After months of persistence, Town Manager Don Willard announced the 133rd Engineering Battalion of the Maine Army National Guard has targetted Raymond for a June, 2006 training exercise.
Encouraged by resident and former selectwoman Ada Brown, Willard applied for the Guard’s assistance on two Raymond work projects: building a pole barn for equipment storage on Plains Road and raising the level of the baseball field at Sheri Gagnon Memorial Park.
Brown’s son-in-law gave her the idea of contacting the Guard and she “pushed” Willard.
“Don told me if I had an idea that it might happen that he’d go along with it,” Brown said. “I kept after him. The determination between the both of us was what caused this to happen. Now he’s happy and I’m happy.”
Under the terms of the agreement, the Guard will furnish all the labor, leaving the town to supply materials, specialized equipment, permits and site preparation. Although Willard estimates this will cut the town’s cost in half, the plan is subject to approval by Raymond residents.
As part of the same project, Cathy Gosselin applied on behalf of Camp Hinds. According to Gosselin, the Guard has not yet defined the extent of their assistance at the camp.
Each year, the National Guard seeks projects such as this one as a civil military operation training exercise for new recruits. In a recent interview, Captain Daniel Curtis of the 133rd Battalion said there are several steps before they can determine which projects best fit their needs.
“Selecting the projects is a pretty lengthy process,” Curtis said. “And this year, with Iraq and New Orleans, it was difficult to get back to people. Raymond is a perfect project because it offers both vertical (the pole barn) and horizontal (the ball field) training.”
This year, the Maine National Guard had eight requests from various communities. The Raymond project was one of two selected for 2006.
Between 80 and 100 members of the 133rd Battalion from the Bravo Company out of Lewiston and the Charlie Company out of Westbrook will be working on the project. Although Curtis says there’s a lot to do, he believes the troops can finish in the allotted two-week period.
“Should we not finish, we’d like to come back and work until it’s complete,” Curtis said.
While the troops are in Raymond, they will be housed at Camp Hinds. And Ada Brown is already thinking of ways residents can become involved and show their appreciation.
“They (the Guardsmen) like big barbecues,” she said. “And they like the townspeople to put on big barbecues for them.”
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