Gayle Fraas and Duncan Slade on the River Road are among 11 State of Maine artists who have been awarded $3000 Individual Artists Fellowship grants from the Maine Arts Commission. They will be honored as Fellows in Fiber Arts at Artist Recognition Day, Friday, Sept. 20, at the University of Maine Farmington's Art Gallery. Fraas and Slade received one of the first of these Fellowship awards in 1988/89, the program's inaugural year. Among the public places where examples of their work may be found are the Maine Departments of Marine Resources and of Motor Vehicles, both in Augusta. They have also received a Percent for Art commission to create a work for the new Edgecomb School.

Last week I told you wrong about the Edgecomb Historical Society's Annual Meeting. It is being held on Saturday, Sept. 28. Come and join us at 1:00 p.m. at the Town Hall for a brief business meeting, and then to the Schmid Preserve, for a tour of our town treasure, led by Bob Brown, the Preserve's historian. Wear good walking shoes.

Pictures in the papers: Last week's Boothbay Register showed Arthur Paquett and his daughter Lily on the deck of the Shark V out of Boothbay Harbor, proudly holding up their enormous stripers! Arthur, son of Edgecomb's Bertha Paquett, is living in Edmond, Oklahoma, and Lily is in Austin, Texas.

The old Eddy School, in session until December, will be holding Open House for the general public, Saturday, the 21st, from 4 to 5 p.m. Come to share memories and thank the old building for years of an important job well done. An Open House for parents of children currently enrolled will be on the day before, Friday, the 20th. Call the Eddy School, 882-5515, for details.

After your Saturday tour of our old school, come on over, from 5 to 6:30 pm, to the Congo. Church, loosening your belts on the way, for another wonderful baked bean and casserole supper, with homemade pies. When the Church's Mission/Outreach Committee learned of the many items that had to be dropped from the new school's construction budget, they planned this supper as a way to provide such things as shrubbery, library books, stage curtains, or anything else from the "mile-long" list of needs. $6 for adults, $3 for children12 and under; children under 3 can eat for free. If you want to contribute food or labor, call Gail Boudin at 882-7972.

The School Name Game carries on: Evelyn Fairbrother, daughter of Ed Fairbrother, Jr. on the River Road, e-mails from "sunny California" to second the nomination for The Anna Watson School. We also have some dissenters: Jason Currier points out that in actual fact, the new school is no closer to the Eddy than is the old one, "as the Edgecomb Eagle flies! Let's keep our maritime history and ties to the waterfront recognized . . ." Lee Smith feels that "in a town as small as Edgecomb, with NO visible town center, we need to keep the name of our great town on the school! When there is more than one public school in a town, then it makes sense to name [a new] school after a person." (Historic Note: At one time, there were as many as eight schools in Edgecomb!)

The next Chat and Check is scheduled for Tuesday, September 24 in the vestry of the Edgecomb Congregational Church. This free blood pressure testing opportunity will also feature a talk by Kim Lynch, R.N., on Women's Health. She will particularly stress breast health. Remember, October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Bruce and I spent last Saturday manning a food booth for The Rising Tide Food Co-Op at the L.O.R.E. Festival at the Damariscotta River Association's Farm on Belvedere Road. It was fun, spelling each other as we doled out bowls of hot mushroom barley soup and wandered about admiring the many conservation groups' exhibits. Managed to see some green-winged teal through the Damariscotta Lake Watershed Association's field glasses, and the Central Maine Astronomical Society had a specialized daytime telescope set up for observing sun spots without burning your eyes out! Splendid historic photographs of Maine at Work in the DRA's main building. Such works as a pre-forklift drop-axle flatbed trailer, or an arduously hand-steered gas-operated plank stripper, technology before they applied the word wholesale! You might want to call the DRA, 563-1393 or dra@maine.maine.edu, to see how long it will be there, and go see it!

Meanwhile I'm munching some sun-melted chocolate trail nosh at 234 River Road, 633-2978, bonesukl@midcoast.com. This column appears in The Boothbay Register, The Lincoln County News, The Wiscasset Newspaper, and at www.Edgecomb.org.