From the Assistant Editor

Bad scary, good scary

Wed, 09/20/2017 - 7:00am

Not a lot of jobs carry the risk of a horrible incident like the one a Wiscasset officer experienced last week, getting stuck with a syringe Police Chief Jeff Lange said had allegedly been used for heroin and had blood on it. That is more than a bad day.

It also sounds more like what would happen to police in a big city or even a Maine city. In a town, it would be easy to be shocked. But the reality is drugs cross all income lines and town and city lines. This could have happened anywhere, but it happened here and the town dealt with it. And hopefully if the person the police found needs help, the incident will be an impetus.

The incident also underscores the risk public safety workers accept every time they put on their uniforms. They do the hazardous work that keeps the rest of us safe. I say it here a lot, but thank you.

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And now to the good kind of scary — the Halloween kind — Nightmare on Federal Street. Yes, it’s coming back for year two. I asked Wiscasset Parks and Recreation Director Lisa Thompson about it at the Family Bike Day Saturday and she said it’s returning because it was so successful. The Wiscasset Area Chamber of Commerce and the town’s public safety agencies are helping again, so Thompson said to expect the block party with trick-or-treating and a costume contest to again follow Wiscasset’s traditional Halloween parade.

Wiscasset made a good thing better last year, rocking the block with family fun. The plan under the department’s then-director Todd Souza last year was to add it to the town’s Halloween traditions. It’s great to see his successor and all others involved are following through.