The Waldoboro Board of Selectmen has called a third referendum style special town meeting for Tuesday, Nov. 5, to hopefully finalize the FY2014 Waldoboro municipal budget.

This Thanksgiving our family is especially grateful. We want to thank the Alna Fire Department and Wiscasset Ambulance Service, particularly first responders Mike Trask, Marcie Lovejoy, and Herman Lovejoy. These volunteers made a great impact in our lives on Aug. 24 by responding to a life threatening situation with calm professionalism.

While driving to Rangeley last Friday night we received a phone call saying that our friend, Rene Goulette’s Shop to Shore had burned to the ground. It was hard to believe.

Thanksgiving Day, despite its name, does not always evoke thoughts of giving thanks – at least initially. Depending on the person, the first thought of Thanksgiving can call forth images of football, a frosty morning in a tree stand, or a Rockwell-esque feast with silver dishes and all the trimmings.

Facts are the most important issue regarding the upcoming vote to decide to ban or continue to allow the allegedly, “cruel and unsportsmanlike,” hunting practices currently used in the state of Maine when hunting bears. There are three hunting practices at issue: Hunting using foot traps, dog packs, and food placement (training the bears to feed in specific places). These three are referred to as “trapping, hounding and baiting.”

There have been arguments made that the fact that RSU 12 has a Fiscal Year 2013 deficit of just over a million dollars is good reason for Wiscasset to withdraw from RSU 12. I would like to put the RSU 12 deficit in perspective.

Once again the notorious anti-hunting Humane Society of the United States is attempting to regulate how bears are hunted in the State of Maine.

In his letter published last week, Rep. Devin tries to make the case for expanding Medicaid. He wrote that “the Federal government would be paying for 100 percent of costs for the new Medicaid recipients for the first three years, gradually declining to no less than 90 percent of costs by the year 2020.”

The Republican Party has declared itself irrelevant.

I have always argued against a third party. Unfortunately, by the process of unintended consequences those of us disenfranchised by the establishment leaders of the Republican Party have effectively been cast into a third party.

This is in response to Mr. Kenneth Marden’s letter concerning the practices of bear hunting in Maine. Once I read the letter I was beyond angry! Everything he states just sounds so absurd to me.

I read your article on the comprehensive plan with great interest. (“Damariscotta invites feedback on comprehensive plan,” LCN, 10/10/2013, Page 5) I have attended many meetings of the comprehensive planning committee and I am pleased to see that income disparity as related to housing costs was addressed.

About 25 years ago, the Klu Klux Klan got the bright idea to hold a rally in Rumford.

I would like to take this opportunity to share a few insights related to my previous letter to the LCN editor on the topic of customer service.

It’s time once again for the home-grown gourd celebration that is the Damariscotta Pumpkinfest & Regatta. Once again we celebrate the growers, organizers and the many, many volunteers who come together to make this thing go.