Early voting is available to Greenwood residents during all Town Office open hours, which are Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Tuesday, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. You may request an absentee ballot in person or online until Thursday, October 29. You may also register to vote any day up to and including November 3, Election Day. The polls will be open from 8 a.m. until 8 p.m. on Election Day. Don’t forget to vote!
A reminder that the Board of Selectmen, which usually meets on the first and third Tuesdays of the month at 5 p.m., will be altering their meeting schedule through December. The board will meet next on the fourth Tuesday in October, the 27th, and then on November 10 and 24, and December 8 and 22.
There is a Public Hearing scheduled for Tuesday, October 27, at 6:00 p.m. at the American Legion Hall, 595 Gore Road, to discuss three possible future highway projects. The public’s input on these projects is welcome to help the Selectboard plan how to proceed in preparation for the Annual Town Meeting on May 22, 2027.
Project 1: Greenwood Road repair from Rowe Hill Road heading towards Locke’s Mills to 384 Greenwood Road. (Phase 1)
Project 2: Locke’s Mills Bridge/ aka Cubby’s Dam on Howe Hill Road – replace concrete bridge. Undermined and scoured concrete below road surface.
Project 3: Johnnie’s Bridge, Johnnie’s Bridge Road – abutment failure on the Woodstock side of the bridge. Bridge is currently closed to vehicular traffic.
Discussion: Rob Prue, PE from Pine Tree Engineering, will be present to answer questions.
Here are some events coming up in the next few weeks:
Friday, October 23, from 6 to 9 p.m. and Saturday, October 24, from 9 a.m. to noon at the Gould Academy fieldhouse: 46th Annual Bethel Outing Club Ski and Snowboard Sale. Get that unused gear ready to sell! As well as the opportunity to buy from multiple shops in the same place, you have the opportunity to sell winter/outdoor gear and clothing you no longer use or have outgrown (gear should be in safe and good condition). The club takes a 20% commission on sales. More information can be found at bethelouting.org
Sunday, October 25, at 2 p.m.: Tour the Middle Intervale Cemetery with Museums of the Bethel Historical Society Executive Director Will Chapman. This is the final cemetery tour of the year, and will be followed by an open house in the historic Middle Intervale Meeting House, with light refreshments provided by the Middle Intervale Meeting House Society.
Thursday, October 29, from 4 to 5:30 p.m. at the Telstar Library: “Family Caregiving: Challenges, Resources, and Hope,” a free program presented by “To Your Health.” See details in the flyer below.
Saturday, October 31, from 5 to 7 p.m.: Trick-or-Treat Broad Street. Round out a busy month with some family fun! Be sure to stop by the Bethel Library and the Museums of the Bethel Historical Society for our fifth annual Trick-or-Treat Broad Street. We will be distributing candy to trick-or-treaters at the Bethel Library, Robinson House, and Mason House. We’ll also have a mini haunted house full of creeptastic historical oddities in the Twitchell Education Center!
Thursday, November 5, from 4:30 to 6 p.m. in the Telstar Library: Mary Morton Cowan will give a presentation on the history of logging in New England. She is the author of Timberrr! A History of Logging in New England, written for middle-grade readers. Spanning four centuries, the book explores the true story of how logging shaped the economy, culture, and forests of New England—from colonial mast cutting to the rise of sawmills and modern sustainable forestry. This program is presented by the Western Mountains Senior College, and is free and open to the public.
Saturday, November 21, 2:00 p.m. at the Mason House of the Museums of the Bethel Historical Society: Book discussion. Join us for a discussion of the book, The Founding Foodies: American Meals that Wouldn’t Exist Today If Not For Washington, Jefferson, and Franklin by Dave DeWitt. Food writer DeWitt entertainingly describes how some of America’s most famous colonial leaders—like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin—not only established America’s political destiny, but also revolutionized the very foods we eat. Copies of the book are available at the Museum Shop for $10. Call 207-824-2908 or email info@bethelhistorical.org for more information.
According to the U.S. Drought Monitor website, as of last Thursday, when the most recent drought map was released, all of Maine continued to be in at least a moderate drought. However, although the weekly map is released on Thursdays, apparently the cut-off time is the previous Tuesday at 8 a.m. That would mean that last Thursday’s map does not take into account the rain we received on Tuesday and Friday last week, and I’m hoping that the map due to be released today, October 22, will show at least a somewhat better picture of current drought conditions. Even though I’ve been grateful for so many beautiful October days, we do still need more rain!
On Monday morning of this week, Lena and I joined her bestie, Puck, and his person, Betsey, for a hike on the old roads on the west side of Red Hill in Rumford. It was a place I had never been before, and I always love a new-to-me hike. I should note two things, however: first, that the road is gated and access is by permission only (which we did have), and second, that there are coyote traps set in the area, something we didn’t realize until we saw them. So, unfortunately, it was probably my first and last hike there.
A century or more ago, the area was home to a small settlement comprised of several farms, and a surprising number of the fields are kept open by their present owners, giving us beautiful views as we looked across them to Rumford Whitecap in the distance.
A site along the road is identified by a sign as the former site of the Red Hill School, although no vestige of the building itself remains. Just as was the case here in Greenwood, in the nineteenth century, one-room schoolhouses were built nearly everywhere a neighborhood sprang up.
I tried to find out more about the history of Red Hill, but wasn’t able to learn much, except from a few excerpts of William Berry Lapham’s 1890 History of Rumford, Oxford County, Maine, from its First Settlement in 1779 to the Present Time, including one possible reason for the area’s name:
“Daniel and Ezekiel Harper, brothers, were in town quite early and lived on Red Hill. It is said by some that they each had red hair, and that the hill where they settled was so named from this circumstance.”
The dogs are always excited to play together, and they had a wonderful romp…and afterward they both went back home to their respective recliners and slept the afternoon away.
Although I’ve been enjoying the many warm sunny days we’ve had this October, the frosty mornings are a reminder that the seasons are about to change. Tony pulled the waterline from the pond at camp a few weeks ago, and went back last week to disconnect the pump, drain the pipes, and put RV antifreeze in the toilet and drains. I’m glad we no longer have docks and boats to pull out of the water, but that’s what my brother Steve’s family was doing last weekend at their camp. Brrrr!
This online newsletter is intended to keep our communities informed, so if you have news, events, or photos you’d like to have included here, I hope you’ll share them with me! You can reach me by email at amy.w.chapman@gmail.com or by phone or text at 207-890-4812.