Government

New Gloucester selectmen approve Juneteenth as town holiday

| Emma Sorkin, Lakes Region Weekly |

The New Gloucester Board of Selectmen voted unanimously Monday to make Juneteeth an official paid holiday for town employees and declined to revisit the board’s failure to meet a deadline for appointments to the charter commission.

The board also elected Peter Bragdon as chairman and Paul Larrivee as vice chairman at its first meeting since the June 8 election, when Larrivee, Dustin Ward and Stephen Hathorne were elected to the board. Peter Bragdon and Tammy Donovan were not up for reelection.

Juneteenth, declared a federal holiday last week, marks the day, June 19, when the final enslaved African-Americans learned they had been freed, 2½ years after the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863.

“This is a very important holiday for people of color,” Ward said. “I would hope that as we move forward, that this would be an opportunity to also commemorate that. To learn more about that. It’s not just a paid holiday, but it is a significant time period for people of color, so I want to at least put that on record.”

Keep reading