On Friday, June 10 at 7 pm, award-winning author Bill Roorbach will offer a reading and author talk at Cobscook Institute in Trescott. This event is jointly hosted by Cobscook and Iota Short Forms. Currently on tour for his latest novel, Roorbach has added a stop in Washington County at the invitation of both organizations. This event is free and open to the public and books for purchase will be available by Kelly’s Books To Go.

by Natalie Boomer

The Moosehorn National Wildlife Refuge, Cobscook Bay State Park, and the Friends of the Moosehorn NWR invite children 16 and under, along with their families, to go fishing at Cobscook Bay State Park Headquarters Pond in Edmunds on Saturday, June 18. The event marks the 24th annual fishing derby.

“The State of Maine will stock brook trout into the pond just before the derby,” said Supervisory Wildlife Biologist Ray Brown. 

This event is for all of the children of the community, even ones with no experience or equipment. 

by Sarah Craighead Dedmon

Machiasport is once again one of the state’s top clamming towns and the most productive in Washington County. 

Machiasport is Maine’s fifth-most productive softshell clam port behind Brunswick, Waldoboro, Freeport, and Scarborough, with 453,661 pounds of softshell clams landed at a value of $1.462 million, according to 2021 landings data — the pounds caught and dollar value of a fishery.

Two people have died in two separate Washington County road accidents that took place over the long holiday weekend.

In Perry, a single-vehicle crash on Route 1 took the life of Rob Zuckerman, 25, of Eastport. Down East Ambulance, Pleasant Point Ambulance, the Perry Fire Department, and the Washington County Sheriff’s Office were dispatched to the crash, which was determined to take place after Zuckerman lost control of his vehicle.  

by Sarah Craighead Dedmon

At their May 25 meeting, the Machias Board of Selectmen revised a proposed ordinance that, if approved by voters, would allow the cultivation, manufacturing, and testing of adult-use marijuana in Machias. 

The ordinance would not allow adult-use marijuana retail stores.

“I made the decision not to present a retail storefront as part of this, at this juncture,” said Machias Town Manager Bill Kitchen. “I didn’t feel like it was the right time.”

by Sarah Craighead Dedmon

Four hundred ATVs are expected to attend the ATV Jamboree and Craft Fair, scheduled from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, June 11. Sixty craft fair vendors will be set up at the Lee Pellon Center and on the lawn of Station 1898, where visitors can shop for local crafts and other specialties. Machias Bay Area Chamber of Commerce Director Sharon Mack says a lot of ATV clubs are expected to attend.

by Sarah Craighead Dedmon

Guided by moderator Toff Toffolon and sped along by Joyce Fragale’s motion to combine 10 articles into one vote, last week 15 residents adopted the 2022-23 Machias Schools Budget in 12 minutes flat.

This year’s school budget includes a spending increase of nearly $1 million over the previous fiscal year but raises taxation by a much lower number of $67,441.46, or 4.42 percent. 

One of the questions people ask me when they find out I am retiring is what are you going to do next? I have talked about continuing to write my column and aggravate leftists (usually a two for one), but nothing particularly specific.

Eastport Arts Center will present a senior recital by 2022 Washington Academy graduate Noah Carver, winner of a Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Award ‘for extraordinary young musicians’ from NPR’s From the Top, on Tuesday, June 28 at 7 pm. The young singer will be accompanied by pianist John Newell. A student of voice teacher Gary Magby, pianist Paul Sullivan, and music teacher Bonnie Atkinson, Noah will begin his undergraduate studies in vocal performance at the Eastman School of Music in the fall. 

by Sarah Craighead Dedmon

After a two-year hiatus, the Margaretta Days Festival & Craft Fair will return to Machias this weekend, Friday and Saturday, June 17-18. 

The festival is organized by the Machias Historical Society and celebrates the first naval battle of the American Revolution, as well as the victorious actions of local 18th-century patriots and Passamaquoddy tribal members in defeating the British redcoats. 

by Nancy Beal

Jonesport selectmen announced last week that they had received word from Sen. Susan Collins’ office that she had included $1.5 million for Jonesport’s proposed Henry Point marina in her wish list of projects to be funded by Congress in 2023. Requests for money for special projects, known as earmarks, were common practice years ago but one that, until recently, had been suspended for the past couple of decades.

by Nancy Beal

Town leaders from Jonesport and Beals gathered at the Down East Institute for Applied Marine Research on Beals’ Great Wass Island last March to brainstorm about the local economy.  The project billed as “Jonesport and Beals Local Economy Project” was sparked by work done by Kristen Grant of Maine Sea Grant and UM Cooperative and Megan Bailey of UMO and the Margaret Chase Smith Policy Center.

EAC’s Summer Workshop Series will run from June 28 to August 28, and include sessions for a variety of arts and crafts for all ages. Workshops include the following Tuesday sessions, which start at 1:30 p.m. and run for two or three hours: Photography with Leslie Bowman, June 28; Upcycled Mosaic Frames with Meri Fern, July 5; Joy of Acrylics with Anne Black, July 19; Paper Flowers with Jennifer Maffett, July 26; Block-printed Wearables with Susan Lehnen, August 2; Decoupage Bottle Candles with Sue Riddle, August 9; Henna Tattoos with Ashley Dhakal, August 16.

by Phil Stuart

The Washington Academy girls tennis team accomplished something no Washington County team has ever been able to do, and only two other northern Maine schools have done since the MPA sanctioned tennis in 1995.

On July 11, Woodie Moulton’s Raider girls journeyed to South Portland to take on the Flyers of Waynflete High School for the state Class C tennis championship. WA this year was the beneficiary of three international players who were all contributing factors, but sometimes there's a downside to that benefit.

Zoe Reynolds, a Jonesport-Beals High School senior, was awarded a Mainely Character Scholarship for $5000. These are awarded annually to Maine high school seniors who demonstrate exemplary concern for others, responsibility, integrity, and courage. Zoe was selected from 375 scholarship applicants statewide; her scholarship is sponsored by Richard and Anne Cass of Cape Elizabeth and Machias Savings Bank. 

by Sarah Craighead Dedmon

In 1868, Machias replaced a bridge with a dike to carry travelers across the Machias and Middle Rivers. This month, plans appear to be moving in the opposite direction, following Maine Department of Transportation’s (DOT) June 9 announcement that a bridge is the “preferred alternative” to replace the Machias dike and causeway.

DOT will host a meeting about the dike replacement project at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, June 28, at the Machias Memorial High School Gymnasium. A large turnout is expected. 

by Hailey Wood

Broderick Alley and Jennifer Ciappetta, the father-daughter duo behind The Fisherman’s Pottery and Gifts, make pottery out of their studio on Beals Island.

Their passion began in the Fall of 2018 when they took their first adult-ed pottery class, taught by Narraguagus Pottery at Narraguagus Highschool.

Initially, Ciappetta’s mother convinced her to take the class with her. In the end, she found it was too messy a hobby for her, but Ciappetta was hooked. 

by Jonathan Reisman

2022 America is a product of deliberate progressive policy choices. It’s tempting in watching Brandon, Kamala and the clown show- including AOC and the Squad, Bernie, Pocahontas, Mayor Pete, Janet “Mistaken” Yellen, Hillary Hack/Iran Appeaser Sullivan, and the rest of the sorry lot- to conclude our woes are a consequence of incompetence and stupidity, but that would be wrong. Every dystopic feature of 2022 America is a result of policy choices that Brandon and his progressive puppet masters have deliberately chosen.

by Nancy Beal

Most people who have lived in Addison and surrounding towns for the past 40 years know about Jenny Cirone and the herds of sheep she ran on Nash Island, where she grew up under the watchful eye of her lightkeeper father. Before she passed on, Jenny entrusted her flock to Alfred “Alfie” Wakeman, who has managed it since her death.

by Jayna Smith

Four local athletes played last week in the 2022 Class C/D North vs. South Senior Baseball Game, which took place on Wednesday, June 22, at St. Joseph’s College in Standish.  

Calais Blue Devil Kobe Saunders and Machias Bulldogs Jayden Rhoades, Kashman Feeney, and Kyle Anderson were among those invited to a trio of games at the college.  The games included the Class C/D Senior All-Star Game, the Class A/B Senior All-Star Game, and an underclassmen game. All played on Tuesday and Wednesday of last week.

“Best in Show” is a title many crafters hope to achieve. On Saturday, July 25, Pauline Wood claimed that honor at the Roque Bluffs Art Gallery and Learning Center’s first-ever Quilting Show in Roque Bluffs.

On the winning quilt, the embroidered butterflies were done by Fay Hawkins, the pieced and hand quilted by her daughter, Pauline Wood. The story behind the quilt started after the passing of Mrs. Hawkins and the discovery of her many beautiful hand-embroidered butterfly squares.

by Joseph Horn