1. Thank you for all who attended the annual 5 Year Club party. For those who were invited but couldn’t attend, we missed you and I hope you can come next year.   The bonfire was also a lot of fun.  We are already planning another one late in the Fall and another during the winter on a warm snowy night.
2. Congratulations to the 18 honorees and a special congratulations to our 2021 Benjamin Volk Award for Excellence winner, Cindy Jackson. She has been an exemplary customer service representative and employee during her time with us. We wish Cindy all the best in her retirement and will miss her terribly.
3. As many of you are probably aware, the President issued a mandate on Thursday requiring all businesses with 100 employees or more to require proof of a COVID-19 vaccination or weekly negative test. If we do not comply, we will receive a $14,000 OSHA fine for every employee who is not vaccinated or tested weekly. Testing weekly is stupid because you could test negative on Monday but be spreading it to everyone by Wednesday.  Also, the vaccine does not prevent anyone from getting or spreading COVID, so it doesn’t prevent a spread or outbreak.  I want to be very clear: I am pro-vaccine.  Vaccinations significantly reduce the degree to which you will get sick should you get COVID-19.  However, I am also very opposed to the idea of being forced to either make you get vaccinated or terminate your employment.  I am not a constitutional lawyer, but that seems like a huge overreach by the president and a federal agency.  The fact is that poor diets, lack of exercise and smoking are more likely to kill you than COVID.   Also, I am not required to make you get the tuberculosis, influenza, pneumonia, or shingles vaccines, so why COVID?  Therefore, at this time I am ENCOURAGING everyone to get the vaccine, but I will not mandate it, force you to take a test or take any action against any unvaccinated employees unless this tyrannical decision by the President is approved by the courts and determined to be constitutional.
4. If you are not vaccinated, and do not plan to be vaccinated, I would be curious, if you care to share with me, why you feel that way.  It will help me in my discussions with the lawmakers we are reaching out to about this blatant abuse of power from the White House.

         A Tweet from Maine’s CD2 Congressman Jared Golden (D):