Big Boxes? What if they come to Edgecomb? Since only four people (besides Planning Board members and Selectmen) attended last Thursday's public information meeting about the Planning Board's proposed amendments to our Land Use Ordinance, made necessary by recent changes in Maine legislation, let us sweeten the pot. Show up on Saturday, March 11, at 10:00 a.m. for the second of these required meetings. You must judge the soundness of four required amendments, and also, pay particular attention to Article 5 which will include Edgecomb's defense against SuperCenters and their ilk. The specific size cap requirements will be in a separate article in the Town Warrant. This Saturday will be your last chance to influence amendment decisions, your last chance to point out flaws, recommend additions or deletions to matters which affect every one of us! The Public Hearing on Thursday, March 23 at 7:00 p.m. will present the Ordinances in their final form. Ultimately, you will be voting on these amendments in the 2006 Town Warrant to be presented at Town Meeting May 20, so be sure to come to this second meeting, to be sure the amendments will work to your best advantage!
Oh, and welcome, Skip and Helen White on the Eddy Road, who are actively interested in learning their way around their new home town. What a way to begin!
The Town has received a most valuable gift from Ms. Pat Christopher of Hallowell. Two volumes of typed transcripts of very old Edgecomb records! Vital statistics, family member lists, cemetery inventories, I can't wait to examine them in detail! Our great thanks to Ms. Christopher, and to Rupert Neily of West Boothbay Harbor, who brought them to the Town Hall last week.
Wild Whoops of Congratulation to two Edgecomb Wiscasset High School Seniors! Leah Lemont, daughter of David and Gwen Lemont on the Cross Point Road, has been selected to receive the 2006 Maine Principals' Association award for her academic achievement and citizenship! Kate Riser, daughter of Chris Riser and Julianne Sexton on the Boothbay Road has been chosen as WHS's DAR representative for her qualities of dependability, service, leadership and patriotism to an outstanding degree!
And Hip, Hip, Hooray for Ryan Peters, an Edgecomb Eddy 6th Grader, who has been nominated to the People to People Student Ambassador Program. He will be one of seven student delegates from Maine at People to People's World Leadership Forum in Washington DC, April 3 through 9. He will attend daily workshops, visit national shrines such as Gettysburg and the Smithsonian Institute, and attend a Congressional Reception and an Embassy Dinner. A returnable bottle drive is going on throughout the month of March to help Ryan raise the remaining $1,400 of his program tuition. Returnable bottles and cans may be dropped off at the School on Route 27, or at the Peters' home directly across the street. If needed, call the Peters family at 882-4127 to make arrangements for a pick-up, if needed. A Benefit Brunch will be held at St. Patrick's Church in Newcastle on Sunday, March 26 at 11:30 a.m. and a Community Spaghetti Supper will take place at the Wiscasset Community Center, Route 27, Wiscasset on Friday, March 31 at 6:00 p.m. Both Ryan benefits will be by donation only. Call about the Bottle Drive, the benefit events or other ways to sponsor Ryan at Steve and Dorothy Peters at the above phone number or e-mail them at dspeters@prexar.com .
More Bragging: Young Michael Finnegan is on the Dean's List at the Maine Maritime Academy in Castine. A Junior, he is majoring in Small Vessel Operations.
Will you? Won't you? Will you? Won't you? The Lobster Quadrille continues at the Wiscasset Public Library: On Friday, March 10 at 10:30 a.m., bring your little ones to the Children's Room for a morning of lobster stories and crafts! And at 10:00 a.m., Saturday, March 11, come to hear lobster scientist Carl Wilson present "A Scientist's View of Lobsters and the Lobstering Industry." This last should be of interest to everyone in Edgecomb associated with lobstering, unless of course you're out hauling or setting at 10:00 a.m. Call the Library for more information on this entire series, or check out the website www.midcoastreads.com.
If you are able to make the trip, Trevor Corson, the author of "The Secret Life of Lobsters," will be speaking at the Patten Free Library in Bath at 4:00 p.m. on Wednesday, March 15, and at 7:30 p.m. that same day at the Topsham Public Library.
Bruce came home from a routine shopping expedition with a far from routine produce item: A Buddha's Hand. Lest you think we've turned Taliban, destroying shrines, no, no, no. This odd fruit looks like a genetic fusion of lemon and squid! I've counted 15 tentacle-shaped divisions on this fruit, basically used for its zest. The almost total pith, unlike most citrus fruits, is mild and gently sweet. There is no pulp to speak of. We have chopped up one "finger" into a salad. Most of the recipes we found on an internet search were for either a preserve, or candied. Or use it as a room perfume it will last for 2 weeks at room temperature.
Listening to the sound of one Buddha's Hand clapping at 234 River Road, 633-2978, bonesukl@midcoast.com. This column appears in several local papers, and at www.Edgecomb.org.
