|
Great Pond: A Town for Old Folks,
Old Times
To those rambling north of Route 9 in
Aurora, Great Pond suddenly appears out of the woods and seems like
a quiet community of people living off the land.
|
The old church in Great Pond is one of the longest standing
buildings in town. “It’s too bad but I don’t think there’s been
six services there since I came to town,” said 62-year resident,
Dave Honey. |
But the town’s
population isn’t at all typical. Great Pond only has 47 residents,
making it the second smallest town in Hancock County after
Frenchboro. Then again, nearly half of the townspeople are just
around for the summer. Others are older folks who have retired to
Great Pond from all over New England for its beauty and the area’s
modest cost of living.
With such a limited
population and an equally limited budget, Great Pond runs into some
unique issues, too.
This year, the
state mandated that all town voting booths had to be open from at
least 10 a.m. until 8 p.m. The town’s registrar of voters, Joan
Archer, had to more than double the voting budget to pay for a
person to stand at the booths and for the electricity to light a
municipal building that has no indoor plumbing.
The thing is,
Archer explained, the town only has eight registered voters.
As a result of the
town’s size, many residents are called upon to enlist in town
government. Archer’s neighbor Sandra Cross is town treasurer and
tax collector, roles that “go together” she said, in which she’s
happy to serve.
For Archer, it is
just another little thing that such a small town has to adapt to.
She splits her time between working for the town as registrar of
voters and town clerk as well as at the Airline School, where Great
Pond sends its elementary school-aged children.
While many Great
Pond residents are retired, those such as Archer who still work have
to find different ways to make a living.
Living 33 miles
from Ellsworth and 32 miles from Bangor, the people of Great Pond
are left to their own devices -much like the earliest town settlers.
From inside a Great
Pond resident’s home, however, a visitor can see that the people and
their devices have changed considerably.
In addition to
working at Mace’s store before it closed, Joan Archer’s husband
Reginald now works as a Web page designer from the couple’s small
cedar-shingled home.
Archer said he is
one of the only remaining town natives still living in Great Pond.
After his father gave him an acre of land, Archer decided to build a
house and grow a garden of his own.
The gardening went
about as well as it always has in Great Pond. After sifting through
the town’s typically rock-strewn soil, the couple was able to
uncover just a small vegetable plot.
Where Archer found
his true work was on the couple’s three computers that cover the
better part of their living room.
Long-time Great
Pond resident Dave Honey estimated that 90 percent of the homes in
Great Pond are wired to the Internet.
Honey, now 74,
counts himself as part of that number. He said he thought about
having his neighbor design a Web site for his real estate company.
“I just don’t want
all the contact and business,” said Honey.
At his age, Honey
said he doesn’t plan on making any “big splashes.”
Honey is not alone.
Like many of the
residents of Great Pond, Honey enjoys being secluded in the
wilderness that surrounds his home and is happy to simply enjoy the
peace and quiet. |
