Pot roast with mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, carrots, cucumber salad, Janet's rolls and biscuits, homemade pies and cake will be on the menu for our September 5th public supper that will be held at the Hillgrove Community Building in Whitneyville. The supper begins at 5 p.m.  

Following COVID-19 rules and regulations, we still can only seat 50 people but takeout is also available by reservation. To reserve your takeout you can call the library at 255-8077 Monday to Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Reservations for takeout will be taken until Friday, Sept. 4 at 4 p.m.

by Sarah Craighead Dedmon

As a way of giving back to a profession that helped him, Peter Napoli’s restaurants celebrate big occasions with donations to local schools. Last week Napoli, his son Sal Napoli, Machias McDonald’s General Manager Kim Godfrey and other executives presented Rose M. Gaffney Elementary School with a check for $1,000 to mark the stores reopening after extensive remodeling. Napoli said it’s his family’s way of honoring one special teacher who made a difference for him.

After 11 weeks of total shutdown due to COVID-19 and another 12 weeks of curbside service to provide a safe alternative for library borrowing during the pandemic, Porter Memorial Library reopened to the public on August 27.

by Natalie Boomer

The Ark Animal Shelter in Cherryfield will be hosting its annual Fall ‘20 Dog Day on Saturday, Sept. 26.

“The event is completely by donation, and they are highly appreciated. This event is for everyone including people with no pets, looking to adopt, as well as owners with well-behaved furbabies. This will be an outside event on a huge piece of land so furbabies can roam free, unleashed if well-behaved,” said Vanessa Coolen of the Ark Animal Shelter. “All proceeds benefit the Ark Animal Shelter!”

by Nancy Beal

The mini-bridge on the Kelley Point Road over Stillman Dyer Brook absorbed selectmen’s attention at their August 26 meeting. The previous week, while opening bids on the placing of a small bridge over the stream that they fear is in danger of washing out the road if either of two beaver dams upstream should fail, Selectmen Dwight Alley and Harry Fish realized that the combined proceeds of a small streams grant ($68,000) and the town’s appropriation ($20,000) was not enough to fund the project.

The Navy is seeking to sample private drinking water wells in a designated sampling area near the Naval Support Activity (NSA) Cutler Fire Station, Cutler, Maine. These free tests are to determine whether certain chemicals (commonly and collectively referred to as PFAS) used by the Navy in its activities at NSA Cutler Fire Station may have migrated through groundwater to private drinking water wells at levels greater than U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) health advisory levels.

COVID-19 concerns

by Sarah Craighead Dedmon

Twenty-three Machias voters took their carefully spaced seats at the Machias town meeting held Wednesday, Sept. 2. Normally held in June, the municipal elections, school budget referendum, and town meeting were all delayed due to the coronavirus lockdowns.

by Nancy Beal

At three separate meetings and by unanimous votes on September 2, the school boards governing Jonesport-Beals High School, Jonesport Elementary and Beals Elementary Schools — the three schools that comprise Union 103 — voted to move up a previously set opening date of Sept. 28 to Sept. 14. The votes followed the specter of students going to school into next July after Superintendent Lewis Collins told them that the Maine Department of Education (DOE) would grant no waivers from the 175-school day mandate until January.

by Sarah Craighead Dedmon

Calls to Maine domestic violence hotlines went up 20 percent between April and June, a number only slightly more worrisome than what happened in March, when they went down.

“It was so quiet it was eerie,” said Dorathy Martel, executive director of the Next Step Domestic Violence Project. “I think it's because people hadn’t worked out how to reach out when the person abusing them was at home.”

by Natalie Boomer

The Whitneyville Public Library has decided to host another public supper on Saturday, Oct. 3, after a successful supper on Sept. 4.

by Dan Ryan

I was lucky enough to spend four years in the U.S. Navy, from, 1977-81.  Two of those years were spent at the Cutler Navy Base, and last month I was lucky enough to visit Machias and Cutler again after 40 years away.

by Natalie Boomer

For the past seven years, Downeast Community Partners has hosted a tennis round robin to raise money for the At Home program, a nonprofit that provides services to the elderly to help them continue living in their own homes.

“Every year the At Home program has a tennis round-robin at the Blue Hill Country Club. This year COVID rained on our parade and we could not have it,” said Rose Honders, Director of At Home elder services at Downeast Community Partners.

Mark your calendars for the next public supper that will be held on October 3 at 5 p.m. at the Hillgrove Community Building in Whitneyville.  It will be a New England boiled dinner with corned beef and ham, rolls, biscuits, homemade cakes and pies. We still have limited eat-in seating of 50 people, but you can also call to reserve a takeout dinner by calling the library at 255-8077 Monday to Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.  Reservations for takeout dinners will be taken until Friday, Oct. 2 at 4 p.m.

by Hazel Stark

by Sarah Craighead Dedmon

Fire has claimed two lives and destroyed two mobile homes in a Machias trailer park.

According to Sergeant Mary MacMaster of the state fire marshal’s office, the cause of the fire is not yet known and the identities of the two deceased individuals, who lived together in one of the two homes, have not yet been confirmed. The fire started sometime before 3 a.m. on Monday, Sept. 21.

“They’re just starting to go in now,” said MacMaster. Three state investigators will be on the scene today. 

by Camille Hawkins

Ron and Lyn Hawkins have a new grandson born on September 11, 2020, at 11:19 p.m. in Machias. Proud parents Chelsie and Chris Wallace have a healthy 9-pound baby boy named Luke William Wallace.

I got my firewood delivered on Tuesday afternoon. It's a big pile that looks like it will last a couple of winters. Thanks, Ron.

by Natalie Boomer

The We Care Community Baby Center has worked out of its Machias location for many years helping the Washington County community with children’s items such as clothes, toys, books, diapers, and more.

This year, the building on 5 Water Street in Machias became the We Care Community Baby Center’s permanent home.

by Nancy Beal

 On August 19, when Jonesport selectmen opened construction bids on a small bridge that would replace a culvert that shuttles the Stillman Dyer Stream, they were dismayed to learn that the money with which they had planned to finance the project was about $40,000 short of the lowest bid. Hanscom Construction of Machias had bid $69,000 for the project and Carver Construction of Jonesport had bid $116,450.

by Jayna Smith

Many in the area may have noticed a difference in the look to the sky last week, specifically on Tuesday, as smoke from the California and Oregon wildfires blew across the country, leaving a haze up above.

According to Michael Clair, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in southern Maine, the smoke was definitely visible when it was present over the state. “The sky was much more of a milky gray in appearance, rather than blue, even when there were no clouds present,” he said.

by Sarah Craighead Dedmon

Sergeant Mary MacMaster of the state fire marshal’s service says the investigation into a fire that claimed the lives of two Machias men is still in progress.
“Before it goes public it has to be right,” said MacMaster. “It’s a horrible situation and we hope to get some truthful answers for the community as soon as we can. It takes time.”

by Wayne Smith

by Joseph Horn

by Ruth Leubecker

In an ominous triumvirate of COVID, job loss and food insecurity, Mainers already living on the edge face a precarious winter season ahead.

“We connect people with resources that can help them,” explains Allison Weiss, spokesman for Maine Equal Justice. “Like MaineCare, SNAP and DHHS. Mainers are at the greatest risk because we have a lot of people with low income and great financial need.”

by Nancy Beal

As the MVNO went to print Monday, Kingfish Maine announced in a press release that the Submerged Lands Lease Application it had sought from the Maine Bureau of Parks and Lands had been granted. The permit authorizes the company to install its intake and discharge pipes into Chandler Bay to service the recirculating aquaculture system it will use to raise a projected 6,000 to 8,000 metric tons of yellowtail.