Hope nobody cancelled late night through early morning plans for Tuesday, Jan. 14 and Wednesday, Jan. 15 due to the Southport Bridge closing from 11 p.m. until 4 a.m. as announced in this paper last week. Those closings, which were to apply sealant to the deck, have been cancelled due to the low temperatures. According to the folks at Cianbro, the temperature needs to be above 20 degrees for this work, and it may be that temperature or below those two nights. Stay tuned for the next try. In spite of the cold weather, the work on the bridge is still due to be finished by May 30. We have those stalwart men and women to thank for keeping the work going through the winter weather.

A good cold weather dinner is hot dogs and baked beans. The Southport General Store will provide such a dinner for us on Friday, Jan. 24 from 4 until 6 p.m. Along with the baked casserole will be biscuits, brown bread, and coleslaw. Do come join in the good eating and fun.

I apologize to those Southporters I have not mentioned in this column who have died within the last month. Several, such as Mary Bowden, who died on Dec. 3 and Marylyn J. Marin who died on Dec. 22, I did not know, but you can find notices of their deaths by going to the Boothbay Register and then obituaries. Most recently, on Jan. 8, Al Moses died. I have known Al for a long time as he was a valuable helper at the summer chapel of All Saints by-the-Sea. He lived close by and kept watch over the building and grounds, opening up and closing up for the season, and doing whatever other caretaking work was necessary. We really missed him during the clean up following last winter’s storms as he has been living in a care facility for several years. Thanks, Al, for all you have done.

I continue to marvel at the special events our school children enjoy. The top picture on this week’s newsletter was all the children wearing hand knitted hats made by Nadja Wallace, Evelyn Andrews’ mother. Such hats will keep them warm as they practice their skating skills. Another picture was the second and third grade students, after they had reviewed and discussed the elements of bar graphs, crumbling their paper to play a few rounds of Trashketball to build up data to record. The one time in eighth grade, when I played Trashketball, I was sent to the principal’s office even though I made the basket!

Sheriff’s car has been seen driving up to the Lighthouse and around the Hendricks Head area. Hope it is just checking and not responding to report of problems.

The cold weather has allowed the skating on the artificial rink at the school to continue. So much fun to watch the children and adults thrust a hockey puck back and forth and practice their skating skills.

A reminder that if you are interested, the Town of Southport is hiring a part-time Administrative Assistant! Strong communication skills are essential. Familiarity with bookkeeping, being organized, and proficiency with basic office equipment and software are among other qualities needed to fulfill the duties of the position. A notice of the availability of this job is published elsewhere in this paper, and a full job description and applications are available at the Southport Town Office. They will be accepted until the right candidate is found!