by Natalie Boomer

The Whitneyville Public Library has decided to host another public supper on Saturday, Oct. 3, after a successful supper on Sept. 4.

by Dan Ryan

I was lucky enough to spend four years in the U.S. Navy, from, 1977-81.  Two of those years were spent at the Cutler Navy Base, and last month I was lucky enough to visit Machias and Cutler again after 40 years away.

by Natalie Boomer

For the past seven years, Downeast Community Partners has hosted a tennis round robin to raise money for the At Home program, a nonprofit that provides services to the elderly to help them continue living in their own homes.

“Every year the At Home program has a tennis round-robin at the Blue Hill Country Club. This year COVID rained on our parade and we could not have it,” said Rose Honders, Director of At Home elder services at Downeast Community Partners.

Mark your calendars for the next public supper that will be held on October 3 at 5 p.m. at the Hillgrove Community Building in Whitneyville.  It will be a New England boiled dinner with corned beef and ham, rolls, biscuits, homemade cakes and pies. We still have limited eat-in seating of 50 people, but you can also call to reserve a takeout dinner by calling the library at 255-8077 Monday to Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.  Reservations for takeout dinners will be taken until Friday, Oct. 2 at 4 p.m.

by Hazel Stark

by Sarah Craighead Dedmon

Five members of the Washington County legislative delegation have requested an independent investigation into allegations of racism at Washington Academy (WA), citing a report of racial verbal attacks and threats toward minorities, including a noose left in one teacher’s classroom.

by Natalie Boomer

The second annual 2020 Bad Little Trail Run is set to take place on Sunday, October 4.

The Downeast Coastal Conservancy and the Bold Coast Runners will be hosting these 2.5 and seven-mile races through the Machias River Preserve. Racers will run the Sunrise Trail and cross the Machias River on the Old Railroad Bridge, beginning and ending in Whitneyville.

The Passamaquoddy meaning for Machias is bad little falls in reference to the falls on the Machias River which gives this race its name.  

Everyone has a story about doing the COVID pivot. Highly improvisational, the COVID pivot is fueled by equal parts desperation and hope, thrown together with anything from a sledgehammer to a feather duster. The purpose of the “pivot” is to solve a problem you didn’t have prior to the pandemic.

by Joseph Horn

by Nancy Beal

The mini-bridge on the Kelley Point Road over Stillman Dyer Brook absorbed selectmen’s attention at their August 26 meeting. The previous week, while opening bids on the placing of a small bridge over the stream that they fear is in danger of washing out the road if either of two beaver dams upstream should fail, Selectmen Dwight Alley and Harry Fish realized that the combined proceeds of a small streams grant ($68,000) and the town’s appropriation ($20,000) was not enough to fund the project.

by Natalie Boomer

The Ark Animal Shelter in Cherryfield will be hosting its annual Fall ‘20 Dog Day on Saturday, Sept. 26.

“The event is completely by donation, and they are highly appreciated. This event is for everyone including people with no pets, looking to adopt, as well as owners with well-behaved furbabies. This will be an outside event on a huge piece of land so furbabies can roam free, unleashed if well-behaved,” said Vanessa Coolen of the Ark Animal Shelter. “All proceeds benefit the Ark Animal Shelter!”

by Sarah Craighead Dedmon

As a way of giving back to a profession that helped him, Peter Napoli’s restaurants celebrate big occasions with donations to local schools. Last week Napoli, his son Sal Napoli, Machias McDonald’s General Manager Kim Godfrey and other executives presented Rose M. Gaffney Elementary School with a check for $1,000 to mark the stores reopening after extensive remodeling. Napoli said it’s his family’s way of honoring one special teacher who made a difference for him.

After 11 weeks of total shutdown due to COVID-19 and another 12 weeks of curbside service to provide a safe alternative for library borrowing during the pandemic, Porter Memorial Library reopened to the public on August 27.

Pot roast with mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, carrots, cucumber salad, Janet's rolls and biscuits, homemade pies and cake will be on the menu for our September 5th public supper that will be held at the Hillgrove Community Building in Whitneyville. The supper begins at 5 p.m.  

Following COVID-19 rules and regulations, we still can only seat 50 people but takeout is also available by reservation. To reserve your takeout you can call the library at 255-8077 Monday to Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Reservations for takeout will be taken until Friday, Sept. 4 at 4 p.m.

by Sarah Craighead Dedmon

Incumbent Machias Selectwoman Paula Johnson-Rolfe this weekend declared herself as a write-in candidate for the Machias selectboard. Municipal ballots will be cast Tuesday, Sept. 1, in advance of the annual Machias Town Meeting set for Wednesday, Sept. 2. 

Johnson-Rolfe initially declined to run for reelection but explained her change of heart with a public statement on social media.

by Nancy Beal

by Sarah Craighead Dedmon

Les Haynes is the only person who completed candidacy paperwork in time to be on the Machias ballot for municipal elections, to be held next week on Tuesday, Sept. 1. Two seats on the five-person board will be vacated by selectwoman Paula Johnson-Rolfe and selectboard vice chairman Bill Kitchen. Each will have served one term.

by T.J. Holmes

I received a lobster license at age eight for Christmas from my grandparents, Jeff and Pam Libby. Our boat is called The Depth Star, it’s about 19 ft. long. I usually like to go but sometimes I’m tired.

Papa lets me use one of his moorings. A mooring is a place we put our boat when we’re done hauling for the day.

When I first started I had to get my traps and boat ready and also buy bait.

Each trap has a buoy that floats, mine are blue with a pink spindle. It was Mom’s color when she had traps.

Six months ago, things looked bleak for the Democrats and the Left in America. The economy was humming, unemployment was at historic lows for whites, Blacks, Hispanics. Asians, men, women and every color in the LGBTQ rainbow flag. Consumer confidence was high and rising. Voter perception of economic performance and prospects is and has been the best predictor of whether the party in the White House is returned to power.

by Wayne Smith

by Sarah Craighead Dedmon

The town of Machias stands to save more than $16,000 per year on its electric bills if it signs an agreement with a company that proposes building a solar array on a capped landfill located off of Broadway.

Andrew LaVogue of Revision Energy said the town’s average $104,000 in annual electricity consumption would cost approximately $88,000 under the program. Asked about risks for the town by board chairman Joshua Rolfe, LaVogue said the only risk would be if the town dramatically reduced its energy consumption.

by Nancy Beal

The boards of the three schools that make up Union 103—Jonesport-Beals High School, Jonesport and Beals Elementary Schools—met August 12 in the high school gymnasium, masked and socially distanced, to tackle the questions facing school boards all across the country: when to open and how. All board members were present, as were Superintendent Lewis Collins, the J-BHS and BES principals, special education director, newly installed maintenance director John Church, and approximately a dozen members of the public, many of whom were teachers.