From Carole Zalucky comes news of a party! All are invited. On Saturday, March 21 from 5 until 7 p.m. the Southport Island Association (SIA) invites friends and neighbors to come to the Southport Town Hall to celebrate what we all hope will be an early spring! Come whether or not you are a member of SIA. Bring a savory or a sweet to share. Beverages will be available. We anticipate a good turnout, especially if the weather holds! In the event of a late winter storm, the Ice Breaker will be held one week later, on 28 March, same time, same place.

Anne Gobes sends this news from Cape Newagen Alpaca Farm announcing that until the end of April they are open by appointment. Please call 633-0416 or email capenewagenalpacas@gmail.com to set up your visit. Beginning May 1, they are open Tuesday-Sunday, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., with no need to make an appointment during open hours to visit the farm or the gift shop. However, “please note that we are closed July 8 through July 13 for our daughter's wedding in Maine. Several Australian family and friends will join us and our family to celebrate in the states. We will reopen on July 14.”

New this year are Private PACA Tours from 3 to 4:15 p.m. on select Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays plus the popular Alpaca Treks from 4:30 to 5:45 p.m. on select Wednesdays and Fridays with some Sundays available. Both PACA Tours and Alpaca Treks are by appointment only, and all appointments are made on the website by choosing the dates selected for each activity. For more information and booking, visit www.capenewagenfarm.com

Many folks ask if the farm will have any cria (baby alpacas) this year. Anne says, “We are still watching to figure out that answer. We prefer to use natural methods to determine pregnancies, like watching their behavior, monthly weight checks, or just plain looking for cria movement. Sometimes alpacas can carry into the tenth month of an eleven to twelve month gestation period without showing any signs of pregnancy. So we continue to wait a bit longer until the bred females start showing or not! Stay tuned for our cria watch.”

On another note, Anne asks if anyone has seen one of their feral barn cats, Milton. She describes him as an orange tabby with his left ear clipped to show that he was neutered. They adopted him in 2015 from the Feral Felines in Portland. She says, “We are all missing him, especially his barn cat brother. Please give us a call if you have seen him.”

Now to election activity. Adding up numbers reported in this paper last week, 203 Southporters voted for a candidate for president and 290 voted on the referendum. As you probably know by now the referendum was defeated both on Southport and throughout the state, so all children entering public school who do not have a negating medical reason will need to be vaccinated. As to the presidential votes, Southport votes were similar to the reported tally from the 14 states holding a primary on March 3. Look at the Register’s online edition of the paper or this week’s print edition for precise numbers.

About 50 people came to the town meeting on Monday, March 2 with the votes on all the articles passing with few questions. Again, check last Thursday’s Register to read the article describing the meeting.

The municipal Republican caucus was held Friday, February 28, but only one Southporter attended so no Southport business was transacted. Look for an full article on the caucus on page 6 of last week’s Register.

Ten Southporters attended a municipal Democratic caucus meeting at the Boothbay Region High School last Sunday to plan for the presidential election. Mary Rail convened the Southport caucus as it re-elected Bill Messmer as Southport municipal chair, Jane Lunt as vice-chair, Vernon Rail as treasurer, and yours truly as secretary. The Southport caucus also elected two delegates pledged to Joe Biden at the State Democratic convention in June. Four other area towns (Boothbay, Boothbay Harbor, Edgecomb and Westport) also held caucus meetings and elected officers. All caucuses joined to hear speeches by Holly Stover, current area Democratic State Representative, and Chloe Maxmin running for election to State Senate for District 13.

Southport Democrats will meet again in about a month. They also are invited to join Lincoln County Democrats at the American Legion Hall in Boothbay on March 21 from 4:30 until 7 p.m. for a Southwestern-style Bean Supper.

Noted in last week’s Register was the announcement that the celebration of the life of Alice Thompson will be held June 6 at 2 p.m. at the American Legion Hall.

Lots of food trucks were unloading at Robinson’s Wharf, getting ready for the Thursday, March 12 opening. See you there!

By now our ears may have recovered from the work necessary to pound those vertical girders, which will support the Thompson Bridge roadway, into the ground as far as they will go. Once secure, the workmen will cut them off. Matt Cole filled me in on the process having just talked to one of the workmen. Interesting to watch this process up close.