The ice went out on April 7. We happened to be working in the yard when the wind shifted around to the south, cracked our ice away from the shore and blew it into the north end of the lake. We have wheeled our bikes past the remaining piles of snow and had a couple of good rides on days when the temps hit the low fifties. 42 degrees seems to be the mark for opening the sun roof. See why I cannot go south in the summer.

The comprehensive plan committee is shaping up to be a good one. It will meet every week for a year. I think of it as an interdisciplinary seminar in small town government, a town's self-study. There are many people who don't get the idea or necessity of the comp plan. There are two reasons why it is absolutely necessary. First, there have been huge changes in the town in the last 20 years and the path forward (we call this planning!) needs to be decided by the town as a whole, not by whoever is temporarily in office. The path forward has to be based on new data about where the town stands now; the first six months of committee work is mostly research. The second reason is strictly pragmatic. When competitive grant money for projects is offered by the state or federal government, one of the first things they look at is whether the town has a comp plan. A third reason, applicable to most things, is that it's not 1970 anymore.