This Week in Lincolnville: A solar array in our future?
Petunia Pump is all decked out for fall. Thank you Jeanne and Bob!
Photo by Jeanne Hollingsworth
The Ulmer Cemetery at Ducktrap after long over-due preservation work.
Photo by Cecil Dennison
Mao Hisawake, Jeff Wolovitz and their children, Ami and Ina
Photo courtesy Jeff Wolovitz
Petunia Pump is all decked out for fall. Thank you Jeanne and Bob!
Photo by Jeanne Hollingsworth
The Ulmer Cemetery at Ducktrap after long over-due preservation work.
Photo by Cecil Dennison
Mao Hisawake, Jeff Wolovitz and their children, Ami and Ina
Photo courtesy Jeff Wolovitz
Word is getting around town of a proposed solar project, a large array of solar panels to be installed on land next to the fire station. The ad hoc Energy Committee, consisting of Gary Gulezian, John Williams, Kathy Williams, Greta Gulezian, Bob Olson, Cindy Dunham and Jim Dunham, has been busy these past weeks checking off the many necessary steps to make solar-powered electricity a reality for municipal needs.
In a nutshell: ground-mounted solar panels, covering about a quarter of an acre, will be located in the field south of the Lincolnville Fire Station on Camden Road. These panels are expected to generate enough power for the Town Office, both fire stations (Beach and Camden Road), the sand and salt shed, Beach street lights and Breezemere Park. The school is not included.
ReVision Energy, a company located in Liberty as well as Portland, New Hampshire and Massachusetts, will install the solar array at no cost to the town. The town will then purchase its electricity from ReVision, at a cost less than it is currently paying for electricity. In six years the town can decide to buy the array for $57,000 and pay for it over eight years at the same rate as current electrical bills.
The savings to the town over 30 years, if it doesn’t buy the array, will be about $40,000. If it does buy the panels in year six, the savings will be more than $300,000 over the 40-50 year life span of the system.
And what about the savings to the planet? Over 30 years 1,500,000 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions will be saved, the equivalent of driving a car 1,700,000 miles.
So now what is the town asked to do? At a Special Town Meeting called for 6 p.m. October 11, at the Town Office, a vote will be taken to approve leasing the parcel of land at the Fire Station to ReVision for the purpose of erecting the solar array. That’s it. ReVision will then install the panels and the town will begin buying electricity from that company instead of their current provider, Agera.
It’s an exciting step for our town to take, one that’s already in place at the Lincolnville Library, where the sun has been heating and cooling, lighting and powering equipment for the past couple of years. Those roof-mounted panels not only take care of the Library’s utility bills, but as of this fall the extra credits generated are being applied to the Lincolnville Improvement Association’s electric bill. The Energy Committee has prepared a fact sheet of frequently asked questions: read it here.
The Energy Committee has put in a tremendous amount of work, pulling together all this information for the town, “a labor of love” said Jodi Hanson, Lincolnville’s finance director and interim Town Administrator.
CALENDAR
MONDAY, Oct. 3
LCS Soccer vs. CRMS, 3:45 p.m., LCS
TUESDAY, Oct. 4
Book Group, 6 p.m., Library
WEDNESDAY, Oct. 5
First half of property taxes due at Town Office
LCS Soccer vs. Hope, 3:45 p.m., Hope
A Virtual “Tour” of Lincolnville’s Cemeteries, 7 p.m., Library
THURSDAY, Oct. 6
Free Soup Café, noon-1 p.m., Community Building, 18 Searsmont Road
LCS Cross Country, girls at 4 p.m. boys at 4:45 p.m., Troy Howard Middle School
SATURDAY, Oct. 8
8th Grade Pumpkin Sale, 9 a.m.-1 p.m., Lincolnville Beach
Coming Up:
Oct. 11: Special Town Meeting
Every week:
AA meetings, Tuesdays & Fridays at 12:15 p.m., Wednesdays & Sundays at 6 p.m., United Christian Church
Lincolnville Community Library, open Tuesdays, 4-7, Wednesdays, 2-7, Fridays and Saturdays, 9 a.m.-noon. For information call 763-4343.
Soup Café, every Thursday, noon—1p.m., Community Building, Sponsored by United Christian Church. Free, though donations to the Community Building are appreciated
Schoolhouse Museum is open M-W-F, 1-4 p.m.; call Connie Parker for a special appointment, 789-5984
Bayshore Baptist Church, Sunday School for all ages, 9:30 a.m., Worship Service at 11 a.m.
Crossroads Community Church, 11 a.m. Worship
United Christian Church, Worship Service 9:30 a.m., Children’s Church during service
Lincolnville Central School
With a grandchild in nearly every grade at LCS this year, we get lots of school news casually presented while on a ride somewhere or over a meal. For instance, the fourth grade, along with teacher Coral Coombs, once again went to the Common Ground Fair last Friday. It rained a lot in the morning, we heard, and one little boy, who had come with no jacket or raincoat, happily said he was just fine in a T-shirt! And apparently was. We heard that the blocks, which are a favorite with a certain kindergartner we know, are off-limits during “choice” time. Something about having to pick them up; we lost the thread there. With three family members on the cross country team much of our LCS time is spent on chilly, fall afternoons standing around waiting for runners to come in. It’s a busy place with parents and grandparents all cheering on the team. One dad, a former student of my husband’s at LCS (the early 1970s!) told us, “no one used to come watch us run” back in the day. Times have certainly changed.
Read the LCS’ weekly newsletter, the Lynx to get the rest of the story.
All About Lincolnville’s Cemeteries
This Wednesday, October 5, at 7 p.m. the Lincolnville Historical Society will sponsor a free talk at the Library on the town’s cemeteries. Cecil Dennison, a Cemetery Trustee and Diane O’Brien of the Historical Society, will give a virtual tour of the approximately 23 graveyards in town (yes, the figure is uncertain!), how they’re maintained, and why you might want to explore them on your own.
Library News
The book group, which meets monthly, is reading “Between the World and Me,” a moving collection of essays by Ta-Nehisi Coates that he wrote as a letter to his son about growing up Black in America. They’ll meet to discuss the book on Tuesday, October 18 at 6 p.m.
Ann Patchett’s latest novel “Commonwealth” is the pick for November. Everyone is always welcome to join these discussions or stop in to the library at other times to share thoughts about these and other books. Questions? Call 763-4343 or email.
Petunia Pump
Jeanne Hollingsworth and her brother, Bob Hollingsworth have been keeping Petunia Pump looking sharp and living up to her name for the past several years. You may have noticed that she’s now decorated for fall with pumpkins and cornstalks. Jeanne just put out a call on the LBB for some bright leaves to finish the job. A little known fact: nobody knows who owns her! In fact, it may be no one. But still, season after season, year after year, the old girl is kept tidy and planted. Thanks to the current voluntary, self-appointed caretakers!
Community Building
The Community Building, another venerable Center structure, is getting more and more use as people get inside and see how it has been transformed. The raggedy basketball court of yore is now a sparkling, freshly-painted light and bright room, curtains at the new windows, with a complete kitchen and fancy handicapped-accessible bathroom (check it out) on the same floor. It’s the perfect place for a birthday party, reception, dance, workshop, class, or baby/bridal shower. And why not a wedding? At recent event party-goers walked into a magical space with special lighting, drapery and music – hardly the utilitarian room they’d expected. For information on renting it call 763-4782, evenings, or email.
A Tale of Tofu
Some eight or more years ago I got a call from Jeff Wolovitz: did I know of a space in Lincolnville with heat and running water where he might make tofu, maybe a no-longer-used milk room in a dairy barn? I’d never met anyone who made tofu, much less someone looking to start a business doing it, and certainly not in Lincolnville. I sure wanted to help, but could think of nothing suitable. It wasn’t long after that Heiwa Tofu began appearing in some local stores; when the Lincolnville Farmers’ Market was going, Jeff and one or another of his children, were a regular fixture, bringing tasty samples of his product.
Over the intervening years, Jeff and his wife Maho Hisakawa have moved their production facility several times, all the while growing their reputation for small-batch, handcrafted organic tofu. Their tofu is made with non-GMO soybeans from local farmers and other growers, most of them in Maine.
Now the couple have a new production facility in their own building, located at 201 West Street (Route 90) in Rockport and are inviting the public to a grand opening party on Friday, October 7, 2016 between 2 and 8 p.m. and to join in the festivities and games, enjoy locally made refreshments and take a tour of Heiwa’s new tofu making operation.
Jeff and Maho, along with their two young daughters, Ami and Ina, now sell their tofu to 200 restaurants, natural food stores, colleges and universities throughout Maine, parts of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and a little bit beyond. They “view a locally grown, plant based diet as a way to a more peaceful planet. Maho explains, ‘Heiwa (pronounced Hey wah) means peace in Japanese and we have come to think of Heiwa Tofu as Peace on a Plate.’”
This Week at the Soup Café
Stop by the Soup Café Thursday, noon-1 p.m. at the Community Building (18 Searsmont Road) for a hot bowl of soup – choose from butternut squash, bean and sausage, chicken something, and another that will be a surprise! Each week volunteers sign up to bring a favorite soup; there are usually 3 or 4 to choose from, and each week the menu changes. See you there!
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