Thank you, thank you, thank you! The Fort Edgecomb Bicentennial Committee is overwhelmed by our friends' and neighbors' generosity of silent auction donations and bids, and dining with us last Thursday evening, with great thanks to Bintliff's 'Just Desserts!' Becky Benton, Ann Poole, Rebecca Graham and I are still totting up the income but I will announce our success story as soon as we have confirmed figures. Bruce sends best wishes to Tom Boudin who acquired the harpoon! Oh, and winners of the drawing should be receiving free one-day passes to any Maine State Park you choose!

The most important wealth we have received from this first Bicentennial event is the camaraderie of friends and neighbors, all converging on our plans for Edgecomb's historic Fort's celebration of its first 200 years!

Moving right along, join us at the Edgecomb Eddy PTC's Fifth Annual Giant Yard Sale! This Saturday, May 3, from 8 a.m. to noon, you'll be able to choose from over 30 tables' worth of household items, crafts, antiques, books, toys, to benefit our Town's School. Several local organizations will have special fund-raising tables, as well, among them, Edgecomb Girl Scouts' Troop #3579, the school's own Community Service Club, and yes, the above-mentioned Fort Edgecomb Bicentennial Committee's Garden Shop! Breakfast foods will be on sale in the cafeteria. Table rentals will be available for $20, even at 8 a.m. on May 3, all proceeds benefiting the Edgecomb Eddy School. Contact Judy Reid, 882-5515, for details.

The Edgecomb selectmen will be meeting next week, May 5, 6 p.m., in the Edgecomb Eddy School's conference room, so that we can join the rest of you for the first ever School Budget Validation Hearing, a new wrinkle on local government. As usual, the selectmen's meeting is open to the public, and we can all just segue from conference room to auditorium at 7 p.m.

Also at the school, May 6, from 4 to 7 p.m., the towns of MDOT's Gateway I Project's Region 2 will gather for an intensive workshop for town officials, planning boards and comprehensive plan task forces. Edgecomb will host the Town Response Panels from Newcastle, Damariscotta, Nobleboro, Wiscasset.

Photographers who are customers of The First (a.k.a. First National Bank of Damariscotta) check out photocontest@the1st.com !

The First is sponsoring its first annual photo calendar contest. Get the complete rules from the above e-mail address. However, be aware, they stress color photos only, which must be received electronically in either jpeg or tif format, and taken at a high resolution (300 dpi or higher). The deadline is July 18, at 5 p.m.

Bravura theatre at Lincoln Academy's Poe Theatre building (known by my generation as The Old Gym): The Epic of Gilgamesh, seven performances by the Heartwood Regional Theatre Company from May 2 through 11. Tickets can be reserved at 563-1373 or via

heartwoodrtc@roadrunner.com.

Come to meet Enkidu, the first golem, and Nasaputnim, the original Noah! And much more than meets the mythological eye!

Ann Zak is glowing with grandparental pride these days. She and Bob went to cheer on Samantha and Cassandra who performed with their Rising Stars demonstration team in the state finals of Destination Imagination in the Alfond Arena at UM-Orono last weekend. They both won awards, but Ann wasn't sure what kind of awards since the acoustics in the arena were terrible, but the next stage for this school-driven technological challenge (bridge-building and robotic car design are typical projects) is the global competition in Tennessee in late May.

Some eight or nine regional activists (including me) went to Augusta to witness the official signing by Governor Baldacci of Representative Bruce MacDonald's LD 2126, the Carbon Dioxide Emissions Control bill, into law. It was most moving to be present to see tangible signs of our success in protecting any Maine region from such destructive operations.

I, personally, was moved and also amused, that the Governor, after noting us all, removed the correct number of special pine-encased pens from his desk drawer, was able to divide up his official signature and title so that each pen signed the document, and then gave each of us one of the pens with which he had signed it. A small but very gracious acknowledgment of our share in the completion of a difficult but rewarding campaign.

Tongues are clacking all over town about the Minnow Wrapper News, issued by someone called Fact Finders Group. Local detectives have tracked down the e-mail address factfindernews@yahoo. com to someone whose phone book listing gives an address in Pownalboro. Other theories are that Amanda Russell and I are the 'fine Italian hands.' Amanda assures everyone she would have put her name on it, as she has on any publication from SERC (Saving Edgecomb's Rural Character), her own grassroots organization. I myself assure you not only would I have put my name on it, but any publication of mine would have been proofread.

However, if this screed incites people towards the Town Election Friday, May 16, 1 to 7 p.m., and Town Meeting Saturday, May 17, 10 a.m. to noon or whenever, at the Edgecomb Eddy School, I personally will forgive it everything except spelling my name Joe.

Edgecomb Rules the Waves! Edgecomb fourth grader Hannah Morley was crowned "2008 Shrimp Princess" on Friday night, at the Boothbay Region's Fishermen's Festival!

Nevertheless, innuendo and rumor are no way to participate in a Town that sorely needs active up-front participation, says the soon-to-be elder stateswoman 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 .