WELD – Townspeople recognized the past fire chief, new fire chief, an outgoing selectman and several residents Saturday during town meeting for their dedication to Weld.
Most were not in attendance.
Town meeting moderator, Richard Doughty, paid tribute to both former Fire Chief Steve Vining who pulled the Weld Volunteer Fire Department together over the last 15 years or so, and outgoing Selectman Laurie Pratt, who served for the last three years.
New Fire Chief Wallis Tyler was introduced. He has been on the Fire Department for about five years, most recently serving as assistant chief. The Weld native said he wants to help the community and give something back for what he has been given.
The 2004 annual town report was dedicated to brothers Ernest and Vernon Hutchinson and to Marguerite Latham. Doughty read the dedications to the more than 60 people in attendance.
Ernest Hutchinson was born in 1919 and raised in Weld. He worked on the family farm, served in the Army, returned to Weld and became a licensed guide. Hutchinson worked at the Oxford Paper Co., and after retirement delivered mail on the rural route.
His brother Vernon, who was born in a 1921, is a lifelong resident of Weld. He, too, served in the Army in World War II and was trained in electronics by the military. In the 1940s and early 1950s, he operated a radio shop in his home and a small radio station for the benefit of the March of Dimes. He later donated his radio shop to the Weld Historical Society.
Vernon Hutchinson worked for the Maine Park Service and retired as regional maintenance mechanic in 1984, who had been based at Mount Blue State Park.
Marguerite Latham came to Weld after World War II with her husband, David, and was active in the community as a field secretary for the Public Health Service. She was Sunday school teacher and substituted in schools in Weld, Carthage and Dixfield in the 1960s. Until her retirement in the mid-1980s, she was a full-time teacher in Wilton and Weld. She has been a member of several town and church committees.
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