Maine Humanities has awarded a $500 planning grant to Lovell resident Toni Seger, project director of a cultural preservation organization called Western Oxford Foothills.

Seger will research and write a report that details the restoration of books by historian Peter Lenz, whose home was destroyed by a fire in February. The fire took with it his inventory of unsold books, master copies and most of the disks containing the text of two dozen works of history and folklore.

Topics range from Columbus and early Native American history, women’s history including witchcraft persecutions in both Europe and America, 14th to 17th century Jewish history, African American history, early Maine and New England history and local history, folklore and culture.

The plan will analyze and catalogue the particular issues each book presents, calculate the time and cost of recreating the books on disk.

It will also research the cost of print on demand services and various methods of distribution.

After completion of the report, Seger will discuss funding sources with Maine Humanities for the actual restoration process.

“Peter has made an enormous contribution to our efforts to produce a print directory for Western Oxford Foothills. His knowledge of this region is encyclopedic,” said Seger.

Seger notes that there has long been a larger audience for Lenz’s work than he was able to satisfy and this is an opportunity to reach libraries and educational institutions who haven’t been able to get copies of his work before.

“Everyone involved with Western Oxford Foothills sees this as a way to bring something positive out of this situation,” she said.

Bethel:

Scouts back bats with sticks

Seabury Lyon got an unexpected surprise Sunday after helping a group of Cub Scouts build a condominium for bats.

The large triangular structure, a Registered Bat Conservation Project abode, was fitted into the town’s covered bridge replica on the Bethel pathway.

Lyon, Bethel’s bat expert, beamed from ear to ear after the Wolf Den of Bethel’s Cub Scout Pack 566 presented him with a signed covered bridge model they built from Popsicle sticks. Adorning the model were several little bats attached to wires glued to the bridge to simulate the tiny furred mammals in flight.

Gilead:

Petition seeks Route 2 work

At Gilead’s town meeting two weeks ago, Selectman Arthur “Joe” Taylor initiated a petition drive.

Fed up with how badly deteriorated a 5-mile stretch of Route 2 has become, Taylor simply sought to prod the Maine Department of Transportation into action.

The document noted that Gilead residents and other concerned area citizens were petitioning MDOT, asking that they repave Route 2 from a quarter mile east of the Maine-New Hampshire line to the end of Taylor Flats.

“This is a piece of road that can’t wait until 2008 or 2010 when it’s proposed to be completely reconstructed,” Taylor said, reading from the petition. “We’re not asking for a high grade of pavement. This piece of road is so broken up, it takes loads of cold patch every time it rains. It gets worse every year.”

Taylor said the last time the state paved the road was in the late 1980s.

“It just gets worse and worse every year every time it rains in the spring. It’s ridiculous that they continue to dump loads and loads of cold patch on it,” he added.

Dixfield:

Maple Syrup Contest starts

cJudging of this season’s Homemade Maple Syrup Contest at Towle’s Hardware on Weld Street, is slated to begin at 11 a.m. Friday, April 11.

Although the event, part of Dixfield’s Bicentennial celebration, got off to a slow start last month thanks to Maine’s fickle weather, several sweet and sticky entries that have since poured in will test the taste buds of judges.

-Terry Karkos