Madison Warnock of Jonesport, a senior at Jonesport-Beals High School, has been selected to receive the 2023 Principal's Award, teacher leader Becky Coffin announced last week.  The award, sponsored by the Maine Principals' Association, recognizes a high school senior's academic achievement and citizenship.

by Hazel Stark

by Hailey Wood

After years of residing in the same space, Berry Vines will be moving to 247 Main Street in Machias. The move will happen over the first weekend of March. The store will be closed starting March 2nd to reopen on March 7th while they complete the moving of merchandise and equipment. 

This new location will be in the same building as WIC and Family planning, next to the Reid Emery Building. 

by Will Tuell

A member of the Washington County Sheriff’s Office K-9 Unit, K-9 Memphis, who has been on active duty with his handler, Deputy Toni Bridges, will be receiving some much-needed protection in the form of a bullet- and stab-proof protective vest courtesy of the nonprofit Vested Interest in K-9s later this winter. 

March 17 is the Feast Day of St. Patrick, one of the Church’s great evangelizing saints. It is a day that holds special significance in the Diocese of Portland because St. Patrick, along with St. Jean Baptiste, is a secondary patron of the Diocese of Portland, chosen because French missionaries and, later, French and Irish immigrants brought the Catholic faith to Maine and helped it take root and grow. St. Patrick Church in Newcastle was actually the first church in the country named for St. Patrick and has been in continual use longer than any other Catholic church in New England.

Ever wonder what to do with that old but still serviceable t-shirt? Or think about what the world should do with all of the cast-off, “don’t want to wear it anymore,” pieces of clothing that clutter up our closets? The Lubec Community Outreach Center has a fun and practical idea that could be a perfect (and beautiful) solution.

by Sarah Craighead Dedmon 

Kimberly Pushard and Angela Bussell had been missing since Wednesday, Feb. 22, when they were last seen in a Springfield, Maine, gas station. The Topsham police department had issued a silver alert the day prior, and Maine law enforcement agencies, including Maine Game Wardens, joined in the search.

Warden Brad Richard of Princeton was brought onto the search on Sunday, Feb. 26, after two days of single-digit and subzero temperatures. 

by Nancy Beal

Kingfish Maine personnel were back in Jonesport last week to take part in yet another marathon bank of meetings in connection with their application for a $100M fish farm on 94 acres facing Chandler Bay. This session would be four hours over two evenings before the town’s board of appeals, which had been summoned to handle a challenge to the planning board’s approval of the application and granting of the permit last fall [see Machias Valley News Observer, December 7, 2022.]

by Will Tuell

by Sarah Craighead Dedmon

Every law enforcement agency in Washington County will be upgraded from analog to digital communications this year using $3.1 million in federal funds secured by Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Sen. Angus King (I-ME) as part of last year’s congressionally directed spending.

by Will Tuell

by Joseph Horn

by Sarah Craighead Dedmon

Last week, in response to the county’s EMS crisis, three Washington County towns announced a proposal to form a regional ambulance service funded partly by municipal dollars.

Milbridge Town Manager Lewis Pinkham distributed a summary of the proposal Wednesday, Feb. 8, saying the decision followed discussions with Milbridge and Steuben’s nonprofit ambulance service Petit Manan, which earlier this year said it might close due to insufficient funding. 

by Will Tuell

Governor Janet Mills has submitted legislation allowing her administration to sell a 9.5-acre parcel of land adjacent to the Downeast Correctional Facility in Bucks Harbor, raising the ire of local lawmakers and town officials who learned of the proposal hours before it appeared on the House calendar last week. 

The Washington County Extension Association seeks nominations for the 2023 Norman W. Duzen Volunteer Award, honoring a Washington County resident whose volunteerism has enhanced the lives of community members.

In preparation for its spring concerts, Quoddy Voices will begin rehearsals on Monday, February 20, at 7 p.m., at Eastport Arts Center. This season the chorus will celebrate the many musical flavors of Maine, including a work by Supply Belcher, the 18th century ‘Handel of Maine’; arrangements of songs originating from Maine's Shaker communities, including Aaron Copland's classic setting of “Simple Gifts”; a loggers' song, a sea chantey, the catchy Maine County Song, two settings of poems by H. W. Longfellow and a medley from the musical Carousel.

by Sarah Craighead Dedmon

Pierre Little, publisher of the Machias Valley News Observer and Calais Advertiser, has purchased the Union Springs Herald, one of Alabama’s oldest newspapers, and says he’s looking forward to spending more time in Bullock County, where the newspaper was founded in 1866. Little also publishes Alabama’s Southern Star, founded in 1867.

by Will Tuell

Cutler native and Maine Lobsterman’s Association President Kristan Porter told members of the Legislature’s Marine Resources Committee last week that the state’s 4,000 lobstermen and their allies are fighting for the survival of the state’s small, coastal communities as regulators seek to impose stricter rules on gear designed to protect endangered right whales and site controversial off-shore wind turbines off the coast of Maine. 

by Nancy Beal

The Jonesport budget committee met Jan. 25 to finalize the money items for the warrant to be voted on at the annual town meeting next month (March 13). A threefold increase in money for the ambulance service (see MVNO, February 1, 2023) drove the total of $814,162, about $100,000 above the 2022 total — after $300,000 in that total raised for town roads last year was borrowed from surplus instead of added to the tax commitment.

Because of such authorized paybacks to surplus, nearly $110,000 will be added to this year’s $814,162.

by Jonathan Reisman

Editor’s note: DEI refers to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. - SCD

The cold snap (February made me shiver) and our next President’s ongoing efforts to vaccinate Florida from the woke virus inspired me (with apologies to Don McLean).

Long, long time ago, I can still remember

How diversity used to make me smile

And I knew if I had my chance

That I could make those divas dance

And maybe they'd be happy for a while

But February made me shiver

With every lecture I'd deliver

by Hazel Stark