Local Retailer Wins Energy Efficiency Award

 

 

Reny's, our favorite local family run store, made the news today by winning an award for energy efficiency.

From The Kennebec Journal

Reny’s Department Stores, a longtime favorite of bargain-hunters, has received an award for becoming more energy-efficient.

The Newcastle-based chain, which has local stores in downtown Gardiner, Farmington, Madison, Pittsfield, Belfast, Camden, Saco, Bath, Bridgton, Damariscotta, Dexter, Wells and Ellsworth was one of 10 businesses honored by the Northeast Energy Efficiency Partnerships with a Northeast Business Leaders for Energy Efficiency award, the only winner in Maine.

Reny’s, sponsored for the award by Efficiency Maine, demonstrated a 30 percent reduction in energy use. The reduced energy usage resulted in annual cost savings of almost $30,000, according to a news release.

The winning organizations were chosen based on their outstanding achievements to adopt and implement energy efficiency practices. Their efforts, the release said, resulted in demonstrated energy savings which improved the organizations’ financial bottom lines.

This doesn't surprise me at all since being energy efficient is a good business decision and Reny's has a history of making good business decisions since Robert Reny opened the first store on Main Street in Damariscotta in 1949.

Thomas Field

Damariscotta Mills view of Eclipse

   It was a beautiful and clear night (if somewhat chilly) in mid coast Maine and the eclipse was spectacular.  Look carefully and you'll see Saturn and Regulus.  Click on this to enlarge on your screen.

Tom Field 

Super Bowl Sunday

    The New England Patriots will be playing in the Super Bowl Sunday night in Glendale, Arizona.  No doubt local TV reporters will be doing live shots from poolside at their hotels before the game.  The sun will be shining, folks will be frolicking in bathing suits in the background and the reporter will have to tweak his co workers back at the studio by telling them that "it's kind of chilly, got down to 68 last night" or some other such thing.

   At this point the good woman who shares my life will look at me and say, "I'm glad we live here where there are no scorpions, please pass me my sweater."  But, there is a chance that your better half may see things differently.  If that happens and you find yourself browsing Arizona real estate websites (see our blog roll on left), be sure to give one of our professional brokers a call for an opinion on where your present home fits in our market. Or, if you're one of those poor souls that's stuck out there in all that heat and blazing sun, just dreaming of how you'd like to have a home where you could go ice fishing right outside your door, well we can help there, too.

   We probably won't be in the office Sunday night but we'll return your call first thing Monday morning.

Jim Cosgrove

Subprime Derivatives, part 2

   Yesterday we posted a video which we thought did a good job explaining the subprime mortgage market but this video really gets to the heart of the matter and so in an effort to keep our readers fully informed on current market conditions we present this video as part 2.

Thanks and a 'Tip of the Hat' to Allen Butler over at Bloodhound Blog.

Subprime Derivatives

From our friends at CNBC, this is a simplified explanation of what was going on in the mortgage industry the last few years.

The Patriots and Maine Real Estate

    Heresy!  The undefeated New England Patriots are playing the San Diego Chargers in the AFC Championship game this Sunday. And  America's Mortgage Broker, Brian Brady from San Diego has come up with a novel reason why folks should be rooting for the Patriots to lose. 

   It seems that when an AFC team wins the Super Bowl, the real estate market goes down.  When an NFC team wins, the real estate market goes up. Hence anyone interested in the real estate market should be hoping for an NFC victory in the big game.  Since this Sunday's game is not the Superbowl but the AFC title game, I guess what Brian is saying is that it would be OK for San Diego to win because then they would lose the Super Bowl? Hmm.  If I didn't know how hard Brian works I'd say he was spending a little to much time in the sun.

   It should be a good game though.  The Chargers have some great players on both sides of the ball and feature former UMaine standout Stephen Cooper in the middle of their defense.  But these are the Patriots were talking about, maybe the greatest football team to ever walk the planet.  Some people (me) even refer to them as the Newcastle Square Realty of football. In the end Tom Brady will be too much for the surfer dudes, Patriots 38-35.

Jim Cosgrove

Newcastle Square Realty Brokers are Available...

...to show property this weekend.  As a reward for all of their hard work I had thought that I'd fly them all out to San Diego to see the Patriots playoff game against the Chargers but in a somewhat craven and spineless move the Chargers refused to sell tickets to anyone not from Southern California for fear of diluting their home field advantage.

   To paraphrase an editorial in this mornings Boston Globe, were they afraid someone from the Northeast was going to yell "surfs up" and all the locals would leave?

   But it's just as well.  The phone has been ringing quite a bit today and most of the brokers are out on showings.  I assume these must be folks from the New York and New Jersey area who have no interest in the playoffs now that the Giants and Jets are out of it.

   So if there's a property you'd like to see or if you'd just like to talk with someone about living in the greatest state in the greatest region of the country go ahead and make that call.  We'll answer the phone.  At least until about 4:30 tomorrow.

Jim Cosgrove

Senator Collins at Great Salt Bay School

    Senator Susan Collins recently stopped in to The Great Salt Bay Consolidated School in Damariscotta.  Senator Collins spent time reading with the 4th graders and then met with the 8th grade.  The Senator spoke with the upperclassmen about perseverance and told of her defeat in the 1994 gubernatorial race and of how she came back a few years later to win both a tough primary  race and the general election.

   Now, if you're a cynic like me you're first thought is, "she must be up for re election".  But no, she is not running this year and even if she was, anything that gets kids more interested in politics and governance has to be a good thing. Who knows, one of these smiling youngsters someday may be serving in Washington and then this picture from the Newcastle Square Realty Blog will be endlessly reprinted much like that now famous picture of JFK and a young Bill Clinton.

   Great Salt Bay School is a K through 8 school and serves the towns of Damariscotta, Newcastle and Bremen.

   While in town Sen. Collins also spoke at the Small Business Showcase held at the YMCA and sponsored by the Damariscotta Region Chamber of Commerce.

Jim Cosgrove

Pemaquid Point Weathers Another Storm

    Pemaquid Point is an amazing place to watch a New England storm and it didn't disappoint during our most recent bit of weather. With wind gusts of up to 70 mph. and a heavy rain Lincoln County got hit hard and nowhere was it more dramatic than at Pemaquid Point. 

   On Saturday at the height of the storm the wind took down a tree across the road to the parking lot at the light house, trapping about 60 people inside the lot for almost 6 hours until Central Maine Power could get there and turn off the electricity so that the Bristol Fire Department could clear the road.

   I was at the Point on Sunday and it was a sight to behold and an experience to be felt. When the waves crash against the rocks you can feel the power through the ground even when you are back from the water. The energy of the waves is enormous and it moves loose rocks in the cove like sand on the beach. In Round Pond a little bit up the peninsula from Pemaquid Point, an unfortunate boat owner had his craft break loose from its' mooring and fetch up on the rocks. Although in this picture the boat looks like there isn't too much damage that will change as the tide comes back in and the swells knock it around the rocks. Ouch!

   Speaking of being on the rocks, what are people thinking about when they climb down onto the rocks by the water during a storm?  Are they unable to read the warning signs? Or maybe they think somehow they are more powerful than mother nature? When the wind is blowing at 50 knots and seas are 10 to 12 feet trying to get close to the water is my definition of insanity.

    I guess the rocks can fool people into thinking that they are safe. In the picture at the left you can see a man standing on the ridge with his camera.  A minute after this picture was taken he was up to his armpits in the water and is lucky he wasn't washed out to sea. Did I mention that with the temperature of the water at this time of year there is about a 5 minute time limit before hypothermia sets in? Lucky for this guy a trip home in wet clothes was all he had to deal with. But it could have and has been worse.  A local firefighter told me that they observed whole families including small children and a women with a baby in her arms clambering around on the rocks on Sunday.  Almost every year at least one person drowns at Pemaquid Point.

   If you do get knocked into the water your best bet is to swim away from the rocks and pray that a boat is nearby. 20 years ago I watched a group of people standing on the rocks get hit by a rogue wave, dragged off the rocks and then get thrown back onto the rocks by the next wave. They survived albeit with some broken bones and serious cuts but they were very lucky.  Further down the coast that day a young girl and her father were swept out to sea and drowned within sight of horrified onlookers who could do nothing to save them.

   The majesty of the ocean in a storm is a beautiful thing but demands respect, enjoy the view from a safe distance.

Tom Field

Congratulations

   Miles Memorial Hospital CEO Judy Tarr is the subject of an "Alumni Profile" in the latest edition of Saint Josephs's College of Maine magazine.  Judy received her Master's in Health Services Administration from Saint Joseph's in 1999.

   For those readers outside the area, Miles Memorial Hospital is our highly regarded local health care facility.  Miles has recently announced plans to join with St. Andrews Hospital in Boothbay to create a single health care provider for both peninsulas.  The proposed location for this new facility has not yet been announced but is being watched for with great interest.

   Saint Josephs College was once a small liberal arts college beautifully sited on the shores of Sebago Lake.  It is now a not so small liberal arts college with possibly the prettiest campus of any college in Maine, a strong Nursing program, a major external degree program and an up and coming Division III baseball program.

   Congratulations, Judy!

The Best Season

   Well Labor Day has come and gone and downtown feels very different this morning.  There are plenty of parking spaces and no college kids with laptops at the coffee shop. All of the K-8 schools in School Union 74 opened this morning and it was nice to see all the smiling kids ( and their even happier parents) waiting for buses as I drove in.

   Now begins what many of us consider to be the best time of year here in Mid Coast Maine.  These next two months will feature some of the best weather we'll see all year with warm days and cool nights.  The summer crowds are gone but there will be a decent amount of visitors here, enough to make things interesting.  There will be no trouble getting tee times at any of the local golf courses and best of all, the bugs are gone!

   If you've been considering a visit to our part of the world this is truly The Best Season to come!

Jim Cosgrove

Damariscotta River Fishing

   So far this is shaping up to be a terrific summer for Striped Bass, more commonly known as stripers, on the Damariscotta River. Although everyone I've caught has been thrown back a lot of keepers have been caught and eaten. There are a great many small stripers, or schoolies, in the river also and these are a lot of fun to catch and throw back once you've taken a picture!

   Keepers are being taken near the Edgecomb side of the Damariscotta River by Pleasant Cove, in Newcastle near Dodge Point and close to the village off of Hog Island. If you are adventurous you can try crossing under the Damariscotta-Newcastle Bridge and head up to the Route 1 bridge. For the most fun try light tackle and the jelly shads. I personnally favor the brightly colored ones but I'm not sure the fish are that picky. Nothing beats the thrill of bringing a 25 inch fish into the boat with a lightweight rod and 6 lb. test line!

   If you don't have a boat, no problem, call Capt. Joe Rego on Punky's Comet out of Damariscotta.  I think even the osprey watch Joe to see where the fish are.  He never seems to come home empty handed!

   If you're looking for a property in our area where you can moor your boat so you can see it from your living room, call me and let me show you what the Damariscotta River has to offer!

Tom Field