Early last week I had an hour’s visit with Lilla Gillis at the Rumford Information Center. Past 4 p.m. and hot, but Lilla was fresh as a daisy and ready for the visitors who trickled in that last hour. One carful was from North Carolina; they’d traveled from Niagara Falls to our falls and were making for the coast.

A mother and daughter from Ontario were headed west, looking for lodgings that night in Gorham. They wondered if they should look for a liquor store in Maine, but Lilla assured them they’d prefer New Hampshire prices.

Every visitor signed the guest book and tried to squeeze a push pin onto the world map just inside the door. Mrs. Ontario’s pin popped right out because there just wasn’t room there. Not sure whose brainchild the “peg” map was, but Lilla said volunteers put it up last winter. There are hundreds and hundreds of pins, all over the United States and Canada, plentiful all across Europe. Africa and Australia are pegged, too.

FAQs

I asked Lilla what the most frequently asked questions were and she listed them:

Where is the restroom? (turn left outside the door)

How far is Bar Harbor? (154 miles)

Where is the library? (just around the corner)

When the Ontario pair asked for the restroom, Lilla shot me a satisfied look. When North Carolina asked how far it is to Bar Harbor, I got a big grin. (Later in the week, a couple on Congress Street stopped me and asked, “Where is the library?”).

The volunteers are stalwarts. Some take a year or two off, then return.

There’s Ann and Reggie LaPointe, Nina and Allen Gallant, Doris Gamble, Frank and Bonnie Bulger, Ann Russell and Marcia Bartlett. Have I missed anyone?

Even though he’s been here barely three months, River Valley Chamber Administrator Scott Gabiati – he and his fiance, Jessica Jewell, live in Rumford – says: “… The people who work there are wonderful! We couldn’t run the center without them.”

The information center, built by volunteers with materials donated by local businesses, opened in 2000. It replaced a building so small that, Lilla said, three really was a crowd.

Don’t just stop, stick around for a while.

Too often, visitors to the Information Center stretch their legs, gaze upon the falls, get directions, use the restroom and move on.

That’s going to change. A subcommittee of the Downtown Revitalization Committee is working on a signage program for the center, the island and the soon-to-be restored river park. Signs will direct visitors to amenities – ATM machines, restaurants – and provide history about the town and region.

River Valley events schedules and maps will be updated. And the center will re-stock Bud Burns’ historic Island walking tour. That’s for starters.

Meantime, Lilla and Ann LaPointe tell me more volunteers are needed and welcome. Interested? Give Scott a call at the Chamber, 364-3231.

Linda Farr Macgregor lives with her husband, Jim, in Rumford. She is a freelance writer and author of “Rumford Stories.” Contact her at [email protected]