Greenville will go purple annually for Alzheimer’s and Brain Awareness Month

GREENVILLE — The town of Greenville will continue to symbolically change its name to a different color to mark Alzheimer’s and Brain Awareness Month in June. The community will be known as “Purpleville” each year to raise funds and awareness for Alzheimer’s Disease as the select board gave its approval to the designation during a Feb. 7 meeting. Purple is the signature color of the Alzheimer’s and dementia awareness movement.

“It’s a great cause, it’s fun to watch, and it’s nice to see the town during the festivities,” Select Chairperson Geno Murray said. 

Organizer Katie Luce, a former Greenville resident who now lives in Connecticut, said, “I’m very excited that we raised over $20,000 last year, $10,000 of which went to Pine Tree Hospice.”

Pine Tree Hospice Executive Director Kristen Wortman, who formerly lived in Greenville and now resides in Shirley, said the non-profit began in 1985 in Dover-Foxcroft and formerly had a satellite office in the Moosehead Lake Region. She said by being a non-medical hospice, it can have volunteers go into homes to provide supportive care. 

Wortman said one volunteer took a client out for a ride so they could see their old neighborhood. She mentioned one man has been caring for his wife coping with dementia for the last eight years. With the wife becoming bedridden, the husband only left the home briefly once a week and to pick up groceries. 

Pine Tree Hospice helped put him in touch with other resources such as Meals on Wheels. The organization will assist with accessing social services.

“The support from Purpleville is just incredible because of who we are,” Wortman said. “Because we are non-medical we receive no type of insurance, any state benefit, any federal benefit,” just grants, money raised through fundraising, and donations.

“We are a small organization doing a lot, our volunteers are boots on the ground so we want them helping people not spending all their time trying to raise money,” she said.

Pine Tree Hospice currently has a half dozen clients in Greenville, six families are receiving weekly support such as food delivery and respite.

Luce said there are two sides to Alzheimer’s and dementia, when a patient is first diagnosed and is not sure where to turn and “then there’s the end of things where you do the very best you can until you can’t do no more.” She said the other way to combat the second side is to be there for people and hopefully find a cure someday..

“What’s so special about Purpleville is we’re doing both of those things with the organizations that we support,” Luce said. “So Pine Tree Hospice and the work they do, that’s the only resource in this area.”

The other half of the half of the $20,000 raised through the weekend of Purpleville 2023 is going to the Jackson Lab Alzheimer’s Research Center in Bar Harbor for cutting edge research “to work for the other end so one day there may be a cure so we don’t have to watch the things that happen as somebody navigates this disease process,” Luce said.

Purpleville has been held for about five years and this year’s event will be June 28-30, the weekend before the Fourth of July.

“I also want to extend an unbelievable gratitude to the businesses of Greenville, people are so generous,” Luce said.

In other business, the select board authorized Town Manager Mike Roy to write a letter of support for the Appalachian Mountain Club to pursue funding from the federal Forest Legacy Program for conservation easements.

AMC Vice President of Land Research and Trails Steve Tatko said the organization first purchased land in the region in 2003 with an approximate 37,000-acre Katahdin Iron Works track from International paper. This property total has increased to about 114,000 acres with the recent acquisition of a portion of the Barnard Forest. The parcels all are on local and state tax rolls and there is public access.

Tatko estimated AMC pays about $190,000 annually in taxes. He said the club has about 90,000 members and owns land in five states but by far the most is in Maine.

Murray mentioned the economic impact of the AMC.

Tatko said there are 19 full-time employees in and around Greenville with 45 in the summer. The organization also pays six contractors for road work and wood harvesting, each with their own employees.

Town officials also heard from Moosehead Historical Society Executive Director Luke Muzzy. 

He said the organization was formed in 1962 “by a group of locals who just thought it was important to preserve the things that mattered to this area.”

At the time the society had no location, but was given land on Blair Hill by Great Northern that is still owned by the group today.

When resident Julia Crafts-Sheridan passed away in 1970 her home on Pritham Avenue was left to the Moosehead Historical Society. The home was rehabbed and came to the group in 1976, “That’s what really kick started the historical society,” Muzzy said.

“In 1981 on the Fourth of July weekend they opened the doors for the first tours through the house and there have been tours happening there ever since” he said. The property includes the Carriage House with a lumberman’s museum, barn with several exhibits, and the organization office. The historical society also owns the Community House, which was built 120 years ago.

“So we have quite a bit of real estate that we have to take care of and a lot of our budget goes toward making sure those properties are kept up and remain in a condition that makes us all proud,” the executive director said.

Muzzy said the Moosehead Historical Society has a $150,000 annual budget with him being the only full-time employee, joined by six others on a part-time basis. A 9-member board oversees staff.

There are about 550 members, paying either $15 as individuals or $25 per family. Membership has grown by about 100 in the last six months.

Muzzy said the last year visitor totals were 500 the office, 300 doing tours, and 1,100 stopping by the Community House.

He said Crafts-Sheridan left an endowment. “We are not fundraising to keep the lights on, we are fundraising to keep a roof on so it really allows you to align your priorities, the director said. “We can really look at how to spend money smartly to keep the integrity of those buildings so they will be around for a long time.”

The Moosehead Historical Society has more than 30,000 items in its possession, from a sleigh in the attic to a game warden’s lapel pin. “It’s our job to keep track of everything and we need to know where everything is at the moment,” Muzzy said.

He said an inventory is being updated via the PastPerfect system to include details and images of everything, and this can include municipal records.

“We can scan a town report, something that’s about 25 pages in four minutes to have forever,” Muzzy said, with the database to be accessible anywhere. He mentioned looking up newspaper accounts from the 1963 solar eclipse and finding a pair of actual protective glasses from more than 60 years ago in the archives.

“I’m really putting out the plea for volunteers,” Muzzy said, mentioning there are always projects to work on.

In his report Roy said the board talked about Fourth of July fireworks with these now finalized for Wednesday, July 3. 

Previously Central Maine Pyrotechnics had let Roy know it would be unable to have a display on the holiday due to a staffing shortage. He could not find another pyrotechnics company that would have been able to conduct a display on the holiday.

Four requests for proposals for construction and project management of Spruce Street infrastructure improvements were sent out, with two coming back. Roy said these were for $162,000 and $20,000, with the lower bid being made by the Northern Forest Center which has been involved in the project since the beginning.

During a special town meeting last fall residents approved a land use ordinance amendment for the creation of a proposed multigenerational housing district on Spruce Street. Infrastructure improvements include sewer and water extensions, stormwater collection installation, and construction of a new road and sidewalks. 

Speaking on the public safety building Roy said, “We have furniture, we’re 99.5 percent there I’ll say. We’re still waiting on the electrician to complete a few punch list items,” with the timeline to be determined.

The facility will house the fire and police departments and a community meeting room in the 19,000-square feet. The old fire station, built in 1963, had poor insulation, no hot water, and just one bathroom. The new structure will provide ample workspace and room for regional training sessions. A grand opening is likely to be held in the spring.