By Joseph Horn

By Nancy Beal 

Boyde Crowley, chief of the Jonesport Volunteer Fire Department, attended the Nov. 15 selectmen’s meeting seeking advice. The JVFD’s roster is getting seriously low, he said. Although there have been no major fires in recent months, he knows one will happen eventually and is concerned about his department having the manpower to put it out. Beals also contracts with JVFD for fire protection, so both towns would be impacted. 

By Phil Stuart

With fall sports in the record books, it is time for the sport everybody looks most forward to.  High school basketball is the king of sports in Maine for both boys and girls. Basketball is the most talked about sport year-round by the Monday morning experts over coffee at their favorite local hangout.

In a few short weeks, the high school varsity games will begin, and before that, junior high games will start.  This year, there are a lot of new things happening with rule changes, coaches, and officials. 

By Daisy Ratzlaff/ University of Maine Cooperative Extension Communications Professional    

Members of the University of Maine Cooperative Extension Cobscook Currents 4-H Club recently stepped in and helped a local teacher and her husband with their fall harvest. The group of dedicated 4-H youth picked up 500 pine cones and harvested the last batch of the carrots from their property in Edmunds. As a token of appreciation, the students were rewarded with delicious homemade pumpkin chocolate chip cookies.

By Will Tuell

Whether it was an Oreo cookie ice-cream cake, a batch of homemade donuts, or any one of a couple dozen desserts, area residents flocked to the annual Arise Addiction Recovery supper and dessert auction recently and supported the local faith-based addiction recovery center in a big way. 

Gardner Blames State Lawmakers for Creating, Ignoring Fiscal ‘Tidal Wave’

By Paul Sylvain

The Washington County Budget Committee completed its work on the draft 2024 budget on Nov. 9, just hours before the county commissioners’ regular monthly meeting. The county’s fiscal year begins Jan. 1. The final budget will be formally delivered to the commissioners at their Dec. 14 meeting.

by Nancy Beal

How else should an avid hiker mark the 70th year of her life but by walking alone a mile and a half up Cadillac Mountain, especially since she had already done so 10 years prior when turning 60? The answer is found with an enthusiastic, spry-at-70 Nancy Bell, who, with her husband Joe and shelter pets, moved to Beals Island eight years ago.

By Paul Sylvain

With a list that included PFAS testing at the Marion Transfer Station, a shellfish management plan review, a dedicated unorganized territories website launch, and plans for expanding broadband access in rural parts of the county, Washington County Unorganized Territories Supervisor Dean Preston had no shortage of topics to brief county commissioners on at the commissioners’ Nov. 9 meeting.

By the Washington Academy Tri-M Music Honors Society       

Washington Academy’s Tri-M Music Honor Society’s mission is to recognize student musicians and provide leadership opportunities for them through music-based service projects in our community.

One of our service project ideas this year is to highlight local musicians who have excelled in bringing music to our Downeast communities. And with this, our Tri-M Lifetime Musician Award has been born.

by Wayne Smith

It was an electrifying night of volleyball at Ellsworth High School on Oct. 30 as the Narraguagus Lady Knights won the Class C State Volleyball Championship, the first volleyball championship in school history, beating Calais in three straight sets. 

By Will Tuell

The University of Maine at Machias and Maine Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are investigating a reported case of tuberculosis on campus, the university said Oct. 31. Publicist Jackie Leonard stressed in a follow-up inquiry from The Machias Valley News Observer Nov. 1 that the case was isolated at this point in time and that all who may have come in contact with the patient have been notified. 

By Paul Sylvain

Toby Lamb and business partner Chris Marley met briefly with the Machias Planning Board on Nov. 1 to get approval for a four-foot by eight-foot--or 32-square-foot--concrete pad for an outdoor freezer at the former Bluebird Ranch Family Restaurant at 78 Main St.

“Mostly, we’re just doing renovations inside,” explained Lamb. “We had not planned on changing the outside footprint, although we would like to pour a four-by-eight pad to put a freezer on right outside where the freezers are now. Basically, it’s right next to those.”

By Phil Stuart

In nine years as varsity volleyball coach at Washington Academy, Corey Schwinn has built a powerhouse, and they aren’t going away anytime soon.   After winning the Class C title a year ago with ease, losing only two sets the entire season, the Raiders needed more of a challenge:  they simply outgrew Class C and decided to move up despite graduating 12 seniors.

By Hazel Stark

By Paul Sylvain

The Machias selectboard’s marijuana ordinance subcommittee -- which, in fact, is the entire selectboard -- held its inaugural meeting to begin the process of crafting a new ordinance Oct. 25. However, the meeting was not without drama. 

By Will Tuell

Julianne van Norden has served as the Children’s Librarian at Porter Memorial Library in Machias since 2021, and one thing is apparent from an Oct. 16 interview with the former educator who spent nineteen years working with children before volunteering at the library -- she has a passion for literacy that is infectious. 

Town Officials Could Thwart Developer’s New Plans for Big Building

By Paul Sylvain

Based on a recommendation from the Maine Department of Environmental Protection’s Bureau of Land Resources, the Machias Planning Board on Oct. 23 unanimously voted to rescind its Sept. 20 provisional approval of a multi-unit townhouse-style apartment project at 53 Fremont St.

To the Editor:

On Oct. 16, 2023, the Washington County Budget Committee held a public hearing on the 2024 county budget proposal. After considering the information presented at the meeting, Maine Fraternal Order of Police Lodge #006, representing full-time patrol deputies for the Washington County Sheriff’s Office, is releasing the following statement regarding the proposed Sheriff’s Office line item increase. 

by Phil Stuart

The older you get the more people you know pass on, and the list just seems to keep growing.  It is especially difficult when you see somebody leave this earth thirty years too soon like Andy Foss.

Andy was a Lubec native who lost his father at a young age, and his mother had to bring him up along with two older sisters.  I remember Andy as a basketball and baseball player at Lubec High School in the mid eighties.  He was one of the school’s best 3-sport athletes playing soccer, baseball, and basketball.

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Veteran's Day Special Section 2023! 

November 8th issue.

1) Banners $100.00 sample.

By Will Tuell

Even before retired State Trooper Andy Foss left this world Oct. 18, Downeasters from Steuben to Foss’s native Lubec rallied behind the career law enforcement officer and his family. Foss, who retired from the State Police in January after decades in law enforcement, had gone through a heroic battle with cancer several years ago only to learn recently that he had an aggressive, inoperable brain tumor that would ultimately take his life.