Hooray for Dickie Spofford.

The longtime volunteer firefighter tells us he is stepping down as the chief of the Boothbay Fire Department after 22 years.

Now, don’t expect him to go home, sit on the porch, try to figure out the next banjo riff, and eat Whoopie pies.

He will stay with the department but hand the reins (and headaches) to David Pratt, the assistant chief, and let him be responsible for everything ranging from the big red trucks to toilet paper for the station’s restrooms.

Dickie will still issue burn permits, serve as forest warden, answer the emergency bell and serve as a role model and mentor to younger volunteers.

But he will let someone else call balls and strikes. After 22 years in the hot seat, he deserves a rest. And he deserves our profound thanks, too.

We ask a lot of our volunteer firefighters. Unlike their counterparts in big cities, they are not paid good salaries to be on duty day after day to race to fires, crashes, rescues and the rest of the menu. Those are pros who get top-notch training, top equipment, and lots and lots of practice. Most big city fire departments are good.

In small-town America, we depend on our friends, neighbors and other volunteers to perform tasks similar to those done by the big city firefighters. They spend time learning basic firefighting skills. They learn the best safety practices and how to use specialized equipment that keeps them alive. Most of all, they learn to work as a team and to cooperate with neighboring fire departments.

Unlike other wonderful community volunteers, they may have a set training schedule, but sometimes the bell rings in the middle of the night, in the middle of winter. It takes a special kind of volunteer to jump out of a warm bed and drive to a fire or accident.

Sometimes, they have to unscramble what is left of a car to rescue the driver, the passenger, or both.

We live in small towns. We know neighbors, friends, classmates, and even regular visitors. Sometimes the firefighters recognize the car and the occupants. It is not a pleasant situation for all.

In 2008, we experienced a major fire that destroyed much of East Boothbay’s Washburn & Doughty shipyard. On that morning, the wind was calm. The plume of smoke could be seen for miles. It took a week or so to put it out.

Because of the work of our community’s volunteer firefighters, helped out by the fire companies from our neighboring communities and beyond, plus favorable weather conditions, that blaze was contained.

I guess what I am trying to do is to offer my thanks to the volunteer firefighters.And a special thanks to the guy who served as chief for 22 years.

Thanks Dickie.

P.S., If you, reader, want to help out your local volunteer firefighters, you might take your weed whacker out of the garage, walk to your nearest fire hydrant, and clear out the weeds. That way, when the volunteers need to hook up to the hydrant, they won’t have to bushwhack through the jungle to reach it.

A win for our lobstermen

Late last week, we got word that a federal appeals court handed a victory to our lobster fishers in their battle against federal agencies that would shut down the fishery to protect right whales. The Associated Press reported that Judge Douglas H. Ginsburg wrote that the proposed federal rules would represent a potential worst-case scenario for the lobster fishing industry. “The result may be great physical and human capital destroyed, and thousands of jobs lost, with all the degradation that attends such dislocations,” Ginsburg wrote. State officials including Gov. Janet Mills applauded the court ruling as did officials from Maine Lobstermen’s Association.

Opioid settlement windfall 

We got word from an analysis by the Maine Monitor last week that our state is in line to collect $235 million over the next 20 years as part of national settlements with companies that promoted the national opioid crisis. According to their analysis, Maine Recovery Council will collect $117 million, the Maine Attorney General will collect $47 million, and various cities, towns and counties will collect some $70 million. The Monitor says Lincoln County is in line to receive $1.467 million.

There is no word on how the money will be used but the Monitor issued a caution.

“Only 15 states have explicitly promised to publicly report 100% of their settlement expenditures, according to a 50-state survey from OpioidSettlementTracker.com author Christine Minhee. Maine is not one of them.”

It seems that we are due to receive a huge bucket of money. Our state and local leaders might want to let us know how they plan to spend it.