By Jayna Smith

For the first time in years, July saw more Americans entering Canada by car than Canadians returning the favor. Statistics Canada reports that 1.8 million Americans crossed into Canada by vehicle during the peak summer travel month, surpassing the 1.7 million Canadian car trips south of the border.

This summer, Better Milbridge is honoring the memory of longtime fisherman Alton Wallace with a school supplies drive to benefit area students and teachers.

Wallace, who died in a tragic accident at sea this spring, was known throughout the community for his generosity. Each summer, he used his own money to purchase and donate school supplies to Milbridge Elementary School and other nearby schools, helping students and teachers cover basic needs at a time when budgets are tight.

By Paul Sylvain

Could the former Blueberry Ford at 241 Dublin St./Route 1 become the future home for a new Machias Municipal and Public Safety Complex?

That suggestion was floated by Bold Coast Properties real estate broker Bill Milliken at the Aug. 13 selectboard meeting. While openly receptive to the idea, town officials cautiously agreed that the first step in the process is for department heads to tour the facility, then meet and discuss whether or not investing in that property will meet their department’s and the town’s needs.

By Will Tuell

By Will Tuell

Cooper Flagg is one of the most recognizable names — and faces — in sports today. The Newport, Maine, native, who has taken the basketball world by storm since he exploded onto the scene several years ago, returned to his home state last weekend to host a youth basketball camp at the University of Maine Orono, where his brother, Ace, is set to begin his freshman season as a Black Bear. 

By Doss Dennison

Gene Nichols, who wrote, arranged, produced, and directed “The Pringle Family Re-Enactors,” never ceases to deliver. Year after year, audiences are delightfully entertained by the comical skits and witty song lyrics that Gene and his selected crew of performers provide as part of the Blueberry Festival. This year proved to be no different, as Gene and Company hit another home run production.

By Will Tuell

Depending on the day, anywhere between 150 and 175 children, aged 4 to 12, flocked to Larrabee Baptist Church in Machiasport last week for what has become the pre-eminent Vacation Bible School, or VBS, in Downeast Maine. From a numbers standpoint, the school, organized by several area evangelical churches in the greater Machias area, was a success. 

By Jayna Smith

The Maine Warden Service recovered the bodies of two fishermen in Baileyville after their boat was found drifting unattended on Grand Falls Flowage.

Officials were alerted Friday afternoon, Aug. 8, when an unoccupied boat was spotted drifting with its motor running and fishing lines in the water, but no one on board.

Congressman Jared Golden (D-ME-02) is supporting the Securing Ports and America’s Commerce and Economy (CBP SPACE) Act, which would prevent Customs and Border Protection (CBP) from offloading additional costs and responsibilities onto local ports while threatening closure for noncompliance. 

Eastport Port Authority, which Golden says is already shouldering many costs offloaded by CBP, is one of many ports across the country being strained by the agency’s moves.

Judge Finds ‘Free’ Upland Easement Road Offer Anything but, Instead More Costly, Complex

By Paul Sylvain

The eminent domain portion of a years-long lawsuit against the town of Machiasport by Starboard district property owners Carmine and Christine DeFalco, and their neighbor, Paula and her late husband Michael Aschettino, was decided in favor of the town, in a highly detailed, 17-page ruling issued July 30, by Maine Business and Consumer Court Judge Michael A. Duddy. 

By Paul Sylvain

It’s still anybody’s guess whether the Town of Machiasport will grant Kenny Faas a resident clamming license, even after the select board’s members revisited the question on July 28, and following a non-binding vote three nights later by the town’s “clam committee”, as the shellfish conservation committee is referred to locally.

By Paul Sylvain

What’s in a name? Quite a lot, especially if it’s an award that recognizes public sector employers “who maintain an exemplary safety and health management system, reflecting a strong commitment to workplace safety.”

And it is especially noteworthy when the award’s recipient is entrusted with the assisted living needs and care of up to 30 proud military veterans who served our great nation, oftentimes during periods of conflict, such as during the Vietnam War. Spouses of eligible veterans may also qualify for care at the homes.

Join us from 10 to 11 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 9, for the Walking Tour of Historic Machias Architecture with Porter Memorial Library Board President Allison Paprock. This tour is supported by a Revitalize ME grant from Maine Downtown Center, in partnership with the Maine Historic Preservation Commission.

The library building and Last Page Honesty Bookstore will be closed Aug. 14-16 during our annual book sale. The book sale will be held indoors, at the Machias Savings Bank Community Room, in conjunction with the Machias Wild Blueberry Festival.

A percentage of people seem to be hard-wired or drawn to community service, leadership roles, and events in which they can serve their neighbors and fellow citizens. The Amateur "HAM" Radio Service offers a path to many rewarding public service opportunities.

Amateur Radio is regulated by the Federal Communications Commission, and one of the primary purposes for the existence of the Amateur Radio Service is "the value of the amateur service to the public as a voluntary noncommercial communication service, particularly with respect to providing emergency communications."

By Paul Sylvain

While Machias might serve up one heck of a July 4th parade, and throw a pretty good Blueberry Festival, the western Washington County town of Milbridge is not to be outdone when it comes to celebrating its annual weekend-long Milbridge Days each July. 

Whether you spend only a few hours or most of every day there, you’ll find plenty to see and do. And when you wrap up the entire weekend in clear, sunny, near perfect summer weather, as it was this past weekend, it can’t get much better than that.

By Paul Sylvain

More often than not, the first couple of select board meetings following the annual town meeting are fairly routine. Such was the case at the Machias select board’s July 23 session. While it was light on business, it was long on discussion, where the bulk of the 80-minute meeting centered on the Upper Machias Bay Master Plan.

By Will Tuell

Dr. Zafar Ahmad, who began practicing orthopedics at Down East Community Hospital (DECH) in Machias late last year, may be a long way from Great Britain where he grew up and studied medicine, but the Pakistani native said in an interview last week that he feels right at home in Downeast Maine mending broken bones, replacing hips, and helping patients from the area’s labor-intensive fishing industry get back on their feet. 

by Jonathan Reisman

The increasingly likely prospect that the voters of New York City will select Zohran Mamdani as mayor has left me appalled but not really surprised. Nominating an openly antisemitic communist is at least an honest move by the Democratic Party, and perhaps it follows the sage advice of AOC (top House Democratic fundraiser) and “JC” (Jasmine Crockett) for “authenticity.”

By Paul Sylvain

Washington County Sheriff Barry Curtis and Commissioners David Burns, Billy Howard, and Courtney Hammond are weighing the possibility of entering into a county vehicle leasing arrangement with Enterprise Fleet Management Services in Boston.

If an agreement is reached, it would mean that, instead of replacing aging vehicles by purchasing them through traditional car dealerships, the county would eventually be replacing them at a regular five-year interval through Enterprise.

By Nancy Beal

Nearly 40 Jonesporters turned out last week for a second look at a budget for their elementary school. It was a mob compared to the handful of voters who rejected an earlier version of the budget in a late May meeting at which two of the three school board members were absent. 

Word had spread about the earlier failure, and, as several of the school’s teachers had firmly predicted, the “right” people were there at the second meeting and approved the budget by a vote of 30 to 2.

Selectman Alley Resigns, Cites Work Demand

By Nancy Beal

Jonesport’s special town meeting on ordinance changes, originally set for July 23, has been postponed a week to 6 p.m. Wednesday, July 30, at the Jonesport Elementary School gymnasium.

The change was announced at the selectmen’s July 16 meeting and was prompted by the need to comply with posting and publishing schedules by which residents are informed of events on which they have a vote.