The Bangor Savings Bank Foundation has awarded The Joy Fund, a barrier removal program administered by the Community Caring Collaborative (CCC), $5,500 to support more first-time home buyers scheduling home inspections of their prospective dream home in Washington County.  

By Will Tuell

By Wayne Smith

The Spanish band Barcelona hit the Milbridge Theatre and Community Arts Center stage on July 18 for an epic night of music that entertained the crowd and sent shivers up and down your spine. They were the best professional band to appear yet and well worth the price of admission several audience members told me. 

by Jonathan Reisman

President Biden’s selfless and noble passing of the torch to Kamala (or Obama/Pelosi orchestrated coup, depending on which tribe you belong to) left me marveling at our polarized and post-modern understanding of “Democracy.” “Democracy” is a system of government where the people rule, either directly (like Town Meeting) or through elected representatives (a Republic). Democracy is rule of the many, as opposed to rule of the few (oligarchy) or the one (tyranny). 

By Will Tuell

Calling it “quite a journey,” proprietress Vivian Walls-Patten of Walls TV, Appliances, and Home Furnishing, joined customers, family members, and friends in celebrating the business her late husband Bernard “Bernie” Walls founded in the summer of 1969 on Saturday, Aug. 3. While a lot has changed in Machias since the Walls came to town — Walls' commitment to serving the people of Washington County has not gone out of style, both Walls-Patten and her son Randy Walls, who manages the store on Main Street, said in interviews with this publication. 

By Will Tuell

By Wayne Smith

It is breathtaking — artwork being blended together with photography that tells a beautiful story of local talent, that gives the person looking at it and thinking about it a totally different perspective on the person who created it. And you can get that feeling when you visit the Schooner Gallery on Main Street in Milbridge. 

By Nancy Beal

By Will Tuell

Lobster fishermen up and down the coast battling to stay afloat got a boost last week as the fishery’s interstate governing body known as the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission or ASMFC took the first steps of delaying a planned phase-in of gauge size changes set to take effect in January, until July 2025. Regulators also voted to hold Canadian importers of lobster to the same standards, giving American fishermen an equal footing in selling their catch.

By Wayne Smith

Tim Cotton, a former police officer who has written and published multiple books about Maine life, recently stopped by the Gallison Library in Harrington to sign several of his books for local fans and library supporters. Cotton talked about police work, being an author, and his rise to fame during his Aug. 3 visit. 

Project on Hold Until Court Decides Eminent Domain Lawsuit

By Paul Sylvain

Machiasport Town Clerk Marcia Hayward announced on Aug. 8 that her town has been awarded a $475,000 Maine Infrastructure Adaptation Fund grant to relocate a section of Port Road — formerly known as Beach Road —  in the town’s Starboard district, further away from the shoreline.

By Will Tuell

For many young people Downeast, music education is anything but a given, Jeff Shaw of the Maine Academy of Modern Music (MAMM) said in an interview on July 30. The Milbridge native, who serves as the nonprofit’s executive director, is hoping to change that by recruiting an Americorps VISTA volunteer to work with area communities, schools, potential donors, and musicians to build long-term, sustainable music education offerings commonly available across the Sunrise County. 

By Paul Sylvain

“If you don’t say ‘wild’, it’s just another festival.”

That’s according to Machias Town Manager Bill Kitchen who made that statement as a reminder to the town’s selectboard at the close of its Aug. 14 meeting. And indeed, last weekend’s 47th annual edition of the Machias Wild Blueberry Festival proved wild in a good way.

By Paul Sylvain

An Aug. 8 ruling issued by Maine Business & Consumer Court Judge Michael A. Duddy permanently ended all appeals by Jeanne Tennison involving the Machias Planning Board’s June 7, 2023, approval of a building permit for 12 seasonal transient bunkhouses at 19 Canal Street.

By Paul Sylvain

As the final notes of “Blueberry Blues” drifted into memory during Saturday night’s closing performance of this year’s Machias Wild Blueberry Festival musical, the production’s director, Gene Nichols, also noted it was the end of an era for the show band’s drummer, Bill Eckart.

The extraordinary life of this country’s 32nd president will be explored in a free presentation on the history made by Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the music he loved, on Sunday, Aug. 25, at 2 p.m., at Eastport Arts Center. The program will be brought to Eastport for this one-time-only performance by the educational services staff of Roosevelt Campobello International Park.

By Pamela J. Nickerson 

Trustees of Porter Memorial Library relish the triumph of preserving a landmark.

Director Lee Downing says, “This building gives people a sense of place.” Downing, of Machiasport, moved from Massachusetts nearly twenty years ago; she has found employment and community connections within the library ever since.

By Paul Sylvain

The passage of time often blurs certain events in our lifetime. However, there are those singular events that are so deeply seared in one’s memory that, decades later, even the smallest of details are recalled as sharply as if they had occurred yesterday. This article is about one of those events..

By Pamela J. Nickerson 

If Hatchery Manager Mitchell Monini is successful then, he chuckles, he will “be out of a job.” Monini is “rearing fish in as natural a habitat as possible to mimic early life stages” along the river in East Machias at the former Bangor Hydro building.  Water from the East Machias River is pumped into an ultraviolet sterilization filter, installed last year following a devastating virus at the Downeast Salmon Federation’s hatchery; all fish at the hatchery had to be destroyed at the time.

MOTHERS Art & Antique Gallery is pleased to share that their next exhibition, ‘CALIFLORA: All Roads Lead to Downeast’ featuring works on paper by Irene Imfeld, John Watson, Clare Olivares, and Whitney Vosburgh, will open on Sunday, Sept. 1, from 4-6 p.m., and will be up until Sept. 21. 

By Nancy Beal

When Beals Elementary School students return to classes next week, they will soon welcome visiting author and award-winning illustrator Jamie Hogan, whose mission will be to facilitate students in creating panels for their story walk.