Lamont In 2008 – The Year In Review

The Town of Lamont accomplished a large number of goals in 2008 that everyone should be proud of. We managed to put in place a good core team of volunteers and people willing to step up to help this community accomplish what needed to be done, and thankfully that list of volunteers is so long it cannot be listed here. (that is a good thing). In summary, here are some of the highlights that will provide real benefits for years to come. (if you think about it, that is quite a list!)

1) Lamont Centennial Festival – The town put on an outrageously successful festival that brought a huge crowd (for us) and one that was the envy for miles around. We had a wonderful parade, outstanding food, great music, and a successful auction for the community center (who can forget Art Swannack hamming it up with no prior notice?) The next festival will be in 2010 so if you want to help, we would love that!

2) Lamont Road Project – Lamont paved a large percentage of our surface streets and now has modern sidewalks, curbs, roadways and rainwater drainage connecting all of the major functions in town (school, fire station, community center, church) previously serviced by gravel roads. Century West Engineering has demonstrated again what a first class organization they are – and a special thanks goes to the TIB and Greg Partch for their roles in funding this important addition to the Town.

3) New Flagpole – Although many hands went into the effort, Dale Windsor deserves the lion’s share of the credit for making this nice addition become reality. Lamont held a moving flag raising ceremony with the naval cadets (and who could forget the Sea Cadets? – if they did not rush out of here they all would have been spirited away by grandmothers who thought they were so darn cute) Cathy Ulrich gets our thanks for a beautiful job of singing at the ceremony – and let’s not forget Betty Stone for actually acquiring the flags. What a testament to small town teamwork!

4) Park Improvements - Lamont put in a new picnic table slab, and thanks to Mrs. Shields, we got another picnic table for people to enjoy in the park. The park lost a few old trees but got 6 new, beautiful ones in their place. The park continued to be improved and enhanced so that all of our citizens and guests can have a fun, relaxing, safe place to go.

5) Finally, 2008 was the first year that less than 50% of the population cut their own hair, we formally ended the settling of disputes by seeing who could wrestle a bull to the ground (especially for the hand of a lady) and finally dropped the 'tobacco spitting' component from the Miss Teen Lamont competition. Although it is heart rendering to lose these time tested traditions that made this country great, even bastions of Americana like Lamont must relinquish some things in order to embrace the modern age. So, we will mark their passing but still look forward to 2009. (This paragraph is a parody!)

2009 will be another active year (hopefully less so) where Lamont (with the fire folks) will attempt to get a new fire station, develop more cultural outreach programs, plant trees, improve the gravel roads (while working on funding to get them paved) and continue an active maintenance program on our buildings, water system and facilities – and will hopefully be able to put a roof over the fire pit so it can get year round use. So, have a safe, happy New Year and may 2009 be as good as 2008 for Lamont!