Dear Editor:

We have a subject that we need to let the general public know about. It's called hazardous materials and it can be a bit boring.

But, as employees of Lincoln County's Emergency Management Agency (EMA) and members of the Lincoln County Local Emergency Planning Committee (LEPC), we would not be doing our job if we didn't relate to our citizens the significance of hazardous substances and the effects they can have on the environment or someone's health and safety.

Don't ever think that a hazardous materials incident can't or won't happen in your neighborhood, because it can and when you least expect it.

Did you know that in 1986 the U.S. government passed into law what is known as the Superfund Amendment and Reauthorization Act (SARA Title III), also known as the Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act (EPCRA)? Did you also know this law enables both communities and individuals the right to ask questions and receive answers regarding storage of hazardous materials where they work and live?

EPCRA requires facilities to submit certain information to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), State Emergency Response Committee (SERC), LEPC and local fire departments. Within certain guidelines, this information provides the amount and types of hazardous substances stored at a particular site, whether or not a facility has had any release of hazardous substances and in some case made facilities develop plans just in case of a release.

EPCRA also requires the LEPC to develop plans should a hazardous materials incident occur within their communities. Each year facilities submit Chemical Inventory Reporting and Toxic Inventory Release forms to the LEPC and SERC reporting the quantity of hazardous substances they store at their site or transport.

Lincoln County has a comprehensive emergency management and hazardous materials plan. It's seven volumes full of information detailing the natural and technological hazards that can occur, preventative measures to lessen the impact of emergency, emergency notification procedures to the towns and general public, and much more! This plan is a matter of public record and we encourage the general public to stop by the EMA office, located in the Lincoln County Communications Building, Wiscasset, and review it along with facility plans. We're open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The next meeting of the LEPC will take place on Thursday, June 21 at 6 p.m. in the Conference Room of the Lincoln County Communications Center in Wiscasset. These meetings are open to the public.

Thank you for your time, and we hope we've sparked your interest to learn more about the hazards in your communities.

Lincoln County

Emergency Management

Wiscasset

Dear Editor:

Full marks for the article on the District Nurse. Cathy Aldritch is everything you said about her and more. She and the caregivers we were fortunate enough to find were a blessing beyond words to my Aunt Edith in the final years of her life. It isn't often that a person can stay in her own home until the age of 102 years. Cathy was instru-mental in allowing this to happen while being a pleasure for me every time I met her.

It is my hope that your article will bring home to the community how special the District Nurse is and when the citizens have an opportunity to contribute to its survival, they will, cheerfully.

Arthur Dodge,

Harpswell and East Boothbay

Dear Editor:

There is a wonderful new addition to the Children's Garden at the Boothbay Harbor Memorial Library. It is a bronze Garden plaque made by CLICK kids in a workshop led by the renowned sculptor Mitch Billis Jr. last summer. The plaque has a garden theme, and announces the Children's Garden, the setting of several children's programs this summer.

Getting the plaque on a rock and the rock into the ground was quite a feat, and would never have been possible without the help of Andy Olson, A & H Masonry, and Dan Ucci. The library would like to sincerely thank the efforts of the Olson family and everyone who made this seemingly impossible feat seamless. Also, thank you to Sue Mello for her tireless upkeep of the Children's Garden. Without Mello's efforts, there would be no garden and the plaque would be covered over with weeds!

On behalf of CLICK and the Library, thank you.

Reba Short

Program Director and

CLICK coordinator

Dear Editor:

New fluoride research raises more concerns. The average testosterone level in men is dropping at a rate of one percent a year, much faster than ever expected. Based on these findings, a 65-year-old man in 2002 averaged a 15 percent lower testosterone level than a 65-yeasr-old man in 1987. (J. Clin Endocrinal Metab. 06; Oct. 24 and Dec. 5 (Epub.))

Individuals in this country now consume an average of over five mg of fluoride daily compared to a little over one mg 50 years ago. This is the same time period that's seen a dramatic decrease in testosterone levels and fertility rates (J. Toxic Clin Toxic 34 (2): 183-189).

On November 9, 2006, the American Dental Association (ADA) issued an alert advising parents to avoid using fluoridated water when reconstituting infant formula.

For more information, Google fluoride dangers.

Gwen Salata

Boothbay Harbor

Dear Editor:

Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens couldn't have had a more celebratory and successful Grand Opening last week! More than 1,000 people poured into the Gardens to kick off the Grand Opening celebration on Wednesday, June 13. While many were from the Boothbay region and other parts of Maine, there were visitors from as far away as Texas and the West Coast.

A special thank you to everyone from the Boothbay area who turned out to help us officially launch the Gardens. It was a very auspicious beginning in our ongoing efforts to fulfill our vision for the Gardens to be a major new tourist attraction, as well as a cultural and educational resource for Maine residents of all ages and abilities.

And a sincere thank you to all of you who have helped the project develop throughout the past 16 years, ever since the organization was formed by local residents.

While we have received state-wide support for our project, the original founders and early supporters were all from the Boothbay and Wiscasset areas. So while we hope our botanical garden is embraced by all residents throughout the state and by tourists, we are proud that the Gardens are firmly rooted in the Boothbay peninsula that has shown the project so much support and cheered on its development every step of the way.

We have already hosted several thousand visitors since May 1 of this year. Many of them say they were told by their Boothbay area friends, family or a local business that "they have to visit the Gardens!" Sincere thanks to all of you who are helping us grow our garden by spreading the word about the Gardens. We are confident that we can return the economic support we've received from this community by creating new jobs, by providing new educational opportunities and especially by attracting thousands of new day and overnight tourists to our area. These visitors will stay at our inns, shop, eat in our restaurants, take boat trips and more, helping to keep Boothbay the vibrant destination it is.

While we have begun to charge admission fees for non-members to offset operating expenses, we want the Gardens to be accessible to all. Therefore, in addition to unlimited free admission for members, we will be offering a free admission day once a month this season for year-round Boothbay peninsula residents and their immediate families. The dates will be the second Wednesday of each month (July 11, August 8, September 12 and October 10). If you live in Boothbay, Boothbay Harbor, Southport, or Edgecomb, just show your Maine driver's license at the front desk in our Visitor Center.

Thanks to a generous State of Maine grant, the Gardens will be also be able to offer numerous free guest passes to make our gardens accessible for those who may not be able to afford an admission fee or membership; i.e., low-income families, seniors and the physically disabled. For information on these special guest passes, please call our office at 207-633-4333. Beginning this coming school year, 2007/08, we will offer free admission to our school education programs at the Gardens for Boothbay Region, Southport and Edgecomb students.

We are also working to make more of our grounds physically accessible to all visitors. From 11 a.m. - 1 p.m. each day, a shuttle service is available to take visitors to areas outside of our main campus including our Birch Allée and Giles Rhododendron & Perennial Garden. This service is free with admission to the Gardens.

So, please do visit to enjoy our beautiful gardens that include the Rose & Perennial Garden, Haney Hillside Garden, Vayo Meditation Garden, Burpee Kitchen Garden, Slater Forest Pond Garden, Cleaver Event Lawn & Garden, Great Lawn, Woodland Garden, Birch Allée, Shoreland Garden and Trail, the Giles Rhododendron & Perennial Garden and more. Watch your children build fairy houses in the Fairy Village, and walk our waterfront and woodland trails. Have a delicious lunch in our Kitchen Garden Café, browse in our gift shop and learn about our exciting plans for building three major new gardens over the next three years.

I hope to see you at the Gardens soon.

Maureen Heffernan

Executive Director

Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens

Dear Editor:

The Boothbay Harbor Memorial Library Board of Trustees is grateful to the wonderful volunteers who have made our library look so good in the last couple of years. Steve Lorrain and other volunteers painted the library last summer. This spring Rebuilding Together and Steve painted the Hyde House.

Sue Mello and Bonnie Ginger have worked many hours in the library gardens. They have weeded, pruned and planted by the monument, out front, along the fence and in the Children's Garden. Bonnie and Mary Pinkham painted pretty spring flowers all along the trash box thus brightening the whole area.

Link Brown repaired and repainted the fence that runs along Oak Street. Poole Brothers donated a new back door and Link and Bob Walter gave their time and skills to install it.

Mitch Billis donated his skill and materials to help local children create a charming bronze plague for the Children's Garden. Mitch is lending the library a beautiful bronze statue of a boy reading as he rides his magic carpet.

Inside there have been less noticeable improvements. The mold has been cleaned out of the basement and there has been a complete upgrade of the electrical system.

There is still much that needs to be done. A very short list includes a new boiler and oil tank immediately, 23 windows that need to be replaced, the sagging roof over both the Great Room and the children's wing, and insulation in the ceiling of the Great Room.

Our library is a precious asset and we are fortunate to have so many people who care about it. It takes a lot of money and effort to keep it looking good and working well. We hope everyone will "Book" their support in our first annual fund-raising campaign by giving "47" something -- $.47, $4.70, $47, $470, $4,700, $47,000 - Thank you for your continuing to help make our library a beautiful and wonderful community resource.

Marjorie Creaser, President

BHML Board of Trustees

Dear Editor:

On June 12, Boothbay's voters showed a clear desire not to finance the extension of water and sewer service to our industrial park, and that issue is now behind us. Although I have supported this project, I want to thank the citizens for showing their interest and their preference.

Scott Adams' letter to the editor, published in the June 7 edition of the Boothbay Register, is a fine example of the kind of public discussion that contributes to the advancement of public awareness and informed public action. Scott discussed the issues in a factual way, devoid of rhetoric or of wording calulated to raise public emotion, and he offered constructive comment.

This is in contrast with other letters that impugned the motives of the Selectmen, and castigated the Selectmen for underestimating the wisdom of the citizens. Such comment does nothing to shed light on the issues and by trying to characterize the Selectmen as underhanded or arrogant in order to raise public opposition to the issue, would lead only to a further breakdown of civility in public discussion.

The Selectmen have at all times acted in good faith in seeking public support for the project. Suggestions that we are somehow involved in seeking benefit for ourselves or others are absurd, and should either be supported by fact or publicly recanted. Suggestions that the Selectmen showed contempt for the public's intelligence are baseless. We recognized that the original warrant articles were muddled, and this was a failing on our part -- not of the electorate. We went back to the voters for a clear statement of rejection or support for the project, and this time the results were clear. Again, thanks to all for attending to your civic duty by voting.

Daniel E. Harris, Selectman

Boothbay