1. Hannaford’s Honors Much-Loved Cashier Sherry Preston for 50 Years with the Machias Store

    By Paul Sylvain

    If there was one song to define Sherry Preston’s five-decades-long career with Hannaford’s in Machias, it would have to be Love Will Keep Us Together by The Captain and Tennille. You’d have to love your job and the people you’ve worked with and for, to stick “together” with a job for half a century.

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  2. Sheriff’s Office, County Warned of Critical Need for Dedicated IT Dept.

    By Paul Sylvain

    In a presentation that was part doomsday warning and an IT proposal, Washington County Sheriff’s Deputy and Information Technology Ombudsman Dennis Dorsey told the county’s commissioners that unless a knowledgeable replacement for his position is found before Jan. 1, the county government’s IT systems will begin failing within three weeks of his departure on that date.

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  3. Machiasport Voters to Act on 49-Article School, Municipal Budget Warrant at June 23 Town Meeting

    Voters to Consider Food Sovereignty Ordinance

     

    By Paul Sylvain

    Machiasport residents will be gathering to elect a selectboard and a school committee on Monday, June 23, with polls open at Fort O’Brien School from noon to 6 p.m. The annual town meeting to act on a 49-article combined education and municipal funding warrant follows that same evening, beginning at 6 p.m. in the FOB gymnasium.

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  4. Jonesport-Beals HS Budget OK’d for Moosabec CSD

    By Nancy Beal

    Citizens of Beals and Jonesport got a chance to act on next year’s proposed budget for their joint high school last week, and the meeting reverted back to the typically quiet school budget meetings of the past decade: a small audience consisting mostly of school board members, teachers, their families and a handful of others who asked few questions and routinely authorized what their school boards had calculated.

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  5. Longtime Raider Librarian Retires

    Arlene Porter has been the Washington Academy librarian for fifteen years, but her history with WA spans a lifetime. As a child, she grew up playing in what is now the Cates Dormitory; she met her husband, Scott Porter, '80, at Washington Academy and then lived in the very same house she used to play in when Mr. Porter was the Assistant Head of School and Athletic Director.

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  6. Margaretta Days Celebrates 250th Anniversary of Historic Machias Naval Battle

    By Paul Sylvain

    “The British are coming! The British are coming!” 

    On April 19, 1775, the first shots of the American Revolution were exchanged between British troops and the citizen army called the Minutemen at Lexington Common and North Bridge in Concord, Massachusetts. On June 12 — one week shy of two months later — Machias patriots, armed with a few rifles, pitchforks, and clubs, would claim their rightful place in history by chasing after and capturing the armed British schooner HMS Margaretta near Round Island in Machias Bay.

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  7. Machias Town Meeting Warrant Passes in Under an Hour

    By Paul Sylvain

    From opening gavel to motion to adjourn, it took about two dozen Machias voters just 57 minutes to dispense with a 47-article annual town meeting warrant on June 11.

    Moderator Betsy Fitzgerald wasted no time moving the meeting along from article to article. It also helped that, with the exception of a handful of articles, there was little or no discussion as each item was brought up. In the end, every article passed intact, as presented, without amendment.

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  8. California Screaming

    by Jonathan Reisman

    “People, I just want to say, you know, can we all get along? Can we get along?”-- Rodney King, May 1, 1992, after widespread Los Angeles riots in response to the acquittal of police accused of beating him.

    “Defiance”- No Kings.org.

    Our deep and widening divisions were on uncomfortable and transparent display in California,

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  9. UMaine Extension offers Pollinator Gardening Course, Certification

    As the weather warms and gardens come to life, Maine gardeners have the opportunity to support pollinators while enjoying their outdoor spaces. Simple steps, like planting native flowers that bloom all season, removing invasive species, and preserving nesting habitats, can transform any garden into a pollinator haven. To guide and inspire these efforts University of Maine Cooperative Extension offers two resources to help gardeners support pollinators: the Pollinator-Friendly Gardening course and the Pollinator-Friendly Garden Certification.

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  10. Lack of Trust Emerges Over Dublin Street Storage Project Developer

    By Paul Sylvain

    If Randy Sinclair had thoughts about getting a quick resolution to a nearly seven-month stop-work order on his multi-unit storage project on Outer Dublin Street, he might want to think again.

    Sinclair’s storage project was abruptly halted by the selectboard last November after numerous violations of the building permit, which had been approved by the planning board in 2023, came to light.  

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  11. Beals Voters OK Elementary School Budget, Despite Questions, Opposition

    By Nancy Beal

    Town meetings in the Moosabec area for the purpose of voting on proposed school budgets are traditionally low-key affairs, attended mainly by selectmen, school board members, a few teachers, and their families. This spring, it was different. A lot different.

    Last month, the Jonesport Elementary School budget was rejected by a handful of voters and has since been reworked. It will go before voters on June 18. 

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  12. Chief Joey Dennison Closes Book on 29-Years of Service at Machias Fire Dept.

    By Paul Sylvain

    After nearly three decades of service as a Machias firefighter, of which 22 years were as the department’s chief, Joey Dennison has resigned from the department to spend more time with his family and enjoy other pursuits. 

    In his June 14 letter of resignation, Dennison wrote, “While this role has been a central part of my life, I have come to realize that family must now take priority. I am choosing to step away to spend more time with my loved ones and to finish a long-standing personal goal.” 

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  13. M’Port Selectboard Sustains Clam License Denial After Applicant Claims Permanent Residence in Vacant Lot

    Board Rebukes Clam Committee for Recommending Approval

     

    By Paul Sulvain

    An application from Kennth Faas for a 2025 resident clamming license that was denied by Machiasport Town Clerk Marcia Hayward resulted in an emergency meeting of the town’s selectboard on June 4.

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  14. ‘Jonesport America’ Design Chosen for Coastal Town’s Logo

    By Nancy Beal

    According to an old (1963) edition of Reader's Digest’s Great World Atlas, there are several Jonesboros and Jonesvilles in the United States, but only one Jonesport. In the age of sail, when ships hailed one another at sea, captains from the Downeast port of Jonesport would often declare 'Jonesport, America!' — a phrase every seafarer recognized, for all knew exactly where Jonesport was.

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  15. Elm Street School Honors Beloved Teacher with Classroom Dedication During 8th Grade Graduation

    Holmes, Wood Crowned This Year’s Alewife King and Queen

     

    By Will Tuell

    Hundreds crowded into a steamy gym at Elm Street School in East Machias Friday night as the school bid adieu to its eighth grade class with ceremony, sentimentality, and, just as importantly, for those who know principal Tony Maker and his staff, levity. 

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  16. Policy and Politics

    by Jonathan Reisman

    As the legislative session winds down, numerous party-line votes highlight our divisions and dysfunction. Given the general thrashing majority Democrats have given Republicans on the budget; spending; the 1st, 2nd, and 14th Amendments; and energy, climate, and equity policy, one might have wondered if a mercy rule should have been imposed. But the beatdown has potential policy and political accountability consequences for the candidates and content of the 2026 elections for the Blaine House, the State House, Congress, and the Senate. 

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  17. Painting Features Local Reenactors as Machias Patriots

    By Paul Sylvain

    Coinciding on the 250th anniversary of the June 12, 1775, Battle of the Margaretta, local artist Tom Brennan and many of the town’s Revolutionary War reenactors will be on hand at Machias Savings Bank, 4 Center St., on June 12, for a 6:30 p.m. unveiling of an oil painting by local artist Tom Brennan, depicting one of the events of that historic day.

    Burnham Tavern serves as the backdrop for the painting, which shows a group of Machias patriots on their way to capture the British vessel HMS Margaretta on that fateful day. “

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  18. Grand Time at Machias Arts Center’s Grand Opening

    By Paul Sylvain

    Machias Arts Center has a new home at 277 Main St., and judging by the huge, enthusiastic turnout for its grand opening on June 6, it was an instant hit for those who create or simply appreciate the work of area artists and artisans.

    The grand opening also coincided with the Machias Arts Council’s First Friday Art Walk of the summer, held at the center. In recent years, the First Friday Art Walk has been held downtown in Norman Nelson Park. 

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  19. Machias Planning Board to Weigh In on Plans to Correct Dublin St. Storage Project Violations

    By Paul Sylvain

    Six months after the Machias Selectboard ordered an immediate stop to all work on a self-storage facility under construction on Dublin Street, work may soon resume on the project, depending on what the town’s planning board decides at its June 4 meeting.

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  20. Area Businesses Pave Way for State Little League Championship in Machias

    By Paul Sylvain 

    Anybody who has ever had to navigate the section of Beal Street from Court Street to the Beal Field baseball diamond to cheer on their kids playing a Little League baseball game can attest to the fact that driving on that road was more like negotiating a minefield.

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  21. AOS 96 Substitute Bus Driver Seeks Pay Boost

    By Paul Sylvain

    Few jobs carry the responsibility school bus drivers have, ensuring they safely deliver what substitute driver Steven Tilney last week called “precious cargo” to school and back each day.

    With that in mind, an unexpected wrinkle arose on May 27, during the annual town meeting vote on the 2025-‘26 Machias school budget. A seemingly routine funding article seeking approval for $170,886 for school transportation led to a 13-minute exchange about the need for a pay raise for substitute bus drivers.

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  22. Jonesport Elementary School Budget Goes Back to Voters

    By Nancy Beal

    The Jonesport Elementary School Board met last week with one agenda item: Adjust the 2025-2026 school budget that voters rejected May 21 and send it back to voters in hopes of achieving a change of heart.

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  23. Sheriff’s Office, Drug Agents Arrest 11 in Roque Bluffs, Centerville on Trafficking, Other Charges

    By Paul Sylvain 

    Officers with the Washington County Sheriff's Office (WCSO) and the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency (MDEA) arrested 11 people on drug trafficking and other charges in Roque Bluffs and Centerville following the simultaneous execution of two warrants on May 29. 

    Maine’s Department of Public Safety said in a media release Friday that the arrests came as a result of a months-long drug trafficking investigation at 75 Duck Cove Road in Roque Bluffs and 43 Mitten Mountain Road in Centerville. 

    Arrested at 75 Duck Cove, Roque Bluffs, were:

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  24. Hear Ye! Hear Ye! Machias Voters to Act on 47-Article Warrant at June 11 Annual Town Meeting

    Polls to Open June 10 to Elect Municipal Officers

    By Paul Sylvain

    For the first time in three years, Machias is holding its annual election of municipal officers and town meeting in June. As is customary in Machias, these two events are scheduled for successive days, with the elections scheduled from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday, June 10, at the Machias Memorial High School gymnasium, and the town meeting to act on a 47-article warrant, commencing at 7 p.m. Wednesday, June 11, at the MMHS gym.

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  25. Sen. Collins Announces $6.4M Grant to Support Affordable Housing in Maine’s Tribal Communities

    U.S. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, has announced that five tribal communities in Maine have been awarded $6,456,253 through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Indian Housing Block Grant (IHBG). These grants support the development and maintenance of affordable housing.

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  26. Policy Ronin Report

    by Jonathan Reisman

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  27. It’s a ‘Shell-ebration’ of Emerging Opportunities in Shellfish Aquaculture at Downeast Institute

    Downeast Institute (DEI), Maine Aquaculture Innovation Center, Maine Center for Entrepreneurs, and partners will host “Shell-ebration,” an event focused on emerging opportunities for shellfish aquaculture in Washington County, from 10:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Sunday, June 8, at Downeast Institute, 39 Wildflower Lane, in Beals, Maine. The event is free and open to the public and will take place rain or shine.

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  28. Perfect Weather for Machias Parade Honoring Americans who ‘Gave All’ for Nation’s Freedom

    By Paul Sylvain

    After a gloomy week of rain and clouds, followed by more rain and clouds, the sun finally made an appearance just in time for the annual Memorial Day parade in Machias.

    And while cheers greeted parade participants from parade-goers lining the route – Machias Memorial High School down Court Street to Free Street, onto Colonial Way before proceeding down Main Street – veterans from American Legion Post 9 in Machias stopped to lay a wreath at the grave of Ephriam H. Johnson, which is who the Machias Legion post is named after.

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  29. County Commissioners, UT Supervisor Question Responsibility for Shaddagee Road Bridge Repair

    By Paul Sylvain

    Putting a discussion about the Shaddagee Road Bridge under “old business” on the Washington County Commissioners’ May 22 meeting agenda could be seen as an understatement. Just ask Washington County Unorganized Territories Supervisor Heron Weston, who had to claw through 40 years of meeting minutes to ferret out whether the county or property owners are responsible for repairing the bridge.

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  30. Opioid Response Director Gordon Smith Reports Slight Resurgence of Heroin, Cocaine Overdoses in Maine

    Nationwide Decline in Opioid Overdoses Tied to Less Lethal Supplies

    By Paul Sylvain

    Despite a more than 50-year “war on drugs,” the Governor’s Office of Policy Innovation and the Future’s Opioid Response Director, Gordon Smith, admitted the obvious last week: “We’re never going to stop everybody from using drugs.”

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  31. Kingfish Seeks Ordinance Change to Extend Permit

    By Nancy Beal

    It has been over five years since Kingfish Maine approached the town of Jonesport about building a $100 million land-based fish farm between Route 187 and Chandler Bay on nearly 100 acres north of the town’s largest cemetery. After over a dozen sessions with the town’s planning board and several informational meetings with citizens interested in learning about the various components of the fish-rearing process, in November 2022, the town finally granted the building permit Kingfish sought.

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  32. Maine DEA Supervisor Praises ‘Cornerstone Partnership’ with Sheriff’s Office

    By Paul Sylvain

    Maine Drug Enforcement Agency Supervisory Special Agent Chris Thornton opened the May 22 Washington County Commissioners meeting by recognizing the collaborative efforts between the county’s sheriff’s office and his department.

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  33. Machias Ambulance Service EMTs Honored in Augusta

    By Will Tuell

    On Wednesday, May 21, members of the Machias Ambulance Service attended a ceremony at the State House honoring one of their own. Joe Thompson, an EMT with MAS, was one of nine clinicians around the state to receive Maine EMS’s Excellence Award, MAS Chief Ryan Maker said in a social media post following the ceremony. 

    Thompson, noted Maker, “has been an integral part of Washington County's emergency services for over 20 years.” 

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  34. Machiasport Select Board Breezes Thru 20-Minute Meeting

    By Paul Sylvain

    As selectboard meetings go, if you blinked, you might have missed the May 19 meeting in Machiasport. In the span of about 20 minutes, board members Ryan Sprague, Sarah Craighead Dedmon, and Chairman Ryan Maker breezed through the public portion of their meeting faster than an Air Force fighter jet with its afterburners lit.

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  35. Washington County DA Bill Fails Passage in State House

    By Paul Sylvain

    The more things change, the more they stay the same.

    After attempts in the 129th and 130th Legislature to split a shared District Attorney between Hancock and Washington counties came up painfully short, local lawmakers revived their push to split the district in two again this year, only to see it falter in the Democratically controlled Legislature yet again last week. 

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  36. Freedom Studies

    by Jonathan Reisman

    Laws are like sausages. It’s better not to see them being made. –Attributed, likely apocryphally, to Otto von Bismarck 

    Regardless of the source, the verity of the observation was evident in Washington and Augusta last week. Close observance of the sausage-making process is not for those with a weak Constitution, and it does make me wonder occasionally about the wisdom of promoting transparency ... you are likely to see some things that you can't unsee but wish you could.

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  37. Retired MMHS Principal, Career Educator Bill Prescott Sr. Touched the Lives of Many

    By Paul Sylvain

    The Greater Machias area lost a well-known and much-loved career educator and community member with the passing of Bill Prescott Sr. on May 15.

    “I lost the love of my life … when Bill passed away,” his wife of 63 years wrote in notifying this reporter of Bill’s death last week. “He was principal at Machias Memorial High School for 13 years,” she said, noting that her husband was the longest-serving principal at MMHS. 

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  38. Sheep Farmer Loses Valuable Nursing Ewe to Corn Tossed in the Field

    By Paul Sylvain

    David and Rhonda Craven’s sizable flock of sheep is a familiar sight to travelers driving along the Kennebec Road in Machiasport. And in recent weeks, the sight of tiny newborn lambs tagging along with the mothers near the Cravens’ fenced-in fields has been an extra special treat, prompting many drivers — sometimes with their youngsters in tow — to pull over to watch or perhaps take a few photos.

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  39. Machias Voters to Act on School Budget May 27

    By Paul Sylvain

    Beginning on May 27, Machias voters will be gathering twice in a two-week span to act on separate articles in a bifurcated school and town meeting warrant. 

    First up is an 18-article warrant addressing Machias public school funding for fiscal year 2025, which begins July 1. That meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. Tuesday, May 27, and the Rose M. Gaffney School gymnasium. The Machias School Board, Budget Committee and Select Board support passage of all funding articles.

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  40. Rose M. Gaffney School Teacher Janis Whitney Honored as Washington County Teacher of the Year

    By Will Tuell

    Last Wednesday proved to be an extra special day for the students and staff of Rose M. Gaffney Elementary School in Machias. One of their own, second grade teacher Janis Whitney, attended a ceremony at the Hall of Flags at the State House in Augusta where she was announced as Washington County Teacher of the Year for 2025. Whitney will go on to compete with fifteen other teachers — one representing each county — to compete for Maine Teacher of the Year honors. 

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  41. Select Board Chair Reports Work Progressing on Machias Shellfish Conservation Ordinance

    By Paul Sylvain

    A project taken on last fall by Machias Selectboard Chairman Jake Patryn to draft the town’s first shellfish conservation ordinance is moving forward with consideration of input from clam diggers in neighboring Machiasport.

    Despite nothing being offered for action by the full selectboard, Patryn used the board’s May 13 meeting to bring his colleagues and Town Manager Sarah Craighead Dedmon up to date on his work on the ordinance.

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  42. Machias Finance Director Meghan Dennison Latest long-time Town Employee to Resign

    By Paul Sylvain

    The list of long-time Machias town employees to move on in recent months just grew longer with the resignation of Machias Finance Director Meghan Dennison, effective June 6. 

    In announcing the resignation at the selectboard’s May 14 meeting, Town Manager Sarah Craighead Dedmon noted that Dennison has served as the town’s finance director for more than 20 years. As selectboard member Carole Porcher observed, “It’s the end of an era.”

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  43. Machias Ambulance Service Expects a $200K Surplus, Invests in New Equipment

    By Paul Sylvain

    Business is booming at the Machias Ambulance Service, and like all successful businesses, MAS Chief Ryan Maker is laser-focused on investing in MAS’s future.

    In a meeting with the town’s selectboard on May 13, Maker sought the board’s approval for a novel plan for selling off an older ambulance to a smaller, less busy ambulance service. He also asked permission to forego the competitive bid process to purchase three pieces of new state-of-the-art EMS equipment. 

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  44. Energy in the Executive

    by Jonathan Reisman

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  45. Beals Selectmen Working on Grants

    By Nancy Beal

    Beals’ First Selectman Glenda Beal has taken it upon herself to become the town’s grant writer. Since her election a year ago (as someone totally without previous town government experience), she has spent much of her time seeking grant money for the town for a number of causes.

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