Mine eyes have seen, yea, verily, mine hands have turned the pages of the Preliminary Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Wiscasset Bypass! Members of the Edgecomb Bypass Task Force team met with Carol Morris, MDOT consultant, last week to examine this long-awaited publication. But having roused you all up, I must remind you, the Draft EIS has yet to be officially released, although it looks good to be available to the public sometime later on in October.

Following that, a 60-day period has been established for public comments to be sent to MDOT and/or the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). I will let everyone know when the official DEIS is available, how you can get your hands on it, and addresses for mailing in your questions, objections and comments. But: Progress has been made!

At 8:30 p.m., Friday, Sept. 28, Maine Public Broadcasting Network's MaineWatch T.V. program will feature the Gateway I project. Tune in, get an overview, and join your Edgecomb Town Response Panel! Our next meeting will be Oct. 11, 7 p.m. at the Town Hall.

Speaking of progress, the Edgecomb Town Hall American Flag is now fully lighted for 24-hour display. We raised it on the rainy morning of September 11, and lowered it to half staff in honor of those fallen during the terrorist raid and all subsequent casualties due to terrorism and the Iraq conflict. Our great thanks to Pat Oberuch for mounting the lighting and to Jack French for putting all this in motion!

Homeward bound from the flag, we observed Fire Chief Barry Johnston in his personal observance of that dreadful day in 2001.

Elsewhere, the Common Ground Fair takes place this weekend, Sept. 21, 22, 23, opening at 9 a.m. If you want to observe animal care, folk arts, green energy, social and political action regarding the issues that affect us all fundamentally, y'all come!

Next Friday and Saturday, Sept. 28 and 29, 9:30 a.m., the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens is holding its 'Garden Gait' 5K Run/Walk and Kids' Fun Run. People of any age and at different fitness levels can run or walk selected routes through the Gardens' trails for a total of five kilometers (roughly 2.3 miles). The Gardens can be reached at 633-4333, for fees and other information.

Oops! Department: Last week I gave the Pemaquid Oyster Festival link with an unnecessary www. If you want to reach the festival organizers, use simply pemaquidoys terfest07@yahoo.com. Sorry about that! The festival is Sunday, Sept. 30, from noon until whenever, at the Schooner Landing restaurant's dock in Damariscotta.

Fraas and Slade, our River Road quilters, are the featured artists at Maine Fiberarts' Grand Reopening Celebration at their expanded and renovated gallery, 13 Main Street in Topsham, on Sunday, Sept. 30, from 2 to 5 p.m. This show will run through November 2.

Maine Fiberarts is a statewide alliance of fiber artists and farms, supporting artists and artisans working in wool, cashmere, alpaca, mohair, rabbit and other textile components. The gallery started out as an 1834 bank, and served in its history as a doughnut shop, a dentist's office, an antiques store, and the birthplace of the former Maine Times. If you want to know more, visit www.mainefiberarts.org or call 721-0678.

The Damariscotta River Association is offering several children's after-school workshops throughout the fall, as for example, 'How to Live in the Woods,' Sept. 27 and 28, starting at 3:15 p.m., which will teach 8- to 12-year-olds how to build a shelter, make and put out a fire safely, and how to cook over it. Call DRA at 563-1393 or at dra@ draclt.org.

Bruce and I enjoyed Friday morning on the Damariscotta River, thanks to DRA's Steve Hufnagel and past president Peter Noyes. I have not seen the river side of Edgecomb in years, not since we'd sail out into the river from Salt Marsh Cove to fish for flounder, and tie up at Channel Marker 13 to cook them over a little sterno stove. It was a bit difficult to identify places which should have been familiar, but we did recognize the Schmid house, now owned by Michael and Roxanne Zak, Poole's Landing, now also private, Su Ripley's place, and Merry Island and Salt Marsh Cove, of course. It was a wonderful outing!

Still savoring the salt spray and pine scents at 234 River Road, 633-2978, jocam@midcoast.com.

This column appears in the Boothbay Register, The Lincoln County News, the Wiscasset News-paper, and at www.Edgecomb.org.