Website Alert! A new page has just been installed, called "Public Meeting Notices." You can find the link on the right at the bottom of all the other specific links. This page will list the regular schedules of every standing and active ad hoc committee and board of the Town of Edgecomb, dates and times. Unless otherwise noted, the meeting place will be the Edgecomb Town Hall. This, we have been told, will satisfy the minimum requirement for public notification of these meetings. This is not to say that ultra-important meetings will not be posted in the newspapers, either within reporters' articles or this column, or, of course, by ad in the Public Notice section.
Non-regular meetings such as site visits or public hearings will be added to the page as needed. Rule of Thumb #1: "Public Hearings" run the gamut from the big deal after a procession of informational meetings on a major issue down to those required for granting of liquor licenses. These lesser hearings are always conducted as first order of business at a given Selectmen's meeting, and will be posted as such. Rule of Thumb #2, regarding closures or cancellations: If the Edgecomb Eddy School is closed, the Edgecomb Town Hall is closed.
Now, you may be asking frantically, just what is this website? You have only to drop your eyes to the bottom of this column where it will always appear unless I forget or the typesetters cut it or other rare occurrences.
Let's on to Yuletide Festivities, of which there are a wealth! For instance, A Wreath of Carols! On Monday, Dec. 11, the Edgecomb Congregational Church will host a Children's Christmas Concert. Starting at 6:30 p.m., area children will regale us with traditional carols, hymns and poems, under the direction of Debbie Boucher. A reception will follow in the Rectory. For more data, call Debbie at 882-8402 or the Church at 882-4060.
Earlier that day, at 2:30 p.m., Boothbay Harbor Shipyard will be launching the Discovery, the restored replica of the ship that brought settlers to Jamestown, Virginia in 1607. Just think! A Quadricentennial coming up in May! Or would that be a Tetracentennial?
This very weekend, Dec. 8th at 7:00 p.m. and 9th at 2:00 and 7:00 p.m, come and enjoy a bravura performance of "Scrooge!" (aka A Christmas Carol) at the Boothbay Playhouse. Edgecombites involved include Shaylee Sibley, Hannah Morley, Brianna Mague, Morgan and Parker Elkins, Amanda and Mitchell Boucher, and their mother Debbie Boucher in a very dark role! This is a production of the Boothbay Y-Arts Youth Chorus, and information may be had by calling the Y at 633-2855.
Meanwhile, in Damariscotta, the Lincoln County Community Theater is presenting Miracle on 34th Street at 7:00 p.m. the nights of December 7, 8, 9, 15 and 16, with a matinee at 2:00 p.m. on Dec. 10. Call 563-3424 for more.
Besides all this, on Saturday, Dec. 9, the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens conducts their Winter Wonderlands Tour, 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., covering four homes and a fine inn. Call CMBG at 633-4333 for more about this. The Gardens also invite you to their newly-opened café and gift shop!
Amahl and the Night Visitors at the 2d Congregational Church, Newcastle, Dec. 8 at 7:00 p.m. and Dec. 9 at 5:00 p.m., call 563-3379, but tickets are going fast! And if you are not saturated with holiday fare, consider Heartwood Regional Theater Company's production of The Snow Maiden, at Lincoln Academy's Parker B. Poe Theater (aka the old gym) on Dec. 7, 8 and 9, curtain time 7:00 p.m., with a matinee on Dec. 9 at 3:00 p.m. Call 563-1373 for tickets and information. The Edgecomb connection, young Jasper Nutt is on the production crew, doing lights. Backstagers, take a bow!
I've just heard from Edgecomb farflungs Jon Lang and wife Lucille Page Lang, now living in Livingston, Texas, north of Houston but fairly near the Camerons' former home in La Porte. Jon tells me, "I lived just north of the City School on the east side of Route 27, across from the Chubbucks. I was in the last seventh grade in the City School and the first to graduate from eighth grade in the new addition at the Eddy School. Lucille lived on the McKay Road until their home burnt in the mid-fifties; then they moved to the corner of McKay and the River Road. Mt. Hunger was my playground growing up. I was so happy to hear when Charlie [Schmid] gave it to be a preserve and of all the volunteer work being done there. . . Lucille and I were married in the Edgecomb Baptist Church in 1959. I believe that Lucille's sister Mildred attended the Salt Marsh School. We will be driving through La Porte tomorrow morning on our way to Galveston to board our cruise ship, which is something we both love doing."
If I'm difficult to reach these days it's because we are finally embarked on what must be the longest stalled, most interrupted project on earth, with the possible exception of World Peace: the re-painting of the Cameron master bedroom. Painting myself into a corner at 234 River Road, 633-2978, bonesukl@midcoast.com. This column appears in several local papers, and at www.Edgecomb.org.