The River Festival Committee is pleased to announce that Mark Dannenhauer, formerly of Bread and Puppet in Vermont, will be at the festival with materials to make colorful, giant puppets inspired by river animals from cardboard, Tyvek, and recycled materials.

Annie and the Beekeepers

Thursday, June 27th at 10:00 a.m.
Calling all grandparents and great grandparents, school is out so bring the kidos over for a memorable morning. All are welcome, even your grown up kids. Kick off summer vacation by having a family breakfast at the senior center. We had such a blast last year. The morning starts off with breakfast sponsored and prepared by the Groton-Pepperell Rotary. Following breakfast we will have a special kid friendly presentation by the Fire Department and EMTs, then we will head outside to “touch a truck.” Perhaps the GFD staff will let the kids wash the fire truck and ambulance again! Bring your camera and the staff will help you capture the day.

Ice Cream Social with Entertainer Larry Lee Lewis

Wednesday, June 26th at 12:30 p.m.
Join us for a make your own ice cream Sunday party to kick off the summer. While enjoying our tasty treat we will be treated to the music styling and comedy of entertainer Larry Lee Lewis. Everyone raved about his performance back in October, and he is back to help us kick off the summer. Come early for lunch for only $2.25, but the ice cream and entertainment are free.

Red, White & Blue Pancake Breakfast

Tuesday, July 2nd at 10:00 a.m.

Pizza & a Flick – Promised Land

Wednesday, July 10th at noon

ROMEOS’ (Retired Men Eating Out) Breakfast
Thursday, July 18th at 10:00 a..m.

Hawaiian Luau with Hula Hooper

Wednesday, July 24th at noon

All events are at the Senior Center, 163 West Main Street, West Groton, unless otherwise noted.
Call 978.448.1170) or email bloveless@townofgroton.org to register.

View or download the Senior Center’s July newsletter.

Keri Strauss

The Squannacook River Runners is hosting its 19th Annual Groton Summer Track and Field program.

The kid’s program is offered to grades kindergarten through 9th grade (5-14 years of age). Teams are divided by into groups by the grade the child is going into in the next school year. The adult program is geared toward all abilities.

The eight-week program runs every Monday and Wednesday between June 24th and August 14th from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. at the Groton-Dunstable Regional High School track. Sign up by June 24th for a discount! Visit www.gdtrack.com for more information on the kids and adult program. Or for more information, contact Kerri at (978) 870-8597 or email her at SQRRtrack@verizon.net.

The event was announced in an e-mail from Groton Board of Selectmen Chairman Peter Cunningham, who wrote, “As many townspeople know, Kevin McKenzie has been Groton’s school committee representative to the Nashoba Valley Regional Technical School for many years. Kevin did an outstanding job as our representative and Groton has benefited greatly from our affiliation with the school.

Presently, Kevin has significant medical issues which require a high level of nursing home care that is not being covered by insurance and his family is under considerable financial stress. There will be a series of fundraising events taking place during the summer, with the first one occurring this Thursday evening (June 20) at the Bull Run restaurant in Shirley, sponsored by the Nashoba Tech athletic department. ”

The event tomorrow night is a comedy night and dinner service. The dining room opens at 5:00 p.m. and the comedy night begins at 7:00 p.m. Tickets are $15 before the show and $20 at the door. The Bull Run is at 215 Great Road (RT 2A), in Shirley.

Cunningham noted that, “A fund has been established at the Groton office of the North Middlesex Savings Bank to help the family and those wishing to contribute can send a check to NMSB, P.O. Box 1250, Groton, MA. 01450 made out to the ‘Kevin McKenzie Medical Support Fund. Please consider offering support to Kevin and his family during this time of need.”

Statement as of 3:03 PM EDT on June 18, 2013

… A Flood Warning remains in effect until 445 PM EDT for northwestern Middlesex and northern Worcester counties…

At 259 PM EDT… heavy rain fall earlier this afternoon dropped a quick one to two inches across the warned area. Expect Urban and Small Stream flooding to continue to occur.

Some locations that will experience flooding include… Leominster… Fitchburg… Hubbardston… Gardner… Templeton… Lunenburg… Westminster and Ashburnham.

Off to an epic start. Not.

I roasted the beets and they just didn’t hold up. Maybe they absorbed too much water in the recent rains because they didn’t really seem to roast the way that golden and red beets do. They looked fine and peeled great but when I sliced them they didn’t hold firm, and the taste was earthy in a way not entirely good. Lesson learned.

My backup vegetable for Father’s Day dinner was a red leaf lettuce salad with cucumbers and blue cheese dressed with a red wine Dijon vinaigrette. It was lovely but needed a little sweetness – next time I will add dried cranberries.

I don’t really need to post a recipe for a green salad so I will share the recipe for the lamb chops I served with it. Also on the menu: Rooney’s potato salad and flourless chocolate cake.

Grilled Lamb Chops with Rosemary, Garlic and Balsamic Vinegar

This is an adaptation of a recipe I found on Epicurious.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 4 garlic cloves, minced or crushed
• 2 tablespoons minced fresh rosemary
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper (or to taste)
• 8 1 inch thick loin lamb chops, trimmed.

About the lamb: I have tried both New Zealand grass-fed and American local chops. The New Zealand meat has nice flavor but the fat does not grill nicely and is chewy. The American chops are bigger and fattier so they need to be trimmed more, but the remaining fat is more flavorful and edible. Also, the more fat there is the easier it is to burn them, so watch them carefully on the grill.

Whisk the first six items together to make the marinade. Pour a little into a 9 x 13 glass pan, enough to just cover the bottom. Place the chops in the pan and pour the remaining marinade over them. Cover and refrigerate for 4 hours, turning occasionally. (I have been known to let them marinate in a cool place on the counter for an hour before grilling.) If you are going to smoke them on the grill, soak the wood chips (mesquite or whatever you like) while the meat marinates.

Heat the grill to medium – if you have a smoker put that on before you light it. When you have good heat and smoke, grill the chops to desired doneness, taking care to avoid flare-ups that will burn the small chops. We have a very hot grill, so 3 minutes on each side gives us medium rare chops. Adjust your own times as needed. After removing chops from the grill, let them rest for 5 minutes before serving.

If the kids — or you — are looking for something kid-worthy to do for July and August, we’ve brought together the best summer camps that Groton offers so you can compare the offerings in one place. Each organization, 3Rivers Arts Artworks Camps, the Groton Pool and Golf Center, Grotonwood, Lawrence Academy, and the NRWA is summarized in the sections below, and at the end of the article we’ve set up a summary table. Most information is quoted from the camps’ web sites.

It’s not too late to sign up. Although some particular programs are full, many are still accepting enrollments — 3Rivers Arts, for example, is offering a $50 discount on a third week-long specialty camp session when signing up for a regular two-week session.

Each has something unique to recommend it. 3Rivers concentrates heavily on the arts, from painting to theater. Grotonwood stresses traditional camp-in-the-woods activities in a “supportive Christian environment,” and a unique offering for grandparents to camp with grandchildren. Lawrence has the broadest range of programs, from language immersion programs to game design and survival skills. NRWA emphasizes the environment and interacting with the outdoors in a relaxed small group atmosphere in which each class is the entire “camp.”

Groton Camps Quick Reference Information

Susan Hogan

Found cat in Groton

Thanks

Sue Hogan

Just the box was practically worth buying the farm share – I am a type/font geek of epic proportions.

We’re such newbies.

When we arrive at John Crow Farm, the farm sign said it was “Closed. ” Then we realize that the door was open and people were picking up their shares. There’s something kind of speakeasy about it. It’s a little dim on this overcast morning, with just the light from a single window. A boy asks you what you’re there for. “Veggies.” What size? “There are different sizes?” Yep. Checks a list. Name? We give it. He tells us: “Small.” Then he disappears into a back room and emerges with the box. A young guy comes in for a pickup. Exact same exchange. They start to discuss eggs. Time to leave.

I wondered if it made any difference if we picked up our share early or not – if the boxes would be on display and thus be “picked over” if you were the last to arrive. Happily, no. Not only can you not compare boxes, they are closed on top so you can’t even see what’s inside – like a surprise package of vegetables. I decided to wait until we got home to open it.

Here’s what we got: two beautiful heads of lettuce, one green (Boston or bibb, depending on what you call it) and one red leaf. Plus, what I think are two kinds of kale, and four sizable albino beets. There is also this beautiful leafy green with an unexpected lemony citrusy taste – just phenomenal to eat plain. If you recognize it tell me – in the meantime I am going to ask the farm what it is.

While I will wait to post any recipes until later in the week, today’s lesson is this: my salad spinner is my new best friend. Last week was quite rainy and though the produce appeared quite clean, I washed all the greens again, wrapped them in towels and put them in the crisper.

I did not save the beets for later (they are roasting now), but let the record show that Thomas Keller’s Ad Hoc at Home will be another terrific resource for this endeavor. Something to try with the next round of beets: Roasted Beet Potato Salad with Soft-Cooked Egg, Smoked Salmon and Mustard Vinaigrette. This link is to a site where someone else has already tried it.

If anyone reading this has good recipes for kale that are not soup, please share. Seriously.

Art Campbell

Squannacook River Runners and Groton Police stand to honor victims of the Boston Marathon Bombing at the start of Groton MA Spring Town Meeting

A Town Meeting Review Study Committee was appointed by the Board of Selectmen in December 2009, after several long threads of email messages on the Talk About Groton email list proposed, debated, and shot down ways to improve Town Meeting. The email thread by residents and the appointment of the committee were both based on the assumption that having a small group of voters, from fewer than 100 to as many as several hundred, make multi-million dollar decisions for the town wasn’t a great idea, and the parallel assumption that greater participation would be a good thing.

Town Clerk Michael Bouchard reported that in the last election, on April 30, there were 7659 voters in Groton.

• In the April town election and state senate primary, fewer than 20% of them voted.
• At the regular Spring Town Meeting, on a Monday evening, according to meeting minutes, “173 (2.26%) voters were present. Later in the proceedings 241 (3.15%) voters were present.”
• At the Special Town Meeting in January, a Saturday morning meeting where financing for the town’s new central fire station was the lead article, according to meeting minutes, “… at 9:15 AM, 281 (3.67%) registered voters were in attendance. (Ed. Note: At 10:00 am, 398 (5.2%) voters were in attendance.)”

You may have already seen the paper version of the survey in your bill from the Groton Electric Light Department. If not, it’s in the mail, available on the town web site, and here on The Groton Line.

The survey form is being widely distributed to encourage residents to take part in the survey.

“Our goal is to get about 700+ total responses to have a good confidence level with a +/- 7% margin of error. That’s about all we can do for a population the size of Groton. Then the Committee can slice the data based on what demographics are in the survey,” Barry Pease, the committee member who coded the survey, said. In addition to Pease, committee members are Ellen Baxendale, Robert L. Collins, Alberta Erickson, Ailson K. Eyedenberg, Greg R. Fishbone, and Scott E. Harker.

According to the town web site, the charter of the committee includes four tasks:

1. Review the Open Town Meeting and study different options to this form of Government, i.e. Representative Town Meeting, etc.
2. Develop recommendations on the best day of the week to hold Town Meeting in order to increase participation (i.e. Monday night vs.Saturday morning)
3. Examine accessibility issues and research available technologies that offer solutions for greater voter participation while maintaining the integrity of the meeting and voting.
4. Consider options for educating new and existing voters on Town Meeting and make recommendations.

Also mentioned on the web site is the committee’s deadline –The Committee shall endeavor to complete its work in a reasonable amount of time, but should have its recommendation to the Board of Selectmen no later than June 30, 2013. Given that the Board of Selectmen voted on June 10 to re-appoint the committee, the deadline may have been changed, but no minutes of committee meetings from the last six months have been posted on its web page, so that was difficult to confirm.

Depending on the committee’s recommendations, and which of those are endorsed by the Board of Selectmen, town by-laws or the town charter may have to be modified — by Town Meeting. More extensive changes may require modifications to state law, which ultimately controls what is permitted and what is not.

In the introductory letter to the survey, the committee stresses the importance of participating by completing the survey:

Our Committee will, ultimately, provide a report which outlines identified voter concerns, an analysis of how Groton compares with best practices of similar towns as to its conduct of Town Meeting and registered voter participation, and recommended courses of action for the Board of Selectmen’s consideration.

Over this summer, the Committee will publicize and hold a public hearing to solicit town-wide input. In the interim, your own responses to the content of this “Town Meeting Survey” will greatly assist us in our effort of developing statistical information on resident participation in Town Meeting, identifying Town Meeting issues deemed important by Groton’s registered voters, and assessing registered voter opinion on a variety of suggested improvements, to Town Meeting, brought forward, to-date. [sic]

We hope every registered voter will take the time to complete this survey….

The survey is in a frame below, if you’d like to preview it. To fill out the form online, click the Download icon in the upper left corner of the frame or click here to download the file. Then open it in Adobe Acrobat Reader. You’ll be able to check off your answers and return the file to the committee automatically.