Surprise! Marian Anderson will be Wiscasset's new town manager. Is she going to be able to swing Edgecomb's CEO commitment as well? Time, I expect, for our town to find a new one. Everyone is going to have to suck in their belts for the coming property tax increase due to two years of under-collecting taxes. The shortfalls have already been made up, out of surplus funds, but this means we have no surplus funds left. Hence the rate hike.

And while we are on town of Edgecomb news, Tax Collector Deb Boucher will not be in the first week of August, that is, August 4 through 7.

Bravo Grand Boulevard: for Road Commissioner Scott Griffin and his merry men, who have vastly improved tiny Cunningham Road, making its intersection with Mill Road visible, and removing the hump that has made the road an obstacle course. They have also worked on Parsons Point Road. For Heather Burt and FARMS, which has received a $10,600 Maine Local Foods grant from the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Foundation and the new supplement, SOURCE, in the Maine Sunday Telegram.

Executive Director Burt, daughter of Stephen and Andi Burt, said they will buy kitchen equipment for their ambitious hands-on cooking classes, which will start in October. For Peter Willauer, for his Sea Semester project involving the little known Phoenix Island archipelago in the western Pacific, in the vicinity of American Samoa.

He will be collecting real-time data for effective conservation of a part of the Pacific not very well studied. He will also serve as the Junior Watch Officer. Otherwise, Willauer attends Colby College. And finally, for Gail and Tom Boudin, who have been raising funds on behalf of the Paul O'Neil Foundation, which helps families of patients with serious long-term illness or injuries by providing funds for hotel, gas and other expenses not covered by health insurance. Their theme baskets (Lobster Feast, Coffee Lover, Tea Lover, Candy Lover, A Day at the Beach) will be raffled off at the fourth Edgecomb Congregational Church Summer Supper, Saturday, Aug. 16. For more information and raffle tickets, call Gail at 207-380-7452.

The house is empty of descendants, and accordingly, rings hollow. Bisi and Johnny got caught in the storms of last Tuesday, spent an unexpected romantic night in Portland, at a new restaurant called Central Provisions. Or romantic because unexpected? Both families have called in, they're back to the day-to-day, so aged parents can breathe easy at 234 River Road, 207-633-2978, and jocam@tidewater.net.