Have a comfortable lazy Labor Day and a glad happy First Day of School!
Winter is coming! The Coastal Economic Development Corporation is scheduling appointments for eligible households and persons to sign up for LIHEAP (Low Income Heating). As soon as possible, call 442-7963 or 1-800-221-2221 and ask for Lynn Creamer, Intake Specialist, at extension 268. Ask CED about assistance with your electric and telephone bills, as well. Information is available at the Edgecomb Town Hall, or call me, Jo Cameron, 633-2978.
The Circuit Breaker is alive and well! The 2005 Maine Residents Property Tax and Rent Refund Program is currently accepting applications, through May 31, 2006. To qualify for this refund, your 2004 property tax must be more than 4% of your household income, or the rent paid must be more than 20% of your household income. There are other qualifications actual income, size of household, age, disabilities, etc. which you should know about, so call the Maine Revenue Service at 626-8475, or pick up an application booklet at the Edgecomb Town Office or the Wiscasset Public Library.
To the stupification of many who accessed the Edgecomb website last week, it was blacked out with a message, "For Iraq" signed by "The Turkish Hacker." I'm relieved to report the Turkish Hacker has gone now. Strange world of Internet. I have this vision of cells in a beehive inhabited by pallid squadgy bug-eyed twerps with nothing better to do than make life difficult for the rest of us. Dirty job, but somebody's got to do it!
Herb Reed has been back on the River Road this summer, currently helping his mother Veula cope with a broken foot. Have a good recovery, Vi!
Lea Wait's fourth Antique Print mystery is out Shadows at the Spring Show. This time print dealer/sleuth Maggie Summer enters the tricky world of adoption.
Recent Sheriff's report mentions kids carelessly bike riding on an Edgecomb road. Bikes are a sore point with me, as a car driver. Correct me if I am wrong, but a bicycle is legally considered a vehicle. Bikes should go with the flow of automotive traffic, and follow automotive rules, including hand signals to indicate when they are going to turn. Walkers should go against the flow. But I know, I know. You're with friends, wheeling aimlessly around on the pavement near your homes, showing off, but... So many of our roads have blind hills. A driver intent on getting from Point A to Point B comes booming up over the crest of the hill, and wow! There's a bunch of kids on bikes! This is how many tragic, avoidable accidents happen.
The first course of the new Peninsula Community College is, as of today, in session. Introduction to Psychology. To learn more about this new Boothbay Region institution of higher education and its other, future course offerings, call 633-0570.
One golden warm day recently we harvested the first of our Golden Plum tomatoes, and spent an entire lunch savoring it for its warmth, acidity, lovely color. Nothing, but nothing, beats any tomato fresh from the garden! Slurping the infamous Love Apples at 234 River Road, 633-2978, bonesukl@midcoast.com. This column appears in several local papers, and at www.Edgecomb.org.