For change to happen somebody has to imagine it. I think it’s called visioning. A couple of weeks ago it started happening in Lincolnville Center. Andrea Palise, a busy mother of two and proprietor of the children’s consignment shop Bubbles and Beans at Reny’s Plaza, sent out a challenge on the Lincolnville Bulletin Board (LBB).

She wrote, in part: “I know this topic has been visited many times before, but I would REALLY like to open a conversation about the speed of cars through Lincolnville Center. Over the last couple of years, we have seen big changes to our little Main Street with the new Community Library, the Boat Club, Pottery Studio, the Veterans Memorial, and opening next summer the General STORE!! So exciting!!! Except for one thing. The speed.

“If you don’t know, I live directly across from the gazebo at Norton’s Pond and have continued to see the speed of cars from the Drake’s direction go up to an alarming rate. The signs are ignored. And to compound the problem is that curve that rounds right before my house at the ‘entrance’ to the Center. Right after that, and before the library/boat club/pottery studio is a little rise in the road making vision that much worse.

“I envision my kids being able to walk to the library or the store to get that cup of sugar that hubby used the last of in his coffee or to summer camp at the Boat Club. Now, thanks to more awesome volunteer work, there is a Veteran’s Memorial right across the street from me and the thought of one of our elders or kids getting mowed over by a truck or a car going WAY over the speed limit is something that REALLY needs to be addressed. Our mixed use of commerce and community/residential is enviable and but I think we need to go a step further . . . and I have definitely seen the speed increase since there isn’t ANY source of enforcement anymore.

“So, what can we do? First of all, does anyone else agree with me? I know many of you don’t live on Main Street proper, but I hope you find this topic important enough to weigh in on because with the store opening we should start having this conversation about HOW to make our Main Street as safe as possible Before, not after, someone gets hurt.”

Andrea’s provocative post on the LBB drew several comments:

“When I work on Petunia Pump flowers and greens, etc., I feel like I am taking my life in my hands. People tear around the corner headed toward Hope and don't even slow down when they see a person! Frightening ... and it has gotten worse I agree,” wrote one woman.

“How about one of those machines that senses the speed, takes a picture, and voila, a ticket in the mail if you're speeding?”

“Why don’t we have police anymore?”

“We voted them out.”

“Police force to monitor speed in the center? Seems a bit Overkill to me,” wrote one guy. “But, how about spending a couple bucks on Speed Bumps? That'll slow ya down!”

“My work with a constituent last year who wanted "children at play signs" never came to fruition.  The transportation person I worked with told me that ‘they don't work’. This is why.  No one follows the signs except for families and kids who think they are safer.  Thus creating a situation that they actually aren't safer.  Crazy, but that is what the studies show.”Chris Burstein, our outgoing Legislator wrote: “Here are a few ideas.  One, get hold of the Commissioner of Transportation and talk to him or her.   Rep. Paige Zeigler can help getting you contact numbers.  Also, I'm sure what the plow trucks think of speed bumps, but many places call them ‘Sleeping Policemen.’ That is a simple and really effective tool in slowing people down.   

The speed limit, set by DOT, through the Center is 25 mph. There are signs to that effect at every road coming in to Main Street. Back when we did have a police department in town we became accustomed to seeing the police car parked at the Boat Club or by the school, enforcing the 15 mph speed limit there. Certainly, many of the offenders were locals, and at least the first time or two a verbal or written warning was issued. That was probably enough for most of us.

There actually is a precedent for taming traffic right here in town – the Beach. It’s been some ten years since the Lincolnville Beach portion of the Route One reconstruction project has been completed. Those who’ve moved here in the past decade may not have ever seen the old Beach area. Let me describe it: from the Beach/173 intersection to the Frohock Bridge the two lane road was bordered with gravel shoulders. The parking lot was simply a larger extension of those shoulders, a mix of gravel and crumbling asphalt where vehicles could pull in anywhere between the pay phone (yes, there was a public phone about where today’s information sign is, a god send to anyone getting off the 10 p.m. coastal Concord Trailways with no ride in sight) and the bridge.

Across the road the shoulders sort of melded into the asphalt sidewalk that bordered the shops. Northbound vehicles cresting the hill before the intersection saw a vast open space before them. No reason to slow down, so they often didn’t. Pedestrians in the summer crossed from the shops to the Beach at their peril.

Talk of a bypass back in the 1980s that would take northbound traffic through Hope to Belfast woke people up to the possibility of big changes to our town, and a citizen committee formed. The bypass idea faded away amid the Department of Transportation’s (DOT) plans to widen and improve Route One. The citizen committee morphed into an official town committee – the Route One Advisory Committee. And with the sanction of the Selectmen came the ability to negotiate with DOT engineers over the way Route One would be reconstructed. This committee of residents was thus able to influence the design of the Beach area; slowing down traffic was a major goal.

Take a look at the Beach today from the prospective of a northbound driver. The wide-open spaces have been pulled in; the curbs, planting beds and bump outs make the road appear narrower. Four well-marked cross-walks and the sidewalks on both sides indicate that pedestrians are present. Drivers realize this is a village, and they instinctively slow down.

Although the Beach situation, which involved a planned reconstruction on DOT’s long-term radar, isn’t exactly analogous to the Center’s speeding problem, there are similarities. Both involve traffic passing through and how it impacts quality of life. For many years members of the Route One Committee wondered why a similar group didn’t form itself to deal with issues at the Center. Better to have such a group in place before DOT comes in with their own plan for the road which could involve elements no one wants.

Notice the term “form itself”.  A citizen group can – should – come together spontaneously. Town sanction can come later, after the group has made enough noise to be troublesome. Our Selectmen are generally quite responsive to citizens with issues, but their plate is full, especially now at budget time, so they don’t go looking for problems. Still, don’t discount the squeaky wheel …

What could be done to get attention? Think of the possibilities. Advocate loudly for speed cameras, for speed bumps, for more crosswalks. How about flashing lights on speed limit signs? Send letters to DOT officials, with copies to the press. Contact the sheriff’s office for more coverage in the Center. Follow up with letters to the editor. Call reporters to cover the group’s activities.

What are the group’s goals? Sidewalks through the Center? Better definition of the entrances to the Center? A sidewalk from the school to the General Store? How about a sidewalk up to the Community Building, where such programs as four AA meetings a week and a weekly free Soup Café are just the beginning of community uses for that refurbished building.

Actually, matters are about to get worse, at least for the next six months, as a bridge construction project in Camden will cause through truck traffic to be detoured through the Center on Routes 52/173 and 235.

 It’s funny about visionaries, those who point out the problem. Often they surface just when they’re needed. Andrea’s right; the topic of speed in the Center has been visited before, but I give her credit for bringing it up yet again, for opening a conversation, as she put it. Andrea’s vision for a walkable, safe Main Street is one many share. Now it’s your turn to step up and – constructively! – raise hell.

Jessica Day, of Midcoast Music Together, will offer the first in a new series of free family music programs on Friday, January 6, at 11 a.m. at the Lincolnville Community Library. Families with children from birth to age 5 are invited to come sing, dance, and explore musical instruments together.

Jessica offers her classes throughout the Midcoast, believing music can create a strong foundation for all learning. All that’s required of parents in her classes, she said, is enthusiastic participation and the ability to have fun with children.

 The Ethel and W. George Kennedy Family Foundation sponsors the Library’s Midcoast Music Together on the first Friday of each month through June. Call 763-4343 or email if you have any questions about this program or any other Library event.

Eighth Grade Bottle Drive

For the past couple of weeks I’ve been going to the Point Lookout Fitness Center, a completely new experience. In all my 72 years I’ve never gone to a gym. A couple of friends invited me to join them three mornings a week, and I said “well……OK.”

 Now I wonder why I waited so long. The Fitness Center is open seven days a week, costs $10 a day or $40 a month for unlimited visits. There’s seemingly every kind of machine to work muscles I didn’t know I had, several treadmills, lined up by a wall of windows overlooking the Bay, and many more features I know I haven’t discovered yet. It’s just a three minute drive from my house, maybe 10 or 15 minutes from almost anywhere in Lincolnville and is never crowded.

 While signing in the other day I found out all about pickleball — I’d never heard of pickleball — from a woman I know pretty well. Now I know, in her words, that she’s addicted to pickleball and plays every single day that she can, right there in the Fitness Center gym. I doubt I’ll become a pickleball player, but walking out of there after an hour of exercising feels wonderful.

Ponds are Frozen

Ice fishermen were scattered all over Nortons this weekend, and I heard there was a snowmobile spotted on Pitcher. Coleman’s had its fishermen, as well, including one fellow who spent Christmas Day on the ice. We haven’t seen anyone venturing onto Megunticook yet, at least on the Route 52 side. It looked like wonderful skating, but I suspect too many of us have seen open water there these past few winters to trust it.