“The knock could come at dinnertime just as the family was sitting down for the noon meal. Or perhaps it came late in the evening as the wife was blowing out the lamps, or even first thing in the morning before chores were done. The Town Clerk would open the door to find a citizen determined to conduct his business with officialdom right now!

“The late night visitors were often parties of out-of-staters who’d beat it up the coast after work, intent on obtaining their hunting licenses so as to be in the woods at dawn. Sometimes a shy couple stood on the doorstep after a marriage license, maybe holding a home-raised turkey for the Town Clerk, Horace Miller, as Ken Calderwood and Bernice Bradway did one Thanksgiving. Doris Miller Holmes remembers her father (who was either Town Clerk, Tax Collector, Treasurer, or all three from 1923 to 1946), pay a farmer the 25 cents bounty on porcupines, then toss the four paws the man had produced for proof into the stove.

“Until the early 1970s town business was carried on at the kitchen tables and over-flowing rolltop desks of its elected officials – the Selectmen and Town Clerk-Tax Collector-Treasurer (often the same person). The Town Clerk was the most visible, best known to townspeople, for it was he (and later she: Eileen Payson Young served as Town Clerk through the 1970s and into the 80s) who issued licenses – marriage, hunting, fishing, as well as car registrations, birth and death certificates, and paid the bounty on varmints. In his tax-collecting capacity he received the money –usually cash – so painstakingly accumulated throughout the year to cover the property tax. As Treasurer he paid the bills and kept the accounts.”

from Staying Put in Lincolnville Maine, 1900-1950 (Available at Western Auto, Schoolhouse Museum  or Sleepy Hollow Rag Rugs 

By 1970 the town had an office in Lincolnville Central School, a small room across the hall from an identical room that served at the teaching principal’s office; in that year Wally and I moved to Lincolnville, and he took that job as principal and 7^th and 8^th grade teacher. Eileen Young was still working out of her home on Camden Road; she kept her records and paperwork in the sunroom off her kitchen. The Selectmen – there were just three at that time – used the office at the school for their meetings, and increasingly kept town records there.

The next fifteen years saw much change in Lincolnville; while still in the old LCS office the first Town Administrator – Mona Stearns – was hired; she was succeeded by Skip Day. The Town Office building was built, the Board of Selectmen was increased from 3 to 5 members, the Town Charter was written, town committees were formed, and ordinances were adopted regulating land use. The system that had served the town since its beginning was upgraded dramatically in a few short years. People who remember the earlier, simpler town government sometimes wonder why we need so much more now. Those who work in the town office or who are involved on the committees and boards, however, know all too well how complicated it’s all become with regulations, requirements, subdivisions, shoreland issues, etc.

But for all of that, it’s still pretty easy to voice your opinion or ask a question of town officials. The Board of Selectmen meet on the second and fourth Mondays of each month at the Lincolnville Town Office, 493 Hope Road. The meetings are televised on cable television and can be seen on Channel 22. Every meeting begins with a Citizens’ Forum, when anyone can come up to the microphone and make a comment, announce an event, or ask a question of the Selectmen. However, to have the Selectmen actually discuss and even act on an issue, it must be on the agenda.

To have an item placed on the agenda, submit it to Ladleah Dunn, the current Board Chairman or to David Kinney, Town Administrator, by noon the Wednesday preceding the next regularly scheduled meeting. To have informational material  included in the Selectmens' packets, deliver it to the Town Office by noon on the Thursday prior to the meeting. Agendas are posted on the town’s website; here is the agenda for the September 22 meeting. 

The Board of Selectmen, who also serve as the Board of Assessors and Overseers of the Poor, is composed of five elected members for staggered three-year terms. The general powers and duties of the Board of Selectmen can be found in the Town Charter, Article III.   Our current Selectmen are Ladleah Dunn, chairman, Jason Trundy, vice-chairman, Cathy Hardy, secretary, Rosey Gerry, and Art Durity.

I asked our current selectmen four questions; here are their answers:

Q:  How long have you been a selectman?

 A:  I’m in my 6th year.—Jason

 A:  Two and a half wonderful years.  (Really only that long?  Feels like a decade at least) – Ladleah

 A:  7 years, 3 months — Rosey

 Q:  What's the biggest challenge for you in being a selectman?

 A:  Over the past six years Lincolnville has faced several controversial issues and the biggest challenge I have faced has been to listen to the many varied opinions on these matters and to sort through them to reach a conclusion that I believed was in the best interest of the town as a whole. — Jason

 A:  There are several challenges such as balancing a very full work schedule and being from away (Vinalhaven via Dixmont), but the biggest is getting information on "the issues" and gathering active participation from our community.  We have a wonderful open forum of government here in town.  I am challenged how to find a way to get those folks who are busy raising families, working multiple jobs, or who just plain feel overwhelmed by the process of how the town works to gain their interest in how the town is run and where their tax dollars are going.  — Ladleah

A: Trying to help people understand why we can’t please everyone with decisions that are made with the towns best interest in mind with long range effects! — Rosey

Q:  In your opinion what's the next big issue the town faces?

A:  There are always important topics to be discussed, but I think a particular topic that needs specific attention in the years to come is the future and maintenance of our Harbor infrastructure. We have begun the process of discussing the future of our harbor and putting money aside for the inevitable maintenance expenses that we will incur. We need to deveop a clear vision for the future of our harbor, to include a general maintenance plan, planning for larger infrastructure repair expenses and possible expansion of services if it’s deemed appropriate and similar issues. This type of planning and setting of goals can only be reached by the continued input of the Harbor Master, the commercial fishing community, recreational users, local business owners. community stake holders and the taxpayers of Lincolnville. -- Jason

A:  Echoing what I said earlier: We face the very real challenge of understanding what the community needs and wants, then establishing a means to make that happen.  We need to focus on maintaining our current infrastructure rather than tackling anything new.  — Ladleah 

A:  There really are several, probably, the rebuilding of the wave screen at the harbor comes in mind first, The conditions of our roads, possibility of closure for our one house town roads, and following our Comp plan and seeing that those things are accomplished! — Rosey 

Q:  What advice would you give a prospective candidate for selectman?

A: The advice I would give to any candidate for Selectmen is to not approach the position with a set of predetermined opinions on any matter. I have learned that there are many ways of looking at every problem. I have learned a great deal by listening to the many individuals that have spoken regarding particular problems. There are many great people with good ideas about how to move Lincolnville in a positive direction, and we should always be open to listen to new ideas. — Jason

A:  Listen to all sides of any given issue.  Seek out opinions.  Do your homework and then filter all of that through what will be best for the needs of the community and not based on a personal agenda. — Ladleah

A:  Everyone should take a turn at it, and find out just how the town really functions, it’s not so easy to change this or that, but most of all leave the town better than you found it, when your term is up! — Rosey

Several people asked me what the wooden wave screen that David Kinney mentioned in last week’s article is, so I asked Harbor Master Mike Hutchings. He explained that it’s part of the old ferry system that was replaced when the new ferry dock was installed several years ago. Department of Transportation turned it over to the town with the understanding that Lincolnville would maintain it. It’s an underwater wooden structure, made up of 4 x 8 pressure-treated wooden beams and boards, that deflects the waves and makes our harbor. Without it there’d be no harbor. The town has already rebuilt one section of it, and will rebuild the other two sections this winter.

A joint meeting of the School Committees of Union 69 – Lincolnville, Hope, & Appleton – will be held Monday, September 22 at 6 p.m. at the Hope Town Office. Just prior to that meeting, also at the Hope Town Office at 5:45 p.m., the LCS School Committee will meet to nominate a second first grade teacher.

John Luft, general manager of Revision Energy’s Liberty branch, will present a free program on solar power on Wednesday, September 24 at 7 p.m. at the Lincolnville Community Library. John will explain how the library’s new solar power system works and how it could be replicated on other structures. A crew from Revision installed 30 solar panels on the library’s roof which now produce all the library’s electricity, thanks to a grant from Efficiency Maine. Those solar panels which cover the main roof of the Library are a dream come true for the group that developed the new Library and Open Air Museum site, as such an installation was always a gleam in their eye from the beginning. For more information, call 763-4343 or email.   

Camden District Nurses will conduct a Flu Clinic at Tranquility Grange Hall, Saturday September 27, 9 to 11:30 a.m.

Also on Saturday morning, 10 a.m to noon, a book signing at the Lincolnville Library will introduce the first biography written on the man who is probably Lincolnville’s most important historic figure, Philip Ulmer.  Pat Hubert, a retired Connecticut teacher, first heard of Major Philip Ulmer while visiting the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum. Here she learned about the Spitfire, an American vessel lost during the Battle of Valcour Island during the Revolutionary War, captained by Philip Ulmer. She knew she had Ulmer ancestors and began researching him. The result, several years later, is her book, just published this summer, Major Philip M. Ulmer, An American Hero. 

Pat has been in frequent contact with Connie Parker and I as she wrote the book, asking questions about Philip Ulmer’s role in Lincolnville’s early history, and sending us excerpts as she worked. It should be a great resource for understanding more about our town’s early years. 

Coincidentally, a possible tie-in to the Philip Ulmer story, is the quarry that Randy and Jill Harvey are painstakingly uncovering on their Slab City property. Wally and I visited them there last week and were amazed at how much larger it’s grown since last spring. Of course, it hasn’t really grown, just the area that’s been revealed by shoveling and scraping away the accumulated soil of a century  or more. A certain pattern of markings lead Randy to believe, from research he’s done, that it is the work of German quarrymen, or people familiar with German methods. The Ulmer brothers, George and Philip, large landowners at Ducktrap from the 1780s on until their deaths in the first decades of the 19^th century, were the sons of a German immigrant at Waldoboro, and grew up with German as their first language. Another German living here at the time, Jacob Levenseller, owned land in the area. The day we visited they’d just unearthed two more iron tools, most likely the same bog iron they’ve found so much of.

Kate Braestrup, chaplain to the Maine Warden Service and Lincolnville Center resident, will be the guest speaker at United Christian Church’s September 28 service. Kate is the author of several best-selling books including Here If You Need Me and Marriage and Other Acts of Charity. All are welcome, as always, at UCC’s 9:30 a.m. service. Several guest speakers have been filling the pulpit at UCC this month as Pastor Susan Stonestreet is on a month-long sabbatical. She will return October 5.

Dick McLaughlin writes: “The community is invited to Andy’s Brew Pub at the Lobster Pound Sunday afternoon (Sept. 28) 2-5 p.m. for complimentary hors d’oeuvres and $2 drafts. The brewery is in full production. We will have Brewery Tours and entertainment by Rosey Gerry’s band from 3-5 p.m. Bring the kids and come on down to the Lobster Pound.”

We headed off to the Common Ground Fair on Saturday with as much anticipation as every other year (and we think we’ve missed only two in the Fair’s 38 year history). If you’re a fan you know what I’m talking about. But as usual, our stamina did not match all there was to see. We saw alot, but missed alot too, along with Lincolnville’s young Nick Winter and his pair of steers. As a friend reported, he took first place in his class with the animals he’s trained.

The news we woke up to one day last week about the hostage situation at Rite Aid definitely brought this modern horror to our own doorsteps. Once again, in this little place of fewer than 10,000 people in the Midcoast, we likely knew the people involved: the shoppers, the employees – particularly the pharmacist held hostage –  and the perpetrator, Robert Beerman. Many in town may remember Robert as a boy when he lived in Lincolnville and attended LCS.

One of my sons wrote on Facebook: “This is such an awful, sad story. I went to school with Robert and we played sports together. We kind of bonded  … because we both were small. I hadn't seen him in years and have no idea what he's been doing all this time, but I know he must have been suffering. I know he had a tough life. So relieved he didn't hurt anyone. RIP.”

 To be included in This Week in Lincolnville, contact Diane, ragrugs@midcoast.com with events, family milestones, wildlife sightings, anything to do with our town.