by Sarah Craighead Dedmon

At their bi-monthly meeting held Wednesday, July 13, the Machias Board of Selectmen heard from local school officials A.O.S. Superintendent Scott Porter, and Machias Memorial High School Principal Nicole Case, who asked the board to approve a referendum vote in support of new classroom construction.

“The Maine Department of Education requires a town referendum vote if we build new classrooms greater than 600 square feet in total footage,” said Porter. 

by Sarah Craighead Dedmon

Returning home from the Mrs. International pageant, Rebekah Hodgson of Jonesboro was given a hero’s welcome at the Jonesboro Grange, an organization and structure she has poured so much into over the past two years. On Thursday, July 28, Hodgson was greeted by fire trucks and well-wishers. 

One week earlier Hodgson and her husband Garrett were in Kingsport, Tennessee, where Hodgson, Mrs. Maine International, joined women from all over the nation for the annual Mrs. International pageant. 

Down East Community Hospital CEO Steve Lail presents fundraisers Arline Smith and Tammi Aiello with $1,500.00 for the Roque Bluffs Community Center’s August event to raise funds for the Machias Area Food Pantry.

EAC’s Concert Series continues at 7 pm, Friday, Aug. 12 with popular returning performer, Tim Pence, guitar. Pence will perform works by Anton Diabelli, Napoleon Coste, Jacques Cerf, Augustin Barrios as well as selections from his own project, The Ultra-Praxis. 

 This year the Sunrise All Star team has again won the District 1 Championship. The only other time they have won the district championship was in 2003 when Eric Beal was the coach.

With Blake Smith coach and assistant coach Robbie Worcester these ball players that make this Sunrise All Star team comes from Milbridge, Steuben, Franklin, Cherryfield, Harrington, Columbia, Columbia Falls and Addison.

 It all begins in March when there is a sign-up sheet for players to sign up. This includes teams for T-ball up to 12-year-olds.  

EAC’s summer workshop series will conclude with a special two-day workshop, Figurative Ceramic Sculpture with Elizabeth Ostrander on Saturday and Sunday, Aug. 27 and 28, from 12:30-4:30 p.m. Participants will learn to use traditional hand-building techniques and the plasticity of clay to create a large scale work. This accumulative process creates exciting juxtaposed surface textures, allowing the work to have personality, gesture, and expression. The workshop is intended for participants ages 12 and up.

The rapid warming of the 20th century has reversed 900 years of cooling in the Gulf of Maine, according to a new study led by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, co-authored by the University of Maine, and funded by the National Science Foundation. 

The David and Hadassah Wass House in Addison has been entered into the National Register of Historic Places, according to Kirk F. Mohney, Director of the Maine Historic Preservation Commission. This designation indicates that the property has been documented, evaluated, and considered worthy of preservation and protection as part of the nation’s cultural heritage.

by Hailey Wood

Chris Berry will be opening the doors of Expressions Music Studio at 25 Main Street Unit 1 in Machias on Thursday, Aug. 18 for her first group voice lesson, from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. Berry says that this will be the first community introduction to Expressions Music Studio and an opportunity for anyone interested to see how she teaches. 

Berry spent 15 years teaching at music stores throughout Connecticut, eventually opening her own store, Expressions Music Studio, in Woodstock, Connecticut, where she built up a team of five other teachers.

Author Tim Caverly will give two presentations at Porter Memorial Library in Machias on Thursday, August 18. Both events are free and open to the public.

The first program at 2 p.m. is for children. Depending on the ages in the audience at 2 p.m. that day, Caverly will present either his 30-minute “Andy’s Surprise” for ages pre-K to 1st grade; or a 45-minute virtual canoe trip, “Allagash-New England’s Wild River” for all school-age children.

by Sarah Craighead Dedmon

Soon, Washington County’s newest citizens will have a new place to enter the world. Certified Nurse Midwife Bjarni Thomas is now seeing patients at her new practice, Women First Machias, located in the heart of Machias at 89 Main Street. Later this year, she’ll begin offering birth center services there, too. 

The road to opening her own birth center has taken Thomas from her hometown of Farmington in western Maine to West Virginia to Machias, where she arrived four years ago and where she feels perfectly at home.

by Sarah Craighead Dedmon

Ike Hubbard’s father moved him out of Jonesport in 1952, but he made his way back as soon as he could. Since 1988, Hubbard has been the mastermind behind the Hubbard Rake Company, a Jonesport-based business that ships handcrafted harvesting rakes all over the world. After Hubbard purchased his aunt and uncle’s strawberry farm, he built his business there.

by Sarah Craighead Dedmon

There are days when Machias feels like a bustling small town, days when Machias feels like a sleepy small town, and then there are the three days of the Machias Wild Blueberry Festival, when Machias feels like the center of the summer fun universe. After a two-year pandemic hiatus, festival organizers say people are ready to celebrate. This year’s festival kicks off this Friday, Aug. 19, and runs through Sunday, Aug. 21.  

Each summer, the Washington Academy Board of Trustees hosts an afternoon to gather and offer celebration and honor to two individuals who have shown their commitment, sincerity, and grace to our community.

This year’s 25th Annual Trustee Tea was held on Saturday, August 6, on the lawn of the Old Academy at Washington Academy in E.Machias.

by Sarah Craighead Dedmon

Gayle and Gary Nochajski paused for a moment to stick a pin in the U.S. map hanging outside Centre Street Congregational Church, marking their hometown of North Collins, New York. A friendly stranger from South Addison said they should visit the Machias Wild Blueberry Festival on their visit Downeast, and they were glad they did.

“People are great here. They’re so open and friendly,” said Gary Nochajski. “It’s been fantastic, what a great trip.”

by Sarah Craighead Dedmon

Happy trails to the Machias Bad Little Falls substation, which has begun to be dismantled by Versant Power, the local electricity distributor. All of the equipment will be removed beginning this week, and a Versant spokesperson says that includes fencing, electrical equipment, and steel structures, which have long blocked the view of Bad Little Falls.

by Sarah Craighead Dedmon 

It's been 245 years since the British invaded Machias for the third time, attacking and burning their way up the Machias River in 1777, and meeting with defeat at the end of Passamaquoddy Chief Francis Joseph Neptune’s gun. When the British came up the Machias River, they were met by dozens of Machias-area woodsmen and farmers and just as many members of the tribe. Then, Neptune took his “long shot,” reportedly killing a British officer, and sending the redcoats running.  

by Jonathan Reisman

“What Difference at this point does it make?”- Former Secretary of State, feminist icon, and serial liar Hillary Clinton in Congressional testimony on Benghazi misinformation she and Susan Rice propagated to protect and ensure the reelection of Barack Obama in 2012

Mr. Scott: “There's an old, old saying on earth, Mr. Sulu: "Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me."

Mr. Chekov: “I know this saying. It was invented in Russia.” - From Star Trek, Fridays Child (1967)

by Hazel Stark

by Sarah Craighead Dedmon

Machias Police Chief Keith Mercier wasn’t sure if he should bring his covered trailer to last weekend’s “Stuff the Cruiser” diaper donation event at Hannaford in Machias.

“We would have been in trouble if I didn’t,” he said Monday morning while hauling boxes of diapers, wipes, baby food, and baby formula out of the full trailer and into the nonprofit We Care Baby Center located on Water Street in Machias.

by David Dahl, Maine Monitor

State environmental regulators issued a “Notice of Violation” against the developer of an ambitious, $1 billion project in Washington County after inspectors found the company built several dozen cabins, a restaurant, roads, and parking areas without obtaining necessary permits.

New York Times bestselling author Michael Tougias will give a slide presentation on the war between the Colonists and Native Americans in 1675-76 at the UMM Performing Arts Center in Machias on Wednesday, September 21, at 7 p.m.  The Tougias event is part of Authors at The Last Page, an author talk series sponsored by Porter Memorial Library with support from Maine Public Library Fund. For more information, call the library at 207-255-3933.

by Phil Stuart

The Blueberry Run 5-miler began in 1976 and turned 47 this year if you count the virtual runs in 2020 and 2021. The last year it ran with actual participants was in 2019, when Tom Windle and Dara Knapp were the winners.