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Dave Honey, A Man of the Land
As a real-estate
broker, Dave Honey’s livelihood is bound to the land he buys,
develops and sells.
It is the one piece
of land that Honey has held on to, though, that may have been the
best deal he’s ever made: The farm in town his family bought in
1940.
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Dave Honey, the resident who has been living year-round in Great
Pond the longest, has lived in the town since 1940. |
“We paid $1,600 for
140 acres, a house, barn, three cows, a work horse and a pig,” Honey
recalled. “There were even hounds and a few cats roaming around.”
Now 74, Honey has
lived permanently in Great Pond for longer than anyone else around.
The farm was a
package deal that Honey still loves to talk about today, and it’s
where he still lives.
It is also one that
stimulated his interest in his current profession as a real estate
agent.
Once a Navy
electrician, Honey continued in trade for a number of employers
around Hancock County, finding work as far away as Swan’s Island. He
also has held lumbering and construction jobs while living in Great
Pond.
For Honey, what
brings all of his occupations together are the memories of long
drives from Great Pond, over what were often treacherous roadways.
“It used to be that
we could count on being snowed in for two or three days up here and
we knew it,” Honey remarked of the Great Pond area.
Honey said the
funniest thing about those drives was that the Great Pond Road was
tarred as early as the 1930s and was in better condition then most
of the roads in the larger town of Ellsworth.
He also remembers
electricity coming to the area around the same time.
“It changed
everyone’s life for the good, it made it easier for my mother and a
whole lot of people,” said Honey.
It was the business
of hauling ice up from the nearby pond that Honey didn’t miss when
electricity came.
“No matter how you
did it, you always got wet,” said Honey.
After a number of
different occupations, Honey returned to what first brought him to
Great Pond, buying homes and house lots.
Honey was involved
in major land development, working to expand the Ellsworth shopping
center and developing lots around Graham Lake.
He served on the
board of directors at Union Trust Bank in Ellsworth until his 72nd
birthday. He is currently chairman of the Great Pond Planning Board.
Today Honey would
like to see the town take back the Dow Pines Recreational Area on
the pond that bears the town’s name.
The area, which is
now owned and controlled by the Navy, includes log cabins, campsites
and a beach. It has been closed since the early 1990s.
“Currently, the
town doesn’t collect taxes on the piece,” said Honey. “The town
could use the area; the value of it could be put to use.”
That’s just wishful
thinking, though, because the Navy has plans to reopen Dow Pines as
a recreational area for military families. |
