I thought I was going to do a short article on Wiscasset’s Future of the Schools Committee’s latest meeting. And it might have been very short given nearly everything being said was something the person saying it or fellow members had said before.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that; that’s committee work for you: Through repeated circling, the circle of information, opinions and decisions moves ever slightly forward, so someday the work is done, and the work is generally sound. 

But then, Chair Duane Goud looked over to the light audience and invited some municipal leaders from Boothbay and Boothbay Harbor to talk or to ask questions if they wanted.

The discussion that emerged started and stayed wholly polite and wholly frank, about issues they and Wiscasset and apparently other places have in common over schools. 

If you have attended any less genial local meetings in recent years in any town, you and I have something in common. And it was just nice Monday night, even over Zoom and YouTube (find the recording on Wiscasset’s YouTube channel), to see people getting along, saying valuable things while valuing one another’s and their own time.

Fortunately, we can still say that is the norm for meetings in Wiscasset and other towns. But the meetings that take a different turn, I am both glad to report on it as one of our freedoms in America, and weary.

Budget season means lots of extra meetings, sometimes more than one a night. It makes one appreciate all of it but especially enjoy any calm voices, mutual respect and lack of one up-manship. 

Week's positive parting thought: I cannot say enough good things about the ease and thoroughness of Wiscasset's new town website at wiscasset.gov. Sign up for some, many, or all the agendas, as I think I did, and you won't miss a beat. And of course, please sign up for our free, seven-day a week Morning Catch email, where we report on as much of it all as we are able, which is quite a bit.