I am happy to announce that the Friends of Fort Edgecomb has a President! Joe McSwain on the River Road has kindly consented to serve on an interim basis while we are getting our act together. Thank you, Joe! Anyone up for Veep?
Nice visit with Veula Reed on the River Road this week. We puzzled over the location of Ross Field, but came up with no solid ideas, although she knows that the field down on the point before you get to Merry Island has a large boulder in it.
Friday morning at the bird feeder, a Red-Bellied Woodpecker! Normally a more southern bird, they are being sighted increasingly in northern New England. I do not understand why it came by its name, as its belly is the same greyish-white of many a bird, but its headgear is brilliant red, curving down the nape of its neck like a page-boy haircut. Its body sports narrow black and white horizontal striping.
Meanwhile the Pileated is still hammering on the ash tree. Friday it kept to the south side, so all I could see was an occasional glimpse of its red crest whenever it would lean back for a solid peck. Sure could hear it, though.
Early warning: Think about a sewer ordinance and a blasting ordinance, both of which will be on the warrant for this year's Town Meeting. Follow the newspapers' coverage of our water and sewer efforts along the Davis Island and Route 1 Commercial Corridor.
Fire Chief Barry Johnston wants to thank the Edgecomb First Responders, and also the Wiscasset Ambulance Service and the Wiscasset Fire Department for their rescue roles concerning a serious accident on Route 1 during the heavy snow last week Thursday. The WFD provided their "Jaws of Life" for cutting a driver free from his heavily damaged vehicle. The scene was made more complex by the arrival of three semis who were forced to stop since the roadway was closed. After other traffic cleared, they had to back down the hill so as to get a "running start" to go on their ways.
During the same storm, five cars went off Route 27, negotiating the hills by the Town Hall. The Edgecomb Fire Department towed each of them out and set them straight on the top of the hill.
Here at 234 River Road, we experienced brief power outages but nothing serious. I gather that residences on the Mill and Merry Island Roads were more severely affected.
Neat picture in one of the recent papers, the Bath arborist riding in the bucket of a cherry picker, using a 6-inch ruler to measure new growth on the city's trees. One of my smaller unrealized ambitions is to go up in a cherry picker!
Earth-bound at 234 River Road, 633-2978, bonesukl@midcoast.com. This column appears in several local papers, and at www.Edgecomb.org.