Friends of the Ogunquit Heritage Museum Hosts Its First Open House

OGUNQUIT—
On Sunday, June 6, 2010, the Friends of the Ogunquit Heritage Museum held an open house to welcome members and the public to the 2010 exhibition. In spite of very stormy weather, the event was attended by almost 100 guests and members of the Friends, as well as a number of celebrated political names such as Barney Frank, Congressman from Massachusetts, and Chellie Pingree, Congresswoman representing Maine’s first district in Washington.
This year, the Friends of the OHM used the open house as the occasion to present to long-time curator, Barbara Woodbury, and her husband, Peter Woodbury, a bronze plaque dedicated to their long and devoted stewardship of the Ogunquit Heritage Museum. Without the Woodburys, it is likely that the Museum would not have survived and thrived as it has since its inception in 2002.
Highlighting the Ogunquit Beach this year, the Museum posted photographs from the earliest days of the beach, along with an historical recounting of how the beach was saved from private development and kept as a public park for use by the public today.
On view in the same room are clippings and photos of the storm of 1978 that sent the Lobster Bar crashing against the bridge and out to sea. Also featured is Isabel Lewando’s coverage of the repair of the dunes by the Army Corps of Engineers, and the subsequent battle fought by SCROD (the organization formed to challenge the work carried out by the ACE and return the dunes to their former state). Of special note are the 1900s photographs taken and preserved by Florence Whittier Tyler.
In the Museum’s Art Room, there are numerous artists’ renderings of the Ogunquit Beach, along with a very powerful oil by Channing Hare of Richard Perkins at the beach.
The Architecture Room this year is dedicated to an exposition of the construction of Dunelawn, its history as a hotel for more than 30 years, and its eventual conversion into the present-day Dunelawn Condominiums.
As in the past, a refurbished fisherman’s shack has been assembled by the Museum to illustrate the paraphernalia and necessities of early fishing life in Perkins Cove.
Visitors to the Museum will be welcomed from Tuesday through Saturday, 1 to 5 p.m. Admission is free, though donations are greatly appreciated. The Ogunquit Heritage Museum is located at 86 Obed’s Lane in Ogunquit. For more information, please contact the OHM at (207) 646-0296.

Corners and Hills Reflect Rich Eliot History

By Betsy Caron
Staff Columnist
ELIOT—
In honor of the town’s 200th birthday, the Eliot Historical Society is challenging its residents to locate the 18 new handmade signs put up to recognize historic and significant locations throughout the town. The signs are part of Eliot’s weeklong bicentennial celebration, which will be held Aug. 7 to 14.
“The actual 200th was in March, but the actual week of celebration will be the same as it was 100 years ago,” said historical society treasurer Julie Johnson.
The signs were put up on May 23. Residents familiar with the town may be able to locate places like Farmer’s Corner, where inventor Moses Gerrish Farmer once lived, or Rosemary Hill, representing Rosemary Cottage.
Each sign was hand carved and painted by members of the historical society. Fran Hartford, a retired carpenter and 30-year industrial arts teacher at Marshwood High School, carved the wood over the course of two weeks beginning in March.
Johnson painted the background and blue lettering on all signs representing the hills and corners, putting about six hours of work into each one. Polly McDonough designed and painted the new town hall sign, taking around 60 hours.
“The picture on the left is a Garrison, and it dated back to 1679. It’s called a Hammond Garrison,” McDonough said of the house she painted on the town hall sign. “On the right is a picture of the Nightingale, which is a ship built in Eliot in 1851. There were shipbuilding companies here.”
McDonough said she wanted to paint images representative of Eliot’s past. “The Nightingale is kind of a symbol of Eliot,” she said. “It’s fairly well known. For the Hammond Garrison, I wanted to pick something that went way back before Eliot was an incorporated town.”
The historical society did a similar project in 1985 for Eliot’s 175th celebration, but the older signs have since deteriorated.
“There was one still standing when we put them up on Sunday morning down on Welch’s corner,” Johnson said. “All you could really make out was the ‘w,’ and if you didn’t know what it said you would not know what it was.”
Other events planned for the celebration week include a parade, open houses and displays, fireworks and a bicentennial ball, where many guests plan to appear in period costumes.
“A ball is a time for a lot of people to come together,” McDonough said. “There’s food and music, dancing, and so it’s fun.”
The ball, which is being held at the Regatta at Eliot Commons on Aug. 7, will also offer a more modern twist with a DJ and square dancing.
A complete calendar of events will become available online as the celebration draws closer. Until then, the Eliot Historical Society hopes the community will take a drive around town to find and discover the new signs and Eliot’s rich history.
Photo caption: Left to right: Fran Hartford, Polly McDonough, (President) Dennis Lentz, (Treasurer) Julie Johnson and Paul Johnson. (Betsy Caron photo)

Traveling Through Time to Raise Awareness of Counting House Museum

SOUTH BERWICK—
A group of third grade students at Central School has been working on a service-learning project with the Old Berwick Historical Society to build an awareness of the Counting House Museum as a family destination to learn about the history of the town. Katherine Bousquet’s class began working on this project earlier this spring.
“Service learning is unique,” said Bousquet. “Children enter an actual partnership with someone in the community to solve an existing problem. Thus, service! At the same time, the work the students do must be related to the curriculum and the goals for learning!”
Students met with historical society volunteers and learned that while the museum receives many visitors each year, the number of families with children was fewer than what the museum had hoped. The students worked together to come up with ideas and plans for how they might reach families in the community and spark an interest in visiting the Counting House.
“They’re so creative,” said historical society president Wendy Pirsig of the children’s ideas. “And the students have really dedicated themselves to this valuable project of getting the word out about the museum as a community resource.”
The decision to host a booth at South Berwick’s second annual Kids’ Day on June 5 in was made by the students in an effort to raise community awareness. After numerous trips to the Counting House, research online and in books, visits to other local historic sites such as the Hamilton House and the Sarah Orne Jewett House and the annual Hike Through History at Central School, the children used their knowledge to develop fun and educational activities for a booth at Kids’ Day.
There will be a range of activities from learning about and making a toy that a child in the 1800’s would have played with, to hand-sewing their own initial. Visitors can enjoy a skit of what it was like to be a mill worker in the 1800’s and learn a dance from the time period. There will even by an “I Spy at the Counting House” book where they find, identify and discover information about objects from the past.
In the words of Erica Bergendahl, “Being at the museum, I felt like I was back in history.”
In addition to the activities, there will be a brochure pertaining to the museum written for kids by kids.
“We want families to visit the museum,” said Jake Doyle, another pupil. “It is not like an ordinary museum, it is all about our town.”
Through this project, the students were able to become actively engaged in their town, as well as learn the value of community involvement.
“Many people donated their time and talents to making this project a success,” said Bousquet. “It was the volunteers from the Counting House, Kids’ Day, the parents of the students and the support of teachers at Central that have enabled the students to learn so much and to accomplish their goal.”
Fiona Scharff said, “This service learning project shows me that if we all work together we can do amazing things.”
The students hope that by seeing how fun and interesting history can be at their booth, kids and their families will take a trip to visit the museum this summer.
The Counting House Museum is open Saturdays and Sundays from 1 to 4 p.m. from June through October. Admission is free.
Photo caption: Katherine Bousquet and her students visited the Counting House Museum recently. They have developed skits, brochures and a booth at Kids Day to raise awareness of the museum as a family destination. (Courtesy photo)

Wells Voters Face Decision on Lighted Electronic Sign Regulation

By Jim Kanak
Staff Columnist
WELLS—
For the second time in recent months, Wells’ voters face a ballot question rife with controversy. Question 18 on the June 8 ballot asks voters to weigh in on proposed amendments to the town code relative to the definition and permissibility of the lighted electronic signs that a half dozen businesses on Route 1 currently display.
Those in favor of the amendment (a ‘yes’ vote on Question 18) argue that the amendment is needed to regulate the size, brightness, frequency of message changing, and area of town where the signs can be permitted. Opponents of the amendment (a ‘no’ vote) argue that the signs in question are not permitted under the existing code and should not have been allowed, and that the amendment, in fact, would legitimize the signs in town code.
“The signs have been allowed and they aren’t going away,” said Town Planner Mike Huston. “The Code Office believes they are permitted and the Board of Selectmen has said they won’t go to court to eliminate (those that have been permitted).”
Former selectwoman Joan Mooney urges that the amendment be defeated. “How did (the signs) get approved in the first place if they weren’t in the ordinance?” she said. “A lot of us feel that we’re starting to look like Saugus (Mass.). We want to stop it now. They shouldn’t have issued the first one. I would rather that we revert to the current ordinance.”
The proposed amendment creates a definition in Chapter 145 of the town code for an “Electronic Message Center” that “either in whole or in part may be changed by means of electronic programming.” The amendment would also establish standards for such signs, including placing limits on their brightness, frequency of changing the message (not more than once every ten minutes), size (40 square feet with no side longer than ten feet), distance from the road (a minimum of 25 feet), area of town where they are permitted (the general business district only, primarily the Route 1 corridor), and limits them to one per lot.
Wells resident Linda Dumey, another opponent of the change, said the signs violate the town’s Comprehensive Plan guidelines. “They’re in opposition to the Comp Plan,” she said. “Things are supposed to be in a traditional Maine style. Changeable signs aren’t allowed. If there are six signs now and another one in the pipeline, there’s nothing we can do. It’s a horrifying prospect unless you like the Las Vegas or tacky beach town look.”
Currently, the town code permits internally illuminated signs, including neon signs, and prohibits animated signs. Selectman Jim Spiller says the distinction between the two has been lost on those who argue the signs are not now permitted by the code. “People have to understand that the statement that this type of sign has never been allowed is wrong,” he said. “We have always allowed illuminated signs. These aren’t animated signs. They automatically change. There’s a clear differentiation. That’s where people are misguided. We told (Mike’s Clam Shack) “no’ when he included animation (on his sign), so he stopped doing it.”
The town code currently includes a definition for “changeable copy sign “ as any sign that may be manually changed, but not automatically. Mooney argues that these are the only type of changeable signs permitted.
In regards to the prohibited animated signs, such signs are defined as those that “display movement or the optical illusion of movement of any part of its structure, design, or pictorial segment, including the movement of any illumination or the flashing or varying of light intensity, or the automatic changing of all or any part of the sign’s facing.”
Spiller’s comment aside, whether electronic signs are captured under the last part of that definition has remained part of the debate.
Both Spiller and Huston insist that the proposed amendment is the only way to truly regulate the location and control proliferation of the signs.
“If you don’t like these signs, pass this and limit the annoyance factor,” said Huston. “If the vote is ’no,’ we already know businesses on Route 9 and others will come in for these. And currently, the maximum sized sign allowed in the GBD is 150 square feet.”
Spiller said, “People should realize how important it is to pass this.”
Dumey offered a different analysis. “The proposed amendment doesn’t offer any protection at all,” she said. “We could end up with 200 more of these. If we permit them, we’ll be giving our blessing to them.”

Ogunquit Playhouse Gets “A Big Face Lift”

By Jim Kanak
Staff Columnist
OGUNQUIT—
People attending plays at the Ogunquit Playhouse this year will be the beneficiaries of something they likely will not notice. During the off season, the Playhouse undertook a total reconstruction of its stage area and rigging counter weight system, upgrading the entire area with state of the art infrastructure and expanding the area of the stage floor. The project will permit the Playhouse to produce a wider array of plays than has been the case even in the recent past.
“The old girl got a big face lift,” said Executive Artistic Director Brad Kenney. “The rigging has 30 percent more ability to (lift). It’s state of the art with clean, manageable lines that can hold a myriad of things. And there’s an extra 12-foot depth at the center of the stage. That’s important for shows like “Chicago” and “The Sound of Music.”
Board member Peter Lewis helped oversee the work of the project.
“We tore out the stage, the cat walk - everything back stage has been replaced or fixed,” said Lewis. “In the last five years, shows have been a lot “heavier,” with more weight for the props. We replaced the old wooden infrastructure with a steel superstructure. We replaced the counterweight system. We now have the most sophisticated counterweight there is. This was a restoration of a system that needed to be replaced. We couldn’t have opened this year without this project. We were compromising the building.”
Project planning began in September 2009, with actual work beginning just after the first of the year. It was finished May 19. Scott Teas of TFH Architects of Portland designed the steel superstructure. Jim Stockman of Lighting Design, Inc. of Kennebunkport served as consultant for safety, operations, and efficiency. Paul Nolan of Major Theater of Quincy, Mass. designed and installed the rigging counterweight system. Warren Construction of South Freeport did the work.
“We used a professional review team,” Lewis said. “They worked with the board and staff and built it out for the next 20 years. It’s been built to accommodate wind shear and seismic activity. This structure would save this portion of the building in an earthquake. The steel posts go eight feet into the ground.”
Given that the work took place over the winter, a key decision was to build an extensive ramp into the rear of the building to transport the heavy equipment.
“We didn’t have to take the roof off in the winter to do the work,” Lewis said. “We brought the heavy equipment inside.”
This project follows on the heels of an upgrade to the building’s electrical system that was done four years ago. More work is planned.
“We have three, five, and 10 year vision plans,” Lewis said. “Things like enhancing the children’s theater to building a mezzanine in here, maybe winter offices. Additional seats would be a big thing.”
All of that requires planning and money. “The cost of this renovation was more than the original amount paid to John Lane (to purchase it),” Kenney said. “The project was under budget and on time. The building has been protected.”
Photo caption: Renovations at the Ogunquit Playhouse included installation of a state of the art rigging counter weight system. (Courtesy photo)

Veterans Families Honored in Blue Star Service Banner Presentation

BERWICK—
It is an American tradition to display a Blue Star Service Banner in the window of your home when a son or daughter is proudly serving in the U.S. Armed Forces. The Blue Star Service Banner was designed and patented in 1917 by World War I Army Captain Robert L. Queisser of the 5th Ohio Infantry. Queisser’s two sons served on the front line. His banner quickly became the unofficial symbol for parents with a child in active military service. When displayed, the Blue Star Banner is a reminder to all of us that war touches every neighbor and every neighborhood.
Charles S. Hatch Post # 79 recently honored the families of twenty-two men and women from Berwick who are currently serving on active duty with the U.S. Armed Forces. The family members of these service personnel were presented with Blue Star Banners for display in their homes. The blue star represents one family member serving, and a banner can have up to five stars. Banners with two blue stars were presented to Peter and Pattie Anderson for daughters Kayla and Kellie and to Paul and Peggy Diego, for sons Nicholas and Paul.
Blue Star Service Banners with a single star were presented to Glenda Gallant for SFC Raymond Bragdon, USA; Richard and Karen Cordier for SPC Patricia Cordier, USA; Donald and Gail Fortin for SSG Craig Durand, USA; Wendy Glick for 1Lt Warnie Glick, USA; Rick and Jacqueline Mueller for Timothy Mueller; Craig and Cynthia Plaisted for SN Cameron Plaisted, USN; John and Cynthia Poulin for SSG Zachary Poulin, USA.
Other Berwick personnel serving in the U.S. Armed Forces include PFC James Best, III, USA; CW4 Michael Derevjanik, USCG; Ryan Decker, USA; SGT William Gagnon, USA; Capt Linda Grant, USN, LT Matthew Hook, Geoffrey Koppel, SGT Andrew Marini, PFC Alicia Nutter, USA; Eric Ryea and Kevin Weeden.
Blue Star Service Banners were delivered to the families who could not attend the formal presentation.
Photo caption: A portion of the members of the families representing 22 individuals from Berwick presently serving on active duty with the U. S. Armed Forces who received Blue Star Banners from Charles S. Hatch Post #79. Seated (l-r) Gail Fortin, Jacqueline Mueller, Cynthia Plaisted, Lorraine Grant, Wendy Gick, Kim Tetu. Standing (l-r) Rick Mueller, John Poulin, Cynthia Poulin, Craig Plaisted, Glenda Gallant, Patty Anderson, Karen Cordier, Richard Cordier, Jr. (Courtesy photo)

Local Towns Observe Memorial Day with Parades, Services

By Larry Favinger
Staff Columnist
YORK COUNTY—
Memorial Day will be marked by parades, speeches, and the laying of wreaths at memorials to those who fought and died in America’s Wars.
High and middle school bands will take part in the ceremonies and parades in most Southern Maine towns as will members of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, American Legion, police and fire departments and scouts of all ages.
Veterans of the more recent conflicts will also take part in the parades, most of which will conclude with ceremonies at war memorials or cemeteries.
VFW members, in some cases with the help of local scouts, have placed American flags on the graves of veterans in both public and private cemeteries. In South Berwick and York alone more than 2,000 flags have been placed honoring veterans.
Speakers for the events this year include Cmdr. Paul L. Dinius, captain of the USS Helena that is undergoing overhaul at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. Cmdr. Dinius will speak in South Berwick, the host town of the Helena.
In York, Sgt. Maj. Andrew Binger, United States Marine Corp, retired, will speak and in Eliot the speaker will be Retired United States Air Force Maj. Gen. Lee Downer.
The Second Annual Memorial Day Concert and Ceremony will be held at noon Saturday at Fort McClary State Park on Pepperrell Road in Kittery Point.
The original Memorial Day, then known as Decoration Day, was proclaimed by Gen. John Logan, national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic in 1868 calling for the placing of flowers on the graves of Union and Confederate soldiers who died in the Civil War. It was first called Memorial Day in 1882 and was then so proclaimed by President Johnson.
A partial list of parades and ceremonies planned for Monday include:
ELIOT
9 a.m. Parade from the Elementary School with services at the library following the smaller services at Mount Pleasant Cemetery and Brooks Cemetery.
KENNEBUNK
1:45 p.m. Parade from Town Hall to Mousam River Bridge for services in memory of sailors and Marines. Parade to memorial monument for ceremonies and decoration.
KITTERY
9 a.m. Parade from the ambulance station on Walker Street to Orchard Grove Cemetery.
OGUNQUIT
11 a.m. Parade from Bourne Lane on Shore Road to the square and Ogunquit River Bridge for remembrance of those lost at sea ceremony. Parade to Veteran’s Park for additional ceremony.
SOUTH BERWICK
10 a.m. Bicycles decoration contest for K-3 students at Central School. 10:30 VFW Color Guard ceremony at the Vietnam Memorial at Town Hall. 11 a.m. Parade from Central School to the War Memorial at Portland Street.
WELLS
9 a.m. Parade from Wells High School to Wells Corner and on to Ocean View Cemetery.
YORK
9 a.m. Parade from St. Christopher’s Church in York Village to First Parish Cemetery with laying of wreaths at memorials along the route.