The return of a chainsaw bear to Cambridge Village Market felt like one more sign things are making the turn toward normal. So did several sightings of two turkeys in the fields between Whitfield Drive and the brick houses on Route 15. For several years, a flock of five frequented those fields, but the numbers dropped to zero sometime last summer. It’s good to see them back. It was also good to see a sign for walk-in COVID-19 vaccinations at Kinney Drugs.
This past week, various social media postings and several conversations allowed me to put a finger on something I had noticed but didn’t have a name for, because it was happening in a season when it doesn’t usually occur. In the past, right before town meeting, a touchy issue often flares up. It’s understandable because we’re near the end of a Vermont winter and we have matters of town government to decide and people have definite opinions on these things.
This year we didn’t have that opportunity to clear the air in person, and it seems to me tensions have continued to build. We’ve all been dealing with pandemic restrictions for 15 months, and we are frayed, some of us more than others. This is not to say we shouldn’t disagree, but I would hope we do so with the civil discourse that has long been a characteristic of town meetings.
Local government, from the selectboard to the various boards and commissions, is made up of volunteers who are doing this work on top of jobs and all the other responsibilities the rest of us have, under the same pandemic-induced stresses we all are trying to deal with as best we can.
There are constructive ways to deal with those tensions. I’ve noticed various postings of gratitude on social media. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank Rob Karmin, a member of the Cambridge Conservation Commit-tee. Karmin resigned in May because he is moving out of town.
We might engage with art. The Bryan Gallery has recently hung two shows: “Main Street” and “Interiors—Walls Within” offers member artists’ COVID-induced paintings of interiors, while “Main Street” speaks to our hoped-for opportunity to get outside and re-engage with the community. The gallery is open Thursday to Sunday.
We could also volunteer. Cambridge Area Rotary is looking for people to help with two projects. There will be a work weekend on May 15 and 16, or you may work at your convenience.
The projects are spring maintenance on the trailheads of the Rail Trail and staining the deck and railings at the Varnum Memorial Library. To learn more, contact Peter Ingvoldstad at 802-793-7210 or pingvoldstad@gmail.com.
The Cambridge Conservation Commission is looking for data from Green Up Day volunteers. If you participated in the 2021 annual roadside cleanup, email marshvt@gmail.com with the following information: What road you cleaned up, from where to where, and on one or both sides; how many people were in your collecting group; how many bags of trash you collected; your most interesting find; your most disgusting find; your most useful find; and any other interesting information you’d like to share. All responses will be entered into a prize draw for a 20-ounce aluminum Green Up Day Vermont water bottle.
It’s time for kindergarten registration. Parents or guardians of a child who will turn 5 by Sept. 1, 2021, are invited to visit cesvt.net and choose either Wednesday, June 9, or Thursday, June 10, and a one-hour time slot. The event will be held on the school playground, rain or shine. Adults and children will all be required to mask.
That does it for now. Until next week, I’ll see you around town.
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