and Terry Karkos
Staff Writer

RUMFORD – The Moontide Festival that could have died for apparent lack of interest has a new board of directors to keep the tradition going this summer.

The future of the weeklong July 4 holiday extravaganza that includes a sidewalk carnival and fireworks appeared doubtful when its board disbanded after the 2003 event.

Matthew Plante, representing a group that has met together to discuss the future of the festival, said a meeting is scheduled for 5 p.m. Friday at the University of Maine Center in Mexico.

The new 13-member board is comprised of Plante, Amanda Hotham, Dorie Oakes, Arthur Boivin, Angela Roberts, Cheryl Doughty, Rick Hardin, Roger and Sherry Forgit, Betty Shurtleff, Reggie Arsenault, Adelaide Solomon-Jordan, and Alvin Larsen.

Doughty is the Good Works Committee coordinator of the Mexico Wal-Mart, while Hardin is the manager of Wal-Mart. Boivin is a charter member of the original Moontide Committee; Oakes is an activist in the River Valley Healthy Communities Coalition; and Plante is a member of the Eagles and Elks.

“It’s going to be a lot of work,” Oakes said Wednesday.

But she said she believes the hard work is expected to pay dividends by creating “great things for the River Valley communities.”

The Moontide Festival has been a Rumford event over the years. “We have discussed holding at least the carnival part in other towns,” Plante said. He did not specify if it would be limited to Rumford and Mexico. “The fireworks will be over the reflection pool in Rumford.”

Six people agreed to sit on a new board of directors at a meeting of former Moontide Committee members on Feb. 6.

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