Greetings,
I hope all of you who are not here in Maine are not too envious of all the delightful weather we have had here in Newport. The snow gods have been overly generous and the –18 degree temperatures have really grabbed the attention of all of us out shoveling. Did I mention that the 55 mph wind gusts have been really enjoyable as well?
Enough gloating; the annual town meeting will be Saturday, March 14, 2015 at 10:00 am at the Armory. While the 7 weeks of budget workshops with the selectmen were labor intensive and time consuming, the ultimate outcome is a somewhat reasonable slight budget increase for 2015-2016.
The new public works garage is operational and there is an open house on Saturday, February 28, 2015 from 10:00 am –2:00 pm, all are welcome to attend. The new public works garage is located across the parking lot from the sand and salt shed across the street from the transfer station.
There are a few fish/ice shacks out on the lake and this year there was SNOW for the Pine Tree Ride In, the first time in 4 or 5 years. There have been snowmobiles out on the lake, but honestly with no groomed trails, it is difficult to ride on the lake surface due to the uneven terrain.
A few members of the public works crew were clearing off the ice skating rink down by the river walk, so if you are so inclined, take your skates down for a few turns in between snow storms. The river walk has lights along the path near the skating rink, and it is really pretty down there at night when it is all lit up.
Take care and enjoy what is left of winter; spring is on the calendar in 27 days. Yahoo! This is the first year I have ever looked forward to mud season!
Muffy
[Maxine Pare-SLA President]
I had hoped to read some of your statistics for comparison. Here in Syracuse we expect to finish this week with not only the coldest February on record ever, but the coldest month ever. We are also in first place for the Golden Snowflake award having surpassed Boston and Worcester within the last week even though we got a slow start this year. We are now at 105.9″.