By Paul Sylvain

As we prepare to put 2024 in the proverbial rear-view mirror and usher in 2025, let’s take a look back at some of the local stories and events that topped the news in this 366-day leap year.

Barely 10 days into the new year, coastal Maine was slammed with the first of two major winter storms, three days apart, that could have been named “Peat” and "Repeat” for their similarities.

By Paul Sylvain

The long talked about plan for PFAS remediation research testing at Machias Valley Airport, appears to be cleared for take-off in 2025, according to Machias Selectboard Vice Chairman Ben Edwards.

By Paul Sylvain

Machias Selectboard Chairman Jake Patryn is moving closer to presenting a final draft of what will be his town’s first-ever shellfish conservation ordinance, if adopted by town voters.

by Jonathan Reisman

 Down East Community Hospital in Machias delivered its first baby of the new year — Davis Joseph Green — at 6:36 p.m. on Jan. 5.

Green is also the first child born to Brenna Davis and Austin Green of Campobello Island, New Brunswick, Canada. He arrived weighing in at nine pounds, seven ounces. and measured 21 ¾ inches in length. Both parents said Dr. Christian Inegbenijie and all the nurses involved were “phenomenal,” and were impressed by and happy to be at DECH.  As to what they had to say about baby Davis, the parents stressed, “We are in love; he is just perfect”!

Water, Wi-Fi Issues Force Motel to Cancel Bookings Until February

By Paul Sylvain

The cause of a Christmas Eve fire that destroyed two-thirds of the Bluebird Motel’s main lodging building, fronting Route 1/Dublin Street in Machias, has been classified as “undetermined” by investigators with the state Fire Marshal’s Office.

The Down East Community Hospital Auxiliary hosted the 51st Annual Holiday Craft Fair on Saturday, Dec. 7, 2024. The Rose Gaffney Elementary School generously allowed the Auxiliary to use their gym and hallways in the school.

By Paul Sylvain

Maine winters aren’t what they used to be, considering the string of relatively mild winters we’ve enjoyed Downeast the past several years. Of course, with the snowiest and coldest winter months yet to come, it remains to be seen how Washington County will fare in this winter of 2024-25.

Still, the lingering memory of that last truly harsh, “old-fashioned” Maine winter a decade ago is one that anyone who experienced it won’t ever forget. 

Drouin Calls U-Turn ‘Unprecedented’

By Will Tuell

The long and fraught battle over legal lobster size changes took another dramatic twist last week as Maine’s Department of Marine Resources (DMR) bowed to pressure from fishermen and withdrew a proposed 1/16th-inch gauge increase that was set to take effect July 1. The news came as fishermen and other industry stakeholders gathered for a Jan. 9 public hearing on the proposal. 

By Paul Sylvain

In July 2023, Maine State Police (MSP) quietly ceased patrolling the state’s rural counties and instead focused their limited patrol resources on higher traffic and more populated parts of the state. Among those counties most affected by that decision was Washington County, in which Sheriff Barry Curtis and his deputies assumed the sole burden of providing law enforcement coverage once shared with state police.

By Paul Sylvain

Storm-driven floods are nothing new to downtown Machias. According to Tora Johnson, with the Sunrise County Economic Council, there have been nine such floods in the past six-and-a-half years.

But, Jim Lenke, a physical sciences teacher at Machias Memorial High School, is about to embark on a roughly three-year project with his students to measure water levels from the public dock behind Helen’s Restaurant, near the Route 1 dike and causeway over Middle River.

by Jonathan Reisman

January has brought an array of alarms in California, Maine, and North America

Fire alarms in California

The California wildfires are both a natural and human-enhanced disaster. Governor Gavin Newsom’s inferno was made worse by decades of water policies prioritizing endangered snail darters and green liturgy over reservoirs and aqueducts. Controlled burns and fuel load management are apparently not consistent with a conviction that the cause of wildfires is anthropogenic (human-caused) climate change.

By Phil Stuart

Three Downeast Board basketball officials with over 120 years combined experience worked their last game together on Dec. 19 at Gardner Gymnasium in East Machias when the host Lady Raiders of Washington Academy played the Old Town Coyotes. 

Wallace “Alvin” Hall of Gardner's Lake, Walt “Candy” Cummings of Deep Cover, and “The Doctor” Kevin Barbee of Milbridge, each have had over 40 years on the basketball court, and all three are tournament veterans as well. 

Vessel Found Under 160 Feet of Water Off Long Point Believed to be Sudden Impact

By Paul Sylvain

After a more than 25-hour search involving 11 rescue vessels over two days, and encompassing 950 square miles of open sea and coastline in eastern Washington County, the U.S. Coast Guard officially called off its search Sunday evening for a South Addison scallop dragger and its two-man crew reported missing since Jan. 18. 

By Nancy Beal

After 17 years as the town’s only complete grocery store serving shoppers in the greater Jonesport-Beals area, Manaford’s Grocery will close its doors for good on Jan. 31.

That news was announced in a recent post on Manaford’s Facebook page, which stated, “With a heavy heart and deep regret, we want to let you know that after 17 years, Manaford’s Grocery will be closing its doors, effective Jan 31, 2025. With great appreciation and gratitude to our customers and employees. Thank you all.” 

By Nancy Beal

by Jonathan Reisman

The opening weeks of 2025 have brought home the consequences of mixing climate alarmism with identity/woke politics. The Energy, Utilities and Technology committee held a Public Advocate confirmation hearing where the Senate Chair ruled that any discussion of Maine’s energy and climate policies would not be allowed. 

Public Hearing Thursday February 6 on LD 183 9:00 AM, Cross Building, Room 214, in Augusta.

The Legislature’s Agriculture, Conservation, and Forestry Committee has scheduled a public hearing on Thursday, Feb. 6 on LD 183, “An Act to Cap Publicly Owned Land Area at No More Than 50 Percent of Any County. The proposal is sponsored by House Minority Leader Billy Bob Faulkingham, R-Winter Harbor, and the entire Washington County legislative delegation. 

The bill summary reads as follows:

By Paul Sylvain

The popular, well-attended weekly series of Thursday night concerts at Bad Little Falls Park will be returning this summer, but with a new name — The Kitchen Concert Series.

By Jayna Smith 

On January 16, 2025, Baileyville Police Department conducted a traffic stop on Houlton Road that led to a significant drug bust. Officers developed evidence of possible narcotics in the vehicle, prompting the deployment of a drug detection canine. The canine alerted officers to the presence of narcotics, leading to a search of the vehicle.

By Nadine Preston 

It’s final! Literally. The students at Machias Memorial High School just wrapped up their first semester with final exams. Grades closed on Friday. It was pretty serious in the halls, as last-minute assignments and study guide index cards were a common sight in every student’s hands. Stay tuned for the official Honor Roll announcement, but until then, I’ll catch you up on other news happening around our school. 

The Eastport Arts Center’s weekly Sunday concert series returns to the EAC at 3 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 2, with Sánchez & Sánchez, a guitar and bass jazz instrumental duo.

The father and son team of Robert Sánchez and Ellis Zipperer-Sánchez will present an array of tunes from the Great American Songbook, including some straight-ahead jazz, and standards ranging from ballads to uptempo tunes, plus several in the bossa style. The duo will also feature singer Lauren Koss on a few numbers. A question-and-answer session will follow the music.