by Sarah Craighead Dedmon

Machiasport voters adopted 45 articles including the municipal and school budgets at their annual town meeting held Monday, June 29.  All questions passed, and roughly 35 attendees voted to approve a budget which keeps the town’s tax commitment flat.

“It was an extremely quiet meeting, there were probably no more than three or four questions,” said selectman Mike Hinerman. “It went very well.”

For the year ending in June, the town reported $2,407,134 in total expenditures and $2,579,513 in revenues.

In late March as the corona lockdowns and legislative abdications to “science” directed Democratic anti-Trump Governors commenced, “Wonder Woman” Gal Gadot organized a group of international left-wing celebrities to sing a socially distanced cover of John Lennon’s 1971 “Imagine”. In Lennon’s socialist dream utopian religion, countries, borders, war, private property, capitalism, greed and hunger would all disappear.

Imagine
www.tinyurl.com/ycx8ln8o

This summer, Porter Memorial Library presents a virtual film series: Mr. Coperthwaite: A Life in the Maine Woods, a film in four parts by Anna Grimshaw. These four films, completed in 2013, chart the homesteading life of local pioneer in yurt building, Bill Coperthwaite, as it unfolded through the seasons. The filmmaker, Anna Grimshaw, a visual anthropologist and professor for Emory University, is a resident of Machiasport. The film series will begin on Friday, July 10 with the first film in the series.

by V. Paul Reynolds

Fly fishing for trout – any trout, big or small - is my thing. You would think that after more than 50 years of indulging my passion that  1) my gearbox would runneth over with top shelf, big-name fly rods, and 2) my casting ability would be up there with the top ten.

by Ruth Leubecker

Kathryn Land, new chair of the Down East Community Hospital Board, called the 2020 Annual Meeting of the Corporators to order via a conference call.

Citing this new way to meet due to the coronavirus, she mentioned that she missed all the faces and the delicious hors d’oeuvres, but this was the best option during these times.

by Sarah Craighead Dedmon

Pilot Timothy Hernandez, Machias Valley Municipal Airport Committee Chairman Michael Radeka, and other local pilots are gauging the region’s interest in forming a Machias Flying Club.

Flying clubs have been around as long as aviation itself, says Hernandez, and are designed to provide members with affordable access to aircraft.

In the early 1980s the Whitneyville Public Library, under the direction of John Bodger, received a grant to have UMM art teacher Frank Hambe depict the history of the Whitneyville to Machiasport Railroad through his talented artwork.

These 11 panels of artwork have been in storage at the University of Maine at Machias and when the new library building opened in October of 2018 the artwork was brought home to the Whitneyville Public Library and has been on display ever since.

by Nancy Beal

by Nancy Beal

The Pleasant River Solid Waste Disposal District (PRSWDD) board of directors met late Monday, July 13 and had in hand the latest withdrawal proposal from two towns that are opting to bow out of the six-town trash cooperative formed in the 1990s after state regulations outlawed municipal landfills. The withdrawing towns are Jonesport and Columbia Falls. Still active in PRSWDD are Addison, Beals and Jonesboro. Columbia voted last month to get out, but formal negotiations around that move are pending.

by Nancy Beal

As a long-time supporter of the First Amendment and the value of free and open inquiry, leftist cancel culture efforts to silence, deplatform, censor and otherwise stifle speakers and viewpoints they disagree with has angered and repelled me. As a young professor, I naively believed the academy shared those sentiments, but I have been disabused of that notion over the last twenty years.

by Sarah Craighead Dedmon

Maine Marine Patrol Officer Matthew Carter acted in self-defense and in defense of third parties when he applied deadly force during a 2017 Machiasport encounter, according to Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey, who today issued his summary and findings on the case.

by Ruth Leubecker

For decades Machiasport residents have been plagued by contaminated water due to chemicals released into the groundwater during the 27 years the Air Force maintained its presence in Bucks Harbor.

by Sarah Craighead Dedmon

Both employees of the Machias dispatch center have been suspended with pay effective July 15, according to Machias Town Manager Christina Therrien. After the suspension was enacted, all calls for Machias emergency services were rerouted to the Washington County Regional Communications Center which handles 911 traffic for the county, dispatching fire, ambulance and police calls.

The Washington County Sheriff’s Office is assisting the town with its investigation into what Therrien described as a personnel matter.

by Phil Stuart

The '50s saw baseball return in full force following the end of World War II, and it might have been the best decade for Quoddy League Baseball.

EAC’s Summer Workshop Series will offer Zentangle: A Mindful Approach to Creativity and Flow, from 1-2 p.m. on Tuesday, July 28. Instructor Ann Cannizzaro will teach participants about the inspiring and mindful drawing practice called Zentangle. This popular drawing method is for everyone and anyone. The eight-step process will lead participants to create miniature masterpieces while learning about ‘tangles’, ‘tiles’, and ‘strings’.  Attendees will learn and practice everything they need to know to begin their own journeys of discovery and creative flow through drawing.

by Jayna Smith

Once considered for demolition by the National Park Service, the historic McGlashan-Nickerson House in Calais is still being offered for long-term lease of up to 60 years on favorable terms to someone who would rehabilitate and preserve it.

by Kaileigh Deacon

For many, the thought of a comet passing in the sky is exciting but not unexpected. After all, most of us grew up hearing about the famous Halley’s Comet as a commonplace idea and probably assume that comets are all discovered, and it’s just a matter of time before they come back around. However, like all of science, astronomy is developing as technology becomes more advanced, and our ability to explore the unknowns of space increases. New things are discovered all the time.  

by Jayna Smith

Many saw it coming:  the extension of the U.S. and Canada border closure, now closed to non-essential travel until at least Aug.21.  First closed in mid-March for 30 days, the restrictions have been extended every 30 days since.  

It has been reported that most Canadians fear a reopening, with confirmed cases and deaths from COVID-19 in the United States the highest in the world.  Canada has flattened its epidemic curve.  

by Jayna Smith

The coronavirus may have canceled school baseball for the spring 2020 season, but younger kids in the greater Calais area and the greater Machias area still had the opportunity to play in each town’s respective Little League programs.  As well, high school-aged boys took advantage of playing in the Maine Independent Baseball League, a replacement for this year’s canceled American Legion baseball, with teams having been fielded in both Calais and Machias.  

by Sarah Craighead Dedmon

After a rough start courtesy of COVID-19, the Machias Subway restaurant location reports higher-than-expected annual sales despite the pandemic.

“We were up to 75 percent of our normal sales, and when they opened the motels back up we were back up into the 90s,” said co-owner Bill Laprade. “Then last week Machias had a record week in its history.”

by Jordan Donovan

The University of Maine at Machias last Tuesday announced that it will suspend its varsity athletics program for an “indefinite period” effective July 21. The suspension was attributed in part to the economic situation imposed by the pandemic, and the economic fallout of COVID-19. However, in their press release it was implied that the school’s financial situation was already a topic of concern prior to COVID-19.

by Sarah Craighead Dedmon

The Machias Police Department has moved from its aging offices and into a larger, more practical space in the Machias Telebusiness Center located on Stackpole Road.

Machias Police Chief Todd Hand first suggested the move at a February selectboard meeting, and the selectboard quickly approved the idea.

“We really did have a need for a bigger, more professional place,” said Hand. “I commend the selectboard for recognizing that and acting on it.”