|Laura Jane Sturgis|
Since 1968 I have been a full time resident of New Gloucester. I had the good fortune to come to live in the hometown of my late husband, who was born right here down in the Lower Village, next to the church. My children who were raised here are fifth generation members of the Sturgis family, as well as being related to the Rays and the Webbs. Thus there is a longstanding tradition in my family of loving this small town. From the doctor (John) who treated the folks in town, to a chief judge of the Maine Supreme Court, to the couple who ran Sturgis Store (now Links, and formerly Wings), to the entrepreneur who loved real estate and cars, to the son who at one time was chair of the Board of Selectmen, to the stubborn elderly lady with snow white hair and a daughter who loved nothing better than moving back to the home where she grew up, and a member of the sixth generation who has moved his little family to our town, there is a tradition of caring for this small town and wanting to offer its citizens a healthy and fun way of life.
New Gloucester is more than bricks and mortar, gracious historical homes, and the taciturn dispositions of Maine natives. In this town, I, a girl raised in rock-ribbed Aroostook County, found the warmth of community and pride in the roots that welcomed me home. I willingly served on the Board of Selectmen and know the difficulty of making a budget in difficult times. I started working with Parks and Rec as the Board’s selectman serving as a representative of the Board. I saw the department grow from a fairly active group blessed with a part time director who got a few good things going for the town. Harvey moved on and we were blessed to get the present-day department head, Morgan. He went from a busy part-timer to a visionary leader who chose to often coordinate things with Gray that worked out to the betterment of both towns. Last fall I had the fun of passing out shirts to kids from both towns and multi-aged who participated in the soccer program. Morgan has organized sports, exercise programs for all ages, good programs that even involved seniors in adventures with their age mates from Gray. Lately he has helped organize many things to get us through the difficult days of doing things at a distance. One of his recent successes was working with Gray to organize a food drive in both towns.
To lose Morgan and his enthusiasm and vision would be huge loss to the quality of life in our town. I protest with great emphasis the elimination of his position. He is a great asset to the town and should be kept. There are some things more important than asphalt.
