Gilead July 22

It is still hot and humid. The thundershower that went through Saturday night did not cool it down very much.

The new bridge on Route 2 in Gilead is now open. Last Friday, Hugh and I got a call from Fred Corriveau, at the request of Paul Castonguay from K & K Construction, to let us know that the bridge would be opening soon. We had about five minutes to get up there to take some pictures. Shane Amoroso, MDOT, was there waiting. I decided that this would be my only chance to walk down the middle of the bridge safely, so I did. I was standing in the middle of the bridge (on the side) when the first traffic came through. After Zebb from K & K and then Fred Corriveau in a K & K dump truck, there was a line of cars. Fred blew the horn and waved as he went by and the people in the cars just looked like they wondered what was going on. Hugh took a few pictures of the first cars that officially came across the bridge.

My brother, Steve McLain, drove the Gilead fire truck in the Mollyockett Day parade last weekend. It was so hot last Saturday that we decided to stay right home and not go to Mollyockett Day.

Hugh and I attended a birthday party for one of the grandchildren last Sunday. Ajay Landry celebrated his 8th birthday with a pizza party at Mr. Pizza in Gorham, N.H. There were several of his friends from school who attended and his grandparents, Leo and Ann Croteau from Berlin, N.H. Our granddaughter, Sidney Chapman, was also there. While we were there, I ran into Laura Melix, who used to take college courses at the Bethel ITV site a few years ago.

Mary Tyler called the other day to say that they had a family of skunks out behind their house the other night. Sometime in the middle of the night one day last week, I woke up to hear some “chattering” outside the bedroom window. It sounded like a group of raccoons going around the corner of the house, but maybe it was the skunk family. We had some last year and the little ones made quite a racket.

Planning Board

A Public Meeting has been scheduled for Thursday, Aug. 5, at 6:30 p.m. to discuss draft changes to the Floodplain Management Ordinance. An update to the state-provided 2005 ordinance is necessary to permit the town to join the National Flood Insurance Program. Major changes include the implementation of a website-based floodplain mapping system and inclusion of requirements for recreational vehicles in floodplains. All changes are available for review at the Town Office and have been posted at the Town Hall and Transfer Station.

Got any news? Call 836-2987 or e-mail chapmal@hotmail.com.