By Will Tuell

Sergeant Josh Beal of Marshfield and University of Maine at Machias professor Dr. Gerard “Gerry” Zegers came away from the annual Maine Warden Service awards ceremony on April 26 with two of the organization’s highest honors. Beal, who was tapped to lead Downeast game wardens in 2021, picked up 2023 Supervisor of the Year, while Zegers brought home the 2023 MWSA Merit Award for his work using cutting-edge DNA technology to solve several high-profile crimes the Warden Service has been investigating. 

By Nancy Beal

Following an eventful special town meeting on April 19 in Beals, where an old hand in town affairs was returned to the select board and joined two new members (please see Machias Valley News Observer, April 24, 2024), the three met for the first time on April 23, spending three hours covering old ground and new.

by Jonathan Reisman

I worked in my garden last week. A string of sunny sort of warm early spring days dried it out enough to get it tilled and to get peas and greens planted by Earth Day. My twenty-plus-year tiller started right up and ably prepared the soil, but loudly announced, just as I finished, that a trip to the tiller doctor would be required before further loam was lifted. 

On April 6, 30 homeschool leaders from across the state came together at Maple Hill Farm in Hallowell for the 1st Annual Leader Summit of the Maine Home Education Alliance (MHEA). 

By Will Tuell

A proposed expansion at the Machias Valley Airport has drawn concern from officials with the Machias Water Company who urged customers to contact the town’s five-member selectboard and Town Manager Bill Kitchen in a letter dated April 22. 

Machias Water Company President James Learned and General Manager Jesse Davis cite concerns by the Maine CDC over whether a proposed new runway intersecting the airport’s existing runway would be significantly closer to the town’s main water production well than the 2500 feet recommended. 

By Will Tuell

Maine’s commercial lobster fishermen certainly have had a lot on their plate for the past several years with federal regulators adopting or proposing stringent new gear requirements designed to protect North Atlantic Right Whales that may, or may not, be present in the Gulf of Maine; concern over the location and scale of floating offshore wind farms; and most recently, stock assessments that could trigger changes in the rules governing what constitutes a legal lobster. 

The Board of Directors at Harrington Family Health Center (HFHC) is pleased to announce the promotion of Demee Manchester to Chief Executive Officer.  For the past six months, Manchester served as the organization’s Interim CEO in addition to performing her duties as Chief Operating Officer. 

by Jonathan Reisman

I attended the 2024 Maine Republican Party Convention in Augusta, aptly named “Restoring Freedom.” What follows are my Statler and Waldorf intern observations and notes.

The First Congregational Church of Machiasport will serve a free community BBQ supper beginning at 5 p.m. Friday, May 17, at the church on Trafton’s Hill at 378 Port Road, in Machiasport. The menu includes ribs, brisket, burgers, hot dogs, macaroni and potato salads, mac and cheese, and a variety of desserts and soft drinks. 

By Will Tuell

Back in the 80s and 90s, school kids everywhere lived out their wildest dreams in the popular “Choose Your Own Adventure” book series designed to stimulate both a love of reading and some truly far-out adventures that gave young readers the power to make decisions over their fate. 

By Will Tuell

In yet another sure sign of spring, state officials have opened the Down East Sunrise Trail to ATV use. Game Warden Joe McBrine of the Maine Warden Service said in a message prior to the trail’s reopening that, despite severe flooding in January which caused extensive damage to the throughway, ATVers could expect things to be fully back to normal by early-to-mid summer. 

By Nancy Beal

Conversation (and disagreement) recently reported about Union 103 (Jonesport-Beals High School and the Beals and Jonesport elementary schools) and the auditor who reviews its books was prompted by a decision by the superintendent, not by the high school board, as reported in these pages last week (see “Jonesport Selectmen Disagree with High School’s Auditor Change,” Machias Valley News Observer, May 8, 2024). 

By Will Tuell

After months of practice, students from Elm Street School in East Machias (and the surrounding homeschool community) regaled audiences last week with “The Curse of the Frog Prince” -- an adaption of the classic Grimm Brothers’ fairy tale published in the early 1800s that follows a spoiled princess, a cursed frog prince, and their efforts to reverse the curse. The performance was directed by Melina Neilson and produced by Eustacia Landrum.