Confused about what you read about Edgecomb's coming public water and sewer? Best source of accurate information is the Edgecomb website! www.edgecomb.org. Hit the Selectmen's Minutes!
Nomination papers are available at the Edgecomb Town Office. Nominations can be turned in from Thursday, February 24 through Tuesday, April 5. Offices open are: one Selectman, one School Board member and one Planning Board member (all three year terms); Town Clerk, Town Treasurer, Tax Collector, Road Commissioner (all one year terms).
Max Vinal, whose interesting educational path I mentioned last week, has filled me in: He has spent summers working at the Boothbay Region Boat Yard, and from that grew the ambition to build boats himself. The Mid-Coast School of Technology in Rockland provides such classes in their Marine Technology program. The type of boat his Junior class has been working on (not yet quite complete) is a Scottish Gig, a large rowboat for racing. It sports eight seats. (Is that eight oars or 16?) The gig was a commissioned project for the school, so others will be doing the racing. It would be interesting to follow this craft's career once it gets into the water! Max himself hopes to be a tugboat captain one day, possibly in the Port of Boston.
The Rising Tide Food Cooperative's annual meeting will be held at the Second Congregational Church in Newcastle this Sunday, March 6. 2:00 p.m. Probably the most important annual meeting of RT's history. Edgecomb members, read your newsletters before you come. Interested non-members, newsletters can be picked up at the cash register desks in the store. Potluck dinner will be served, bring your favorite dish! If our energy holds up, there will be dancing afterwards!
Last week, we welcomed back Army SPC Stephanie Wood and the 619th Transportation Company. Here a picture of the banner her proud family, Keith and Linda Wood, had made for her homecoming.
This week, let us welcome home another Edgecomb soldier returned from Iraq, Specialist James Kendall of the Maine Army National Guard's 133rd Engineer Battalion!
Lisa McSwain on the River Road tells me her daughter Allie, a Senior at Boothbay Region High School, was accepted in December, early decision, by Wheaton College in Norton, Mass. Well done, Allie! Big sister Lee will be studying during the spring term at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia! Hoppin' Edgecomb Kangaroos!
Feedback Department: Jim Brown on the River Road reports the chili he submitted from his Boothbay Harbor restaurant, the Upper Deck Cafe, placed second in the recent big Chili Cook-Off in Camden! His recipe was adapted from his cooking experience in an upstate New York State firehouse. Next stop Terlingua? The Upper Deck's seafood chowder won the Silver Medal in last year's Windjammer Days.
More assistance information: For those with disabilities, the Lincoln County Emergency Management Agency maintains a list of those with special needs so the agency can communicate with them in case of disaster. Call the EMA office at 882-7559, or have a caregiver send your information to Lincoln County EMA, POB 249, Wiscasset ME 04578. This list is kept confidential.
Of related interest, literature about developmental disabilities is on display at the Skidompha Library in Damariscotta and the Boothbay Harbor Memorial Library, and doubtless other public libraries. These materials have been made available by the Jeremiah Cromwell Disabilities Center in Portland through its Special Needs Library Collection. They cover conditions from autism to Fragile X.
Hats off to Cheryl Tedford on McKay Road! After five years as a volunteer firefighter with the Edgecomb Fire Department, she has her Basic Emergency Medicine Technician license and will be practicing with the EFD First Responders.
Thespians galore! Debby Beam is in a production of "The Vagina Monologues," to be played March 19 at the Lincoln Theater in Damariscotta as a part of the V-Day 2005 world-wide campaign opposing violence against women and girls. "V" of course means Victory.
Phyllis McQuaide has just portrayed the "exterior" woman Margaret (as opposed to her wild alter ego Maggie) in "Overtones," one of a trio of one-act plays produced by the Dead of Winter Players of LCCT. I dimly recollect that my daughter Daphne once performed in that play in college.
Speaking of whom, the Klemme family will be moving yet again this spring, to a house of their own in the town of Northford CT.
Model railroad enthusiasts, take note! Thank you, Leonard Fuller, for displaying the Boothbay Railway Village's N-scale model train layout at the Edgecomb Eddy School. It can be viewed in the school's hallway through March. Mr. Fuller is the school's head maintenance man. (Er, uh, what does "N-scale" mean?)
Meanwhile, author Lea Wait on the Eddy Road has been visiting Wiscasset schools, helping teachers bring the American past alive for 21st century students. Her series about 19th century Wiscasset has become popular supplemental learning material around here.
A good part of my mornings spent watching the blue jays congregate under the big ash tree. Sixteen or more birds, scrabbling, hopping up and down, flying up to the branches and then, I swear, no wing action, but dropping directly down! That and the turkeys, three toms in full resplendent flourish, hey guys, isn't it a little early for courtship? The Red-Bellied woodpecker, the resident Downies and Hairies, all take turns attacking the suet, while the Pileated hammers on above us all.
Contemplating Yggsdrasil, the Tree of Life, at 234 River Road, 633-2978, bonesukl@midcoast.com. This column appears in several local papers, and at www.Edgecomb.org.
