by Will Tuell

Down East Community Hospital CEO Steve Lail confronted a host of issues on the minds of local residents in a recent interview. Amongst them are the hospital’s plans to combine two key departments – Medical Surgeries and Obstetrics – which Lail sees as vital to the hospital’s long-term financial health, the continuing fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the hospital’s ability to address a worker shortage that has plagued the healthcare field. 

by Sarah Craighead Dedmon

Machias voters elected two selectmen and two school board members on election day, Tuesday, June 13. 

Eighty-seven voters visited the polls.

Two candidates submitted papers to run for two Machias selectboard seats vacated by outgoing chairwoman Paula Johnson-Rolfe and veteran selectman Les Haynes.

by Joseph Horn

by Will Tuell

Machias Memorial High School bid adieu to the school’s forty-three graduating seniors on Sunday, June 4, as family, friends, and the school’s faculty watched on from a packed gymnasium for the annual rite of passage. Graduates spoke to the challenges of going to high school in the COVID era, the hands-on education they received while at Machias, and the enduring nature of friendships they have formed as they head into the world as adults. 

by Will Tuell

by Jonathan Reisman

A new, state-of-the-art Senographe Pristina 3D mammography machine is the most recent addition to the Calais Community Hospital radiology department.

by Will Tuell

Months after the retirement of beloved state trooper Andy Foss, Washington County is losing another seasoned law enforcement officer. Jeff Ingemi, who came to Maine to attend one of two conservation law college courses in the nation at the time of his arrival – officially retired from the Maine State Police after twenty-five years of service May 31. 

by Nancy Beal

The members of the Moosabec CSD board that governs Jonesport-Beals High School met last week (May 30). There were four substantive items on the agenda, including a final vote on next year’s budget. A personnel issue to be taken up in executive session was the fourth. On a motion from Renèe Jordan-Chandler, the personnel issue was taken out of order, and the nearly 20 members of the public who had come for the public part of the meeting filed out of the school library and across the hall into a classroom.

by Sarah Craighead Dedmon

Take a book and sit by the old stone fireplace of Porter Memorial Library, and you’re sitting just feet away from the work of the Machias woodsmen who had just stolen a British Royal Navy warship. 

Down East Community Hospital Auxiliary President Pat Hennessey presented CNO John Marshall and OB Nurse Sarah Tustian, RN, with a $1,000 check for the Down Eash Community Hospital Safe Sleep Initiative.  DECH is a Safe Sleep Certified Hospital through the Cribs for Kids National Safe Sleep Hospital Certification Program.

by Hazel Stark

by Nancy Beal

The Beals Elementary School board finalized its budget for the island school early last month, and June 6 has been set as the date for a town meeting to consider it. The total cost after subtracting a balance from previous years is $1,049.233. Taxpayers will shoulder $988,855 of that amount, an increase of $175,759, or 21.6 percent, over last year.

by Sarah Craighead Dedmon

Thanks to a sizable grant, Machias has moved one large step closer to finishing its sewer reconstruction project, which began before the pandemic but stalled due to an increase in the cost of materials.

The grant of $786,440 will not require a matching payment from the town, and adds to more than $2 million in funds already set aside for the project.

by Jonathan Reisman

“Two wrongs don’t make a right”- philosophy proverb 

“Yes they do “- DEI and anti-racism advocates

“DEI stands for Discrimination, Exclusion and Indoctrination”- Ron DeSantis

Down East Community Hospital bids a fond farewell to Anesthesiologist Dr. Leonid Brodsky after 21 years of dedicated service.  In 2002, Dr. Brodsky and his wife Helen came to Machias, and he began his employment at Dr. Massaad’s general surgery practice.  Dr. Brodsky has been a member of the Down East Community Hospital medical staff since 2002, and he came on as a full-time Anesthesiologist at DECH in 2007.

by Sarah Craighead Dedmon

A single-car collision with a Machias utility pole sent one man to the hospital and shut off the power to almost 300 Machias meters on the evening of Sunday, May 28.

Across local social media, shoppers shared photos of empty refrigerated shelves at the Hannaford Machias which lost power due to the accident. Shelves were beginning to be restocked on Monday, May 30.

by Will Tuell

A bill that would have phased out Maine’s income tax in the next five years went down to defeat in the House of Representatives last week, with majority Democrats and breakaway Republicans like Rep. Ken “Bucket” Davis (R-East Machias) delivering the fatal blow on the grounds that such a bill would come at the expense of Maine’s elderly and low-income property taxpayers and cost $214,000,000 the first year alone. 

by Will Tuell

As May comes to a close, many parents, students, and school administrators have ramped up plans to close out the 2022-23 school year with commencement activities. For some, it will be the ending of one academic chapter and the beginning of another, while others will be headed out into the world for the first time. The Machias area is no exception, as both high schools – Machias Memorial High School and Washington Academy in East Machias – and several elementary schools have announced plans for their end-of-year activities. 

by Jonathan Reisman

I submitted the following testimony to the Education and Cultural Affairs committee in support of LD1129, An Act to Enact the Curriculum Transparency Act, and LD 1589, Resolve, directing the Department of Education to Adopt Rules Prohibiting Teachers in Public Schools from engaging in Political, Ideological, and Religious Advocacy in the Classroom.

Senator Rafferty, Representative Brennan, members of the Education and Cultural Affairs Committee:

Washington Academy Head of School, Judson McBrine, proudly announces WA science teacher, Mrs. Colleen Maker, has been selected as the 2023 Washington County Teacher of the Year by the Maine Department of Education (MDOE). Mrs. Maker has inspired and mentored countless WA science students during her four years at WA. Her nineteen years of educational experience in the field are impressive; however, her outstanding relationship-building skills and desire to build a strong community of student collaborators make her teaching style dynamic and impactful. 

by Sarah Craighead Dedmon

Machias town officials, police officers, and more than a dozen of Taylor LeBlanc’s family members looked on as he signed his name and began a career in law enforcement on Wednesday, May 10.

Machias Police Chief Keith Mercier planned LeBlanc’s swearing-in ceremony and, after administering his oath, presented LeBlanc with some gifts to commemorate the event, including a blue bracelet.