By Paul Sylvain

Barely a year after an adult-use marijuana ordinance was enacted in Machias, the town’s selectboard is considering taking  up the subject again with the intent of expanding or replacing the town’s current ordinance to include non-medical “recreational,” adult-use stores that could sell so-called “legal” marijuana.

By Paul Sylvain

A warrant article seeking up to $65,000 to fund the town’s share of operating the Machias Bay Area Transfer Station on Broadway easily passed at the July 26 annual town meeting, but not before drawing the longest discussion of the 83-minute meeting.

Past Machias Budget Committee member and retired University of Maine at Machias Business Division Chairman Richard Larson opened the discussion by noting voters can choose to pass or decrease the amount in such enterprise account warrant articles, but cannot increase the dollar amount.

By Will Tuell

by Paul Sylvain

According to Anchor co-owner Kelly Davis, her husband of 36 years, Larry, always wanted to own a bar and be a bartender. On May 29, he got his wish.

That’s the day the Anchor opened its doors for business on 36 Main St., in Machias. “The only thing,” said Davis, with a laugh, “is that I do most of the bar tending.”

The Filthy Casuals band played the Anchor its first Saturday after opening and packed the house. “It was overwhelming,” Davis said, “especially for the first time doing this.”

Washington Academy Head of School Judson McBrine announced Mrs. Colleen Maker has been selected as a 2024 Maine State Teacher of the Year Semi-Finalist. She is one of eight educators the Maine Department of Education chose to move forward in the naming process. Mrs. Maker teaches biology, honors biology, and marine biology classes at WA. 

McBrine said in a press release last week that Maker is one of “the most passionate and enthusiastic teachers” he’s worked with over the course of his 32-year career, 

By Will Tuell

The Maine State Police, Washington County Sheriff’s deputies and the Jonesboro Fire Department responded to a fatal auto accident on Route 1 in Jonesboro Tuesday, Aug. 8 near the Jonesboro-Columbia Falls town line.

By Will Tuell

The Washington Academy (WA) board of trustees on Aug. 5 presented its Distinguished Community Service Award to the Wesley Foundation, so named after four-year-old Wesley Keeton of East Machias, who lost his life in an ATV accident 10 years ago. 

In accepting the award on the Foundation’s behalf, Wesley’s aunt, Beckie Hennessey, announced that “Team Wes” has officially closed on the fairgrounds across from Down East Community Hospital and plans to develop an outdoor recreational center for area youth.

By Paul Sylvain

Just 20 months ago, you could drive through Machias without seeing a town cop or cruiser. In fact, the town’s police department had been decimated by then and existed only on paper. It had no chief, no officers and keeping peace in this town of 2,200 people was left to the sheriff’s department.

That all changed in October 2021, when the town’s selectboard hired veteran cop Keith Mercier as the department’s new chief. The position had been vacant since July that year.

By Will Tuell

In response to the intensifying school worker shortage, United States Senators Susan Collins (R-ME) and Tim Kaine (D-VA) have put forward legislation to help rural schools cope with the exodus of teachers, administrative staff, and school workers, though some, like AOS 96 Superintendent believe the effort may not be enough as area schools continue to struggle to find qualified people weeks before the start of the 2023-24 school year is set to begin.

by Jonathan Reisman

by Hazel Stark

We’ve all been through a rough couple of years, haven’t we? Just about everyone I know has had some major, life-altering change in the past couple years. Loss in the form of sudden or young deaths, breakups, economic insecurity, wildfires and floods, you know the rest. It’s been a lot. But it always helps to look to the places that have lasted the longest through incredible stress and turmoil for some advice on how to thrive even when things appear to fall apart. My favorite place to revel in that resilience is a bog.

By Paul Sylvain

Chances are you won’t find a state trooper patrolling Washington County these days. The same is also true in at least six other rural Maine counties. As a result, county sheriff’s departments have had to step in to fill the void.

Washington County Commissioner Chris Gardner explained at the Aug. 10 county commissioners session that he’d just attended the Maine County Commissioners Association (MCCA) meeting at which the lack of rural patrols by Maine State Police took center stage.

By Paul Sylvain

Referring to an incident involving obscene T-shirts sold by a vendor at last year’s Machias Wild Blueberry Festival, Washington County Commissioner Chris Gardner cautioned festival organizers against censorship at this year’s festival.

The discussion arose at the Aug. 10 Washington County Commissioners meeting in Machias and was initiated as an agenda item by Gardner.

by Jonathan Reisman

By Paul Sylvain

At its Aug. 2 meeting, the Machias Planning Board approved building permits for four separate projects at West Branch Farms, located at 180 West Kennebec Road. Two of the permits have a total estimated cost of more than one million dollars.

The farm features the  Coffee+Crisp Cafe,  a “mercantile” shop and a seasonal pick-your-own business, in addition to raising various farm animals. It has been open since 2020.

By Paul Sylvain

Yes, Virginia, there really are blueberries at the Machias Wild Blueberry Festival.

The sad truth is, that hasn’t always been the case. Just ask the folks at the Welch Farm in Roque Bluffs, who explained in an interview earlier this month that it was the lack of fresh blueberries at the annual festival that prompted them to offer farm tours and arrange for some of their berries to be available for sale there. 

By Will Tuell

By Will Tuell

Downeast Community Partners (DCP) Early Childhood Education Director Eve Toomey has only been on the job a couple of months, but she is quickly gaining the lay of the land and hoping to build partnerships with local schools and existing providers to enhance early childhood education in Hancock and Washington counties. Toomey, a native of Minnesota, previously worked as a social worker in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area before moving to Maine eighteen months ago.

By Jonathan Reisman 

by Joseph Horn

By Paul Sylvain

The Machias Selectboard on Aug. 23 gave the green light for the town’s police department to begin the months-long process of advertising for and hiring a dedicated full-time School Resource Officer (SRO) at  Machias Memorial High School (MMHS).

MMHS Principal Nicole Case and Machias Police Chief Keith Mercier told the board the position will be funded in large part for three years thanks to a $250,000 Stronger Connection Grant.  

By Paul Sylvain

The Machias Selectboard are hoping to buy some time with a firm 180-day deadline to draft and present to town voters a new ordinance addressing “all things marijuana.” 

At least that is what was proposed by Selectboard Chairman Jacob “Jake” Patryn at the board’s Aug. 23 meeting. The plan hinges on a six-month moratorium on any new applications for medical marijuana shop permits in Machias. However, the moratorium requires a public hearing be held first, with seven days prior notice. 

By Will Tuell

The news that dedicated lighthouse historian Tim Harrison of Whiting had passed away Aug. 19 after suffering complications from pneumonia sent shockwaves throughout the tight-knit community Harrison and wife Kathleen Finnegan-Harrison championed for decades through their world-class publication Lighthouse Digest Magazine. 

And beyond, really. 

By Paul Sylvain 

Not only is Laura Lander a children’s book author but she’s also an illustrator for her own books as well as for books written by other authors.

On Aug. 15, Lander read her book Marco and the Mystery of the Missing Cookies as part of Porter Memorial Library’s Children’s Reading Program in Machias. Then she invited the children to paint on cut-out hearts with watercolors before sticking the hearts onto colored paper.