Governor Paul R. LePage announced today he has appointed Julie Dumont Rabinowitz as his Press Secretary. Rabinowitz now serves as the Director of Policy, Operations and Communication for the Maine Department of Labor.

“Julie has worked closely with our communications team and our policy advisors in her role at the labor department, and I am looking forward to her continued service as my press secretary,” said Governor LePage.

This October, the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry’s (DACF) Board of Pesticides Control (BPC) will team up with the Maine Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to help Mainers dispose of unusable and waste pesticides. The Obsolete Pesticides Collection Program, jointly sponsored by the BPC and DEP, and funded through pesticide product registration fees, has kept more than 99 tons of pesticides out of the waste stream since its start in 1982.

Take one imaginative first-time author and one unsolved violent family murder and you have a tale unique to New England. A bloody good story that remains shrouded in mystery even after 125 years.

Merrill Library at the University of Maine at Machias has been selected by the Maine Humanities Council to offer “Let’s Talk About It,” a free public reading and discussion group, with copies of books available for loan through the library.

The program is provided by the Maine Humanities Council’s Maine Center for the Book, in cooperation with the Maine State Library.

Congressman Bruce Poliquin (ME-02), a member of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee, has launched the Veteran Advisory Panel, a new body consisting of Maine Veterans that will assist the Congressman in more effectively hearing from and conveying the interests of Veterans across Maine’s 2nd District to Congress.

Another busy week for us, Sometimes I wonder if I will ever have a slow week. Anyway we were out and about on the barrens a few times, I did stop at the Greenwood Cemetery on the Tibbettstown Road and cleaned a couple of stones. Two foot stones need more to do on them and my great great Grandfather James & Hannah (Worcester) Grant’s stone needs more especially on the sides and the back. The front needs a bit more to really get it clean. I just don’t have enough time to do a whole lot of cleaning with school starting up again. Where has the summer gone?

Spent the afternoon at UMM in Machias watching granddaughter Maddy and her team playing volleyball. There were six different schools that played each other’s teams. Pete, Jenn, Tracey, and I had a great time. Wish we still played volleyball at the Wesley School. I was able to stop to balls even in a wheelchair. 

Picked up some pizza and headed for home in Wesley where there were four young woman waiting for us. There six ladies grew up together and some worked together but haven’t seen each other for quite a while. 

There was a fire at Worcester’s Balsam Valley.  It burned many trees, but it was contained after a spell. Many of the trees were damaged.

by Sarah Craighead Dedmon

When new and transfer students arrived at the University of Maine at Machias (UMM) last weekend, they participated in an annual UMM tradition of kicking off the school year with a community service project. 

“Last year we did something at the veterans retirement home, and one year we did some work on the boxcar for the Chamber of Commerce,” said Jake Hanley, who serves as the assistant director of student engagement and inclusion.

Thank you to everyone that came out and supported us at the Annual Blueberry Festival this year.  The Friends of the Whitneyville worked hard getting ready for the festival making new items that were for sale. Friends of the Whitneyville Library are getting ready for craft fairs in November and December.  It will be almost that time of the year to make our hand dipped chocolates.