The Bypass is Coming! The Bypass is Coming! The Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS to its friends) is out at last! Copies for examination can be found at your respective Town Halls, or the Wiscasset Public Library, or call MDOT to see where you can get one.

The public has 60 days to make their comments to MDOT in writing. Send your comments to Mark Hasselmann, Federal Highway Administration, Edmund S. Muskie Federal Building, 40 Western Avenue, Room 614, Augusta, ME 04332 or to Edward Hanscom, Maine Department of Transportation, Bureau of Planning, 16 State House Station, Augusta, ME 04333-0016. If you are willing, the members of the Wiscasset and Edgecomb teams would appreciate receiving copies of your remarks. Edgecomb team members are me, contact below, Barry Johnston, Fire Chief, and Amanda Russell. You can send them to any of us in care of the Edgecomb Town Hall, POB 139, Edgecomb, ME 04556.

Hope you all pick up your papers before 10 a.m. today! At that time, Governor Baldacci will be present at the unveiling of the first completed connection of River~Link! Come to the Dodge Point Preserve's parking lot just off the River Road to join him and other dignitaries including BRLT, DRA, and Edgecomb's Schmid Preserve Board, to celebrate this important milestone in the eventual protection of 1,400 acres of land within three towns reaching from the Sheepscot to the Damariscotta.

If you can't get enough of the Great Outdoors, on Sunday from noon to 4 p.m., join the Boothbay Region Land Trust's Great Hike, from one to four trails: Penny Lake, Ovens Mouth East, Porter Preserve and Linekin Preserve (including its new Burley Loop), depending on your stamina! If you don't know where these are, and want to pre-register, call BRLT at 633-4818, or

get to Penny Lake before noon to sign up. Ask them about the scavenger hunts and the ecological trivia games! The event is free, but naturally, any donations will be greatly appreciated!

Save this Date! Healthy Kids will be presenting one of their most popular offerings, 'Dignified Discipline,' at the Edgecomb Eddy School on Thursday, November 1, from 6 to 8 p.m. This two-hour event is based on the popular and effective 'How To Talk So Kids Will Listen' model. There will be a short video and time for discussion. This free workshop will be accompanied by light refreshments courtesy the Edgecomb PTC. Free child care will also be offered. In order to be sure there are enough materials on hand as well as an adequate number of child care providers, please call the school office at 882-5515 if you plan to attend this event.

Morris Farm is offering Cheese Making with David Peterson of Oak Leaf Creamery on Nov. 3 and 4, and on Nov. 17, Market Baskets, both starting 9 a.m. Call the Farm 882-4080 or web site www.morris farm.org for times and fees.

Last hurrah of the season! Gail Boudin, guru of goodies at the Edgecomb Congregational Church, has called to say the church extends to the community its warm invitation to a Grand Thanks supper this Saturday, Oct. 27, starting at 5:00 p.m. In this way they can say 'Thank You' for all of our support for the several missions the ECC pursues with its series of summer suppers and other events, from HOME and the Edgecomb Fire Department to Heifer and friends in Zimbabwe, not to mention day-to- day assistance for those who need it. And, says Gail, 'Bring your appetites but leave your wallets at home. This one is on us!'

At the Town Hall has arrived a flyer about the Maine Housing and Building Materials Exchange (BME). This office makes available donated new and used building materials at low cost to homeowners. Anyone may shop at their two outlets (102 Lisbon Street (Rt. 196) in

Lisbon, 636-7670 and 72 Emery Street in Sanford, 324-4574); qualifying low-income homeowners may benefit from even lower prices, and full access to materials needed to keep a house safe, warm and weathertight! BME inventory changes frequently, but almost always includes things like insulated windows, floor tile, doors, lighting and plumbing fixtures and small hardware supplies. Sometimes they may have hot water heaters, furnaces, lumber and insulation. Call ahead to find out if what you need is in stock, or put your need on their 'wish list,' so they can ask donors for it. For more information, call Dave Zimmerman, BME's Executive Director, at 666-8427 or check online at www.mainebme. org . I will post this flyer on the Town Hall's downstairs bulletin board.

Congratulations again, EFD member Steve Ward, on graduating in the first class from the Lincoln County Fire Academy! The ceremony for 35 nationally certified Firefighters 1 and 2 was held last week at Fisherman's Wharf, a 100 percent success rate! Bravo to you all!

Wedding bells rang for Elizabeth Crosby, daughter of Curt and Leslie Crosby, and Michael Ladner back in August. The ceremony was at the Crosby family's Dodge Road home.

Thanks to my colleague Daisy Radoulovitch, who writes a column from Sheepscot. She devoted her last one to the Wiscasset Jail, the granite for which came from Edgecomb quarries. I suppose it got ferried across the river, but I'll bet our ancestors were grumbling, 'There oughta be a bypass!' British P.O.W.s from the War of 1812 were held there, more grist for Fort Edgecomb's Bicentennial mill!

And speaking of Bicentennials, I like it that Jefferson has planted a sugar maple at their Town Office grounds! Such a graceful symbol of times past and times to come!

Cinderella is tripping over her glass slippers again this weekend, thanks to the Lincoln County Community Theater. Come and boo! hiss! the wicked Stepmother, our own Debby Beam (The villain's role is always the most fun to play.), this Friday and Saturday, and again on Nov. 2 and 3, at 7:30 p.m., this Sunday and Nov. 4 at 2 p.m. Call quickly, 563-3424, to reserve your tickets! Or get them at the Maine Coast Book Shop in Damariscotta.

Hope to see everyone at Jack Sarmanian's talk for the Edgecomb Historical Society about historic hand tools tonight at 7 p.m. at the Town Hall! If you have an old hand axe you'd like to know more about, or a mysterious item that looks like it ought to be useful??? Bring them along. Jack may be able to help!

Taking stock of the workshop's tool clutter 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.