Remember, everyone: Edgecomb Elections are Friday, May 16, 1:00 to 7:00 pm at the Town Hall. The Edgecomb Town Meeting is Saturday, May 17 at the new Edgecomb Eddy School auditorium, 10:00 am until done, followed by the Dedication ceremonies for our new Edgecomb Eddy School at 4 pm.

Be sure to admire the several works of art which grace our new school, provided by grants from the Maine State Art Commission's One Percent for Art fund. The exterior entrance is flanked by ten terra cotta tiles created by sculptor George Mason of Damariscotta Mills. Each tile depicts examples of local wildlife and plants that may be seen near the school: snowdrop, sunflower, wild iris, ground beetle, dragonfly, ladybug, butterfly, rosa rugosa, hummingbird, tiger lily, all in deep relief, presenting dramatic contrasts of light and shadow. These tiles are intended to encourage touching, while their warm welcoming brick red appeals to the eye.

George Mason has done a number of One Percent for Art commissions; other works can be found in schools in Nobleboro, Union, and elsewhere in the state. Mason was instrumental in the founding of the Watershed Center for Ceramic Arts in Newcastle, which makes use of the rich deposits of clay in our locality. Indeed, he worked there while the site was a working brickyard; hence his use of terracotta as a medium provides a kind of historical continuity. He particularly appreciates the use of terracotta in public art, a way to announce the nature of the site, and to bring its frequenters, in this case the students, to an awareness, over time, of the infinite discoveries that make up life. In other words, a visual and tactile metaphor for Education itself.

Reminder from Officialdom: Real estate tax lien procedures have started as of May 1. Unpaid property taxes must be paid before May 15, to avoid additional charges other than interest. Send your payments to the Edgecomb Tax Collector, POB 139, Edgecomb ME 04556, or bring them to the Town Hall during office hours: Tuesdays and Thursdays from 1 to 5 pm, and Mondays from 7 to 9 pm. The Town Hall phone is 882-7018.

Saturday, May 10 at 10:00 am, we celebrate the opening of the newly-blazed trail system in the Schmid Preserve! Join us, everyone, at the Middle Road parking area, for a brief ceremony and an opportunity to hike the trails, on your own, or in a guided tour. Snacks and refreshments will be available.

Also on May 10, from 8:30 a.m. to noon, the Old Eddy School is open for those who want to take remaining furniture from the classrooms. Free, first come first served, everything (except the fixtures!) must go.

Talked with Priscilla Bryer of Boothbay the other day. She remembers our Town Hall fondly, as a hall for dances, during the 1940s. Bands like Joe Avery's from Bath played the fox trot, jitterbug, waltzes, and of course, square dances! A gang of girls would hike all the way up from Boothbay to these affairs, and unless they were successful in getting rides home, would hike all the way back! Mrs. Bryer has many Edgecomb connections. Audrey Chase is her aunt, and she was friends with McKays, Pooles, Lamsons, other long-established Edgecomb families.

Mrs. Bryer gave me another morsel of school history to nibble on: She attended a two-year high school in Boothbay – there was another such in East Boothbay – before going to Boothbay Harbor High School to finish up. One teacher taught all the classes!

Tamara Lilly-Crawford, Manager of the Sheepscot River Inn, extends an invitation to Edgecomb dwellers to make use of the small tennis court at the Inn. Neighbors have made use of it on an unofficial basis for years, but Ms. Lilly-Crawford feels the neighborly thing to do is to officially offer the use of the court to Edgecomb-ers, -ites, however we describe ourselves. The rule is, however: Guests at the Inn take precedence. But the court has always been under-used. Just check in at the Inn's front desk before starting to play. They will have rackets and balls available, to borrow, as well.

Let's see. We left Bob and Cindy Brown at the Big Bend Park in Texas. By February they were lost in the Carlsbad Caverns, New Mexico, 750 feet underground, in caves easily the length of two football fields. From there to Sitting Bull Falls in the South Lincoln National Forest, out over the Sacramento Mountains, 800 feet high, in snow, to White Sands, Arizona, the largest alkaline deposit in the world. Lime dunes 40 to 50 feet high, one side hard enough to walk on, the other you sink to your knees. Drove down to Las Cruces, 16 miles at a 6% grade, but beautiful! Toured the Casa Grande Indian ruins, unusual among Pueblo towns because they built on the flat desert, not in cliffs. Adobe buildings of four stories, dating from the 15th century, when the water must have been only 10 feet below the surface. Today the water is 100 feet below. Boated down the Colorado River to Lake Havasu, then by truck, a brief dip below the border to Morales, Mexico, typical little border town, then on to Yuma, the Imperial Dam and the proving grounds. Fascinated, in an odd way, by Oatman, Arizona, a true tourist trap, but interesting perhaps because of that: gun fights scheduled every day, burros eat out of your hand, its principal claim to fame, it's the place Clark Gable eloped to with Carole Lombard. Then on to Las Vegas, across the Hoover Dam along Route 93, and that is where we will leave them until next installment! Hope they emerge solvent!

Edgecomb in the news: Congratulations, Robert Langton, first place winner from Maine and one of the top six in Level II division of the Letters About Literature contest, sponsored in this state by the Maine Humanities Council. Robert is a seventh grader at the Center for Teaching and Learning. All hail, Ramone Hanley-Warren, current Artist of the Month at the Boothbay Harbor Memorial Library! This column comes too late to invite you to the reception, but by all means go and enjoy her paintings, reflecting the changes from in-state rural to coastal Maine scenery. Ramone is owner of the Damselfly Gallery on Route 27, just across from McKay Road. And a picture of Bob Brown holding the fruit of his lobbying labors: the new lobster license plate. Monies from its sale will go toward research, education and development (RED) in the lobster industry.

Besieged by daffodils at 234 River Road, 633-2978, onesukl@midcoast.com. This column appears in The Boothbay Register, The Lincoln County News, The Wiscasset Newspaper, and at www.Edgecomb.org.