Damariscotta’s Essential Character

As we are impelled to adjust to changing times and respond to increasingly widespread clamors to “do something” to deal with the pressures of late developments, there’s this thing that happens whereby we lose track of where we’ve been and where we’re headed, or at least where we ought to be headed. In the instance of a small Maine town trying to wend its way into the future, mandated to do so through what’s called a Comprehensive Plan, the issue becomes very much a forest with too many trees. A case in point is Damariscotta – very small, only 14.7 square miles (that’s only 3.8 miles on a side) with barely more than 2000 residents. Laying out a plan should be easy, one would think.

But in the case of Damariscotta, it isn’t so simple. The reality is that Damariscotta is the hub, the shopper destination, the locale of professional offices, the service center, the cultural heart, in fact, the essential town of the seven or eight township communities surrounding it, comprising most of Lincoln County. While it falls on only its small number of voters and town officers to call the shots, there is no escaping the imbedded interests, investments and long term commitments of the many thousands of people from the surrounding towns who also think of Damariscotta as their town. Indeed, it is they as well who have shaped Damariscotta’s well known and much loved character.

The downtown business community in particular, many of whose owners do not actually reside in Damariscotta, has evolved to become the welcoming front parlor, so to speak, for the whole area leading out to the Pemaquid and Boothbay peninsulas. And this is not only so for wandering tourists, but for all year round and seasonal inhabitants as well. The old brick buildings, made of Damariscotta River bricks; the tight and intimate main street; the flower planters and window boxes; the friendly stores and restaurants; the steadfast offerings of the essence of coastal Maine – these are the things about our town none of us ever wants to change. They are precisely why so many of us love this place, as is evidenced by the overwhelming popularity (in this modern age) of Damariscotta’s Main Street webcam, which many hundreds now claim to “visit” every day of the year.

Beyond Main Street, the waterfront on the Damariscotta River is the living connection to our maritime roots, and it’s very busy with both commercial and recreational activity. The river, and access to it, was the genesis of much of the historic development in this town. Small garden roadside stands offer peas and cucumbers, tomatoes and corn and cut flowers in jars, and blueberries and sea lavender – they hearken back to our longstanding agricultural leanings as we pass farms and inhale new mown fields along the way. The resurgence today of locally grown produce and livestock is clear evidence of our wanting to preserve this connection to the land. Many here heat their homes with wood, live by the tide and have seasonal lines of work.

There has historically been an unchanging, wholesome goodness to the place. And for the most part, it’s what keeps those who were born here here and what has drawn uncounted others to this area for many generations. The resistance to change, nearly any change, is almost laughable. The installation of the first traffic light raised quite a lot of concern. So did the recent tearing up and reconfiguration of Main Street. In both instances they were changes for the better, though there are many who still aren’t so sure. Painting a building a new color; hinting that a certain tree might be in the way of progress; or simply exhibiting a lack of sympathy for the old Maine way of doing things – all such have the potential of raising proprietary fervor.

Taken a few steps further however, and the perceived threat to Damariscotta’s (often including the surrounding community of townships’) longstanding self image can result in a remarkable degree of heat expended in the battle for self preservation by resisting change. Sometimes the concerns are warranted; sometimes not. There was the Route 1 bypass highway project years ago, which many feared would take the town off the map. R.H. Reny disagreed. He was right. There was the Skidompha Library building project that proposed the removal of two old houses to put a new modern building smack-dab in the middle of town. That fight lasted two years and added more than half a million dollars in costs to the library, but in the end, its demonstrated value to the community resulted in its being awarded the National Medal for Library Service, a very prestigious honor. In both cases, the fear of change failed to hold much water.

Then, more recently, the Walmart store chain took a very muscular approach to move into Damariscotta, using its well practiced, well oiled corporate machinery to bomb our town and many of its businesses into submission. Its widely recognized advantages to shoppers, very tempting, especially in our poor state, came face to face with a building sense of alarm at what really was at stake. This time the people rallied against a dire threat unlike any that had come to town before. The debate got heated at times, but below the surface it became clear there was a unity of comprehension. In a remarkable demonstration of grass roots democracy in action, Walmart was soundly trounced. Damariscotta would NOT become just another town who sold out its essential character for cheap goods. The blueberries and sweet peas for sale on the side of the road were safe.

Times can be tough. Not long ago, in a mind to save Damariscotta the hefty cost of maintaining its police department, a surprising notion was put forth by the town officials: Do away with it altogether! The idea was to farm out police responsibility to the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Department at a considerable saving. Whoa! That plan flew about as far as a lead balloon. Was the flagship of the entire region to have no home town Police Department? In the eyes of a huge majority, that was tantamount to firing the Fire Department! Municipal Treason! Person after person, in a rare expression of support, offered to pay $50 more on their tax bills to keep their cops on the beat. That was change that simply was not to happen. It didn’t.

This resistance to developmental and problem solving change oftentimes amounts to prolonged procrastination, as in the perennial discussion surrounding the town’s clear lack of adequate parking, or whether or not there is a real need for something so obviously called for as public restrooms. Such things, if they’re ever to be seriously addressed, will cost a lot of money and require a good deal of creative thinking, neither of which have yet appeared in any abundance. And coupled with today’s and likely the future’s trying financial stresses, to do things like build extensive new sidewalks, expand the waterfront, establish communal gardens, expand housing projects in a meaningful way, etc., all of which border on dreaminess in today’s climate, will require a lot more than dreaming.

What we are faced with is a dire need for honesty and true out-of-the-box thinking. It calls first for serious self-assessment. Who are we? What are our best assets? What are we especially good at? More important, can Damariscotta continue to live up to expectations, its own and others’? We might decide, hey, for such a small town to hinge all those expectations on growth and an expanding tax base, considering its limited land and population, is preposterous. 14.7 square miles and a shrinking, aging population don’t give you much to work with. On the other hand, it would be a disgraceful falling-down to simply content ourselves with our quaintness by clinging to the old ways, naively hoping they will carry us forever into the future.

So, let’s take a look. For starters, Damariscotta is a real town, a quintessential, pretty, coastal town, with a harbor on the river and a bustling Main Street lined with historic buildings. It has all the elements that fit the bill for a thriving community. Just off of Route 1, yes, it caters to tourism with the expected gift shops and some short term recreational opportunities, not to mention a variety of good restaurants and interesting stores. But more critically, it has a library, post office, theater, department store, clothing stores, gourmet food store, fish store, soda fountain, laundromat, an especially good bookstore with an internet cafe, professional offices (law, insurance and real estate), art galleries and a gas station where they still clean your windshield – all within easy walking distance of each other. There is a fire department, a police department, ambulance service and an excellent hospital nearby. The locals are friendly and animated. The place has real energy. When people think of Damariscotta from afar, this is what they see in their mind’s eye.

Look further into the expanded community, and we have building supply companies, a terrific hardware store, big grocery stores, whole foods, aquaculture, automotive service and supply, construction companies, energy companies and on and on. Our schools are very good. We have a thriving art and performing arts community. Natural resource conservation is paramount in most people’s minds, best exemplified by the Damariscotta River Association. Yes, in the most important ways, the bases are covered. One could say we have it all . . . and a quality of life that would be hard to better. Of course there’s a resistance to change. “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

No, things ain’t broke, but there are issues needing attention, some far more pressing than others, and that is where we need to look at who we are and what we find pressing. The Damariscotta community is composed of a remarkable cross-section of people coming from a wide variety of backgrounds. They are skilled workers and artisans, scientists, academics and educators, social workers, doctors, engineers, writers, artists, intellectuals, philosophers and manual laborers. They are creative, hardworking and productive. A good percentage are retired in the sense that they no longer do what they did for a career, but they find themselves still using their knowledge and skills in new arenas. Many have moved to the Damariscotta area from far corners, drawn here by its simple, friendly, safe and calming charm, by its natural beauty and by its Maineness. This is a broad potential army of folks who really, really care about their town and what it offers; their Olympian volunteerism here is a huge factor in the ongoing successes of many of our local organizations and projects.

Where such people’s interests lie can determine what issues are most pressing. The expertise and energy they can apply to the task can be what determines its importance to the community, whether or not it can override the strong resistance to change.