Welcome, Scott Griffin, son of Russell, as Edgecomb's new Road Commissioner! And all our hearty thanks to Russell Griffin for his years of service in that position! Congratulations, David Boucher, now a 3-year member of the Planning Board! And then, there's Three More Years of Jo Cameron on the Selectboard.
The meeting itself was briskly paced, civil and good-humored, the speakers from the floor principally inquiring for information about the issues. We voted by secret ballot [required by the recent State of Maine Department of Education's Essential Programs and Services legislation] on the controversial LD 1 school proposition which passed.
In other warrant articles, we have a new ordinance to control blasting in the Town, so now you will have advance notice of activities in your vicinities which might lead to noise, danger, destabilized soil surfaces, and possible disturbances of water quality and availability. You'll be glad to hear we approved monies for maintenance and repair of our roads, so knocked about over the winter, as well as for surfacing and/or re-surfacing several local roads. The Fort Edgecomb Bicentennial was granted a small allocation to defray office expenses. For those who follow the fortunes of the Schmid Preserve, after June 9 there will be less than $5000 remaining of the no-interest loan the Town made from the Woods End Landing Fund for the purchase of the Haselton Property.
Approval was given for consolidation of all of the Town's land use ordinances in a single document with Definitions and Fee Schedule sections covering all aspects of the ordinance. For those who will need it, the revised Town of Edgecomb Land Use ordinance will be available for inspection at the Town Hall, the Wiscasset Public Library, and eventually on the Edgecomb website, www.Edgecomb.org. The cost of the full volume will be at the cost of printing, $14.00, but pages may be copied at the Town Hall for $1/page, or at the WPL.
Today! 2:00 p.m.! The Edgecomb Historical Society meets at the Edgecomb Eddy School Conference Room to celebrate our generous grant from the Maro Hammond Memorial Trust to fund Rose Marie Ballard Boak's historical architecture survey of Edgecomb's structures this coming summer. Come and High Five with us all!
Edgecomb Oysters in the news: According to the Sunday paper, "The center of Maine's oyster farming industry is the Damariscotta River... more than half the 3 million or so oysters produced statewide are grown there." The chef at Grand Central Station's (NYC) Oyster Bar, "can't keep Pemaquids in the house...they are very popular." The Oyster Bar also carries Belons and Glidden Points from the Damariscotta. Are these from Barbara Scully's River Road enterprise? Yes! A further quote from a NY Times reviewer describes ‘...slim smooth Glidden Points with a delicate texture..." Barbara tells me the GCS Oyster Bar specifically requests small sleek oysters from her.
Summer's here! We know because Bruce has done cowboy duty rounding up errant whiteface cattle off the River Road! Thank you to two people who helped, whose names we do not know. Meanwhile, rumors have been heard that the River Road is due a llama farm in the near future.
Daughter Daphne's move to Northford CT is complete, an easier commute to Yale, made even more easy by the kids' new school and daycare being across the road from each other. Thoroughly modern children, Katy has participated in a mini-walkathon for Cystic Fibrosis, while Ben has been on a grand tour to the Eric Carl Museum of Graphic Arts in Amherst MA. Eric Carl is the creator of The Very Hungry Caterpillar, as I'm sure anyone under the age of 10 can tell me! Ben apparently left for the trip grinding his teeth, "You know I hate art!" but came back totally enthusiastic, and wanting to meet Mr. Carl (a bit difficult, says Daphne, since he is 106 years old!)
As I sit writing this, I remember an old music hall song my mother used to sing to me, by Sir Harry Lauder, who was to Scotland as Garrison Keillor is to Minnesota. It goes: "Oh, it's nice to get up in the morning when the sun is in the sky, at 4 or 5 or 6 o'clock in the good ol summertime! But when the dew is doin' and it's murky overhead, oh, it's nice to get up in the morning, but it's nicer to stay in bed!" (Really rattle that "r" in "murky" to get the Scottishness of it all!)
With seed packets in hand, gazing wistfully out at the garden this murky morning at 234 River Road, 633-2978, bonesukl@midcoast.com. This column appears in several local papers, and at www.Edgecomb.org.