The Maine Historic Preservation Commission is pleased to announce that the McCurdy Smokehouse in Lubec has been recognized by the National Park Service as having a “National level of Significance” in the National Register of Historic Places.

By Nancy Beal

By Paul Sylvain

Fort O’Brien School in Machiasport remembered their much-loved secretary, Jen Green Feeney, during a brief ceremony prior to the school’s final regular season basketball game on Jan. 30. The school unveiled a new electronic scoreboard and a memorial banner, which will be hung under the new scoreboard in the school’s gymnasium

By Paul Sylvain

The body of one of two South Addison scallop fishermen lost when their boat, F/V Sudden Impact, sank on Jan. 18, in high winds and rough seas near Moose Cove, was recovered by a dive team on Feb. 2.

The Maine Department of Marine Resources reported on Feb. 2, that a team of “highly-skilled volunteer divers” located and recovered the body from inside Sudden Impact’s cabin. The body of the second crew member was not not found on or near the wreckage. 

By David Cale

Special to the MVNO                      

I didn’t know Chet and Aaron Barrett, but yet, we are related as fellow fishermen. I set off to Jonesport on Feb. 5 for the Bennett family’s benefit supper, not knowing them but wanting to pay my respects and give my condolences to the family of these two men. Many thoughts went through my mind on the 40-minute drive from Machiasport to the Community of Christ Church in Jonesport.

By Will Tuell

By Paul Sylvain

A 76-year-old Marshfield man charged with manslaughter in the death of his 79-year-old wife in September 2022 has been ruled incompetent to stand trial in the case. 

Instead, a judge dismissed all charges against the man accused in the case — Charles Harmon — and ordered him placed in the custody of the Maine Department of Health and Human Services. Harmon had been free on $2,000 with a bail condition of no contact with a specific family member.

by Jonathan Reisman

I traveled to Augusta in early February to testify on several climate, energy, and environmental policy bills. The geography of the three-hour drive triggered memories of similar journeys over the past forty years.

By Paul Sylvain

Fort O’Brien School might be small in size and student count, but it definitely has a supporter in Machiasport School Board member Frank Rodriguez.

Rodriguez met with the town’s selectboard on Jan. 27 to discuss the school and the accomplishments he’s witnessed since the start of the current school year after Labor Day.

By Doss Dennison

The junior high East and West basketball finals both took place last Monday evening, with the East side playing their games at the Machias Memorial High School gymnasium, while the West side played at the Narraguagus High School gym. Most of these contests were extremely close through two or three quarters, with a few of them going right down to the final buzzer.

By Paul Sylvain

The Machias selectboard learned at its Feb. 12 meeting that a former 2.5-acre municipal landfill from 1930 until capped in 1996, is leaching per- and polyfluoroalkyl, or PFAS, substances near and possibly into the Middle River marsh behind the site, adding yet another complication to the seesaw battle over the future of the Machias dike replacement. 

The Machias landfill occupied an area near the Marshfield town line, behind the current transfer station off Broadway.

Eastport Arts Center is pleased to present the first of a recurring series of drawing classes on Saturday, Feb. 22, from 10 a.m. to noon. Ann Cannizzaro will lead sessions in “Zentangle: A Mindful Drawing Practice” in February, March, and April, at the Center. The sessions are offered for students ages 12 and up.

University of Maine Cooperative Extension is hosting online informational sessions for adults interested in becoming Maine 4-H volunteers. Participants can choose from two options: noon to 1 p.m. Fridays, Feb. 21 and 28, or 6-7 p.m. Mondays, March 3 and 10.

By Nancy Beal

After inclement weather canceled a planned demonstration of alternative lobster gear in Jonesport on Feb. 6, the event, which was the first public demonstration of that gear by the state’s Department of Marine Resources, took place on Feb. 18. Its purpose was to allow fishermen to put their hands on gear that is being tested in preparation for an expected future ban on the fixed vertical ropes that lobstermen have historically strung between their traps on the seafloor and a buoy on the water’s surface used to locate their traps.

By Paul Sylvain

Machias Valley Airport is expected to play center stage for a summer military training exercise involving an MV-22 Osprey, military air traffic controllers, a Marine security detachment, and possibly members of other military branches.

Although still in very early planning stages, Machias Selectboard Vice Chairman Ben Edwards was unable to conceal his excitement over the prospect of seeing the airport play a role in a significant military training operation. 

The exercise is tentatively scheduled for late June or early July.

By Paul Sylvain

Class was in session at the Feb. 20 County Commissioners meeting in Machias, as Sheriff Barry Curtis schooled Commissioner Billy Howard in defense of a letter Curtis wrote last month, outlining a policy of not responding to non-emergent complaints in towns with an active police department.

The undated letter sent out mid-January sparked a few moments of sometimes confused discussion between Howard and Curtis.

Selectboard Approves Hiring Third FT Paramedic

By Paul Sylvain

In recent months, Machias Ambulance Service Chief Ryan Maker has led MAS in a transition from a volunteer ambulance service, staffed by per-diem drivers and techs, to a full-time emergency medical service agency boasting three full-time paramedics.