From the assistant editor

Game of cones, and about Notre Dame

Wed, 04/17/2019 - 8:45am

    Summer is coming.

    That play on a buzz phrase from HBO’s “Game of Thrones” might give you the wrong idea. I’ve never watched the epic show.  It looks well done, but I’ll take my soap operas, although the show sounds part soap opera. So maybe I’ll give it a look someday.

    We’ve all gotten a look last year and this at Wiscasset’s downtown under construction. Watch for updates as we get them from Maine Department of Transportation. The journey to the project was long, sometimes heated and had twists like the conehead demonstrators and the ditching of the path to federal funds.

    No dragons, but the debates would drag on, understandably, like the one over whether or not to take the Haggett building for parking.

    As “Games” enters its homestretch, so does the project, this summer and fall. When the trucks, cones, barrels and lit traffic advisories disappear, the  story is supposed to end with better traffic flow and safer walking. May it. And may the work that's left to get there be surprise-free.

    * * *

    Images of the fall of the spire and the partial destruction of the Notre Dame Cathedral Monday night remind us a skyline can change in an instant. The view coming into Wiscasset from Edgecomb is a regional icon.  Wiscasset’s Museum in the Streets walking tour, voters’ creation of a Historic Preservation Commission, and private and public efforts for churches and other buildings around the village have all honored those sites’ histories and their place in Wiscasset’s history.

    Our other towns have historic buildings to be proud of, too, many of them publicly owned. Thank you to all the volunteers and taxpayers who keep them going.

    Week’s positive parting thought: Three cars in a row parked on Water Street midday Monday nearest Red’s Eats had Massachusetts plates. Let’s hope it foretells a booming spring of tourism.