by Sarah Craighead Dedmon

Three people were killed and a fourth injured in a shooting rampage that took place at three locations in Machias and Jonesboro on the morning of Monday, Feb. 3. 

Maine State Police Lt. Troy Gardner spoke at a press conference in front of the Washington County Courthouse Monday evening and said that suspect Thomas Bonfanti, 63, of Northfield,  has been arrested and charged with murder after the shooting deaths of Shawn Currey, 57, Samuel Powers, 33, and Jennifer Bryant Flynn, 49. A fourth victim, a female, was injured and is hospitalized.

by Wayne Smith

by Lupe Soto

Washington Academy Wrestling ended the regular Dual Meet season with a 17-8 record.

With the regular season behind them, the Raider wrestlers knew their fate was in their own hands. The team competed in the Penobscot Valley Conference Championship, held Saturday, Feb. 1 at Mt. Desert Island (MDI).

by V. Paul Reynolds

Henry David Thoreau, beholding Moosehead Lake for the first time, wrote this: “a gleaming silver platter at the end of the table.”

If only he could have seen the lake from the air! The first time that I saw the big lake from the air in a northbound ski-plane my jaw dropped. The expansiveness, not only of the lake itself but the entire north woods watershed, presents a panorama like no other.

by Nancy Beal

by Valdine Atwood

by Sarah Craighead Dedmon

Thomas Bonfanti of Northfield was charged with murder on Monday, Feb. 3, after a 30-minute shooting rampage that left two men and one woman dead and another woman critically injured. The shootings took place at three different locations in Machias and Jonesboro.

Bonfanti was arrested at the American Legion Post #9 on Court Street in Machias.

What is known

by Sarah Craighead Dedmon

Machias residents will vote on six articles at a special town meeting to be held Wednesday, Feb. 12 at 7 p.m. The meeting will be held at the Lee Pellon Center.
At a public hearing held Jan. 29, the board reviewed the articles and took questions from the eight Machias residents in attendance.

by Kaileigh Deacon

As the ground freezes and snow starts to fall, the appearance of animals becomes more of a rare sight, and when people get a chance to see them they get excited. Oftentimes that excitement leads to people leaving food out for the animals, feeling they are helping.

Anneke Skidmore, Dean of Admissions and Assistant Director for the Phillips Academy Andover Summer Session, visited nine high schools in Washington County and Charlotte County to promote the new Unobskey Scholars Program.  The Unobskey Scholars Program offers all-expenses-paid scholarships to the prestigious five-week summer session at Phillips Academy for 12 high-achieving ninth graders.  

by Sarah Craighead Dedmon

A meeting at the East Machias Municipal Building last month drew together enthusiastic individuals and groups who all want the same thing — a local youth recreation center. Co-organizer Liz Henry said she was impressed by the array of talented people in attendance.

“I think we couldn’t have asked for a better group,” said Henry. “It takes a village to raise a child, and that's how I see this project, it’ll take everybody.”

by Tanya Rucosky

Residents in municipalities served by the Pleasant River Solid Waste Disposal District (PRSWDD) have embarked on a new, counter-intuitive approach to recycling.

“You put it all in the trash?” asked incredulous Addison resident Theresa Williams.

by Natalie Boomer

Poet Jason Grundstrom-Whitney, will be reading from his book, “Bear, Coyote, Raven”, at the University of Maine at Machias on Thursday, March 12 at 4 p.m.

by Wayne Smith

The second part of the story of the Jonesport-Beals Royals basketball team features senior Kaiden Crowley, the point guard, and senior Ryan Alley, a guard/forward, as they talk about what it takes to be a basketball player for the Royals. They discussed what it takes to be on top and how they might want it to end, the stories of success in the past, and what kinds of things make this team special.

by Sarah Craighead Dedmon

Even before she met him, Catherine Luce knew she would find common ground with her chief medical officer because he, too, was from Maine. Luce is a senior scientist at Frequency Therapeutics in Woburn, Massachusetts and a Machias Bulldog, Class of 1996.

“Everyone had been talking about him being a blueberry farmer and said that he was from Maine, so we figured we would have something in common,” said Luce. “Then, lo and behold, we were both born and raised in Machias.”

by Sarah Craighead Dedmon

A lack of controversial agenda items might explain how five Machias selectboard members outnumbered the voters who turned up for a special town meeting held Feb. 12 at the Lee Pellon Center.

by Sarah Craighead Dedmon

Dr. Cynthia Teer of the Machias Animal Hospital has been found in contempt of court and fined $10,000 for practicing veterinary medicine without a license.

Teer’s license was suspended by the state in Jan. 2018, and revoked in Oct. 2019 following a September hearing of the Maine Board of Veterinary Medicine. Six pages of court documents from the Jan. 21 hearing held in Kennebec Superior Court list the state’s evidence, including prior disciplinary action against Teer in 2014.  

by Ronie Strout

This past week during February school vacation I was in Boston visiting with my daughter and her family. The temperature there was a lot warmer than back in Addison but it still was cold.

During the vacation week, my grandson Asa got to go to Camp Sayre Boy Scout Day Camp in Milton, Massachusetts. After we picked him up in the afternoons, he and Mabel enjoyed doing other activities before we went to bed.

Spring and the Arts. Once again Washington Academy theater students are in rehearsal. Following their highly successful fall production of Peter & Hans Bloedel’s adaptation of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, the players are now preparing a one-act play for competition in the Maine Principals’ Association sponsored Maine One-Act Drama Festival which will be held on March 6-7. The WA Players will be among nine schools participating in the Downeast Regional site which is hosted by Mount Desert Island High School.

by Joseph Horn

by Ruth Leubecker

After years of inching upward, Maine’s overdose deaths slipped downward in 2018, and positive thoughts emerged, intent on implementing a plan to keep the numbers down.

But the pendulum appears to have reversed to an upward direction, with the state reporting that 277 people lost their lives to drug overdose fatalities in the first nine months of 2019.  

by Sarah Craighead Dedmon

Wailing sirens and bellowing horns could be heard for miles when a motorcade escorted the Machias Memorial High School boys’ varsity basketball team into town as the newly-crowned 2020 Class D North Champions. The parade route proceeded down Main Street to East Machias before turning to deliver the team to campus, where a reception had been prepared in their honor.