I first became a customer of Camden National Bank around 2002, when I worked across the parking lot at Movie Gallery.
I would cross the parking lot to bring over the daily deposit and eventually I opened an account.
I had to have somewhere to stash my wealth – at $5.15 an hour and about 30 hours a week, my paychecks could climb as high as $150!
At some point, after my career in the video-rental industry came to an end, I closed my account.
Amazingly, the bank was able to limp along without my deposits, or even Movie Gallery’s when it fell victim to Redbox and streaming some years later (a change for the worse, in my opinion).
After I came to work at The Lincoln County News, I opened an account at The Bank of Maine, near our office on Mills Road. When The Bank of Maine merged into Camden National in 2015, I was once again a Camden National customer.
The staff at the Damariscotta branch is always friendly and helpful and the online banking and app are convenient and easy to use, plus I appreciate the reimbursement of ATM fees.
When it was time for my wife and I to buy a house, I walked into Britt Hatch’s office in Damariscotta and she walked us through a rather complex first-time homebuyers program.
(None of this, I should say, is to diminish any other local bank. I have a health savings account at Damariscotta Bank & Trust, where I have banked since my grandparents opened an account in my name when I was born, and I have nothing bad to say about any local bank.)
This week’s front page reports a move for the Damariscotta branch of Camden National Bank, into the new development by the rifle club.
I like the location of Camden National now, but the new spot will have its perks too. In the summer, many of us here on Mills Road use Route 1 to avoid downtown traffic, and the new spot is a little closer to the other end of town.
We congratulate Camden National on its plans for a new location and welcome this investment in the community.
