By Phil Stuart

The 2025 fall school sports season ended over the weekend, and to nobody’s surprise, both Washington Academy and Narraguagus High School won state divisional volleyball championships.

Washington Academy played in a state volleyball championship for the 12th time and eked out a seat-squirming 3-2 win over a top-seeded York Wildcats volleyball team that shattered their hopes of a perfect second perfect season in a row. 

By Nancy Beal

Two dozen lobster fishermen, their wives, and town officials gathered in the Beals town office meeting room Oct. 30 and, after an hour of discussion, unanimously approved a 28-page regulation titled Coastal Waters Aquaculture Ordinance (please see the Oct. 29 Machias Valley News Observer for a description of the contents).

by Jonathan Reisman

I’m writing this as Halloween approaches and the election is less than a week away. I know how I’m voting, but I can’t say I have a lot of confidence in any poll or partisan analysis, including my own. I expect turnout and sharp differences between the Congressional Districts to determine the statewide outcome. 

By Paul Sylvain

The Machiasport Selectboard on Oct. 27 voted 2-0, with one member recusing herself from the vote, to transfer $3,000 from the town’s Liberty Hall account to help pay an architect for services that could lead to a $50,000 preservation grant for the historic building.

By Paul Sylvain 

Representatives from Manomet Conservation Services, of Plymouth, Massachusetts, and Portland-based Gulf of Maine Research Institute (GMRI), at the urging of Sunrise County Economic Council’s Tora Johnson, met with the Machiasport Selectboard on Oct. 27, to discuss possible research and mapping of the town’s clam flats. 

While the reaction to the proposal was mixed on the three-member selectboard, the town’s shellfish conservation committee chairman was openly skeptical of what such a project would actually accomplish.

By Nancy Beal

At their Nov. 5 meeting, Jonesport selectmen, after addressing several other business items, turned their attention to the current financial crisis facing Washington County and their town’s share of fiscal responsibility for it.

By Paul Sylvain

So, what’s it like being the harbor master for a commercial fishing village in Washington County? Look no further than Machiasport Harbor Master David Cale’s monthly report at the Oct. 27 selectboard meeting.

by Jonathan Reisman

Forty-one falls ago, my late wife Ern and I moved to Washington County when the University of Maine at Machias offered me a job. The move to Maine was a dream come true for both of us. We bought an unfinished house on Cathance Lake, raised two boys, and pursued our careers and dreams. Ern held a number of social service jobs, culminating in being the human resources VP for Down East Community Hospital. I never expected to leave. The election results shattered that conviction. 

By Paul Sylvain

With less than six weeks remaining before the start of the county’s new fiscal year, and frustrated by the lack of forward movement on a 2026 spending package by the budget advisory committee (BAC), Washington County Commissioner Chairman David Burns on Nov. 13 proposed staffing cuts, totaling some $900,000. 

That would buy the county about two months of salaries and operational expenses. At current  staffing levels, the county’s payroll is about $200,000 every two weeks.

By Paul Sylvain

County Commissioners Courtney Hammond, Billy Howard, and Chairman David Burns rebuffed a proposal by Whiting resident Colleen Brown asking for the board to initiate a forensic audit of the county’s finances going back to 2020. 

By Seth Duston

On Nov. 8, the Narraguagus American Legion Post #8 in Cherryfield hosted a potluck dinner and Veterans Day event to honor all veterans. The event was highlighted by several guest speakers, including the Maine American Legion 1st Vice Commander Joe Michaud, accompanied by Lou Marin, department historian. In addition, a special guest speaker in attendance was Jeongyeol (Jeremy) Kwak, deputy consul general of the Republic of Korea (South Korea) in Boston, who was there to honor the memory of Corporal Oscar Sprague.

By Nancy Beal

Graham Platner, the 41-year-old Sullivan oyster farmer and upstart Democrat who seeks to unseat U.S. Senator Susan Collins a year from now, spoke with members of the Washington County Democratic Committee Nov. 2 by video from Southern Maine. He briefly described his schooling and four tours in the military and, while answering questions, revealed how his life to date informed his political thinking.

By Will Tuell

When the 40-plus children in the Machias area “Roots” homeschool co-op gathered to perform their rendition of the Sergei Prokofiev classic “Peter and the Wolf” and a gameshow skit showcasing the merits of the thirteen colonies that fought the American Revolution, the last thing anyone expected was to see Larrabee Baptist Church in Machiasport packed to the rafters on a crisp early November Friday night. 

By Paul Sylvain

The calendar may show that Christmas is still about a month away, but for the faithful who call Sawyer Memorial Congregational Church in Jonesport their spiritual home, Christmas arrived a bit early this year, and the gifts were not delivered from a sleigh driven by a jolly old man in a red suit with long white hair and beard.

Instead, Santa recruited a crew of elves from Alabama, and on Nov. 22, these merry elves from the Yellowhammer State delivered a brand new church steeple in four pieces on a flatbed truck. 

By Will Tuell

Legislation ending the partial federal government shutdown two weeks ago included approximately $1.5 million in Congressionally Directed Spending for Washington County, U.S. Senator Susan Collins said in a press release. 

The Marshfield Volunteer Fire Department will receive $756,000 towards the construction of a fire station, Collins said, noting that the funding is part of a larger, $12 million package for fire station construction and emergency services across the state. 

By Nancy Beal

Jonesport’s share of the county debt, which has commanded so much ink and attention lately, is $375,088. Last week, the town’s selectboard convened an informational meeting to explain to townspeople how they could save money by paying the town's full share now and, at the same time, help the county by contributing to an $8 million short-term loan known as a tax anticipation note (TAN) due by the end of the year.

By Will Tuell

If Machias Christian Fellowship Pastor Aaron Dudley and Arise Addiction Recovery Executive Director Paul Trovarello had met for coffee and a meal in the Elm Street School gymnasium on a cold November Saturday night ten years ago, the police might well have hauled them off for trespassing. Yet on Saturday, Nov. 15, the two — joined by upwards of 300 of their closest friends — packed into that gym to celebrate the tenth anniversary of Arise, the faith-based recovery program born from a simple conversation all those years ago.