My family and I have lived in Heath for 20 years. Bob Bourke moved his family to our neighborhood in 2008, and in the short time he has lived here, we have seen him restore his neglected old house in the center of town to its historic beauty, which he and his wife operate now as a successful bed-and-breakfast business. He and another neighbor, Michael Wilmeth, took it upon themselves to build a new split-rail fence around the basketball court, free of charge, and with zero fanfare. Each spring, I have seen Bob out cleaning the court, repainting lines, installing new nets. He built and installed a bench to house athletic equipment he buys at tag sales, all again free of charge and fanfare. Bob picked up new picnic benches, painted them, and placed them in the town center. Each year before Memorial Day, he gets out his ladder and installs our nation’s flag in the center of town, then removes the flag after Veteran’s Day. When a fellow Heath resident tragically died last year, Bob organized an apple pressing in the town center, and with the help of many of us, sold cider to raise money for the family. These are a few of the things I have seen Bob do, unbidden and from a proven interest in the town’s best interests. They are the sorts of things which attest to character, and often pass unnoticed, and which, along with the generous acts of many others, help make Heath the large-hearted community we have been blessed to be a part of. And this is simply the Bob I have seen in our neighborhood, to say nothing of his service on the volunteer fire department, the hundreds of hours he dedicates to boards and committees, the sum of which prove to me his deserving place as Heath’s newest selectman.
Sam Michel
Heath