You will soon see petitions and petitioners everywhere asking for your signature to help bring Maine’s new gay marriage law to public referendum. You need to be aware that the people behind this drive are there for religious reasons.

At first blush, word the Damariscotta Police Dept. plans to open a satellite police station in the former home of the late Ed Whitney’s barbershop in the Elm St. Plaza plays like another episode of the “You’ve Got To Be Kidding Me” show.

There is a famous photograph that makes the rounds about this time every year. It depicts a Memorial Day parade making its way down Main Street, USA. As the national flag is approaching, one elderly man is standing at attention while the crowd around him, children and young adults, remain at ease; laughing, fooling around, blissfully ignorant of the significance of the moment.

Many of you will know me from my 28-year marriage to my late husband, Lee Dunning Jr. Many others will know me from my 17-year employment at Wiscasset Public Library. Many will know me from my four years with the Wiscasset Budget Committee. The point is many of you know me.

Thanks to the kindness of Jim and Glenda Drum, the Damariscotta Mills railroad station sign is coming home. It will be mounted at the old station site on Depot St. to greet people who arrive by train to attend the Fish Ladder Restoration Festival this weekend.

The Alna Volunteer Fire Dept would like to thank all of the businesses and individuals who donated to our annual Mother’s Day pancake breakfast that was held Sun., May 10. We couldn’t have done it without you.

The Bremen Conservation Commission (BCC) would like to thank everyone who participated in their recent sale of Compost Bins. The sale was coordinated by the BCC to raise awareness of Earth Day and the response was above and beyond expectations. In all, 140 compost bins were sold to individuals from nearly every town in Lincoln County!

Maine has a $1.4 billion budget deficit outlined in the 2009-2011 budget. The state’s bridges and roads are falling down around us. Health insurance, the lack of it, the need for it, and the prohibitive cost of it, is still a critical issue.

On behalf of the Lincoln Home and the Spring Gala Progressive Dinner Committee I am delighted to send a sincere thank you to all those people who made the Spring Gala Dinner such an amazing success.

Kudos to Bobby Ives for being honored “for a lifetime of service” by The Hyde School in Bath. The Carpenter’s Boat Shop is truly “a loving life . . . a very simple life” as evidenced by both of its founders, Rev. Robert Ives and the late Ruth Etta Ives.

This letter has a theme, as does my campaign for Selectman in Edgecomb. That theme may best be summed up in a quote from a poem all of us remember, as follows;

Last night (May 7) the Nobleboro Central School PTO hosted its Second Annual Nobleboro Nonsense Fundraiser. For those who have never attended a similar event, it is a silent raffle where tickets are purchased and placed in containers that correspond to prizes (similar to a silent auction).

A couple of weeks ago, Tim Dinsmore called to ask if I would be interested in joining a group of contemporaries at the old Taniscot Engine House on May 6 at 7 p.m. to share our memories of the great depression of 1929.

It is nice to see Sen. David Trahan hasn’t wasted any time jumping into the legislative fray that is Augusta politics.

The latest Trahan exploit involves LD 1399, An Act Concerning Water Quality in Watersheds. Among other points, the bill proposed the creation of a Clean Shores Fund that would direct state resources toward addressing pollution in shellfish areas.