Issue for January 2, 2025
Albion dairy farmer honored for 60th straight Christmas milking
The Noyes Family Dairy farm, in Albion, is a true family farm. Three generations live on one dead-end road with their family’s surname. Cornfields and barns that store equipment and house animals surround the milk parlor, which is a stone’s throw away from a farmhouse where generations of members from the Noyes Family have been born, lived, and died. Each Christmas Chuck Noyes’ four children and their kids await their grandfather’s return from the cowbarn. There are no days off in dairy farming. Daily the bovines must be fed, milked, and have their spaces cleaned…
Town News
Select board approves junkyard permits; names Lajoie public works chief
VASSALBORO – The Dec. 26 Vassalboro select board meeting began with a public hearing on five applications to renew junkyard licenses. Unusually, the hearing drew comments from the audience…
Conservation committee focuses on town parks
VASSALBORO – Vassalboro Conservation Commission members devoted most of their Dec. 18 meeting to updates on two town parks, Monument Park, at the outlet of China Lake in East Vassalboro, and Eagle Park, on Outlet Stream, a short distance north…
Transfer station task force continues talks at Lombard Road facility
VASSALBORO – Vassalboro Transfer Station Taskforce members met Dec. 12 to continue discussion of options for changes at the facility on Lombard Dam Road…
Concerns about proposed Pine Tree subdivision in Palermo
PALERMO — James Boyle, former Maine State House Representative, presented preliminary plans at the Palermo Planning Board November 13 meeting for a 27-acre subdivision on Hostile Valley Road (Tax Map R11, lot 27C) in a sparsely developed Sheepcot River watershed area in Palermo. The Pine Hill subdivision would include 15 buildable lots of varying sizes with each lot required to have separate wells and septic systems… by Jeanne Marquis
Thurston Park, emergency medical services select board topics
CHINA – At their Dec. 20 meeting, China select board members unanimously approved Jeanette Smith’s proposal to have the Thurston Park Committee she chairs reach out to the park’s southern neighbors about opening an access road from that end…
Seeking second access to Thurston Park main topic at committee meeting
CHINA – According to the minutes of the Dec. 19, 2024, meeting of China’s Thurston Park Committee, seeking a second access to the park from the south was a main topic of discussion…
Four Seasons of Giving: local event brings joy to families in need
CHINA — The China Four Seasons Club recently held its annual “Four Seasons of Trees” event. The event, held over three weekends in late November and early December, showcased more than 13 beautifully decorated trees with unique themes – including all four seasons, which inspired the event’s name – and over 23 gift baskets, all generously donated by local businesses and community members… by Sandra Isaac
LETTERS: Where is the town of Somerville heading?
from Joe LaMacchia (Somerville) — The township is floundering and there is no clear direction or leadership for Somerville residents. The captain was tossed overboard during a mutiny election. The executive officer resigned and the staff petty officers abandoned ship, save for one remaining in a lifeboat doing her best to keep the ship off the rocks awaiting new recruits…
LETTERS: Mainers at higher risk of social isolation
from André Chassé (AARP Maine) — In Maine, approximately 135,000 people 50 and older live alone and are at higher risk of social isolation and loneliness. If there is one thing the pandemic made clear, it is that personal connections are vital to our mental and physical well-being…
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.
Local happenings
EVENTS: Waterville Area Soup Kitchen to hold fundraiser
WATERVILLE – The Waterville Area Soup Kitchen will be holding its first fundraiser on Thursday, March 20, at the Elks Club, on Industrial Street, in Waterville. The event is a tropical themed winter getaway. The doors will open at 5 p.m…
EVENTS: Norridgewock select board meetings rescheduled
NORRIDGEWOCK – Due to scheduling conflicts, the Norridgewock Select Board’s regular meetings for January 2025 will be Wednesday, January 8 and 22, 2025, 6 p.m., at the Norridgewock Town Office. The regular meeting schedule of the first and third Wednesdays of each month will resume in February. Meeting agenda are posted at the Town Office and online at www.norridgewock.gov…
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.com… and many other local events!
Give Us Your Best Shot!
The best recent photos from our readers…
Obituaries
BELGRADE – Robert “Pete” Peter Pelletier, 70, passed away on Thursday, December 12, 2024. Pete was born in Waterville on November 4, 1954, son to Lomer and Joyce (Palmer) Pelletier…
Up and Down the Kennebec Valley: Clinton and Benton School (new)
CLINTON/BENTON HISTORY — This subseries on education is organized by the dates the central Kennebec Valley towns were incorporated, and Clinton, in 1795, was next after Fairfield, in 1788. Therefore the history of education in Clinton, on the east side of the Kennebec River, opposite the northern part of Fairfield, follows the December 2024 articles on Fairfield… by Mary Grow
Up and Down the Kennebec Valley: Fairfield high schools
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
Town Line Original Columnists
SCORES & OUTDOORS
by Roland D. Hallee | It’s a new year! Boy, that was a news flash. Anyway, we’ve turned the calendar to a new year, the holidays have passed, and we are now settling into the reality of at least three months of winter….
THE BEST VIEW
by Norma Best Boucher | 1987 – According to Shirley MacLaine, with crystals at each corner of my shower and with the fingertips of both of my hands touching in pyramidic fashion, if I chant three times, I will find an inner peace. Here goes…
FOR YOUR HEALTH
(NAPSI) | Many people don’t know it but diabetes is a leading cause of vision loss. Fortunately, early detection could save your vision. Unfortunately, most people with diabetes do not get a yearly comprehensive eye exam as recommended by the American Academy of Ophthalmology…