Search for a Permanent Town Manager Begins

By Paul Sylvain

In what visibly and emotionally was a difficult but necessary meeting for the Machias selectboard on Sept. 11, the five-member panel voted unanimously to appoint Christina Therrien interim town manager to temporarily fill the void left by the sudden passing of Bill Kitchen on Sept. 9.

By Paul Sylvain

Machias residents will meet at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 25, at the Machias Memorial High School gym to act on a 55-article annual town meeting warrant, fueled by a sharp spike in discretionary or non-essential spending. 

Earlier this year Machias joined a small but growing list of towns that have moved their annual town meeting dates from June and July to late in the first quarter of the new fiscal year. The reason is simple. 

by Jonathan Reisman

Maine’s Climate Council, co-chaired by Office of Policy Innovation and the Future Director Hannah Pingree and Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Melanie Loyzim is updating “Maine Won’t Wait”, Maine’s climate action plan. The plan seeks to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (principally from transportation), phase out fossil fuels, encourage solar and wind, promote (undefined) “equity,” and have at least 30% of Maine publicly owned and controlled for conservation and carbon sequestration.

Weekly rehearsals for the fall season of Quoddy Voices, a community chorus led by Gene Nichols with accompanist Jane Lanctot, will begin Wednesday, Sept. 25, 6-8 p.m., at Eastport Arts Center. Performances are scheduled for Dec. 7 and 8. The group welcomes new singers, with no audition required. 

By Paul Sylvain

Residents in Machias and neighboring communities awoke Tuesday morning to the tragic news of the sudden passing of the Shiretown’s energetic and much loved Town Manager Bill Kitchen. 

Kitchen, who passed away sometime Monday, Sept. 9,  will be remembered for his tireless devotion and efforts to help promote and grow the town that he so clearly loved. He was Machias’ biggest cheerleader and will be sorely missed.

By Paul Sylvain

To be, or not to be — an “official” town road, that is — is the question Machiasport town officials finally settled a week after the Cutler selectboard asked permission to use an Eastside road for access to Cutler’s clam flats in Holmes Bay.

By Wayne Smith

Sept. 11, 2001, was a tragic day in the United States that nobody will ever forget. Everybody knew where they were when America was crippled after two planes crashed through the Twin Towers in New York, another plane went into the Pentagon, and some brave Americans overpowered terrorists to crash a third plane into a Pennsylvania field before even more lives could be taken. 

by Jonathan Reisman

2024

The ongoing 2024 Federal and Maine state elections are stressing me out because the stakes are high and the country is polarized (not the best state for thoughtful and careful listening, analysis, and voting/decision-making). Much of the media, in my opinion, should not be trusted, other than to be stenographers for Democratic talking points. Everyone has an axe to grind, but some are less than open about what type of axe they are carrying. Mostly they seem to be carrying water for Kamala Harris and the Democrats. 

Eastport Arts Center’s “Stories We Tell” Festival, a collaboration with the Sipayik Museum and The Quoddy Tides, continues with The Malaga Ship: A Story of Maine and the Middle Passage, a performance by award-winning and world-renowned storyteller Antonio Rocha, on Saturday, Sept. 14, at 7 p.m. at Eastport Arts Center.

Using his body and tenor voice, Antonio sings, narrates, and moves through this poetically toned and heart-wrenching historical story. The story is partially told from the ship's point of view.   

By Paul Sylvain

What began at the Aug. 26 Machiasport selectboard’s meeting as a simple appointment to fill a planning board vacancy, melted into a pointed discussion about a model aquaculture ordinance reintroduced by Protect Maine’s Fishing Heritage at the selectboard’s July 22 meeting. 

Although not specifically on the selectboard’s August meeting agenda, one thing quickly became evident. The planning board and other town officials want no part of the model ordinance offered last month by Protect Maine’s Fishing Heritage.

By Paul Sylvain

Cutler Selectman David Glidden met with the Machiasport selectboard on Aug. 26 hoping to resolve a longstanding clam flat access issue affecting the livelihoods of a handful of Cutler clam diggers. However, the plan he suggested hit an unexpected snag almost as soon as he finished his pitch.

As Glidden explained at the meeting, “We have an issue in the town of Cutler with accessing Holmes Bay.” He described it as “a long, dragged-out issue,” that Cutler has attempted to remedy several times without success. 

by Jonathan Reisman

Downeast Community Partners (DCP), the community action program (CAP) that serves Hancock and Washington counties, received a $20,000. gift from Versant Power, recently, for The Heating And Warmth (THAW) fund.

“The THAW fund has a tremendous impact in our community and helps families when they need it most,” said Versant President John Flynn. “Versant Power is happy to contribute to the fund and allow Downeast Community Partners to keep more homes warm this winter.”

By Paul Sylvain

Leave it to West Branch Farms to further “branch” out, if you will, and venture into the world of food trucks. We’re not talking just any old, ordinary food wagon, but one offering West Branch Farms’ take on a south-of-the-border food staple. Yes, we’re talking burritos.

By Paul Sylvain

The passage of time often blurs certain events in our lifetime. However, there are those singular events that are so deeply seared in one’s memory that, decades later, even the smallest of details are recalled as sharply as if they had occurred yesterday. This article is about one of those events..

By Pamela J. Nickerson 

If Hatchery Manager Mitchell Monini is successful then, he chuckles, he will “be out of a job.” Monini is “rearing fish in as natural a habitat as possible to mimic early life stages” along the river in East Machias at the former Bangor Hydro building.  Water from the East Machias River is pumped into an ultraviolet sterilization filter, installed last year following a devastating virus at the Downeast Salmon Federation’s hatchery; all fish at the hatchery had to be destroyed at the time.

MOTHERS Art & Antique Gallery is pleased to share that their next exhibition, ‘CALIFLORA: All Roads Lead to Downeast’ featuring works on paper by Irene Imfeld, John Watson, Clare Olivares, and Whitney Vosburgh, will open on Sunday, Sept. 1, from 4-6 p.m., and will be up until Sept. 21. 

By Nancy Beal

When Beals Elementary School students return to classes next week, they will soon welcome visiting author and award-winning illustrator Jamie Hogan, whose mission will be to facilitate students in creating panels for their story walk.

By Paul Sylvain

“If you don’t say ‘wild’, it’s just another festival.”

That’s according to Machias Town Manager Bill Kitchen who made that statement as a reminder to the town’s selectboard at the close of its Aug. 14 meeting. And indeed, last weekend’s 47th annual edition of the Machias Wild Blueberry Festival proved wild in a good way.

By Paul Sylvain

An Aug. 8 ruling issued by Maine Business & Consumer Court Judge Michael A. Duddy permanently ended all appeals by Jeanne Tennison involving the Machias Planning Board’s June 7, 2023, approval of a building permit for 12 seasonal transient bunkhouses at 19 Canal Street.

By Paul Sylvain

As the final notes of “Blueberry Blues” drifted into memory during Saturday night’s closing performance of this year’s Machias Wild Blueberry Festival musical, the production’s director, Gene Nichols, also noted it was the end of an era for the show band’s drummer, Bill Eckart.

The extraordinary life of this country’s 32nd president will be explored in a free presentation on the history made by Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the music he loved, on Sunday, Aug. 25, at 2 p.m., at Eastport Arts Center. The program will be brought to Eastport for this one-time-only performance by the educational services staff of Roosevelt Campobello International Park.