Our condolences to John and Gretchen Burleigh-Johnson over the passing of their aunt, Hortense Burleigh, long a resident on Davis Island. The family plan a celebration of her life this summer at her historic cottage on the Sheepscot. In the meantime, memorial donations may be made to St. Philips Episcopal Church in Wiscasset.
And in response to several queries about The Edgecomb Carver, Lee Smith tells me that Bill Clisby changed his name to Daniel Abraham and he died in the last one or two years. He is buried in the North Edgecomb Cemetery. So let us mourn him belatedly. It would seem that his carvings have given him a degree of immortality!
Welcome to Kim and Michael Hilgendorf, proprietors of the Edgecomb Eatery, formerly Tammy's Kitchen, on Route 27! Latest offering on their ever-changing outdoor menu is their new grilled Reuben sandwich, which many proclaim"Excellent!" These energetic people also operate Smarty Marty's, an educational toy store in Boothbay Harbor, and the Lighthouse Learning Center daycare on Pension Ridge.
Bernadette Lombardo on the River Road will be a nasty troll for "The Hobbit" Bilbo Baggins to encounter at the Moxie Youth Production in the Boothbay Harbor Opera House, starting tonight and running through Saturday, all performances at 7:00 p.m. Call 633-3112 for more information. (Bilbo is the original questing hobbit. His nephew Frodo is the hero of the Lord of the Rings.)
This just in from Mill Road, from Deb Boucher: "We have five new kittens in the house! Nina had her kittens this afternoon (Sunday the 11th). Three tigers, a black, and a black and tan. She did a great job but is very tired. I was with her for four of them, and helped with #3 who was breach. All are doing well and will need homes in eight weeks! Call 882-8402." So there you have it! Just think, they make nice Easter gifts!
Hey, kids, don't sag into couch potatoes! Get highly active and call 882-6935 or log on to www.TeensToTrails.org for registration materials for the first ever Teens To Trails Conference, March 24 in Windham, starting at 7:30 a.m. Learn about hiking trails nearby or at the far ends of the state, workshops on Backpacking Essentials, Winter Camping, Orienteering, Bike Maintenance, Nature Journaling, Ski Tuning and how to cook over a campfire. Experts from L.L. Bean will be there, Baxter State Park, Allagash Wilderness Waterway and Maine Island Trail staffers, this is a greatly curtailed list of goodies. If you need more details, call Carol Leone at 882-9613 or email her at teens2trails@gwi.net.
If you prefer marine biology, check out the Bigelow Laboaratory's annual Keller BLOOM Program for high school juniors. Scheduled for May 20-24, you will be working with oceanographers and marine research scientists to study the Sheepscot River. Public or private high school juniors may apply and get more information via www.bigelow.org/keller/. You will need letters of recommendation which can be emailed to npoulton@bigelow.org.
Congratulations, Michael Davis, who has just completed the American Boat Builders and Repairers Association's "Topcoat Applications" training in the Marine Technology Department at the New England Institute of Technology in Warwick, Rhode Island. And he must have done a bang-up job, because he is also on the Institute's Dean's List!
The Edgecomb Historical Society is flexing its muscles, rolling up its sleeves, preparing to plunge into another three months of delving into the history of our town! Come all ye to the Edgecomb Eddy School conference room at 2:00 p.m. on Thursday, March 22. The ever-elusive Rosicrucian Spring has become our symbol! Call Sue Carlson, 882.8155 or Jo Cameron, 633.2978 for more information. Our minutes are posted on the Town of Edgecomb's website, so you can find out what we are like.
Anent Edgecomb history, if any reader is a descendent of the Adams or Trask families, who can supply names prior to July 17, 1788, Mr. Harold Parker of Wolfeboro NH would be grateful! That is the date of marriage between his ancestors Stephen Adams and Olive Trask, both of Edgecomb. He would like to know the parentage of Mr. Adams and Miss Trask, as far back as can be gone. Mr. Parker plans to travel here some time in April, and if you would like, we can plan to visit with you while he is here. Please let me know!
Tonight is the second Public Information Meeting on the "big box" amendments to the Edgecomb Land Use Ordinance, at 6:30 p.m. in the Town Hall This meeting will be part of the Planning Board's regularly scheduled public meetings, so if you have a building application or are considering same, you are welcome to bring your personal concern along with you, for assistance. Saturday, March 24, at 10:00 a.m. is the Public Hearing on these amendments. One idea that came up during the first meeting is that of establishing an industrial park. We need more input about that!
To date, the only nomination papers that have been filed are those for Tax Collector, Town Clerk and Town Treasurer. We need one Selectman (3 year term), two Planning Board members (3 years) and one PB member (2 years, to fill out an uncompleted term), a Road Commissioner, and a School Board member (3 years). The filing deadline is Thursday, April 5, before 5:00 p.m.
If we do not have a town Planning Board, responsibility for Edgecomb's planning will revert to the State. If that is all right with you... It is not all right with me. Progress is being made toward hiring a professional planner to assist the Board, but basically, the decisions taken must be locally developed, locally debated, and locally approved.
I do not know what happens if a town finds itself with a 2-person Board of Selectmen. So, examine your hearts of hearts, rev up your civic spirit, and remember the origins of this nation. Greg Foster, a well-known local reporter, observed to me recently that the British colonial governors feared the New England town meetings as hotbeds of insurrection, and tried at times to suppress them. "The idea of government by (gasp!) the people, the hoi polloi, the lumpen proletariat... this must never be allowed to happen." Well, fellow lumpenprols, it did happen, but we may lose it if we depend on the, to me, rather metaphysical method of ballot voting on a warrant without up-front public debate. And how does a succession of public meetings about the warrant, some days or weeks before the balloting, improve on a floor vote then and there, boom! Done. Go home and relax. The Town's budget has been set by YOU, the policies have been determined by YOU, the true and only government of the Town of Edgecomb.
Voice in the wilderness getting hoarse at 234 River Road, 633-2978, bonesukl@midcoast.com. This column appears in several local papers, and at www.Edgecomb.org.