By Will Tuell

The news that dedicated lighthouse historian Tim Harrison of Whiting had passed away Aug. 19 after suffering complications from pneumonia sent shockwaves throughout the tight-knit community Harrison and wife Kathleen Finnegan-Harrison championed for decades through their world-class publication Lighthouse Digest Magazine. 

And beyond, really. 

By Paul Sylvain 

Not only is Laura Lander a children’s book author but she’s also an illustrator for her own books as well as for books written by other authors.

On Aug. 15, Lander read her book Marco and the Mystery of the Missing Cookies as part of Porter Memorial Library’s Children’s Reading Program in Machias. Then she invited the children to paint on cut-out hearts with watercolors before sticking the hearts onto colored paper.

By Will Tuell

Attorney General Aaron Frey announced Aug. 30 that he has filed a complaint under the Maine Civil Rights Act against Dale O’Brien, age 52, of Jonesboro for threats against an interracial couple and their children on April 11, 2023, near the couple’s home in Jonesboro.  The Attorney General’s complaint seeks an order prohibiting O’Brien from having any contact with the man and from violating the Maine Civil Rights Act in the future.

By Nancy Beal

Before she became a Beals selectman, Paula McCormack involved herself in town marine matters, lending her time to organize files, bring paperwork up-to-date, and streamline the setting and collecting of mooring fees. Now that she is in her first year of a second three-year term, she is looking to expand the ramp at the town landing in Alley’s Bay.

The Ark Animal Shelter in Cherryfield has received a $1,000,000 donation from philanthropist Lyman Pope, Jr, the shelter said in a press release last week. 

By Will Tuell

The seventh and eighth graders at Elm Street School in East Machias have taken hands-on learning to a whole new level in recent years. Every spring Elm Street’s Head of Maintenance Ken “Bucket” Davis – who also serves District 10 in the Maine Legislature and as a selectman in East Machias – teaches the kids how to scale, split, and smoke alewives native to the East Machias River at the town’s smokehouse at the foot of Pope Memorial Bridge on the intersection of Water Street and Route 1 in East Machias.

By Paul Sylvain

If you’re not a fan of puns and song parodies, you probably wouldn’t have liked the Machias Wild Blueberry Festival musical-comedy The Record of Washington County. 

As for me, I’ve always enjoyed twisting names and words and phrases around, however, I am but a mere novice at the art compared to Gene Nichols.

By Will Tuell

17-year-old MacKenzie Schors of East Machias may seem like a normal teen with a whole lifetime ahead of her, but the soon-to-be Machias Memorial High School senior is a miracle to her family and community. That’s because Schors, who was born 100 days early, has been raising money for the Children’s Miracle Network and the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor since she was a small child.

by Nancy Beal

Union 103 Superintendent Lewis Collins announced last winter that he would retire Aug. 31; and a search committee was formed to find a replacement for the post that oversees all three schools in the Jonesport-Beals region. However, there had been no movement over the summer — Collins told this reporter that there had been no applications — until last week when the joint board that handles matters pertaining to all three schools held a meeting at 5:00 p.m. Aug. 9.

By Will Tuell

The Town of Machiasport is looking to develop a mile-long interpretive trail on 27 acres of land behind the town office complex, clerk Marcia Hayward said in a phone interview earlier this month. But first, Hayward says, town officials are asking the public to write letters of support for a $15,000 grant from the Maine Community Foundation’s “Conservation for All” program.

By Paul Sylvain

Washington County Commissioners on Aug. 10 reaffirmed an earlier decision green-lighting the District Attorney’s (DA) office to immediately move from its current 82 Court St. location to its new home at the former Talbot Law office building at 24 Center St..

by Joseph Horn

by Nancy Beal

Jarod Farn-Guilette of the Maine Department of Transportation’s (MEDOT) Village Partnership program attended the Jonesport selectmen’s meeting last week and described how the DOT works with towns to bring about improvements to infrastructure. Although most of the talk was general, in which Farn-Guilette described how the Village Partnership program works and what it could help with, the sidewalks that run through downtown Jonesport alongside State Route 187 were the focus.

By Paul Sylvain

Perhaps it was a case of Divine intervention, but after a night of heavy rain and early morning fog, the skies above Sawyer Memorial Congregational Church in Jonesport cleared Saturday morning just in time for the church’s “Summer Fling” steeple restoration fundraiser.

By Will Tuell

Family, friends, and community members paid tribute to beloved Machias Valley Christian School administrator June Ashmore last week as news of her passing after a short illness spread across the tight-knit community Ashmore had served for generations.

By Will Tuell

The Washington Academy (WA) board of trustees on Aug. 5 bestowed their 2023 Distinguished Educator Award on revered English teacher Bill Holmes of Machiasport.  Holmes taught generations of high-school students and coached basketball during his storied tenure at the East Machias-based high school. 

By Paul Sylvain

At approximately 1 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 9, Machias police responded to a report of a mysterious oil spill in front of the Machias Valley New Observer (MVNO) office on 41 Broadway.

By Paul Sylvain

Barely a year after an adult-use marijuana ordinance was enacted in Machias, the town’s selectboard is considering taking  up the subject again with the intent of expanding or replacing the town’s current ordinance to include non-medical “recreational,” adult-use stores that could sell so-called “legal” marijuana.

By Paul Sylvain

A warrant article seeking up to $65,000 to fund the town’s share of operating the Machias Bay Area Transfer Station on Broadway easily passed at the July 26 annual town meeting, but not before drawing the longest discussion of the 83-minute meeting.

Past Machias Budget Committee member and retired University of Maine at Machias Business Division Chairman Richard Larson opened the discussion by noting voters can choose to pass or decrease the amount in such enterprise account warrant articles, but cannot increase the dollar amount.

By Will Tuell

by Paul Sylvain

According to Anchor co-owner Kelly Davis, her husband of 36 years, Larry, always wanted to own a bar and be a bartender. On May 29, he got his wish.

That’s the day the Anchor opened its doors for business on 36 Main St., in Machias. “The only thing,” said Davis, with a laugh, “is that I do most of the bar tending.”

The Filthy Casuals band played the Anchor its first Saturday after opening and packed the house. “It was overwhelming,” Davis said, “especially for the first time doing this.”

Washington Academy Head of School Judson McBrine announced Mrs. Colleen Maker has been selected as a 2024 Maine State Teacher of the Year Semi-Finalist. She is one of eight educators the Maine Department of Education chose to move forward in the naming process. Mrs. Maker teaches biology, honors biology, and marine biology classes at WA. 

McBrine said in a press release last week that Maker is one of “the most passionate and enthusiastic teachers” he’s worked with over the course of his 32-year career,