I will be retiring from the Newcastle Board of Selectmen after Town Meeting in June. Being on the board has been a very rewarding as well as challenging time in my life. I have greatly appreciated the support and encouragement that I have received from Newcastle residents.

Gov. Paul LePage’s move to withhold funds for conservation projects until the Legislature approves his plan to increase timber harvests on public land might otherwise have our support, except for one detail.

I commend Newcastle Selectman Pat Hudson for her political courage in speaking of the plight of town property taxpayers at a recent public meeting. Mick Devin, our State Representative, organized that meeting in February to discuss changes in our municipal property tax system.

To those Bristol voters who cast their vote for me to return to the Bristol School Committee for another three-year term, thank you. Those who run for office do so for a variety of reasons and my goal is to make a concerted effort to give our rural children of Bristol the best education possible.

We have almost made it. It’s March. We have survived the deepest, darkest doldrums of what, by most accounts, was an exceptionally dark and dreary winter. The clocks spring ahead this weekend, spring is on the horizon, and honest to God, these days you can hear birds chirping in the morning, if you are lucky.

By any standard, pumping 2,087 gallons of No. 2 heating oil into a septic system is a monumental screw-up.

It saddens me greatly to report that Janet Elwin’s magnificent quilts have been removed from the Miles Hospital Gallery due to circumstances beyond our control.

Words cannot express the amount of love and support we have received from our friends and neighbors in Whitefield and beyond.

Others have testified to Frank Avantaggio’s contributions to the community and the hospital, and they were immense; and to his surgical skills, which were formidable.

Recent transplants to the Damariscotta area may best know Dr. Avantaggio, if at all, as the kindly old man who tended Skidompha’s Secondhand Book Shop in recent years. By then, Dr. Avantaggio was long established as a pillar of the community.

It is unfortunate that Mr. Craig Elliot felt compelled to send a rant to the LCN (“Is this the change Obama promised?” LCN, 2/15/15. Page 4), just because one young man and his hard working family pursuing the American dream were able to acquire affordable healthcare.

The Internal Revenue Code now contains 3.8 million words, or the equivalent of 13,000 pages of a 300 words per page book. The Internal Revenue Service Rules and Regulations are about twice that size. With all the exemptions, deductions and incentives, this vast tax code is much too complicated and makes it very difficult for citizens and corporations to calculate and pay their taxes without computer software, or an accountant, or lawyer.

I am writing this article to all those companies who want you to pay your bills online. If, however, there are those of us who prefer to pay by check, it takes you at least an hour of your time to straighten out a mistake. It is almost impossible to get a representative to help you understand what is going on.

That poverty disappeared is hard to believe, but true. Not here in the United States, where elections are won by how much we can condemn those receiving benefits, but in Manitoba, Canada during the 1970s.