1. Emotions Boil Over as Fishermen, Jasper Head HOA, Selectboard Spar Over Pettegrow Point Road Turnaround

    Local Businessman, Jeff Huntley, Floats Possible Solution

    By Paul Sylvain

    If words were punches, there would have been a lot of black eyes in Machiasport, following a fiery discussion on Jan. 27 between fishermen, members of the Jasper Head Homeowners Association (HOA), and the town’s selectboard about a proposed truck turnaround on Pettegrow Point Road.

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  2. Dive Team Recovers One of Two Scallopers Who Perished in F/V Sudden Impact Sinking

    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. 

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  3. Alvin Hall, Legendary Local Musician, Dead at 95

    By Will Tuell

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  4. New Scoreboard, Banner Serve as Timeless Memorials to ‘Our Miss Jenny’ at FOB

    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

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  5. Carter and Tango Newest K9 Team at Washington County Sheriff’s Office

    By Paul Sylvain

    The Washington County Sheriff's Office has a new “Deputy Dog” with the arrival of K9 Tango and his handler, Cpl. Matt Carter.

    Tango is an 18-month-old German Shepherd who began his training on drug and evidence detection, in addition to tracking, on Jan. 28 with Cpl Carter. 

    “We are expecting big things from this team and they are a great addition to the agency,” the Sheriff’s office said in a post on its Facebook page. “We consider ourselves pretty fortunate, as we have several MCJA trainers.”

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  6. Beals Board Learns Marina Ineligible for FEMA Aid

    By Nancy Beal

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  7. Hear Ye, Hear Ye

    I’m headed to Augusta for a Feb. 6 public hearing of some consequence to Washington County, rural Maine, the 2nd Congressional District, and Maine as a whole.

    LD 183, An Act to Cap Publicly Owned Land Area at No More than 50 Percent of Any County, is sponsored by House Minority Leader Billy Bob Faulkingham, R-Winter Harbor, and the entire Washington County delegation. Here’s the summary:

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  8. Iconic Lubec Smokehouse Recognized by National Park Service

    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.

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  9. Machiasport Volunteer Fire Deptartment Chief Calls Staffing Shortage ‘a Serious Situation’

    By Paul Sylvain

    The Machiasport Fire Department, like many small-town Maine fire departments, is struggling to fill its roster of volunteer firefighters to adequately attack a blaze when one occurs in the community. As the department’s chief, David Neilsen, told the town’s selectboard on Jan. 27, “We need help really bad.”

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  10. From Dawn to Dusk, a Day in the Life of a Machiasport Scallop Fisherman Aboard F/V Greyhound

    By Paul Sylvain

    Most people enjoying a plate full of fresh Maine scallops have no clue about how they make it from the depths of the Gulf of Maine to their dinner plates at home or at a fine-dining restaurant. And if they spent just one frigid January day on the water dragging the ocean floor for their dinner, they might understand why those yummy white ocean meats can cost as much as $30 a pound.

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  11. Police Chief Predicts MPD will be ‘Unaffected’ by Curtailment of Services by the Sheriff’s Dept.

    By Paul Sylvain

    Sleep tight, Machias. Your police department has you covered.

    That’s despite a reduction in local coverage outlined in a letter sent to municipal police departments in Machias and four other towns in mid-January by Washington County Sheriff Barry Curtis. 

    “Over the past decade, we … have worked very hard to help fill in gaps in your police department's schedule, as we have all faced challenges with filling rosters and budget issues over that time period,” Curtis wrote in the undated letter. 

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  12. Bad Little Falls Summer Concerts to Return as ‘The Kitchen Concert Series’, and Could be Expanded

    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.

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  13. Family Seeks Closure as Recovery Efforts Resume in Moose Cove for Missing Scallopers

    Benefit Supper, Chinese Auction Planned to Aid Family

    By Paul Sylvain

    The family and friends of two commercial fishermen from South Addison who are believed to have lost their lives when their 34-foot scallop dragger, F/V Sudden Impact, sank after encountering rough seas on Jan. 18, continue to grieve and pray that divers will bring their loved ones home for closure.

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  14. Three Arrested in Baileyville Drug Trafficking Bust

    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.

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  15. Semiquincentennial

    by Jonathan Reisman

    That mouthful refers to America’s upcoming 250th anniversary, now less than 18 months away. I have a feeling that Donald Trump’s TV and showman experience is going to play a big part in what I hope is a huge, happy party. I think there is a lot of work and planning to do for that to happen.

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  16. Bulldog Bulletin

    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. 

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  17. EAC Offering 8-Week Acting Course

    Award-winning Casting Director and Producer Laura Stanczyk will offer ‘Scene Study for Beginning Actors,’ for students aged 18 and up, from 6 to 8:30 p.m. Tuesdays, Feb. 4 thru March 25, at Eastport Arts Center. The course will offer an opportunity for beginning and established actors to develop skills specifically in relation to written material, including plays, films and episodics. 

    “This is not improvisation, relaxation, or a vocal production class,” noted Stanczyk. “This is scene study.”

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  18. Jazz Presentation to Feature Father-Son Duo

    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.

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  19. Bill to Cap Publicly Owned Land Gets Feb. 6 Hearing

    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:

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  20. Trump sworn in as 47th President

    Donald Trump is sworn in as the 47th US President in the US Capitol Rotunda in Washington, DC, on January 20, 2025. (Photo by SAUL LOEB / POOL / AFP) (Photo by SAUL LOEB/POOL/AFP via Getty Images, licensed to the Calais Advertiser, Inc.)

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  21. Lost at Sea: Coast Guard Calls Off Search for Missing Scallopers

    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. 

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  22. Community Rallies for Toddler Battling Leukemia, Raises $50,000+ in Days

    By Will Tuell

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  23. Manaford’s — Jonesport’s Only Full-Service Grocery Store — to Close for Good Jan. 31

    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.” 

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  24. Washington County Sheriff Cuts Assistance to Machias, Other Rural PDs

    By Paul Sylvain

    In the latest wrinkle involving law enforcement services provided by the Washington County Sheriff’s Office, Sheriff Barry Curtis has notified Machias Police Chief Keith Mercier and other municipal police departments around the county that the sheriff’s office “will no longer be able to provide the same level of assistance as in the past.”

    The undated letter tops new business to be discussed by the Machias Selectboard and Chief Mercier at the selectboard’s Jan. 22 meeting.

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  25. Jonesport Working Waterfront Delayed as DEP Requests ‘More Info’

    By Nancy Beal

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  26. Sheriffs, Lawmakers Meet Over Breakfast to Discuss Rural Counties’ Dwindling Resources

    By Paul Sylvain

    Just because parts of Maine are considered “rural” and “sparsely populated” doesn’t mean there’s any lesser need for a strong law enforcement presence in places that fit those descriptions, like Washington County.

    The county’s legislative delegation heard that message loud and early last week at a legislative breakfast sponsored by the Maine Sheriff’s Association. Among those traveling to Augusta for the 7 a.m. gathering were Washington County Sheriff Barry Curtis and Chief Deputy Mike Crabtree.

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  27. Opening Moves: Public Advocate, Equity Schadenfreude

    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. 

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  28. Washington Academy Students Launch Indie Rock Band

    Washington Academy is excited to share campus news in the Raider Report. We hope you join us monthly to read and celebrate Raider students, staff, and faculty achievements. Students have set a vibrant tone for the year, and our first Raider Report features the musically talented Georgia Marsceill, ’26. Georgia shares her recent experience joining a WA indie rock band. 

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  29. Maine DMR Nixes Lobster Size Limit Increase as Pressure from Commercial Fishermen Mounts

    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. 

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  30. County Commissioner Howard Pushes to Catch up on 4 Years of Back Audits

    By Paul Sylvain

    In his first official meeting as one of two newly elected Washington County commissioners, Billy Howard wasted little time, on Jan. 9, identifying his top priority for the upcoming year.

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  31. Sen. Moore Submits Bill to Restore Maine State Police Presence in Washington County

    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.

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  32. Machias Officials Waver on Sept. Annual Town Meeting, Could Return to June Date

    By Paul Sylvain

    Scarcely a week into the new year, and Machias town officials are already busy preparing for the upcoming budget season and a possible return to a June annual town meeting schedule, after trying a September meeting with mixed results last year.

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  33. Machias Science Students to Undertake River Study

    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.

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  34. Nate Bean Becomes Newest Deputy with the WCSO

    By Paul Sylvain

    Washington County Sheriff Barry Curtis recently welcomed his department’s newest deputy, Nate Bean, to the Patrol Division. 

    “While he might be new to the Washington County Sheriff’s Office (WCSO), Deputy Bean is no stranger to law enforcement,” the Washington County Sheriff’s Office said in a social media post last week. “Deputy Bean served the citizens of Franklin County Maine for 27 years as a Deputy with the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office. He retired from Franklin County this past December.”

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  35. January Alarms

    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.

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  36. Spotlight on Four Cutler Wildcat Basketball Players

    By Doss Dennison

    Haleigh Bryant — 

    Haleigh is an 11-year-old sixth grader who attends Whiting Village School. She has only participated in one team sport so far — basketball — and she loves it. 

    Haleigh wears jersey #12 and scored 14 points once as a peewee player. She enjoys roller skating, especially at the skate park in Lubec. Haleigh has one younger sister, her favorite food is baked potato soup, and her favorite subject in school is spelling. 

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  37. The Last Dance: Longtime Refs Take the Court One More Time

    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. 

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  38. New Era Dawns as Burns, Howard Sworn in as First New County Commissioners in 12 Years

    By Paul Sylvain

    The Washington County commissioners have a new look for the first time in a dozen years, following the swearing-in of District 1 Commissioner Billy Howard and District 2 Commissioner David C Burns at a brief ceremony at the commissioners’ meeting room on Jan. 2. 

    Looking on was District 3 Commissioner John B. Crowley, whose seat was not up for reelection in 2024. 

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  39. Snowmageddon: Remembering the Winter of 2014-15 a Decade Later

    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. 

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  40. Rep. Tuell Outlines Bills He’s Submitted for Jan. 8th Start of the 132nd Legislature

    By Paul Sylvain 

    (This is the first in a series of articles spotlighting legislative bills being submitted by the Washington County Legislative Delegation.)

    In the days leading up to the Jan. 8 start of the 132nd Legislature, District 10 Rep. Will Tuell, R-East Machias, has provided a preview of bills he’s already submitted or plans to enter by the Jan. 10 filing deadline for proposed legislation.

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  41. A Year After Historic Floods, Jonesport Struggling with Disaster Aid

    Selectmen Make Offer on Dow Building, State Rejects 2nd Liquor Licensee in Town

    By Nancy Beal

    Jonesport selectmen Harry Fish and Denise Cilley met Jan. 2 and, although it was not on the agenda, difficulty accessing disaster aid took up much of the public part of the meeting. 

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  42. First Baby of the New Year Arrives at DECH

     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”!

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  43. New Marine Patrol Officer to Serve in Milbridge

    Zachery Allen was sworn in as a Marine Patrol Officer (MPO) by Department of Marine Resources Commissioner Patrick Keliher Dec. 9 in Augusta. MPO Allen has been assigned to the Milbridge patrol in Washington County and previously served as a Hancock County deputy sheriff, a position he held since 2017. 

    Zach holds a bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice from Husson University and is currently working on his master’s degree. Zach is also a 2018 graduate of the Maine Criminal Justice Academy’s Basic Law Enforcement Training Program. 

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  44. State Fire Marshal’s Office Rules Cause of New Year’s Eve Bluebird Fire ‘Undetermined’

    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.

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  45. Pre-Inaugural Sturm Und Drang

    by Jonathan Reisman

    The events in New Orleans, Las Vegas, and the Swamp have quickly turned post-election optimism and confidence to pre-inaugural Sturm Und Drang fear, uncertainty, and turmoil. I am, and have been certain, Joe Biden was never “sharp as a tack” or “in charge,” despite having been told that repeatedly over the last four years. A wide swath of the left and the media chose to ignore and cover up Biden’s decline.

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