforts to reduce phosphorus runoff into China Lake. The hands-on workshop was hosted by the China Lake Association (CLA) and reminded the community of the importance of vegetated shoreline buffers, demonstrated planting methods, and offered free, native plants for local owners to take home to plant on their shorefronts… by Gerry Boyle, CLA Director
CHINA – The Albert Church Brown Memorial Library in China Village will soon be more accessible to the community thanks to an upcoming renovation…
CHINA – A Killdeer Point resident provided The Town Line with this photo of a moose that wandered down the road after a swim in China Lake…
CHINA – William Lankist, of China, was honored on the occasion of his 90th birthday, at his home, recently…
VASSALBORO – A community service by Viking Axolotl Patrol of Scout Troop #410, and the Arrow of Light Cub Scouts #410, culminated on Sunday, September 22, when they gathered at the Vassalboro United Methodist Church (VUMC) and presented $300 to the VUMC finance secretary, Nancy Adams, and treasurer, Hellen Paulette… by Dale Potter-Clark
CENTRAL ME – Photos area school homecoming festivities by Casey Dugas of Central Maine Photography…
WINSLOW – Kennebec Valley District Scouting volunteers, under the leadership of Christopher Bernier, of Winslow, held two uniform drives this month providing Scout uniforms to 23 children. The first uniform drive took place at the Waterville Goodwill of Northern New England location, on Wednesday afternoon, on September 8…
AUGUSTA – Three Maine chefs went head-to-head September 16, at the Augusta Civic Center, competing in Spectrum Generations’ 12th annual Celebrity Chef Challenge fundraiser and serving over 200 guests…
WATERVILLE – Breast Cancer Awareness Month has long been associated with the color pink. To show their support for breast cancer patients, Northern Light Health is encouraging team members at every location to wear a pop – or even an entire outfit – of pink on Friday, October 4…
CENTRAL ME – Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU), in Manchester, New Hampshire, congratulates the following students on being named to the Summer 2024 President’s List. The summer terms run from May to August…
Identify the film in which this famous line originated and qualify to win FREE passes to The Maine Film Center, in Waterville: “What we have here is a failure to communicate.” Email us at townline@townline.org with subject “Name that film!” Deadline for submission is October 10, 2024.
Webber’s Pond is a comic drawn by a local central Maine resident (click on the thumbnail to enlarge)…
VASSALBORO – Vassalboro Public Library will host a theatrical play, to take place at the Vassalboro Grange, 353 Main Street, for two exclusive shows, Saturday, October 19, at 7 p.m., and Sunday, October 20, at 2 p.m…
VASSALBORO — All parents of Erskine Academy students are invited to attend fall Parent/Teacher Conferences on October 9 and 10, 2024, from 3 – 7 p.m. To avoid long waiting lines, Wednesday, October 9, has been designated for students whose last names begin with A – K; and Thursday, October 10, has been designated for students whose last names begin with L – Z…
WEEKS MILLS – The Weeks Mills Volunteer Fire Department will hold its 3rd annual fundraiser on Saturday, October 5, and Sunday, October 6, from 9 a.m. – 3 p.m., at the American Legion Post #179, 79 Legion Memorial Dr., in China… and many other local events!
ROME – Richard LaBelle, 96, passed away on Monday evening, September 23, 2024. Richard “Dick” LaBelle, Rome’s oldest resident. Born October 3, 1927, in Pearl River, New York, Richard was the sixth child of Ernest Adelbert and Ruth (Bickford) LaBelle…
MAINE HISTORY — Massachusetts residents who moved to Maine brought with them the Massachusetts enthusiasm for education, as noted last week. Alma Pierce Robbins, in her 1971 Vassalboro history, quoted from a report coming, ironically, from an October 1785 Portland convention called to discuss separating Maine from Massachusetts… by Mary Grow
MAINE HISTORY — One of the many questions your writer has not yet answered – and may never – is why, in the 1700s, people left comparatively comfortable homes in Massachusetts and similar places to come to the Kennebec Valley, on the Massachusetts frontier… by Mary Grow
PALERMO HISTORY — In Part 1, we explored the lives of three key families at Ford’s Corner around the turn of the 20th century: Frank & Addie Wood, Daniel & Nettie Batchelder, and Leander & Alice Bowler, all active members of the church at the corner of Chisholm Pond Road and Arnold Lane. Part 2 will explore the history of that church building and what Ford’s Corner is today… by Andy Pottle
PALERMO HISTORY — In North Palermo, where Arnold Lane and Chisholm Pond Road meet, the North Palermo Road just before Wilder Young Hill goes down into Freedom, is a place once known as Ford’s Corner. You wouldn’t know it today, but over a century ago this quiet corner was the center of a bustling community in North Palermo… by Andy Pottle
Identify the people in these three photos, and tell us what they have in common. You could win a $10 gift certificate to Hannaford Supermarket! Email your answer to townline@townline.org or through our Contact page. Include your name and address with your answer. Use “Common Ground” in the subject!
Previous winner: Shirley Kinney, Augusta
SCORES & OUTDOORSby Roland D. Hallee | A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about different colored squirrels and what was the cause. That prompted an email from a reader who wrote, “Might you consider writing about their various calls? A week ago Thursday, I heard something making noise in my far tree line”…
REVIEW POTPOURRIby Peter Cates | Pianist Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli (1920-1995) had, like Vladimir Horowitz and Sviatoslav Richter, a superhuman lightning speed virtuosity at the keyboard that brought much deserved fame…
VETERANS CORNERby Gary Kennedy | I always wonder what I will write about each week. Sometimes I even change my mind after writing for hours. It’s not because I’ve made an error but for some reason the article doesn’t seem to be timely or appropriate for that week…
HEALTH | While there’s no distinct COVID-19 season like there is for the flu, it’s been shown that COVID-19 can peak during the winter months. To help fight respiratory illnesses, it’s recommended you get a flu vaccination, as well as the updated COVID-19 vaccine…
Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU), in Manchester, New Hampshire, congratulates the following students on being named to the Summer 2024 President’s List. The summer terms run from May to August.
Van Boardman, of Oakland, Blake Laweryson, of North Anson, Misty Ray, of Montville, Stormy Wentworth, of Fairfield, Jacob Colson, of Albion, Sierra Winson, of Winslow, Andre Coachman, of Waterville, Joseph Slater, of Winslow, Oase Erkamp, of Waterville, Morgan Bergeron, of Augusta, Krista Neal, of Augusta, Nicholas Stutler, of Sidney, Ivette Hernandez Cortez, of Augusta, and David Phillips, of Augusta.
Arturo Michelangeli
by Peter CatesPianist Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli (1920-1995) had, like Vladimir Horowitz and Sviatoslav Richter , a superhuman lightning speed virtuosity at the keyboard that brought much deserved fame. Unlike Horowitz and Richter who left several different performances of certain pieces that varied in style and tempo, Michelangeli would record, for example, the same Mozart or Grieg Piano Concerto and the tempos and timing would be precisely the same.
However, like Horowitz and Richter, Michelangeli brought a heartfelt musicianship and labor of love to his playing; also, like his two colleagues, he frequently programmed a handful of favorite pieces as opposed to a vast repertoire of other pianists.
A 1965 record (London CS 6446), and one of a tiny handful of studio records he left, featured a program of Sonatas by Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757), Baldassarre Galuppi (1706-1785) and Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827).
With all due respect to the earlier composers and their own contributions to the keyboard literature, I have always found the chosen Beethoven Sonata #32 the most deeply personal of the 32 that he composed for the instrument. So much human emotion ranging from agony to ecstasy with moments of frivolity, whimsicality, jumping for joy, melancholy, is conveyed in its 20 minute length.
Technically speaking it is a knuckle buster while demanding a pianist who can communicate its range of emotions. Michelangeli met these challenges with a powerful performance.
During his career, Michelangeli earned several million dollars but may have suffered from manic depression, possibly revealed in a statement he made to his secretary:
“You see, so much applause, so much public. Then, in half an hour, you feel alone more than before.”
I majored in English and graduated in 1973 from the University of Southern Maine with a B.S. degree , roughly 62 hours of literature classes and only the required hours of other subject areas- 18 hours of history as a minor, as little as possible of science and math and not a single course in economics, sociology, philosophy or foreign languages .
I was a very narrow minded jerk when it came to any interest in a well-rounded education.
One course I enjoyed was Shakespeare with Dr. Stan Vincent and the plays I remembered most vividly were Richard the Third, A Winter’s Tale, the Tempest, King Lear, Othello, the especially vicious Titus Andronicus and the singular masterpiece Hamlet.
Hamlet is a character totally imagined, created and given words and situations with others by the brain cells of Shakespeare according to the early 19th century essayist William Hazlitt.
More importantly, as Hazlitt wrote, Hamlet’s “speeches and sayings…are as real as our own thoughts. It is WE who are Hamlet…It is the one of Shakespeare’s plays that we think of the oftenness because it abounds most in striking reflections on human life.”
And Hamlet’s most striking statement – “To be or not to be – that is the question!” strikes right at the heart of life just as much in the 21st century as it did in the 16th through 20th centuries. And being needs to lead to action, a truth just as important as the one from Socrates more than 2,000 years ago – “The unexamined life is not worth living.”
Hamlet remains a play well worth reading and re-reading for its masterful Elizabethan poetry and prose, its range of characters, treacheries and situations and its abiding sense of reality.
Breast Cancer Awareness Month has long been associated with the color pink. To show their support for breast cancer patients, Northern Light Health is encouraging team members at every location to wear a pop – or even an entire outfit – of pink on Friday, October 4.
The idea behind this wave of pink is not just to show support, but to remind or encourage women over the age of 40 to schedule their annual screening mammogram.
“One of the things that always resonates with me, and hopefully to our patients, is the saying ‘a few moments of discomfort is worth a year of peace of mind,’” says Danielle Black, a mammography technician with Northern Light Health. “Annual screening mammograms, along with clinical and self-breast exams, are imperative for early detection of breast cancer. Screening mammograms are also covered by insurance as a preventative healthcare measure.”
The statistics around screening mammograms also reinforces just how important they are. Statistically, of every 100 women who have a screening mammogram, providers will recommend two of them to receive a needle biopsy for further review and possible diagnosis. One in eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime.
Screening mammograms and early detection significantly increase a patient’s chances of surviving breast cancer.
“Women should not be afraid to advocate for their yearly mammogram, even if it is not mentioned by their provider,” adds Black. “It is easier than ever to schedule a screening mammogram as they no longer require an order from a physician and can be booked in just minutes on our website.”
“I’m very proud to work in this field. It makes me so happy to have our breast cancer patients come back years later for their screening mammogram and see how well they are doing,” adds Jamie Goody, a mammography technician with Northern Light Health. “Knowing that our quick four pictures helped them receive treatment as soon as possible is why we are here.”
To schedule a screening mammogram, visit northernlighthealth.org/scheduleamammogram.