Community News (Aug. 7, 2009)
Mayor leads ‘Hidden Jewels’ tour Saturday
South Portland Mayor Tom Blake will lead a tour of the city’s “Hidden Jewels” on Saturday when the South Portland Land Trust hosts its third in a series of four summer tours.
“Hidden Jewels” tour is primarily a vehicle tour and will stop at sites that may include a cascading waterfall, side rails from old and private Vaughn’s Bridge, an alewives sleuth and an historic riverbank where Native Americans and settlers signed a peace treaty. Blake, a founding member and former president of the South Portland Land Trust, may also show participants a street plow used as a lawn ornament, the ruins of an ice house, a marker used to designate the Kings Highway and other little known but fascinating tidbits of South Portland history.
The fourth and final SPLT summer tour will be Saturday, Aug. 22. Former SPLT Director Jon Dore and Patrick Keenan from the BioDiversity Research Institute will highlight what makes the city’s Trout Brook area a special place.
Tour participants will learn how Sawyer Marsh helps keep the brook clean and how springs help keep the trout population healthy. Attendees will come away with ideas about how they can help improve water quality in Trout Brook or in the watershed where they might live. Tour participants should meet and park on Sawyer and Parrott Streets prior to the start of the 9 to 11 a.m. tour.
The SPLT’s four-tour series are each educational tours featuring locations in South Portland that are significant environmental and historically. Earlier tours this summer included walking tours of Barberry Creek and of Fort Preble and the SMCC campus.
“Hidden Jewels” participants should meet at 8:45 a.m. at the Bug Light Park parking area prior to the 9 to 11 a.m. event. The tour is open to the public at no charge. For more information, call 767-1269.
Author of new photo history book to speak
John Moon, author of “Then & Now: Portland,” will present a talk and sign books 7 p.m., Wednesday, Aug. 26, at Nonesuch Books in the Mill Creek Shopping Center, South Portland. In the new book published by Arcadia Publishing, Portland native Moon compares 19th century photographs to their present-day counterparts.
Site walk planned for
Cape Elizabeth trail
The Cape Elizabeth Conservation Commission has canceled its regular Aug. 11 meeting. Its next regular meeting will be Tuesday, Sept. 8. The commission also will hold a site walk 9 a.m., Saturday, Sept. 12, at Gull Crest, to consider improvements to the trail and signs. Participants should meet in the area of the community garden.
Cape Fire Department
to sponsor art show
The town of Cape Elizabeth Fire Department announces it’s 42nd annual Engine One Company Labor Day Art Show fundraiser.
The event will take place at Fort Williams Park Sunday, Sept. 6 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
A variety of artists will be featured including those displaying acrylics, watercolor, photography and crafts.
The event will raise money for the Cape Elizabeth Engine One Company Fire Department, to be used toward purchasing and updating equipment as well as training members.
Artists are welcome to submit applications to be in the show up until day of show.
More information can be obtained from the town of Cape Elizabeth Web site.
Cape Land Trust to raffle
print by artist Connie Hayes
The Cape Elizabeth Land Trust (CELT), organizer and beneficiary of Paint for Preservation 2009, has added a raffle to complement the organization’s second annual Wet Paint Auction, to be held in Cape Elizabeth on Aug. 30. Proceeds will benefit the CELT’s Saving Cape’s Great Places initiative.
The Land Trust is raffling a signed, numbered, limited first edition print (number 15 of 20) of Rockland-based artist Connie Hayes.
The framed print is entitled “Inner and Outer Glow, Cape Elizabeth.” The print is one of the artist’s “Borrowed Views,” a project involving her living and painting in others’ homes as an artist-in-residence.
The print is on view at the CELT office at 330 Ocean House Road and an image is on the organization’s Web site. Raffle tickets, which are $25 each or five for $100, are available at the CELT office or online at www.capelandtrust.org.
Art in the park adds
more food, fun for kids
The 30th annual Art In The Park art show and sale begins tomorrow at 9 a.m. Event organizer Mary Perry said the show has sold out once again with 185 vendors coming from all over the state.
“We always sell out. We’ve been full for the past nine or ten years,” she said. “It just seems to get bigger and bigger.”
This year, Perry said there will be entertainment for children beginning at 10 a.m. A performance group from New Hampshire will use a pirate theme to help teach children about the importance of healthy foods and exercise, she said. In addition to the performance, they will also learn how to make paper lotus flowers, Perry said.
“Kids in the park is from 10 to 2,” she said. “It’s a chance for the kids to have a little fun.”
In addition to the art and activities, Perry said this year’s event includes several new food vendors. She said the number of tables has expanded to accommodate what seems to be an increasingly hungry crowd.
“We started with just a few tables and it seems like everybody really likes having that, so we’re having a lot more now,” she said. “You don’t have to walk around with your food, you can sit and eat.”
Perry said the rain date is Sunday, Aug. 9, but the forecast is looking good for Saturday. Art in the Park is scheduled to take place in South Portland’s Mill Creek Park from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. with activities specifically for children taking place from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. For more information call Art in the Park at 767-7656.
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