Issue for September 14, 2023
Vassalboro Days wraps up another successful year
That’s a wrap on Vassalboro Days 2023, sponsored by the Vassalboro Business Association and Maine Savings Federal Credit Union. There was lots of fun, family, food and prizes… by Laura Jones
Town News
Residents air anger over drivers on town roads
VASSALBORO – Some Vassalboro residents are fed up with people who do not drive safely, legally and respectfully on local roads, and they brought their complaints to the Sept. 7 select board meeting, not for the first time…
Lack of information postpones project action
VASSALBORO – Vassalboro Planning Board members discussed two proposed projects at their Sept. 5 meeting, but lacked information to act on either one…
Select board seeks residents’ help on two projects
CHINA – China select board members are looking for residents’ help on two very different projects: investigating the proposed LS power line and building the planned vault storage addition at the town office…
Select board discusses site plan ordinances
WINDSOR – At the August 15 meeting, the Windsor Select Board held discussions about Site Plan Ordinances. Present were two planning board members, F. Gerard Nault and Carol Chavarie. The select board has a goal of having a special town meeting tentatively set for November 8…
Palermo selectmen schedule two public meetings
PALERMO – Palermo select board members have scheduled two public meetings to discuss and act on a proposed moratorium on high-impact electric transmission lines through the town, in response to the proposed LS power line from Aroostook County to Coopers Mills…
Webber’s Pond
Webber’s Pond is a comic drawn by an anonymous central Maine resident (click thumbnail to enlarge)…
OPINIONS: Thoughts about high impact transmission lines through central Maine
by Thomas Bolen (Albion resident) – Historically when the citizenry finds itself in a position where they perceive their elected officials have failed them in pursuit of a larger goal, citing “For the common good” common folks like me, regardless of political stripes, find themselves pushing back and asking for pause to reassess their decision. The proposed High Impact Transmission Line approved in a “bipartisan” vote by the Maine Legislature early this year is that inflection point…
LETTERS: Why are we selling bricks?
from Neil Farrington (China resident) – Our American Legion Post #179 is selling veteran bricks to raise funds for a new heating/cooling system at the South China Legion building. This is the monetary reason but there is also a personal reason…
Alfond Center knocks it out of the park pairing MLB legends with local law enforcement
WATERVILLE – The Badges for Baseball Clinic took place on Thursday, July 27, at Maine’s Fenway Park, in Oakland. The clinic paired Major League Baseball (MLB) player alumni with officers from the Waterville Police Department to teach youth enrolled in the AYCC’s Maine’s Fenway Premier Baseball Camp about baseball and life lessons… by Mark Huard
PHOTO: Multiple winner
BENTON – Club Naha student Matthew Christen, 12, of Benton, captured two first place wins and second place in the grand championship at the Amerikick International Martial Arts Championships, in Atlantic City, New Jersey. (photo by Mark Huard, Central Maine Photography)
PHOTO: Triple jump winner
OAKLAND – Larsen Ronco, 12, of Oakland, took first place in hurdles, triple jump and 4×1 at the recent Youth State Track Meet, held in Augusta, on Saturday, August 12. He is a member of Winslow Summer Track. (photo by Galen Neal, Central Maine Photography staff)…
PHOTO: Getting ready for some football
WATERVILLE – Waterville Youth Football team members Jackson Troxell and Tatum Vaughn, practicing at a recent clinic (photo by Missy Brown/Central Maine Photography staff)…
Bodhi Littlefield named to Ohio University’s spring 2023 dean’s list
OAKLAND – Ohio University Patton College of Education student Bodhi Littlefield, of Oakland, has been named to the Spring 2023 dean’s list, in Athens, Ohio…
Urgent funding needed by Winslow Community Cupboard Food Pantry
WINSLOW – Winslow Community Cupboard food pantry – which has served more than 20,087 food-insecure households in Central Maine so far in 2023 – is urgently seeking new one-time and recurring monetary donations to meet surging demand. According to Operations Manager Bruce Bottiglierie, the food pantry, which also operates a Mobile Food Pantry that directly serves locations in Waterville, Skowhegan, Fairfield, and more…
Local political coalition receives grant
WINSLOW – Representatives from the local United Valley Democratic Committee (formerly China Dems) are diligently working alongside Kennebec County Democratic Committee on the Contest Every Race grant. Kennebec County is one of two counties in Maine, where groups are set to receive a $3,000 grant from Movement Labs via their Contest Every Race project. Contest Every Race (CER) is awarding grants to more than 300 political groups nationwide. This is the first year they have included Maine in the grant winners… –submitted by Megan Marquis
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: “If you build it, he will come.” Email us at townline@townline.org with subject “Name that film!” Deadline for submission is October 5, 2023…
Local happenings
CALENDAR OF EVENTS: Window Dressers to meet
CHINA/VASSALBORO — Vassalboro and China are going to hold a Community Build of Window Dresser window inserts at The Mill, in North Vassalboro, the week of November 5… and many other local events!
Obituaries
BENTON – Alberta Bess Fish, 85, died on Sunday, September 3, 2023, at her home, in Benton. Alberta was born on May 29, 1938, in Clinton, the daughter of the late Ray and Vella (Brown) Proctor… and remembering 8 others.
Up and down the Kennebec Valley: Agriculture – Part 2 (new)
KV HISTORY — Last week’s essay was about early farming in the central Kennebec Valley, as reported in local histories, with emphasis on Samuel Boardman’s chapter on agriculture in Henry Kingsbury’s Kennebec County history. This week’s work describes one important farming family and detours to talk about Boardman and another historian who contributed to Kingsbury’s opus… by Mary Grow
Up and down the Kennebec Valley: Agriculture – Part 1
KV HISTORY — Families who settled the central Kennebec Valley in the 1700s were, of necessity, farmers: one of the first actions was to clear enough land to raise food crops, for both people and livestock. Alice Hammond wrote in her history of Sidney, “In the late 18th century, almost every Sidney home would have been a self-sufficient farm, with oxen, dairy cows, sheep, chickens, and steadily expanding fields that provided food for people and livestock…” by Mary Grow
Up and down the Kennebec Valley: Music in the Kennebec Valley – Part 5
KV HISTORY — In the course of reading about the history of music in the central Kennebec Valley, specifically George Thornton Edwards’ 1928 Music and Musicians of Maine, your writer came across two intertwined musical families who lived in Hallowell, before and after Augusta became a separate town in 1897… by Mary Grow
Up and down the Kennebec Valley: Music in the Kennebec Valley – Part 4
KV HISTORY — Kennebec County historian Henry Kingsbury provided a minor exception to the general lack of interest in music in local histories when he included a section headed “MUSIC” in his history of Waterville and wrote two whole paragraphs… by Mary Grow
Common Ground: Win a $10 gift certificate!
DEADLINE: Wednesday, September 14, 2023
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: Eleanor Bilodeau, Unity
Town Line Original Columnists
SCORES & OUTDOORS
by Roland D. Hallee | Here is something quite interesting. At least I think so. Last Sunday, while I was talking with a neighbor, we were standing near one of my wife’s hummingbird feeders. She uses a mixture of sugar and water to lure, and watch, the hummingbirds. Well, as sometimes happens, bees take over the feeder…
REVIEW POTPOURRI
by Peter Cates | Carl Stevens was the professional name of trumpeter Charles H. Sagle (1927-2015). A 1959 Mercury LP, Muted Memories, featured him with a group of four outstanding session players performing a dozen pop classics…
THE BEST VIEW
by Norma Best Boucher | I have always loved raspberries. My earliest memory of the sweet seedy globules was on my aunt’s farm, in Bangor. In the summer my father and I visited his older sister’s family for a week filled with the softness of feather beds, the smell of sweet peas, the taste of fresh garden produce, and the succulence of ripe red raspberries…
FOR YOUR HEALTH
(NAPSI) — Consuming healthy foods, beverages, and snacks, and getting regular physical activity may help you reach and maintain a healthy body weight. Making suitable lifestyle choices may also help men and women prevent some health problems. Setting healthy eating and physical activity goals may help you improve your health…