View Halloo! Edgecomb's 2007 Town Meeting will be held at ye goode olde Town Hall this year! Not at the school. Town elections are on Friday, May 18, 1:00 to 8:00 p.m. The meeting will be Saturday, May 19, 10:00 p.m. until roughly 2:00 p.m. or until the Town's business is done.
You have until April 2 to file nomination papers for the following positions: 1 Selectman (3 years); 1 Town Clerk (1 year); 1 Tax Collector (1 year); 1 Town Treasurer (1 year); 2 Planning Board members (3 years), 1 Planning Board member (2 years); 1 Road Commissioner (1 year); 1 School Board member (3 years). Pick the nomination petition forms up at the Town Hall. Office hours are Mondays, 7:00 to 9:00 p.m.; Tuesdays and Thursdays, 1:00 to 5:00 p.m. Call 882-7018 during these hours for more information.
Remember two things: Your Town needs You! And You are the Town's Government. Not the Selectmen, who administer the Town's will. The New England Town Meeting, beleaguered institution that it is, is still the best form of democracy because it is direct democracy.
And no, Edgecomb is not moving from BRRDD for its refuse disposal!
In preparation for Town Meeting, the Planning Board's first informational meeting on amendments to the Land Use Ordinance will be held Saturday, March 3, at 10:00 a.m. Considering last summer's anxieties over this master plan for Edgecomb, it behooves you to attend these meetings, to advise and correct during this first meeting, the second on Thursday, March 15 at p.m., and at the Public Hearing on Saturday, March 24 at 10:00 a.m., beyond which no further changes can be made. All three meetings will take place at the Town Hall.
We salute the passing of Madine Nichols of Nichols Road off the Mill Road. The Edgecomb Historical Society will deeply miss her. A memorial service will be held at the Edgecomb Town Hall at 2:00 p.m., Saturday March 3, directly following the Planning Board's public meeting described above.
Apologies to Robert Lozinski, whose heroism and swift action are appreciated despite the inability of the combined local press, self included, to spell his name correctly! He is the one who contained a fire at Bintliff's Ocean Grill two weeks ago, until the Fire Department arrived.
And an enthusiastic Hurrah! for Ruth Langton, on the Dean's List at Colby College. A sophomore, she is majoring in Biology.
A month of futures! The Future of Sherman Marsh ex-Lake will be discussed tonight at 7:00 p.m., at the Skidompha Library's Porter Auditorium in Damariscotta. Come hear Dr. Karen Wilson from USM's Dept. of Environmental Science report on her research, how a freshwater lake changes back into a saltwater marsh! Sponsored by the Sheepscot Valley Conservation Association, a $5 donation is requested.
Meanwhile, the Damariscotta River Association is presenting a public forum on The Future of the Damariscotta River at the Darling Marine Center, Thursday, March 15, all day, 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., for us all to discuss how to preserve its beauty and productivity. Free lunch. The Maine Department of Marine Resources and the State's Attorney General's Office will be represented; a marine ecologist will guide our discussions. Call 563-1393 or dra@dracltorg for info; www.draclt.org is the DRA's website.
I encountered Nancy Pinson (married name Poore) at the Town Hall last week. Up from Windham, she was checking in with Claudia Coffin after her monthly stint of kayaking around the Isle of Springs. She says she does it every month, takes about 45 minutes to circumnavigate the island. But she always checks in with Claudia when she goes, in case 911 is needed.
During the February school break, grandson Ben Klemme came here for several days at the Chewonki winter day camp. We all, Bruce excepted, went out for a Monday morning of snowshoeing. Chewonki supplied us with the latest models, tubular frames covered with red and black plastic, and fitted with ice grippers, a great innovation, because this current snow cover is the product of wind-driven rain forming a crust as hard as Formica, and gleaming as a starched damask dinner napkin, but despite the succession of bright sunny days, it has not melted. This may bode well for the water table in the spring, all that meltdown seeping into the soil, but it's awful to walk on. Once again, I find out I am not cut out for winter sports!
Little Kate started out in a handsome orange travois arrangement, pulled by Momma, but she got too cold, so Daphne and she went back to the lodge. Ben was the only one of us to get to the Montsweag Bay overlook on Chewonki Point. By the time we all got back, Kate was directing lunch traffic with all the air of an accomplished restaurant hostess.
We were all thrilled by the Institute's golden eagle, a stray from northern Canada, shot in the wing, so unable to fly. The feathers on its head gleam in sunlight, hence the name. We also met a barred owl with one wing, a grumbling groundhog and a torpid spotted salamander, all examples of winter adaptation: migration, hibernation and just plain toughing it out!
Hanging up the snowshoes for good at 234 River Road, 633-2978, bonesukl@midcoast.com. This column appears in several local papers, and at www.Edgecomb.org.