Issue for November 17, 2022

Celebrating 34 years of local news

China Lake water quality remains consistent

To this day, China Lake continues to be KWD’s sole source of supply providing drinking water for over 22,000 people in five communities. KWD has worked diligently throughout the years to protect and improve the water quality in China Lake by supporting and implementing many different initiatives. The two main areas of focus on over the past year have been (1) land management of the approximately 344 acres owned by KWD surrounding the West Basin and (2) increasing the already extensive water quality sampling KWD regularly conducts… by Robbie Bickford

Town News

Select board told weather cause of poor lake water quality

VASSALBORO – Webber Pond Association President John Reuthe brought Vassalboro select board members information and recommendations on the lake’s water quality, at their Nov. 10 meeting…

Building committee recommends looking ahead

CHINA – At least two members of China’s Municipal Building Committee plan to join chairman Sheldon Goodine at the Nov. 21 China select board meeting, hoping to persuade select board members to see the future through their eyes…

Final results from November 8 election

CHINA – Because of several write-in candidates for local elected positions and a technical glitch with the town website, results of China’s Nov. 8 local votes were incompletely reported in the Nov. 10 issue of The Town Line

Town to conduct survey to redevelop Mill Island Park

FAIRFIELD – The Town of Fairfield’s Economic and Community Development Committee (FECDC) has created a variety of surveys to assist with the redevelopment of Mill Island Park. Divided into six (6) separate surveys, residents and community members are able to provide valuable public input and insight as to how they would like to see the public park enhanced…

Local happenings

Skowhegan wins another field hockey state title

SKOWHEGAN – On Saturday, November 5, Skowhegan Area High School won its 20th field hockey state championship, defeating Cheverus High School, of Portland, at Messalonskee High School field, in Oakland… by Mark Huard

Happy birthday to a dear friend

ALBION – Rena Harding, of Albion, spent her 100th birthday on October 29, 2022, at home with family and friends…

The Remembrance Tree

Help us decorate the tree and at the same time remember a loved one. For only $10 a ball, you can commemorate a love one who has passed. Mail your donation and the names of your remembered loved ones to The Town Line, PO Box 89, South China, ME 04358. Deadline is Friday, December 16!

EVENTS: Tea and Troubadour: A literary tea

AUGUSTA – Recycled Shakespeare Company is beginning their tenth season with their popular Literary Tea on Sunday, December 4, 2022, in the beautiful hall of the South Parish Congrega­tional Church, 9 Church Street, in Augusta…

EVENTS: Volunteers still needed for Festival of Trees

WATERVILLE – Additional volunteers are still needed as the Alfond Youth & Community Center presents Family Festival of Trees again this holiday season, continuing a proud tradition begun by the Sukeforth family in 2015…

EVENTS: Waterville Rotary Club launches annual charity auction

WATERVILLE – The 59th annual Waterville Rotary Auction with hundreds of gifts, services and unique items will once again be held on-line through Bidding Owl.com. If you would like more information about the online auction November 27 through December 3, 2022…

Name that film!

Identify the film in which this famous line originated and qualify to win FREE passes to Railroad Square Cinema in Waterville: “As God is my witness, I’ll never go hungry again.” Email us at townline@townline.org with subject “Name that film!” Deadline for submission is December 7, 2022…

Up and down the Kennebec Valley: Augusta fires & fire departments – Part 4 (new)

AUGUSTA HISTORY – Charles W. Ricker was Augusta’s chief engineer for more than a decade, starting in 1893. In the city’s annual report for the fiscal years that ended March 1, 1894, Mayor Charles A. Milliken wrote: “I think politics should be eliminated from this department. The present chief engineer is a competent man and I think should be retained… by Mary Grow [1949 words]

Up and down the Kennebec Valley: Augusta fires & fire departments – Part 3

AUGUSTA HISTORY – After the April 12, 1861, southern attack on Fort Sumter started the Civil War, James North’s Augusta history focused on the local contribution to and effects of the war. He did not neglect other events, however, including fires and firefighting. Early on, he combined the two topics, describing the patriotic parade on Thursday, April 18, 1861, that was led by the Augusta Band, with the Pacific Fire Engine Company next in line… by Mary Grow [1886 words]

Up and down the Kennebec Valley: Augusta fires & fire departments – Part 2

AUGUSTA HISTORY – Another fire Augusta historian James North described was the one that destroyed Augusta’s bridge across the Kennebec River the night of April 2, 1827. It was spotted a little after 11 p.m. and spread so fast that the “citizens [who] rushed to the scene of conflagration with fire engine and buckets” could do nothing… by Mary Grow [1881 words]

Up and down the Kennebec Valley: Augusta fires & fire departments – Part 1

AUGUSTA HISTORY – James North’s year by year history of Augusta, published in 1870, records several fires before the 1865 disaster. The first he knew of was in 1785 (when Augusta was still the northern part of Hallowell): “Elias Craig’s Hatter’s shop” burned on Dec. 1… by Mary Grow [1736 words]

Webber’s Pond

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

2022-’23 Real Estate Tax Due Dates

Real estate tax due dates for the towns of Albion, China, Fairfield, Oakland, Palermo, Sidney, Vassalboro, Waterville, Windsor and Winslow…

CALENDAR OF EVENTS: Maine Author Talk with Betty Culley

VASSALBORO — Betty Culley’s debut novel Three Things I Know Are True, was a Kids’ Indie Next List Top Ten Pick, an ALA-YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults Nominee, and the 2021 Maine Literary Book Award winner for Young People’s Literature, Saturday December 3, at 10:30 a.m… and many other local events!

Obituaries

VASSALBORO – Elizabeth K. Serwin, 90, died Wednesday, November 2, 2022, at home, following a brief illness. She was born in Lebanon, South Dakota, on January 4, 1932, a daughter of the late Maurice and Elizabeth Kinsley… and remembering 14 others.

Town Line Original Columnists

Roland D. HalleeSCORES & OUTDOORS

by Roland D. Hallee | Recently, in my travels throughout central Maine, I have seen an unusual number of opossums dead on our highways. There seems to be more and more of them present these days…

FOR YOUR HEALTH

(NAPSI) | If you are like the majority of Americans, heart disease and eye disease run in your family. So you should know that a growing body of research suggests that eye and heart health are related…

Peter CatesREVIEW POTPOURRI

by Peter Cates | After the very sad four White House years of Franklin Pierce, that of former 15th President James Buchanan (1791-1868), with the help of his niece/hostess Harriet Lane (1830-1903), began with an inaugural ball described as follows by Christine Sadler in her 1963 America’s First Ladies

LIFE ON THE PLAINS

by Roland D. Hallee | Winters on The Plains in the 1950s and ‘60s were a challenge, to say the least. Anyone of my generation will remember winters back then, for some reason, were a lot rougher than they are today. In my opinion, winters now are nothing compared to back then…