Fire Chief Barry Johnston is happy to announce that the Edgecomb Fire Department is the recipient of one of the few U.S. Fire Administration's 2003 Fire Service grants to be awarded in the 50 states and several territories. Of the $4 million awarded in the State of Maine, the Edgecomb award is in the amount $166,500, already matched, as required, by the Fire Department's $17,000. The money will be used to purchase a 52,000-gallon capacity tanker

As promised last year, the Harvest Fair is returning to the Edgecomb Eddy School on Saturday, Oct. 25, bigger and better than ever, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.! The Parent Teacher Club plans both a regular auction and a silent auction of local goods and services, copious food including an abundant baked-goods table. Crafts, games, a Moon Bounce and fire engine rides for the kids. More details as the date draws nigh.

Lee and Les Smith want to express their great thanks and admiration to Barry Johnston, Roy Potter, Morris Hyson and Dick Oulton of the Edgecomb Fire Department who responded to Les' heart attack. They were prompt, professional, and kind! Lee is glad to report that Les is now back home, doing fine.

Please, everyone who harvests shellfish, commercially or for personal pleasure: Take the Red Tide warnings seriously. The entire Maine coast has been affected, and taking shellfish is prohibited. The algae's toxins, concentrated in the shellfish flesh, can cause serious damage to the nervous system. For information, call the Red Tide Hot Line, 1-800-232-4733.

Two birds with one stone department: The Schmid Preserve Committee is planning a pruning workshop to be conducted by Barry Hathorne the last weekend of October. Bring pruning saws and loppers (and some will be made available) to a) learn how to prune aged fruit trees, and b) prune some of the aged fruit trees in the Schmid Preserve! For details, call Committee chair Bob Leone, 882-0613.

The next meeting of The Stewards of the Sheepscot will be Wednesday, Oct. 29, at 7:00 p.m. in the Wiscasset Municipal Building Hearing Room. The State of Maine and the Coast Guard are holding public meetings concerning a possible deep draft vessel route to be established on the Sheepscot River. The first was yesterday, I learned, too late for this column, but the second is tonight, Oct. 16, 6:30 p.m. in the Wiscasset Municipal Building.

The Edgecomb Selectmen would like to dispose of the following items:

1. A semi-circular podium of dark tongue-in-groove wood with red fabric top, used originally (so far as anyone has been able to tell me) by the Edgecomb Congregational Church, then given to the Edgecomb Grange when it used the Town Hall for a meeting place. Useful for an organization, or it might make a good bar.
2. Four seesaws, tubular steel with wooden seats, still in place at the former Eddy School. These do not comply with current safety standards, but might do for private backyard fun.

Since it is October, and we are beginning to see cold weather, the Road Department wants to remind Edgecomb residents: State law prohibits the removal of snow from private drives into public roadways. When piles of snow freeze, they damage snowplow blades and create driving hazards.

The Pine Crest Motor Court on Route 27 is on the market. That goes a long way back. When my family came here in the 1940s, house-hunting, I remember putting up in one of those tiny cabins. Great fun for a little kid! I must have been five at the time.

Enjoying these bright, cool days .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.