To the Editor:
A week ago Sunday, in the slush on Route 220, my Subaru drifted to the right, then described a slow arc left across the empty (thanks, guardian angel!) road, down an embankment and into a tree. After 50-some years of driving on snow and ice without any problem, I couldn’t have been more incredulous if it had taken wing.
Nothing hurt. I was able to climb out the unblocked passenger side and up to the road where (more good luck) Waldoboro’s Public Works director John Daigle happened by and took over, insisting that I stand in the shelter of his truck while he called police to the scene and I called AAA for someone to pull my car out of the woods.
I was fine, except for the utter mortification, but shaky with the surprise of it all and after police officers Bill Bragg and Jeffrey Fuller got fire engines to close the road while a wrecker hauled up my car, and then saw me safely home, I realized how lucky we are here to be able to count on the efficiency and kindliness of our town officials.
There are citizens of Waldoboro voting consistently against the budgets for a police force and a town office because they don’t want to pay taxes. It’s a tough, independent stance-“I don’t need any help from government”-but it’s unrealistic. No one is immune to accident, or worse, criminal intent, and it’s part of the social contract we make, living together in a town, to be able to call on professionals who know how to minimize damage.
We’re blessed here with such excellent people. We need to cough up our tax money and be grateful we have got them.
