Hello friends and neighbors!

The Carl and Barbara Segerstrom Preserve at Squam Creek will celebrate its official opening with a ribbon cutting ceremony at 1 pm on Sunday, Aug. 6. Come and join Westport’s selectmen, the Kennebec Estuary Land Trust, and other Island citizens in feting the hard work invested in this new public preserve. Take the north entry to West Shore Road and follow it over the causeway to a pullout on the left. Congratulations are in order!

Immediately after the ribbon cutting, join the Westport Community Association at an Ice Cream Social from 2-5 p.m. at the Old Town Hall. Come and enjoy a cone or sundae and then join in a lawn game such as volleyball, badminton, croquet, horseshoes, bocci or water balloon toss! Bring the whole family to this fun, flavorful, free event! A non-perishable food item is always appreciated for the Helping Hands Food Pantry. Special thanks to event sponsor Wiscasset Ford.

Our Fire Department is appealing to all residents and property owners to keep driveways and private roads clear of tree limbs, brush, and other obstacles. The fire trucks and rescue vehicle average 10’ tall and 9’ wide. Large overhanging limbs and trees near road shoulders can make it very difficult to guide a truck backwards safely without damaging lights, mirrors, and paint on the vehicles. If you need an opinion whether your driveway has a problem, please call Chief Mooney (460-0367) or Deputy Chief Abbott (522-2095). Furthermore, if you ever have any questions regarding firefighting in general or what the department does, you are invited to contact them with questions at wfd.maine@gmail.com. If you don’t have internet, you can drop a note at the Town Office.

Summer is a great time to travel, and many Westporters are taking full advantage of their discretionary time off the Island this year. Brenda Bonyun reports that she and Jeff experienced a time warp when they visited Vermont’s Country Store, which carries all sorts of fun, nostalgic products from our childhoods. Son Nathan’s ambitious goal of getting fit and losing one hundred pounds is truly inspirational. He recently achieved a long-term goal of climbing to the summit of Mt.Katahdin. Son Caleb has also been enjoying the outdoors during a week-long hiking and canoeing adventure with a friend in the northern Maine woods. Paul is once again training to do the American Lung Association’s “Fight for Air Climb” at 1 Boston Center in February. For the third time, Paul plans to climb 85 flights of stairs in full firefighting gear. Unbelievably, he has previously completed that task in less than fifteen minutes!

Bill and Susan Christman of Westport and North Carolina (with their entire family totaling eleven) recently returned from a trip to the south of France. Taking in the Maritime Alps while driving from Monaco to Barcelona, they rented boats, swam, and had drinks in a café where Van Gogh once painted. The trip was a graduation gift to granddaughter Kristin Neill, whose parents Karen and Lee summer on Log Cabin Road. Kristin interned at the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens for two summers, and will be heading to Oregon State University to do graduate studies in plant genetics this fall.

Susie Stedman connected with a longtime college friend from South Africa/the UK for a “whirlwind merry-go-round” six week adventure that included a trip to Campobello Island and Nova Scotia. They stayed with Canadian friends on HirtleIsland, “an island off an island off the coast of Nova Scotia,” which has exactly two houses on it. With no indoor plumbing, their hosts live off the land as much as possible by growing vegetables and fruits, making daily bread and their own wine, and harvesting fish from the beach. Susie reports that the dining was magnificent!

Please share your adventures with your newshound pat-dick@midcoast.com or call 231-4049.