I popped into the new “Opportunities” program space at the River Valley Tech Center. It was an upper!

The River Valley has an outstanding reputation for excellent care of young children with developmental delays and other special education issues. Now,  Karen Waite and her longtime co-worker Jan Irish and some 10 other staff have quarters to match their professional skills.

Carol Nadeau gave me a quick tour of administrative offices and reception up front and down a wide carpeted walkway, a classroom, therapy room, teachers room, and a conference room. Definitely an upper.

Just opposite the main entrance is Community Dentistry. Last Friday morning on the very spot where Mike Michaud stood to celebrate the opening of the center, a boy of 9 or so fidgeted beside his mother awaiting his turn in the dentist’s chair.

The Tech Center was conceived as an incubator for new businesses for the River Valley. The economy put a halt to that, but not before John Canton got Northwest Precision Inc. up and ready to grow. The company is going great guns on Rumford Island’s Canal Street, the Growth Council’s Bev Crosby told me. A success. A real upper.

With its dentistry, counseling, early childhood, career counseling programs, as well as an AVCOG office, the River Valley Tech Center is becoming a family services center. “I am very optimistic about the future of the center,” Crosby said.

Last month’s Down East magazine carried Monica Wood’s two-page spread on Brian’s Bistro. Has it made a difference? “We have had customers who told us they wouldn’t have known about the Bistro otherwise,” Jessica Nichols said.

Brian Nichols said he and Jessica don’t really know how to predict a slow or a busy night. Thursday night “ … we were clobbered. No idea why,” he said.

No downer there.

Late Friday morning there were no spaces in the parking lot behind the Hotel Harris. The traffic was no match for a day in the 1960s, but lively. Up. I was feeling very up as I came around the corner, observing the spruce look of Island Indulgence’s windows.

Activity down along Congress Street at its anchors: All That Jazz, Bartash, Carlisle’s, Stanley’s.

There was more. Morency Park has picnic tables. Its lawn and flowering shrubs look cared for! Now, a few music moments at the underutilized gazebo, and we’ve got attractions to tout at the Information Center. Up!

Not all was up on the island last Friday: Backing out of a parking place opposite the Municipal Building, the car hit a sink hole. Not an axle breaker, but a downer, for sure.

If you’re still in the market for an electric fan or two or three, arrive early at the annual Food & Treasure Sale at the Meeting House in Rumford Center on Saturday, July 17. The sale benefits the center’s Village Improvement Society. It goes from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. It’s not just a sale, it’s a great meet-and-greet. Another upper.

 Linda Farr Macgregor is a freelance writer. Contact her at [email protected].