Machias students can return to the classroom this fall, but their school days will look different from anything they have experienced before. In fact, they’ll look different from anything any student has experienced before.
The Maine Legislature, with 400 bills in appropriations waiting to be funded, is nonetheless trying to focus on a narrow agenda should they return.
“As Republicans, we have asked to go back into session for a brief, specific time to address COVID-19 legislation — such as changing the state tax laws to coincide with the federal tax laws as relates to the PPP,” says Sen. Marianne Moore, “or how to spend the CARES funds.”
The three schools that make up Union 103—Beals Elementary, Jonesport Elementary, and Jonesport-Beals High School—are preparing to open for in-person instruction next month. Whether students go back to school physically or remotely will be decided at a board meeting scheduled for 5:45 p.m., Wednesday, August 12 in the high school gymnasium. That decision will be based on an 11-page plan that asks and answers how the schools plan to meet the requirements made necessary by the pandemic coronavirus.
COVID-19 outbreaks at two blueberry processing plants in neighboring Hancock County last week caught statewide attention. As the wild blueberry industry shifts into high gear for the August harvest, Maine Wild / Cherryfield Foods General Manager David Bell says coronavirus safety measures at their Machias facility have already been in place for months.
Silvery splashes in the Machias river have drawn the attention of nature lovers, fishermen, and seals as the pogies visit their Downeast summer home in numbers not seen since the 1990s. The Atlantic menhaden, sometimes confused for herring, is a filter feeder, which makes it a vital link in the Gulf of Maine food chain, according to Maine Department of Marine Resources scientist Matt Cieri.
If there is anything consistent in the world today I suppose it could be the Atlantic salmon. Although beleaguered and on the ropes, this amazing fish continues to battle to be part of this world. If the fish continues to fight, shouldn't we fight for that fish? As Benjamin Franklin once said, "Energy and persistence conquer all things."
The Down East Border Riders Saddle Club will be hosting a pleasure show on Saturday, Aug. 15.
“We welcome riders of all ages and levels, both club and non-club riders as well. Classes are divided by age and/or riding level that include leadline, peewee, youth and adults in walk/trot and walk/trot/canter divisions,” said Vicki Farley Brown of the DEBRSC. “Most classes are open, accepting both English and Western riders, and there will be two open Western Pleasure stakes classes that day with cash payouts.”
Teamsters 340 Representative Lorne Smith says his union has filed two grievances against the town of Machias after dispatcher Tyler Wagner was fired and dispatcher Brandon Merrill was formally reprimanded on Aug. 7.
According to a Washington County Sheriff’s Office incident report, Wagner is accused of deliberately spitting into his milk container, which he believed Machias Police Officer Tyler Dunbar was using without permission.
“It is probably the most ridiculous case I have worked on this year,” said Smith.
The annual Tony Tammaro Memorial Baseball Tournament was held in Calais over the weekend of Aug. 1 and 2. Although handshakes and high fives were limited, good baseball was played by a bunch of good guys and a girl.
Game one featured the premiere of a new team to the tournament from Cutler. Managed by old Quoddy Leaguers Bill Corbett and Stevie Cates, the Cutler team was able to out-pitch the team organized by Joe Barnes and managed by Ryan Lincoln. The final score was 5-1.
Washington Academy has issued its “Safe Return to School” plan which will offer students a hybrid education model beginning Sept. 8.
In July, Maine Department of Education advised schools to prepare green, yellow, and red plans, each to be enacted according to COVID-19 activity in their region. DOE Commissioner Pender Makin on July 31 announced that all Maine counties are currently classified green. Those classifications will be updated every two weeks.
A line of cars wrapped around the Lee Pellon Center in Machias as people waited for a tractor-trailer to open its doors on Wednesday, Aug. 5. When the clock struck 11 a.m., volunteers began bucket-brigading free boxes of food into the waiting vehicles. Before an hour had passed, 900 boxes were gone.
With new plans dictated by COVID-19, Maine’s schools are tentatively assessing the first day of school and all of its potential challenges.
“We’re going to do four consecutive workshops, and some of these will be more specialized,” explains Scott Porter, Superintendent of Schools for A.O.S 96. “Everyone will be wearing masks and social distancing.”
The Chosen is a first-of-its-kind, multi-season television drama following the life of Jesus depicted through the eyes of his followers and those with whom he interacted. Fabricated, directed and co-written by American filmmaker Dallas Jenkins, it broke the all-time crowdfunding record for a media project, reaching $10 million from over 16,000 investors for the first season alone. The second season that is still in production has fundraised over $7 million from more than 365,000 investors.
In an unusual coincidence, in 2019 and 2020 Jonesport Elementary School, a 100-pupil K through 8 coastal school, has seen two of its 15 teachers earn the title of Washington County Teacher of the Year. The women also share a last name (but no close familial ties) and both live in the Moosabec area. They chose the same topic (a special program offered in their school) for the remarks that they were required to make during the competition for the state title. One teaches the youngest JES students, the other the oldest.
A.O.S. 96 Superintendent Scott Porter will present the Machias schools budget during a public hearing to be held online Thursday, Aug. 13. Voters will then cast paper ballots in a school budget referendum vote scheduled for Sept. 1, in combination with municipal elections.
I was so excited to meet Rajive Anand who was visiting his parents in Milbridge recently. Rajive is the writer and illustrator of the comic book Laserman. He is bright, well educated and full of knowledge about the comic book industry.
“I was 12 years old when I wrote the comic book Laserman, Issue One, said Rajive Anand. "I’ve grown and evolved and my comic book character has evolved and grown with me. The storyline continues with Laserman, Issue Two.
Danial Qualls, University of Maine at Machias (UMM) Head of Campus, delivered an update on the school’s reopening plans at the Machias selectboard meeting held online Wednesday, Aug. 12.
“Pretty much everything I’m about to tell you is subject to change,” said Qualls.
The town of Machias stands to save more than $16,000 per year on its electric bills if it signs an agreement with a company that proposes building a solar array on a capped landfill located off of Broadway.
Andrew LaVogue of Revision Energy said the town’s average $104,000 in annual electricity consumption would cost approximately $88,000 under the program. Asked about risks for the town by board chairman Joshua Rolfe, LaVogue said the only risk would be if the town dramatically reduced its energy consumption.
Keeping Maine Healthy grants were approved in June by the Mills administration for towns across Maine so that they could more effectively battle the growing inroads of COVID-19.
But for Washington County, who has historically missed out on funding in the past, this time it’s a fortunate turn of events for missing out on these COVID funds. Downeast Maine with its envious record of virus cases, only lately in the two-digit category, remains out of the mainstream.
The boards of the three schools that make up Union 103—Jonesport-Beals High School, Jonesport and Beals Elementary Schools—met August 12 in the high school gymnasium, masked and socially distanced, to tackle the questions facing school boards all across the country: when to open and how. All board members were present, as were Superintendent Lewis Collins, the J-BHS and BES principals, special education director, newly installed maintenance director John Church, and approximately a dozen members of the public, many of whom were teachers.
Want to save 10 percent on your electric bill? Bold Coast Solar can help you do just that.
Last year, the Maine Legislature legalized the push for the development of small renewable energy projects in the state, like solar power. Community solar projects produce renewable, clean electricity for a certain area.
Osprey circled above municipal and state officials gathered where Downeast Correctional Facility’s (DCF) control center and dormitory number three once stood. Both buildings were demolished earlier this year to make way for the Bucks Harbor prison’s next act as a pre-release center, now on schedule to open in the summer of 2021.
Growing up and attending public schools in Philadelphia in the 1960s, I got an up-close and personal view of the American founding, race relations, diversity, and its discontents. The Pledge of Allegiance’s promise of “liberty and justice for all” would probably be termed white supremacist systemic racism by today’s mostly peaceful protesters, but in Philadelphia, I was taught America was founded in freedom in 1776, not slavery in 1619.
Democratic Maine Senate candidate Sara Gideon took hundreds of thousands of dollars from abortion interest groups after she passed legislation to force taxpayers to pay for abortion and drastically expanded abortion access during her tenure as the speaker of the Maine House of Representatives.
Six months ago, things looked bleak for the Democrats and the Left in America. The economy was humming, unemployment was at historic lows for whites, Blacks, Hispanics. Asians, men, women and every color in the LGBTQ rainbow flag. Consumer confidence was high and rising. Voter perception of economic performance and prospects is and has been the best predictor of whether the party in the White House is returned to power.
The Downeast Coastal Conservancy will be hosting a nearly full moon hike up Pigeon Hill Preserve in Steuben on Sunday, Aug. 30.
Participants will meet in the parking area at 6:30 p.m. to begin their hike up to the summit to watch the sunset to the west, then turn to the east to watch the nearly full moon rise over the water.
Hikers can pack a picnic dinner, get outside and exercise, and make new friends while social distancing.
Tariffs, the coronavirus pandemic and the entanglements of right whales were a heady mix of issues that last week threatened Maine’s most iconic fishery. Now it’s one down, two to go.
Save Maine Lobstermen provides the crux of a legal defense fund aiming to raise $500,000 to save the beleaguered lobster-fishing business.
Les Haynes is the only person who completed candidacy paperwork in time to be on the Machias ballot for municipal elections, to be held next week on Tuesday, Sept. 1. Two seats on the five-person board will be vacated by selectwoman Paula Johnson-Rolfe and selectboard vice chairman Bill Kitchen. Each will have served one term.
A football adaption designed during the Great Depression will soon come to Machias when Lion of Judah Football launches its first-ever foray into fall youth football with a six-man program.
“It was invented in the west during boom and bust times when towns couldn’t mount large teams,” said Coach Mike Karnas, who 15 years ago founded Lion of Judah football camps as a ministry outreach program.
I received a lobster license at age eight for Christmas from my grandparents, Jeff and Pam Libby. Our boat is called The Depth Star, it’s about 19 ft. long. I usually like to go but sometimes I’m tired.
Papa lets me use one of his moorings. A mooring is a place we put our boat when we’re done hauling for the day.
When I first started I had to get my traps and boat ready and also buy bait.
Each trap has a buoy that floats, mine are blue with a pink spindle. It was Mom’s color when she had traps.
Cherryfield Academy blossomed with life in late July as five enthusiastic local high school students gathered for Food Justice League Camp, an annual week-long summer program for teens offered by Healthy Acadia that explores food system sustainability through educational programming and hands-on learning activities.
Eleanor M. Kilton, 81, peacefully passed away on August 3, 2020, at Down East Community Hospital, with her family at her side. She was born September 14, 1938, in Cherryfield, Maine, daughter of the late Amos and Maude (Randall) Matthews.
Incumbent Machias Selectwoman Paula Johnson-Rolfe this weekend declared herself as a write-in candidate for the Machias selectboard. Municipal ballots will be cast Tuesday, Sept. 1, in advance of the annual Machias Town Meeting set for Wednesday, Sept. 2.
Johnson-Rolfe initially declined to run for reelection but explained her change of heart with a public statement on social media.
