The nice thing about driving through Waterville is that it doesn t look at all like a community struggling to make ends meet. On the contrary, neatly ordered neighborhoods border pleasant city parks.
Volunteers walk new sidewalks on their way to work at a well-supported county museum.
Your eyes are drawn first and foremost to the restored fa ade of the Waterville Historic Hotel, or the whitewashed dignity of the county courthouse, or the newly nostalgic Nifty Theater. You catch the scent of freshly-baked bread rising from the basement at St. Joseph s Catholic Church where they re holding another bake sale. The leaves change and the people smile and visit with each other and the community radiates health in so many ways. There is plenty of room in Waterville for new business. The problem is keeping enough local money at home to support those businesses.