The Newcastle Selectmen article in last week’s Lincoln County News had several inaccurate or misstatements that need to be addressed.

The position of Fire Chief is not a new position. The Newcastle Fire Company has elected and had a Fire Chief since its founding in March of 1876.

I would like to bring to your attention what you will be voting on March 31.

Because there were not many people at the March 19 Public Hearing, I want to make sure that residents know what they are voting on, as the language on the town warrant is so misleading.

The Queen is gone; our Muriel, Queen of Jazz and the coffee shops, friend to all of us in the Kingdom. Though with a heavy heart, we want to shout, “Long Live the Queen!” from the rooftops, looking around we ask, “Who is there to replace her?” Indeed, it will take a big soul to fill those tiny slippers.

We need to appreciate what people do for the community, and how hard they work. Dr. Christine Welch, she’s the best.

When you think about the history of the Jazz Idiom, few musicians have exemplified this way of expressing a quintessential “natural swing” the way that Muriel Havenstein did.

Next week, famed mountaineer Ed Webster comes to Skidompha Library in Damariscotta for a talk and book signing. The amiable Webster will discuss his five years in Tibet and highlight his pioneering of a never-before-climbed route up Mt. Everest.

To read the national headlines, it seems 2009 could be the year that the newspaper industry goes the way of the Dodo.

However, now would be the time for us to raise a shaky finger and say something like, in our best Monty Pythonesque voice, “But we’re not dead yet.”

It’s hard to tell how fitting it is that we lose two local icons within days of each other this past week, but our losses are certainly in keeping with the tone of the current times.

I want to take the time to thank Barb Bowers, the Board of the Lincoln Theater and those that generously contributed in order to bring the Metropolitan Opera Live in HD to Damariscotta.

We citizens of Wiscasset have tried the town manager form of government for half a decade.

As a taxpayer, I think we voters should go back to a three person select board comprised of people who comprehend the particulars of an historical coastal town intersected by major arterial routes.

Hagar Enterprises Inc. would like to thank the plowing crew of John Prior Inc., for their help with the storm of Feb. 23-24. During this storm a tree fell down blocking the Lessner Rd. at the Biscay Rd. end. John and his drew offered to plow Lessner Rd. for us until the tree could be cleared away and the road opened.

In the last week or so I have come across a true life incident right here in Lincoln County that illustrates the absurdity of our current health insurance system.

On behalf of the Bristol Area Library, I want to encourage the residents of Bristol to show their support of our library by voting in favor of the proposed budget of $13,000 at the Town Meeting on March 17.

It is difficult to quote individuals accurately, and certainly it was more arduous than usual to quote any of the participants in the March 9 Newcastle Board of Selectmen’s meeting.