Rotattler for October 11th and Board Meeting
Between the Thursday meeting and the board meeting on Monday we discussed the following:
-- Collaboration with the Marshwood Education Foundation to have a dance first Saturday in March at B.A. to help fund our scholarships
-- Progressive dinner on Saturday, October 20th, starting at 5 p.m. at the Wheeler's, then the Ahl's, and finishing at the Spencer's
-- Road clean-up project on November 10th starting at 9 a.m. at the Central School (bring gloves, boots, safety vests, picking up tools)
-- Food pantry collection at the polls on November 6th at the South Berwick Town Hall, if you wish to bring something
-- Any takers for a holiday house party like the ones we've had in the past?
-- We need to check with Spring Hill to ensure we can have our Yankee Swap holiday breakfast there as usual
-- No club meetings December 27th and January 3rd
-- We voted to approve Jim Howell returning to us as a member
-- Friday, November 30th, is Home for the Holidays and we are all set to light up the streets of South Berwick again that night
-- We approved giving the mysterious $1000 in our account to End 68 Hours of Hunger
-- We approved using the $1000 gift from David Burke's family for sending students to RYLA
-- We allocated funds to pay for 8 Interact students to attend the UN/NYC trip in early November
-- A number of members are planning to invite prospective new members to upcoming meetings - the more the merrier!
Presentation
Town Manager Perry Ellsworth spoke about what is happening around town as he continues managing South Berwick now in his 8th year at this post. Current highlights include the ahead-of-schedule and economical construction of the new town police station, the setting of a good bond rate for the town, police dispatch moving to Sanford, and continued debate about marijuana rules and regulations for the town. Perry has enjoyed the diversity and civility program with sister city Tuskegee, Alabama. Issues regarding employment and sustainability of our workforce are apparent all over the state. In our case, we have employment opportunities in the town and cannot draw from our most nearby cities and towns because they are in NH and we must hire Mainers for municipal positions. We are starting to see younger people filling government posts as older workers are leaving. The goal is ultimately to have age and gender diversity. Thank you, Perry, for all you do for South Berwick. You run a calm and efficient ship, which we all appreciate. Smooth sailing, mostly.