By the time you read this, it will be time to think about taking down the Christmas decorations and writing thank you notes. It also is time to think about what 2020 will bring – and mean.

We face significant obstacles, and I am not going to get into the doings in the District of Columbia. I am talking about us, and things that affect the peninsula we love and our state.

If we are lucky, our elected officials and community leaders will begin the painful analytical process that might, and I stress, might, lead to solutions.

Let's start with recent local history. We watched as our friends and neighbors got all up in arms over the closing of St. Andrews Hospital, the redesign of a highway intersection and zoning changes that triggered the creation of a waterfront park in the harbor. Fear of change itself triggered much of the ire.

Well, the hospital did close, but an urgent care center emerged from the ashes of that dumpster fire, and it seems to be working pretty well. Our friends and neighbors channeled their ire into a community health and activity center. It is humming along.

In Boothbay, a dangerous and admittedly cumbersome highway intersection turned into a roundabout. Despite objections and projections from critics, it seems to be working pretty well. Town officials admit it is an improvement over the former design, and our local taxpayers were only required to pick up about a third of the total bill. Recent enhancements to the Boothbay common are promising, too.

In the harbor, the plans for the waterfront park seem to be bubbling along. Yes, we have faced some serious local problems. But there are bigger challenges ahead.

First of all, our local schools must wrestle with reality. We have fewer students. Our older buildings and higher teacher/support personnel cost more each year.

Despite the pronouncements and magical promises from our national political leaders promising us bags of free money for education, today, the bulk of our local school funds come from local property taxes. Fortunately, for year-round residents, some of that burden is shared by our friends from away. 

In my mind, the idea that we might close local schools is unthinkable. I believe it is automatically off the table. Our schools and the children they educate are the heart of our community. Our elected school officials, and teachers and administrators are quietly studying the situation. Is it time for the rest of us to join in the conversation?

What else should we worry about in 2020? While some political figures on all sides yell and scream about climate change, for years our friends at the Bigelow Lab for Ocean Science have been taking scientific measurements. They tell us, yes, our climate is changing, and so are the waters that grace our shores. Scientists say some of our coastal towns (and that means us) could be affected by rising sea levels. For the last several years, our local officials have been quietly preparing for this by protecting our wastewater treatment facilities. Let's give a tip of the hat to Chris Higgins and his bully crew.

We all need the energy to heat our homes and power our transportation. Scientists say we should cut our reliance on fossil fuels to mitigate the effect on the environment. But can we do more? Should we do more?

Central Maine Power proposes to run a power line through the forest to bring power from Quebec to Massachusetts. Is this a good idea? It is old technology. And didn’t power companies admit that some of the terrible West coast forest fires were triggered by failing electric power lines? Is it time for us to embrace new ideas?

Not long ago, a major international producer of energy floated plans to build an experimental floating wind farm off our coast. They studied our weather and said our offshore winds could produce lots of non-polluting electric power. Some folks thought it was nuts. They argued we would have to subsidize some of the costs, and they were right. They said that would not be fair to taxpayers. Some fishermen were opposed, too.

Of course, if you check, we already subsidize oil companies and other energy producers through special tax breaks, but that is another story. So, when our state officials put the kibosh on the Boothbay wind farm project, the major international energy company built it off the coast of Scotland. It worked, and they are developing others, including proposed projects in New York and Massachusetts.

Is it time for our state lawmakers to quit yelling about The Red States vs. The Blue States and focus on new energy technology? Should they think about encouraging floating offshore wind farms as an alternative to the old ways? 

Happy New Year. Please, drive safely.