Last Thursday, Nov. 4, Edgecomb approved the much-discussed TIF District, with accompanying water and sewer agreements and ordinance. Shortly, the documents of this matter will be available on the Edgecomb website (see below).
Upcoming Chat and Check dates are November 16 and December 21, both from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Edgecomb Congregational Church vestry. These monthly blood pressure clinics come with Holistic Health presentations and a light lunch, with a chance to chat with neighbors. Bruce can testify to their usefulness–his high blood pressure was identified at one of the Chat and Check meetings a couple of years ago! Call Gail Boudin, 882-7972, for more information, or if you need to arrange transportation.
Still time to see Walpole master quilter Janet Elwin's display of works at On Board Fabrics on Route 27! Come admire them through November 15.
Our apologies to the ghosts, monsters and horribles who came flocking around on Halloween. Our minds were far elsewhere, so we were simply not prepared. Next year, we promise! More about Edgecomb youth: Sara Leone, a 9th grader, is Wiscasset High School's student of the month of October. Michaela Stevenson, daughter of Molly Pitkin on the Springhill Farm Road, fulfilled her WHS Civics class assignment by attending a recent Selectmen's meeting, and getting an earful of TIF discussion. Give her an A for endurance! Meanwhile, Samantha Beam, with her mother Debbie, were treading the boards at the Boothbay Region YMCA in the Y-Arts Youth Chorus part of the recent concert shared with the Watoto Children's Choir from Uganda.
Hearty thanks to Duncan Slade, and Tom Blackford and Jeremiah Burrows, Headmaster and Assistant Headmaster of the Deckhouse School respectively, for providing muscle for Town Hall furniture moving from Election format to Public Meeting format!
Joe Hoyt on the River Road has been selected to participate in the People to People Student Ambassador Program which will send a group of Maine teenagers on a 20-day tour of Paris, Italy, and Greece next summer. This foundation was started by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, and his grand-daughter Mary Jean is the current director. It provides a Grand Tour opportunity for young people to test the waters of the rest of the world! Joe, who was nominated by his WHS 9th grade Social Studies teacher, Don Chase, is particularly interested in the site of the 2004 Olympics, particularly where the original games were held. However, it is not a free trip. Joe must raise the money, $5,000, he will need to finance his travel. Call him or his family, Tom Blackford and Susie Stephenson, at 633.2907 to discuss donations or odd jobs for hire.
The Edgecomb Historical Society's November meeting, 2:00 p.m. on Thursday the 18th, in the Edgecomb Eddy School conference room, will review and plan new moves on our quest for the Rosicrucian Springs, our projected survey of the Town's historic/scenic sites, and the Fort Edgecomb Bicentennial. Come join us!
Meanwhile, our fellow historical organization, the Friends of Fort Edgecomb, is at low ebb. Long-serving officers Beth Maitland and Matt and Laurel Dunn are finding the long drives from Cumberland and Winthrop take too much time away from their other responsibilities and interests, so have declined to serve another year. Unfortunately, the alert card came too late for me to point this out in time for their November 3 elections meeting.
Help is seriously needed to keep this fine group going. They are the ones who co-ordinate the several encampments and re-enactments at the Fort and elsewhere. They serve as the support group for the Fort Edgecomb Historic Site, and provide it with such services as replacing the building's shingles when needed, which has become a very expensive proposition. Please call the Dunns at 377-5335 or at mldunn7@netzero.com, pay the dues, and rally around to take an active part!
We need them for the Bicentennial! I never realized until doing all this research, that the FOFE 1812 Event (aka The Battle of Fort Edgecomb), always scheduled on the second weekend of June, commemorates the first time a shot was fired from the Fort. Not in anger, but in celebration! Some say it was to celebrate James Madison's inauguration, others suggest it signaled the end of Thomas Jefferson's shipping embargo, which was harder on Wiscasset et al.'s commerce than it was on the Brits. Take your pick. These and other morsels of history will be served up at FOFE's Christmas Party, December 1st meeting, 7:00 p.m. in the lobby of the Sheepscot River Inn. Let's all descend on them with plum pudding and mulled cider and good cheer!
Early morning last Thursday, Casa Cameron recorded our first actual below-freezing temperature: 31.5 degrees. We've had temperatures in the 33-36 degree range, cold enough to take out the tomatoes and other fragile plants. Has anyone else in the immediate area gone to below 32 degrees recently, like within the first week of November?
Nudging the furnace at 234 River Road, 633-2978, bonesukl@midcoast.com. This column appears in several local papers, and at www.Edgecomb.org.