The Daily Five: Let's Celebrate East Lyme!

The Daily Five is Patch's regular morning column that tells you five things you need to know, all before breakfast!

1. You might want an umbrella today. According to Weather.com it’s going to be mostly cloudy and there’s a 60 percent chance of showers. The high temperature is going to be much more bearable at 72 degrees and the overnight low will be a cool 60 degrees.

2. This weekend’s big event is , which promises  boatloads of fun with live music, games of twister, hot air balloon rides, a nautical auction, 200 vendors selling everything under the sun, a carnival, a crazy raft race, a sandcastle competition (we’ll be there!) and an opportunity to dunk First Selectman Paul Formica.

As if that wasn’t enough to lure you to Niantic tomorrow, the grand finale will be a fireworks display. You'll be able to watch this from a variety of places but if you go to Hole in the Wall Beach or McCook Point Park, remember, only the fireworks are allowed to there now. 

Unfortunately, this year you won’t be able to watch the display from the boardwalk. Amtrak is still working on it and the gravel path that leads from the Hole in the Wall Beach to the .

First Selectman Paul Formica said he had hoped that the restoration work needed to repair the damage done by Tropical Storm Irene would be finished in time but it took FEMA’s engineers longer than expected to get around to surveying the scene.

If you want to know more about what’s going on, check out Sarah Butterfield’s blog! She’s the first person to get onboard with blogging and I’m really hoping that she starts a trend!

3. I promised to give you an update on East Lyme’s potential purchase of the historic Samuel Smith House. The Board of Selectmen met in executive session to discuss the matter earlier this week and the newly-formed Samuel Smith Volunteers, who are spearheading the effort to preserve the
property and turn it into a historical tourist attraction, gave a presentation
at the Board of Selectman’s meeting.

At the moment, however, there’s not much more to report. The town is in discussions with the property owner over the price and until there’s some movement on that front, not much else can happen.

4. As much as I hate to say it, you might want to start locking your cars. One of our new friends on Facebook reports that thieves stole items from her car yesterday while it was parked in her driveway in Niantic and the same thing happened to her neighbor.

I also saw on the last week that a similar incident occurred down by the beach in Old Lyme. Now we’re in the height of the summer season, it’s probably a good idea to lock up just in case.  

5. The Connecticut Office of Tourism is on a quest to find the state’s most popular tourist destination and it’s using social media to do it. Through July 31, you can nominate your favorite place by going to www.facebook.com/VisitConnecticut. The destination with the most votes will be featured in an ad campaign.

I’d say any one of our towns should be a frontrunner but though Lyme is a hidden jewel nestled among acres of farmland and forest, First Selectman Ralph Eno would prefer to keep it that way—hidden!

“They should really go and vote for Old Lyme,” Eno says. “It’s a lovely town!”

So vote early and vote often—but if you want to keep the first selectman happy, don’t vote for Lyme!

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