1. Machias Bay Chamber of Commerce Seeks Solution to Fund Roof, Other Repairs at Station 1898

    By Paul Sylvain

    Station 1898 — the old repurposed railroad station near the dike and Lee/Pellon Event Center — has served as home to the Machias Bay Area Chamber of Commerce since the chamber signed a 100-year lease with the town for one dollar. In return, the Chamber agreed to maintain the building and allow its use for community events several times a year.

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  2. Father-Daughter Team Hauls Lobster Traps, Creates Ceramics Together

    Fishermen’s Pottery Uniquely Downeast

    By Nancy Beal

    Broderick Alley is a full-time Beals Island lobster fisherman with the maximum allowable number of lobster traps — 800 — which he hauls from a 43-foot lobster boat named Miss Jennifer. 

    The boat is named after his daughter, Jennifer Ciappetta, who also lives on Beals and, like her father, fishes 800 traps from her 36-foot Bigfoot & Carissa, named for her two standard poodles. They act as each other’s sternman, hauling his gang of traps one day and hers the next.

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  3. Machiasport School, Municipal Warrant Passes Quietly

    By Paul Sylvain

    Town meetings — even the monthly selectboard meetings, which are separate from voting by the general public — in Machiasport have a reputation for being unpredictable. Sometimes quiet, often fiery, they seldom disappoint anyone who attends them regularly.

    The town’s 49-article warrant for its June 23 annual town meeting certainly appeared benign on the surface. Ultimately, voters dispensed with the 2025-‘26 spending package, without any fireworks, in less than an hour.

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  4. Cherryfield’s Fred Kneeland Jr. Joining Notable List of Downeasters in Maine’s Baseball Hall of Fame

    By Phil Stuart

    Fred Kneeland Jr. of Cherryfield will be inducted into the Maine Baseball Hall of Fame on Oct. 26 in Portland. Freddie follows in the footsteps of Addison’s Dickie Norton who was inducted in 2023 and joins a surprising number of Downeasters selected for that honor. 

    Kneeland becomes the 16th Washington County resident to enter the Hall of Fame and the second from Cherryfield, joining major leaguer Carlton Willey, who was in the initial class back in 1970. 

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  5. Margaretta Days Time Capsule Provides Glimpse Into Event’s Past and Thoughts About it’s Future

    By Paul Sylvain

    The gun smoke has cleared from last month’s Margaretta Days skirmish reenactments, but one of that week’s events that might have been overlooked by visitors enthralled by reenactments, vendors, music, and food involved the digging up and opening of a time capsule buried in an old cemetery behind Rev. James Lyons house on Lower Court Street, across from American Legion Post 9.

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  6. Fort O’Brien Students Commit to Community Service

    By Paul Sylvain

    Today’s youths will one day determine the future of their community. Fort O’Brien School seventh and eighth grade students in principal Susan Almendinger’s class spent the recently completed school year learning about their town’s government and history and developing a group project that will one day lead to a recreation trail for residents and visitors to enjoy.

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  7. Machias 12U Softball All Stars to Playfor District Championship

    By Will Tuell

    It was an up-and-down week for fans of Machias Area Little League softball as the area’s 12U squad won three straight games to earn a berth in the Downeast-Acadia district championship this week. While Happy Gardner award winner Sarah Hennesey and her teammates found themselves in an enviable position to qualify for the state tournament, things were not quite so rosy for Machias’s 10U softball squad, who were bounced from their double-elimination tournament with losses to Sunrise Little League of Western Washington County and Coastal of Blue Hill. 

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  8. Oy Vey Iz Mir

    by Jonathan Reisman

    My maternal grandfather, Abraham Plaut, left me many gifts — a love of baseball, bridge, parody, the English language, and Yiddish idioms. Lately, all of those have been combining into a recurrent thought/meme: Oy vey iz mir, or woe is/to me. The Ashkenazi cultural overlay usually brings the phrase a touch of coping comedic optimism (hand wave/press to forehead) as opposed to depressed despair (chin cup/frown), but recent events have been challenging. 

    Oy Vey: 

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  9. Machias Shifts Fire Dispatching to County RCC

    Selectboard OKs Extrication Suits, Explosive-Gas Meter Purchase

    By Paul Sylvain

    Changes a-plenty are happening at the Machias Fire Department, with the town’s selectboard addressing several of them at its June 25 meeting, beginning with a change in dispatching fire calls.

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  10. Margaretta Days a Once in a Semiquincentennial Year Celebration of First Naval Engagement

    By Paul Sylvain

    Midway between a bicentennial and a tercentenary celebration is this peculiarly named anniversary called a “semiquincentennial,” and this year marked the semiquincentennial — or, in plain English, the 250th — anniversary of the Battle of the Margaretta, which is considered by the U.S. Navy and many others to be the first Naval engagement of the American Revolution.

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  11. Hurricanes, Owls Top Machias Area Little League Softball, Baseball Season

    Hennessey, Wood Receive Awards

    By Will Tuell

    The 2025 Machias Area Little League regular season is a wrap and this year’s action offered no shortage of thrilling moments, firsts, and personal triumphs, from the undefeated Hurricanes finishing a perfect 12-0 in softball to the 10-2 Owls pulling away in the final two weeks to resolve a three-way contest atop the standings in baseball to the much-improved Eagles picking up their first win in two baseball seasons. 

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  12. Jonesport Sets Special Town Meeting to Vote on School Budget, Kingfish Land Use Ordinance Change

    By Nancy Beal

    Jonesport’s annual town meeting was held March 10, but voting didn’t end that day. Late last month, a handful of citizens came to the elementary school gym to consider a budget for the ensuing year and, breaking from tradition, voted it down. Next, a building permit allowing a $100 million land-based fish farm was challenged and, as it developed, required a couple of ordinance changes to settle. All will be taken up in special town meetings next month.

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  13. USS Gravely to Visit Eastport During July 4th Celebration

    By Jayna Smith

    One of Maine’s most iconic Independence Day celebrations is back, and Eastport is planning a full slate of events leading up to and including the Fourth of July. This year’s festivities will feature live music, contests, community traditions, and a special highlight — the arrival of the U.S. Navy’s guided missile destroyer USS Gravely (DDG-107), with a crew of approximately 330 sailors.

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  14. ATV Enthusiasts Getting Revved Up for Events-Filled Fourth Annual Machias Jamboree

    By Paul Sylvain

    Scarcely a week after the last acrid cloud of black powder gunsmoke from last weekend’s Margaretta Days celebration has faded from the mock Revolutionary War battlefields at West Branch Farms, it’s time this weekend for the dust, exhaust smoke, and fun of the 4th Annual Machias ATV Jamboree downtown at the Pellon Center.

    The first Machias ATV Jamboree was held in 2022, but organizers last year said the first “real” ATV jamboree was in 2023. The 2024 jamboree was even bigger, with more of the same on tap for next weekend.

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  15. From Cage Fighter to Wattle Fence Builder, Crow Boutin Finds His Way Back with Wood and Work

    By Jayna Smith

    If you’ve driven down South Street in Calais recently, you’ve probably noticed the striking woven fence that popped up; it’s hard to miss. That’s the work of Crow Boutin, a former professional cage fighter who was raised just down the road in Trescott and now owns Custom Wattle Fencing. His fences are unlike anything else around — hand-woven from beechwood and maple, and built to last.

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  16. That was Special — May I have another?

    by Jonathan Reisman

    The special “emergency” legislative session has mercifully almost completed its work and mission to advance leftist lunacy and screw over anyone who doesn’t agree, especially in rural Maine. 

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  17. Cindy Griffin Receives 2025 Norman W. Duzen Community Service Award at Annual Meeting

    University of Maine Cooperative Extension hosted its annual meeting of the Washington County Extension Association (WCEA) on May 31 at UMaine Machias. A highlight of the event was the presentation of two community-focused awards: the University of Maine Pen Award and the Norman W. Duzen Community Service Award. 

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  18. Hannaford’s Honors Much-Loved Cashier Sherry Preston for 50 Years with the Machias Store

    By Paul Sylvain

    If there was one song to define Sherry Preston’s five-decades-long career with Hannaford’s in Machias, it would have to be Love Will Keep Us Together by The Captain and Tennille. You’d have to love your job and the people you’ve worked with and for, to stick “together” with a job for half a century.

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  19. Sheriff’s Office, County Warned of Critical Need for Dedicated IT Dept.

    By Paul Sylvain

    In a presentation that was part doomsday warning and an IT proposal, Washington County Sheriff’s Deputy and Information Technology Ombudsman Dennis Dorsey told the county’s commissioners that unless a knowledgeable replacement for his position is found before Jan. 1, the county government’s IT systems will begin failing within three weeks of his departure on that date.

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  20. Machiasport Voters to Act on 49-Article School, Municipal Budget Warrant at June 23 Town Meeting

    Voters to Consider Food Sovereignty Ordinance

     

    By Paul Sylvain

    Machiasport residents will be gathering to elect a selectboard and a school committee on Monday, June 23, with polls open at Fort O’Brien School from noon to 6 p.m. The annual town meeting to act on a 49-article combined education and municipal funding warrant follows that same evening, beginning at 6 p.m. in the FOB gymnasium.

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  21. Jonesport-Beals HS Budget OK’d for Moosabec CSD

    By Nancy Beal

    Citizens of Beals and Jonesport got a chance to act on next year’s proposed budget for their joint high school last week, and the meeting reverted back to the typically quiet school budget meetings of the past decade: a small audience consisting mostly of school board members, teachers, their families and a handful of others who asked few questions and routinely authorized what their school boards had calculated.

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  22. Longtime Raider Librarian Retires

    Arlene Porter has been the Washington Academy librarian for fifteen years, but her history with WA spans a lifetime. As a child, she grew up playing in what is now the Cates Dormitory; she met her husband, Scott Porter, '80, at Washington Academy and then lived in the very same house she used to play in when Mr. Porter was the Assistant Head of School and Athletic Director.

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  23. Margaretta Days Celebrates 250th Anniversary of Historic Machias Naval Battle

    By Paul Sylvain

    “The British are coming! The British are coming!” 

    On April 19, 1775, the first shots of the American Revolution were exchanged between British troops and the citizen army called the Minutemen at Lexington Common and North Bridge in Concord, Massachusetts. On June 12 — one week shy of two months later — Machias patriots, armed with a few rifles, pitchforks, and clubs, would claim their rightful place in history by chasing after and capturing the armed British schooner HMS Margaretta near Round Island in Machias Bay.

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  24. Machias Town Meeting Warrant Passes in Under an Hour

    By Paul Sylvain

    From opening gavel to motion to adjourn, it took about two dozen Machias voters just 57 minutes to dispense with a 47-article annual town meeting warrant on June 11.

    Moderator Betsy Fitzgerald wasted no time moving the meeting along from article to article. It also helped that, with the exception of a handful of articles, there was little or no discussion as each item was brought up. In the end, every article passed intact, as presented, without amendment.

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  25. California Screaming

    by Jonathan Reisman

    “People, I just want to say, you know, can we all get along? Can we get along?”-- Rodney King, May 1, 1992, after widespread Los Angeles riots in response to the acquittal of police accused of beating him.

    “Defiance”- No Kings.org.

    Our deep and widening divisions were on uncomfortable and transparent display in California,

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  26. UMaine Extension offers Pollinator Gardening Course, Certification

    As the weather warms and gardens come to life, Maine gardeners have the opportunity to support pollinators while enjoying their outdoor spaces. Simple steps, like planting native flowers that bloom all season, removing invasive species, and preserving nesting habitats, can transform any garden into a pollinator haven. To guide and inspire these efforts University of Maine Cooperative Extension offers two resources to help gardeners support pollinators: the Pollinator-Friendly Gardening course and the Pollinator-Friendly Garden Certification.

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  27. Lack of Trust Emerges Over Dublin Street Storage Project Developer

    By Paul Sylvain

    If Randy Sinclair had thoughts about getting a quick resolution to a nearly seven-month stop-work order on his multi-unit storage project on Outer Dublin Street, he might want to think again.

    Sinclair’s storage project was abruptly halted by the selectboard last November after numerous violations of the building permit, which had been approved by the planning board in 2023, came to light.  

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  28. Beals Voters OK Elementary School Budget, Despite Questions, Opposition

    By Nancy Beal

    Town meetings in the Moosabec area for the purpose of voting on proposed school budgets are traditionally low-key affairs, attended mainly by selectmen, school board members, a few teachers, and their families. This spring, it was different. A lot different.

    Last month, the Jonesport Elementary School budget was rejected by a handful of voters and has since been reworked. It will go before voters on June 18. 

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  29. Chief Joey Dennison Closes Book on 29-Years of Service at Machias Fire Dept.

    By Paul Sylvain

    After nearly three decades of service as a Machias firefighter, of which 22 years were as the department’s chief, Joey Dennison has resigned from the department to spend more time with his family and enjoy other pursuits. 

    In his June 14 letter of resignation, Dennison wrote, “While this role has been a central part of my life, I have come to realize that family must now take priority. I am choosing to step away to spend more time with my loved ones and to finish a long-standing personal goal.” 

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  30. M’Port Selectboard Sustains Clam License Denial After Applicant Claims Permanent Residence in Vacant Lot

    Board Rebukes Clam Committee for Recommending Approval

     

    By Paul Sulvain

    An application from Kennth Faas for a 2025 resident clamming license that was denied by Machiasport Town Clerk Marcia Hayward resulted in an emergency meeting of the town’s selectboard on June 4.

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  31. ‘Jonesport America’ Design Chosen for Coastal Town’s Logo

    By Nancy Beal

    According to an old (1963) edition of Reader's Digest’s Great World Atlas, there are several Jonesboros and Jonesvilles in the United States, but only one Jonesport. In the age of sail, when ships hailed one another at sea, captains from the Downeast port of Jonesport would often declare 'Jonesport, America!' — a phrase every seafarer recognized, for all knew exactly where Jonesport was.

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  32. Elm Street School Honors Beloved Teacher with Classroom Dedication During 8th Grade Graduation

    Holmes, Wood Crowned This Year’s Alewife King and Queen

     

    By Will Tuell

    Hundreds crowded into a steamy gym at Elm Street School in East Machias Friday night as the school bid adieu to its eighth grade class with ceremony, sentimentality, and, just as importantly, for those who know principal Tony Maker and his staff, levity. 

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  33. Policy and Politics

    by Jonathan Reisman

    As the legislative session winds down, numerous party-line votes highlight our divisions and dysfunction. Given the general thrashing majority Democrats have given Republicans on the budget; spending; the 1st, 2nd, and 14th Amendments; and energy, climate, and equity policy, one might have wondered if a mercy rule should have been imposed. But the beatdown has potential policy and political accountability consequences for the candidates and content of the 2026 elections for the Blaine House, the State House, Congress, and the Senate. 

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  34. Painting Features Local Reenactors as Machias Patriots

    By Paul Sylvain

    Coinciding on the 250th anniversary of the June 12, 1775, Battle of the Margaretta, local artist Tom Brennan and many of the town’s Revolutionary War reenactors will be on hand at Machias Savings Bank, 4 Center St., on June 12, for a 6:30 p.m. unveiling of an oil painting by local artist Tom Brennan, depicting one of the events of that historic day.

    Burnham Tavern serves as the backdrop for the painting, which shows a group of Machias patriots on their way to capture the British vessel HMS Margaretta on that fateful day. “

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  35. Grand Time at Machias Arts Center’s Grand Opening

    By Paul Sylvain

    Machias Arts Center has a new home at 277 Main St., and judging by the huge, enthusiastic turnout for its grand opening on June 6, it was an instant hit for those who create or simply appreciate the work of area artists and artisans.

    The grand opening also coincided with the Machias Arts Council’s First Friday Art Walk of the summer, held at the center. In recent years, the First Friday Art Walk has been held downtown in Norman Nelson Park. 

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  36. Machias Planning Board to Weigh In on Plans to Correct Dublin St. Storage Project Violations

    By Paul Sylvain

    Six months after the Machias Selectboard ordered an immediate stop to all work on a self-storage facility under construction on Dublin Street, work may soon resume on the project, depending on what the town’s planning board decides at its June 4 meeting.

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  37. Area Businesses Pave Way for State Little League Championship in Machias

    By Paul Sylvain 

    Anybody who has ever had to navigate the section of Beal Street from Court Street to the Beal Field baseball diamond to cheer on their kids playing a Little League baseball game can attest to the fact that driving on that road was more like negotiating a minefield.

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  38. AOS 96 Substitute Bus Driver Seeks Pay Boost

    By Paul Sylvain

    Few jobs carry the responsibility school bus drivers have, ensuring they safely deliver what substitute driver Steven Tilney last week called “precious cargo” to school and back each day.

    With that in mind, an unexpected wrinkle arose on May 27, during the annual town meeting vote on the 2025-‘26 Machias school budget. A seemingly routine funding article seeking approval for $170,886 for school transportation led to a 13-minute exchange about the need for a pay raise for substitute bus drivers.

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  39. Jonesport Elementary School Budget Goes Back to Voters

    By Nancy Beal

    The Jonesport Elementary School Board met last week with one agenda item: Adjust the 2025-2026 school budget that voters rejected May 21 and send it back to voters in hopes of achieving a change of heart.

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  40. Sheriff’s Office, Drug Agents Arrest 11 in Roque Bluffs, Centerville on Trafficking, Other Charges

    By Paul Sylvain 

    Officers with the Washington County Sheriff's Office (WCSO) and the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency (MDEA) arrested 11 people on drug trafficking and other charges in Roque Bluffs and Centerville following the simultaneous execution of two warrants on May 29. 

    Maine’s Department of Public Safety said in a media release Friday that the arrests came as a result of a months-long drug trafficking investigation at 75 Duck Cove Road in Roque Bluffs and 43 Mitten Mountain Road in Centerville. 

    Arrested at 75 Duck Cove, Roque Bluffs, were:

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  41. Hear Ye! Hear Ye! Machias Voters to Act on 47-Article Warrant at June 11 Annual Town Meeting

    Polls to Open June 10 to Elect Municipal Officers

    By Paul Sylvain

    For the first time in three years, Machias is holding its annual election of municipal officers and town meeting in June. As is customary in Machias, these two events are scheduled for successive days, with the elections scheduled from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday, June 10, at the Machias Memorial High School gymnasium, and the town meeting to act on a 47-article warrant, commencing at 7 p.m. Wednesday, June 11, at the MMHS gym.

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  42. Sen. Collins Announces $6.4M Grant to Support Affordable Housing in Maine’s Tribal Communities

    U.S. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, has announced that five tribal communities in Maine have been awarded $6,456,253 through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Indian Housing Block Grant (IHBG). These grants support the development and maintenance of affordable housing.

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  43. Policy Ronin Report

    by Jonathan Reisman

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  44. It’s a ‘Shell-ebration’ of Emerging Opportunities in Shellfish Aquaculture at Downeast Institute

    Downeast Institute (DEI), Maine Aquaculture Innovation Center, Maine Center for Entrepreneurs, and partners will host “Shell-ebration,” an event focused on emerging opportunities for shellfish aquaculture in Washington County, from 10:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Sunday, June 8, at Downeast Institute, 39 Wildflower Lane, in Beals, Maine. The event is free and open to the public and will take place rain or shine.

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  45. Perfect Weather for Machias Parade Honoring Americans who ‘Gave All’ for Nation’s Freedom

    By Paul Sylvain

    After a gloomy week of rain and clouds, followed by more rain and clouds, the sun finally made an appearance just in time for the annual Memorial Day parade in Machias.

    And while cheers greeted parade participants from parade-goers lining the route – Machias Memorial High School down Court Street to Free Street, onto Colonial Way before proceeding down Main Street – veterans from American Legion Post 9 in Machias stopped to lay a wreath at the grave of Ephriam H. Johnson, which is who the Machias Legion post is named after.

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