The Daily Five is Patch's regular morning column that tells you five things you need to know, all before breakfast!
1. Temperatures are on the rise. It’s going to be even hotter today than it was yesterday, with a daily high of 90 degrees and an overnight low (if you can call it that!) of 75 degrees. Weather.com reports it’s going to be partly cloudy but there’s just a 10 percent chance of rain.
2. Like the weather, the local housing market seems to be getting hotter all the time. That’s particularly true for East Lyme, which recorded 14 in the first week of July alone!
Even the town has its eye on a piece of property. East Lyme Board of Selectmen will met in executive session on July 18 to discuss the possibility of purchasing the Samuel Smith house. This historic home located at 82 Plants Dam Road and the 17 acres of farmland it sits on have remained largely untouched since the early 1700s, and local historical preservationists and conservationists are eager to keep it that way. Hopefully, I’ll have more to report on that after Wednesday’s meeting.
The town of Old Lyme, meanwhile, is aiming to do some renovations. The Board of Selectmen is hoping to get a grant for $478,000 from the Small Town Economic Assistance Program to fix up the boathouse at Rogers Lake with a view to making it handicapped accessible. The grant would also be used for improvements to Hains Park.
The renovation work would provide jobs, First Selectwoman Bonnie Reemsnyder said, and the completed project would expand recreational opportunities for residents of Lyme, Old Lyme, and surrounding towns.
3. There are plenty of meetings going on today, starting with the Commission on Aging, which meets at the Lymes’ Senior Center at 1:30 p.m. Lyme’s Recreation Commission meets tonight at 7 p.m. at Lyme Town Hall and Old Lyme Town Hall will be bustling with the Board of Finance, the Ethics Commission and the Zoning Board of Appeals, all of which meet at 7:30 p.m.
4. Those of you who attended the recent at Old Lyme Town Hall will be pleased to hear that it was a great success. The Red Cross had hoped to collect about 30 units of blood but walked away with 50 units. Now that’s what I call giving!
5. Finally, I thought I’d take this opportunity to introduce myself. I’m Jayne Keedle and yesterday was my first day on the job as editor of The Lymes Patch. I’ve spent the past couple of weeks getting acquainted with the towns of Lyme, Old Lyme, and East Lyme and I’ve got to say, it’s really been love at first sight--for me at least!
I’m really excited to be on the beat officially and am looking forward to getting to know all of you much better.
Patch isn’t just a community newspaper, it’s a community forum, a place where people can meet and talk about the issues that are most important to them. With that in mind, I’d like to invite everyone to join the conversation.
If you want to publicize an event, you don’t need my permission to do it. Just go ahead and post it on our events calendar. The same goes for announcements, and we encourage you to post photographs too!
Got something on your mind that you’d like to share? Consider joining our Local Voices as a blogger. If you’re a team coach, volunteer for a charity, or belong to a civic or community organization, this is a great way to get the word out about what’s going on.
To get started, all you have to do is click on “Want to Blog for Patch?” at the bottom of the Local Voices section. It’s that easy!
It didn’t take me long to figure out that there’s no shortage of news around here but I’m always on the lookout for a good story, so if there’s something you’d like to see Patch cover, please, send me a news tip. With so many towns to keep up with, I can use all the help I can get!
