A call to all Edgecomb's Green Independents! Your Party will be caucusing, yikes! Today! Drop your newspapers and rush over at 4:30 p.m. to the Edgecomb Town Hall! Give our burgeoning third party a chance! The Convener is Andi Burt on the Mill Road.
So many important Town-wide items! It is difficult to know where to begin. I am including them in this column, even though they are two weeks away, to be sure to give you good warning.
Thursday, March 25, 7:00 p.m. at the Town Hall, is the Public Hearing on the Edgecomb Planning Board's proposed Amendments to the Subdivision, Building Code, Land Use and Site Plan ordinances, minor changes to the Shoreland Zone ordinance, additions to Definitions, and a new Resource-Based Subdivision Development ordinance. The Planning Board invites and urges all Edgecomb people to attend. The final wordings of these amendments and new ordinance will appear in the 2004 Town Warrant to be voted on at the Edgecomb Town Meeting in May.
Bone up on the texts of this proposed new ordinance and these ordinance amendments! Here is the link to the Edgecomb website: http://www.edgecomb.org/selectboard/index.htm.
A Special Town Meeting will be held Saturday, March 27, at 10:00 a.m., and the Edgecomb Selectmen and Fire Department urge everyone to come! The purpose for this meeting is to ratify our acquisition of a 1000-gallon pumper/tanker fire vehicle from a federal grant awarded as part of the Homeland Defense program, to be matched in part from funds allocated for the purpose at last year's annual Town Meeting. Also on the warrant, approval is needed to build an additional garage to accommodate this equipment.
Don't forget, Edgecomb Wants YOU! Nomination papers for candidates for town office are still available from now to April 6. Stop at the Edgecomb Town Clerk's Office, Monday evenings 7:00 to 9:00 p.m., Tuesdays and Thursdays 1:30 to 5:00 p.m. Offices to be voted for are: one Selectman/Assessor of Taxes/Overseer of the Poor for 3 years; one Town Clerk for 1 year; one Treasurer for 1 year, one Tax Collector for 1 year; one Road Commissioner for 1 year; one Member of the School Committee for 3 years; two Members of the Planning Board for 3 years each. Call the Town Clerk during the above hours at 882-7018 for more information.
Black ice is still with us, friends, with its serious dangers. 5:30 last Friday morning, the 12th, a pick-up slid and crashed on Route 1 near the Dragon Cement lot. The Edgecomb Fire Department and the Lincoln County Sheriff's Department responded. The driver was not injured, but the vehicle was totaled. The trouble with black ice is, you can't see it. It looks like somewhat shiny asphalt. Go as warily as possible!
The Boat Registration forms are finally in! You can register your craft with Lee Smith at the Town Hall, 882-7018, Mondays 7:00-9:00 p.m.; Tuesdays and Thursdays 1:00-5:00 p.m. However, if you registered for the first time in 2003, please bring your old registration with you, or at least the exact date on which you registered your boat. Thanks!
Enough of officialdom! Begone, dull care, let's play!
Muscle up! The Edgecomb Historical Society is moving! The Edgecomb Eddy School has kindly offered us a small but efficient room just off the school's Library. We will spend Thursday afternoon, March 25, from 2:00 p.m. until we're done, moving the EHS collection from the Town Hall balcony to the school. Come join us! Call Sophie Quinn, 882-9326 for more about this meeting.
Edgecomb's Ann Harford, on Atlantic Highway, has been named Bath's Civilian Employee of the Year. Ann has been the Animal Control Officer for Bath for ten years. Before that, she was ACO for Edgecomb, and at one time director of the Lincoln County Animal Shelter.
Avast and Belay, ye Pyrates of ye Edgecomb Eddy School! Turn to, All Hands, for a Book Fair Treasure Hunt Friday March 26, 5:00 to 8:00 p.m. and/or Saturday, March 27, 9:00 to 11:00 a.m.! Pick up a map at the door and follow the dotted lines, solving riddles along the way through the gym. Prizes! On Friday, you can walk the plank into a pot of spaghetti with all the trimmings in the cafeteria. (Adults $5; Children 4-12 $3; under 3, free!). On Saturday, Young Swashbucklers, come all ye to the Library's Pirates' Den where a story-teller will regale you with tales of the seven seas!
Congratulations to Niall Janney and Jacob Miller, who will have book reviews published in "Voices from the Middle," a publication of the National Council of Teachers of English. Both are Center for Teaching and Learning students from Edgecomb, Niall in the 8th grade, Jacob an alum, now attending Wayneflete Academy.
Tuesday, March 23, 6:30-7:30 p.m., will be the sixth in The Morris Farm's Food for Thought Series, "Fair Trade in Agriculture," presented by Laura Millay, national coordinator of ENGAGE (Educating Network for Global and Grassroots Exchange), a group which fosters cross-cultural communication for grassroots action and global social justice.
See y'all at Public Hearing, Special Town Meeting, School Book Fair, and the Edgecomb Historical Moving Day cum Aerobics Work-Out! Sounding the clarion call at 234 River Road, 633-2978, bonesukl@midcoast.com. This column appears in several local papers, and at www.Edgecomb.org.