What a terrible start to the year we are off to.

It seems that hopes of leaving the doom and gloom of 2009 behind us with the ringing in of the New Year may have been optimistic, but there is still plenty of time left to salvage a really good year out of this really rough start.

This week, we tip our cap to Dr. Allan “Chip” Teel and his effort to provide at home care for elderly residents too healthy to need full-time nursing care and too infirm to live completely on their own.

To the Editor:

I dropped off my 2000 Subaru for servicing at Yudy’s yesterday.

To the Editor:

In The Lincoln County News (“Judge rules Nelson violated South Bristol Shoreland Zoning rules,” Page 1, 1/7/10).

To the Editor:

The vote about consolidation has come and gone. It is time for the voters in Sheepscot Valley RSU 12 to pass a budget for our new school system.

(Regarding “Waldoboro Police make arrest in horse abuse case,” Page 1, 1/21/10)

“Milena, who requested her last name not be published, adopted a mother and baby. The mother was going to be put down due to an untreated knee problem.

To the Editor:

I’m afraid that Doug Wright must have misinterpreted portions of my last letter to the editor, as it was not intended to be in the least condescending or patronizing.

Well, we won’t have Mary Bowers to kick around anymore. Looks like we won’t have Arthur Faucher to dust up, either.

Town managers and municipal superintendents walk a particularly fine line because they are responsible to the public and they usually serve at the whims of a board. They are the public face of their organization; the front line, rarely getting credit for good decisions and usually fielding an inordinate amount of grief for the bad ones.

Information and News from the Legislature.

I would like to extend my gratitude to Sen. David Trahan (R-Waldoboro) for all his hard work during the past year creating and introducing a bill that would have implemented a free saltwater fishing license in Maine.

To the Editor:

Recently in Gardiner, four kittens were found in a box on a snow bank, frozen to each other and barely alive. Thanks to Good Samaritans and the animal shelter, they received veterinary care. However, many less fortunate animals do not receive help in time.

Back before 9/11 united Americans in a common purpose, back before the Challenger disaster, before the Kennedy assassination – there was Pearl Harbor.

Today it seems Pearl Harbor has largely been swept away in the rush to the mall but there was a time when remembering the most successful foreign assault on U.S. soil since 1812 was a big, big deal.

It is very refreshing to see the swarm of support for our “Toys for Edgecomb” effort. It wasn’t that long ago that the Edgecomb Republican committee sat around a table at the Town Hall and brainstormed a way to give back to our town. Sometimes a great idea stays a great idea and never gets implemented. The “Toys for Edgecomb” project has snowballed very quickly.

It’s tough times we are living in. Pick a subject, any subject it seems and we can find a problem to concern us.

However, this coming year there will be time and energy enough to spend on the issues before us and, while they are significant, they are not bigger than we are.