Monday, June 9, 2008

6/9/08 Communities and Abbreviations

I'm still working on figuring out the difference between a city and a town here in Maine; then throw in township and a funky numbering system of NWPs (whatever that stands for). For example, an area that isn't a town or city may be classified as T23 R35 NWP. It's all so new . . . there's so much to learn . . . still.

Today I received an email from a colleague with her address at the bottom. Where the city/town would normally be located was written "Sandy River Plt., ME" So what is PLT? I thought of PiLoT and PLaTte but wasn't sure. I searched a lot on the web but kept getting addresses with Sandy River Plt. and nothing which spelled out what PLT stood for. I even found a school district for Sandy River Plt but they just referred to themselves with Plt in the name. Now I'm thinking it's a big PLoT to conspire against those of us who are "persons from away."

I finally found a fabulous website called "Maine Local Government" which lists every city/town/township/incorporated area/whatever in the state, in alphabetical order, and when you click on the name, you get a little description of the area, its history, its county, etc. And on that page, I found out that Plt. stands for PLanTation! I didn't know there were any plantations in Maine, much less towns named for one. But now I know. And so do you. :-)

No comments: