By Nancy Beal

The national discussion of transgender rights under Title IX that began in the Maine state house, when a Republican legislator posted pictures of a transgender student competing on a girls track team, and exploded in the White House when Governor Mills told President Trump “see you in court” after he chastised Maine’s transgender student policy, has come full circle back to Maine.

by Nancy Beal

A new study from the University of Maine’s Aquaculture Research Institute (ARI) and Darling Marine Center is helping to refine best practices for growing Atlantic sea scallops (Placopecten magellanicus), a species of increasing interest to Maine’s aquaculture sector.

Healthy Acadia, in collaboration with Coastal Washington County Institute of Technology Culinary Arts (CWCIT) students located at Machias Memorial High School, will host a drive-thru luncheon on Friday, May 16, with proceeds to benefit Down East Teen Leadership Camp (DETLC).

By Paul Sylvain

Over the past three centuries, the waters of the Machias River between the falls and the dike have served as a backdrop for numerous events. English sailor-turned-pirate Samuel “Black Sam” Bellamy is said to have used Machias as a safe haven to repair his ship. Legend has it that Black Sam buried a never-found treasure somewhere in the woods of Machiasport.

By Paul Sylvain

The General Services Administration (GSA) announced that bids are being accepted on the nearly 10-acre former U.S. Coast Guard housing area on Route 187/Mason’s Bay Road, about two miles north of the town center in Jonesport.

Cooke USA organized or participated in shoreline cleanups in six municipalities over five days in April, in and around Earth Day on April 22. The cleanups were coordinated by Cooke USA's fish health team, which includes fish health technicians Jessica Lindsay, Jaelynn Matthews, and Susana DeFrank. 

One of those cleanup events took place earlier in April and was coordinated by the town of Machiasport and its harbormaster, David Cale. About a dozen employees from Cooke’s operation in Machiasport’s Bucks Harbor district participated in that effort. 

by Jonathan Reisman

Forty Mays ago, my late wife Ernie and I moved into a largely unfinished house on Cathance Lake in Cooper. May is lovely — cool, bugless mornings, full of sunrise concerts from songbirds, ravens, and woodpeckers, with loon warbles and serenades in the evening.

By Phil Stuart

Liam O’Connor of Machias and Layla Cates Wright of Machiasport were selected to receive the first Mike Worcester Defensive Player and Hustle Awards at the recent Machias Memorial High School winter sports award ceremony. 

By Paul Sylvain

Plans are taking shape for the first-ever Kitchen Kup Memorial Golf Tournament and fundraiser, slated for May 31.

Former Machias Town Manager Bill Kitchen’s love for promoting live music might only have been surpassed by his love for golf. Kitchen passed away unexpectedly last Sept. 9.

By Paul Sylvain

Paving an earthen pathway to prevent bone breaking slips and falls on snow covered ice in winter should be a simple matter, right?

Well, think again.

As an April 23 discussion by the Machias Selectboard and Town Manager Sarah Craughead Dedmon proved, that’s not the case when it comes to property lines at Porter Memorial Library. 

Parade is On, but Fireworks Moved to Blueberry Festival

By Paul Sylvain

Machias area residents expecting a fireworks display this July 4 will have to wait until Aug. 16 to witness the rockets’ red glare rising over Middle River.

by Jonathan Reisman

“Equity” is promoted across Maine State Government and the University of Maine System as part of broad Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) efforts and within specific policy initiatives like the Climate Action Plan, which has a significant and significantly funded equity component. What equity does not have is a definition. Promoting an undefined policy goal is pure policy malpractice. Determining what equity actually is and what Maine State Government is doing to promote it has turned into a strange dance called the equity limbo. 

A 67-year-old man was arrested at his Wesley home on April 23 and charged with six counts of gross sexual assault involving a minor.

According to a prepared statement issued by the Washington County Sheriff’s Office, Duane E. Geel was arrested without incident by sheriff’s deputies on a felony warrant issued by the Machias Unified Court following an extended Sheriff’s Office investigation.

By Paul Sylvain 

Former Washington County Sheriff and long-time District III County Commissioner John B. Crowley Sr. has notified Gov. Janet Mills of his decision to resign his seat effective April 30. As Crowley explained in his letter of resignation to the governor, “My health has made this decision necessary.”

By Paul Sylvain

Senator Marianne Moore (R-Calais) has submitted a bill to the Legislature requiring that Maine’s Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife ensure year-round access to Bog Lake in Northfield after a spat between locals and the Department reached an impasse. 

The bill, LD 1448, “An Act to Provide Winter Access to the Bog Lake Boat Launch in Northfield,” was the subject of a snap public hearing in Augusta on April 14 before the Legislature’s Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Committee.

By Nancy Beal

The Jonesport Elementary School board finalized its budget for next year on April 7, voting unanimously to pull $285,000 from the school’s fund balance (surplus account) to create a bottom line for 2025-26 of $2,530,071. That figure is $134,661 higher than last year’s total of $2,395,410, an increase of $134,661, or 5.62%.

by Jonathan Reisman

I spent most of a mid-April afternoon waiting to testify on LD 1494, a “Resolve, Directing the Office of Procurement Services to Study Adapting the Procurement Process to the State Climate Action Plan.” The resolve didn’t get a lot of attention from the Soros-bought-and-paid-for (SBAPF) Maine legacy media, and I’m pretty sure that the majority of the committee is happy about that. 

Here is the LD 1494 summary:

By Paul Sylvain

A newly created position of Machias operations manager, which was vaguely funded without being specifically named in last year’s annual town meeting warrant, has been reposted with a new name — operations coordinator — and a revised set of qualifications and responsibilities. 

In the span of about a year, Sarah Craighead Dedmon went from serving as recording secretary for the Machias Selectboard and Planning Board to the town’s first operations manager, on an interim basis, and for the past two months, permanent town manager.

By Paul Sylvain

The Machias School Board last week submitted its proposed 2025-26 budget to town officials, representing an overall increase of around 3.15%, which is up $265,157 to $8,674,699, from $8,409,542 last year. However, the proverbial elephant in the room is what the education cost will actually be if President Trump makes good on his threat to withhold federal money from Maine over Gov. Janet Mills’ hard-line stand allowing transgenders born as males to play in girls’ sports in Maine’s schools.

By Nancy Beal

Some 30 Beals residents gathered in the elementary school gym April 7 to act on a 58-article warrant at their annual town meeting.

Moderator Terry Beal guided voters in a meeting lasting a little over two hours. In the end, voters agreed to raise a total of $348,251, as well as reelecting all incumbent town officers to their posts. 

One departmental position — road commissioner — was absorbed into the selectmen’s duties, and the $3,000 salary, raised for that role last year, was moved into the surplus account.