Harvest Festival blends family fun with historical significance

By Ed Pierce

As the season changes to autumn and crisp fall temperatures arrive in the Lakes Region of Maine, Village Green in Windham Center will be alive with the sights, sounds and flavors of fall during the annual Harvest Festival hosted by the Windham Historical Society on Saturday, Oct. 4.

Contestants compete in the sack race at last year's Harvest
Festival, sponsored by the Windham Historical Society at
Village Green in Windham. This year's festival will run 
from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 4.
COURTESY PHOTO 

The event runs from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Village Green, 234 Windham Center Road in Windham and is jam-packed with fun, activities and something for everyone.

“It really is a family-focused day where people can have fun while learning a bit about Windham's very rich history,” said Haley Pal of the Windham Historical Society.

Among things to do this year are to view an antique car show with Model Ts and Model As, take a tour of Community Booths sponsored by Age-Friendly Windham, Windham Parks and Recreation and the Windham Public Library.

Pal said for children there will be old-fashioned relay races including a potato sack race, an eggs on a spoon race, and a three-legged race. Kids will be able to guess how many candy corns are in a jar, participate in a coloring contest and bob for donuts.

Both adults and kids can take part in the Harvest Festival’s annual Pie Eating Contest, which is among the event’s most popular activities year in and year out.

Participants can also compete for prizes in Pumpkin Bowling, and the entire family can join a Scavenger Hunt to locate one or two clues in each Windham Historical Society buildings that are situated on the grounds of Village Green. Pal says that members of the Windham Parks and Recreation Department have partnered with the historical society in helping to stage all the games at this year’s Harvest Festival.

There will be a Vendor Fair at the festival where a variety of crafters and other vendors will be selling goods they have made.

“Among the makers, we have a potter, a jewelry maker, a woodworker, and a doggie treat company,” Pal said. “There is a rock artist, a sign-maker, a card/paper product maker, a woman specializing in wreaths and wind chimes, and one who makes sewn products.”

One of the vendor booths will be reserved for Maine Authors Publishing and three authors are scheduled to be on hand to meet the public and discuss their books including Dr. Nancy Creighton Collins (“The Perfectly Impatient Potter”), Edith Netter (“The House of Schumannstrasse 7”), and Kathy Eliscu (“Brain Tumor: A Love Story.”

“Friends Church will also have a booth filled with nostalgic favorites like baked goods, pickles, relishes, jam, jellies, handsewn products, and more,” Pal said.

The festival will have a White Elephant Sale featuring gently used items such as housewares, jewelry, and holiday decorations up for sale and food will be available all day long.

“We will be cooking and selling burgers and hot dogs,” Pal said. “This year, Poppies Kettle Corn will be on hand as well with snacks and we also will have a dessert table where we're selling cookies for just $1 each.”

Musical Entertainment in the morning will have the Lakes Region Strummers performing. The Stummers are a ukelele group who play casual, feel-good tunes that invite folks to gather, tap their toes, and enjoy the moment.

At noon, the Windham Middle School Eighth Grade Orchestra will take the stage under the direction of WMS Orchestra and Band Teacher Morgan Riley. Band members earned the highest rating of “Superior” in competition at the Trills & Thrills Music Festival in Nashua, New Hampshire in June.

During the afternoon, the Saco River Jazz Band, a group of volunteer musicians, will perform classic tunes from the “Big Band Era,” of the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s and sure to please all who attend the festival.

Tours of Historic Buildings located on the Village Green grounds will be conducted by Windham Historical Society members and will showcase The Old Grocery Store displaying authentic rural mercantile of the late 19th century, The Village School, a one-room schoolhouse with the historical society’s schoolmarm, Miss Hawkes (Paula Sparks) doing lessons, and The Hearse House where an old horse-drawn town hearse is housed. There will also be tours available for The Windham Center Library and The South Windham Library and Railroad Museum.

“The Windham Historical Society’s Blacksmith Shop is not quite finished inside, but our resident blacksmith, Sam Simonson, will be doing demonstrations at the festival,” Pal said.

Festival participants will also be able to visit and tour the Old Town House which once served as Windham’s Town Hall.

“People can step in and take a look at the renovations done to date there,” Pal said.

Currently the historical society is organizing a capital campaign to seek donations for further renovation work on the Old Town House, which was not only Windham’s original Town Hall, but also served as a school for many years, and is now the historical society’s headquarters building.

The Old Town House building was remodeled about 60 years ago to address cosmetic and structural issues with the building. At that time, a raised floor system was installed with a wood-framed suspended ceiling and wall paneling. It covered up some issues with the building things up but didn’t fit the ambiance of an 1833 structure. Planned renovation work will restore the original 19th century structure and create a building consistent with that era.

In the event of rain, the Harvest Festival will be held from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 5. <

Town of Raymond searching for new Town Manager after Crocker resigns

By Ed Pierce

For the fourth time in 20 months, the Town of Raymond is seeking a Town Manager following the resignation of Joseph Crocker last week.

Raymond Town Manager Joseph
Crocker, who has served in that
position first as interim manager 
since March and then as the
permanent town manager since
May, has resigned and the town
will undertake a new search to
find a replacement.
FILE PHOTO    

Crocker, 37, had formerly served the town as Parks and Recreation Director, and was appointed to the Town Manager position in May succeeding Sue Look, who resigned in March. The Raymond Select Board had then tapped Crocker to serve as the interim Town Manager until a permanent replacement could be hired.

Look had served as Raymond Town Clerk before succeeding longtime Town Manager Don Willard in January 2024 upon his retirement. Willard had been Raymond’s Town Manager for 23 years until he became ill, and while recovering chose to retire from the Town Manager role. Willard was elected in June 2024 to serve on the town’s Budget and Finance Committee for a three-year term.

Originally from Saco, Crocker attended high school at Thornton Academy and then went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in exercise science from Saint Joseph’s College of Maine. He later earned an MBA in sports and recreation management from New England College. Prior to coming to work for the Town of Raymond, Crocker worked in parks and recreation for Saco, Auburn, Kennebunk and Lewiston. In 2020, Crocker was hired to lead Raymond’s fledgling Parks and Recreation Department as director.

Crocker was hired for the Town Manager position after a competitive recruiting and hiring process conducted by HR Maine Consulting, LLC. All told, there were 46 applicants for the town manager position. Nine of those candidates participated in a rigorous essay and pre-screening process, with four candidates moving forward in the panel interview process, consisting of the Raymond Select Board Chair, Vice-Chair, a community member, town department heads, a Town Manager from another community, and Betsy Oulton from HR Maine Consulting.

His contract was for three years at an annual salary of $100,000.

Raymond Select Board Chair Denis Morse posted on the town’s website on Monday that he and all the Select Board members placed “high value” on Crocker as a town employee and that following his resignation, Morse asked him to remain as a town employee “and be a part of our ongoing work to devise a transition plan that included being mentored by an interim town manager.”

Before that could happen, rumors and misinformation began to swirl about Crocker’s departure, Morse said. He says this caused strife, anxiety and discomfort directed at other town employees as well as members of the Select Board.

According to Morse, this behavior, including some public comments made about the situation from former elected town officials “is the opposite of civil discourse and would be unconscionable even if this situation happened to be contentious or controversial, which it is not.”

Morse also posted a letter that the Raymond Select Board had received from Crocker which amended the timeline for his original resignation.

“I will stay on in a capacity to help with the transition to find a Town Manager who will bring experience that will fit the needs of the community,” Crocker wrote in the letter. “If this transition involves a space for me after the search has ended, I would be happy to stay in a different role if it works for everyone involved.”

Crocker said he does not wish any animosity toward the Town of Raymond but prefers to keep the reason he resigned private.

“When you provide services to a small town for so long, they become your friends,” he said. “All I can say is I have given my best effort to make the Town of Raymond better, and all I ask is that our elected officials act in good faith to do the same.” <