Why live in Eastman?

By Steve Haase

Why do we choose to live in Eastman? The nearest full-size grocery store is at least 20 minutes away. The nearest shopping center is at least 30 minutes away. The nearest “real” shopping is about an hour away in Concord or Manchester. There are no street lights or mail delivery. So why do we choose to live here?

For most of us, the sense of community and the many opportunities for both physical and social well-being played a large part in our decision to settle in Eastman. Our beautiful lake offers fishing, boating, kayaking, rowing, sailing, swimming and loon watching. Those looking for an even more active lifestyle can play golf, tennis, and pickleball in the summer, walk the trails year round, and ski and snowshoe in the winter. We have good “city” water, “city” sewage for those living near the lake to avoid polluting our most precious amenity, and year-round road maintenance.

The South Cove Activity Center offers watercraft rentals, a well-equipped health club, a swimming pool, Peppermint Patty’s snack shack in the summer, and rooms to accommodate numerous activities such as meetings, painting classes, a choral group, a bell choir, a book club, a summer camp for the kids, and martial arts and exercise classes. The Center at Eastman supports golf, skiing, Jazz concerts, Wednesday night programs ranging from music to travelogues and nature, a full service restaurant and bar, weekly duplicate bridge games, and an annual week-long bridge instruction camp. Numerous activities are organized by Eastman Recreation such as the Splash, Mash and Dash Triathlon, David’s House benefits, Nordic Nibbles, Moonlight Snowshoe, and Ski to the Yurt.

 There are volunteer groups that keep the lake free of invasive weeds, work with young people to run the snack shack and build a row boat, help to reduce the energy consumption in Eastman, and help to keep the flowers around Eastman looking lovely. If there is an activity you wish to pursue with others – form a new group and watch it grow! And let’s not forget the members of the Board and the Council who donate significant amounts of their own time to keep the place running smoothly. There is so much going on in Eastman it is impossible to mention them all or to participate in them all!

All these opportunities do come with a price. It would be difficult, if not impossible, to offer Eastman’s programs and services without the South Cove and Center facilities, or the Eastman Community Association employees. And Eastman would certainly be a very different place without all the great volunteers who approach their tasks as if they are working for a better position and higher pay! We all appreciate the opportunity to pool our resources to have facilities that would normally be available only in more populated areas. Each one of us supports the community through both our assessments and our volunteer hours, allowing us to avoid the situation in many resort areas where trailers, campers, jet skis, and speed boats prevail, and the loons look somewhere else for a quiet place to nest.