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.