By Paul Sylvain

And just like that, it was over. The 48th almost annual Machias Wild Blueberry Festival, that is. And what a festival it was.

Mother Nature even held off Sunday’s forecasted rains until after the live performances on the outdoor stage were finished and most of the festival’s vendors had packed up and were heading home or to their next festival stop away from Machias.

By Paul Sylvain

Could the former Blueberry Ford at 241 Dublin St./Route 1 become the future home for a new Machias Municipal and Public Safety Complex?

That suggestion was floated by Bold Coast Properties real estate broker Bill Milliken at the Aug. 13 selectboard meeting. While openly receptive to the idea, town officials cautiously agreed that the first step in the process is for department heads to tour the facility, then meet and discuss whether or not investing in that property will meet their department’s and the town’s needs.

By Will Tuell

Twenty years ago last Friday — Aug. 15, 2005 — Maine Veterans Home in Machias opened its doors. In the two decades since, the residential care facility serving area veterans and their spouses has seen its share of ups and downs, from expansions and national awards to a worldwide pandemic and a near-closure three years ago after repeated warnings about the home’s financial woes. 

By Will Tuell

By Paul Sylvain

The Machias Selectboard voted on Aug. 13 to extend the current moratorium on new solar and wind farm applications an additional 180 days. The current moratorium, which began in March, was set to expire sometime in September.

The selectboard delegated the town’s planning board to draft the ordinances after the first moratorium was voted on nearly six months ago. Until the planning board’s meeting earlier this month, little had been done to begin work on the ordinances.

By Will Tuell

Cooper Flagg is one of the most recognizable names — and faces — in sports today. The Newport, Maine, native, who has taken the basketball world by storm since he exploded onto the scene several years ago, returned to his home state last weekend to host a youth basketball camp at the University of Maine Orono, where his brother, Ace, is set to begin his freshman season as a Black Bear. 

By Doss Dennison

Gene Nichols, who wrote, arranged, produced, and directed “The Pringle Family Re-Enactors,” never ceases to deliver. Year after year, audiences are delightfully entertained by the comical skits and witty song lyrics that Gene and his selected crew of performers provide as part of the Blueberry Festival. This year proved to be no different, as Gene and Company hit another home run production.

By Paul Sylvain

If time is money, the long-delayed work on Sinclair Development Corporation’s self-storage facility on Dublin Street, Machias, must have cost owner Randy Sinclair a fortune in lost revenue and legal fees. 

Halted for the past nine months following the discovery of numerous critical violations to the permit originally approved by the town’s planning board on March 1, 2023, Sinclair received the planning board’s blessing on Aug. 6 to resume work on the storage facility. 

By Will Tuell

Depending on the day, anywhere between 150 and 175 children, aged 4 to 12, flocked to Larrabee Baptist Church in Machiasport last week for what has become the pre-eminent Vacation Bible School, or VBS, in Downeast Maine. From a numbers standpoint, the school, organized by several area evangelical churches in the greater Machias area, was a success. 

By Nancy Beal

While coastal and riverside communities were crystallizing into the state of Maine 100 years ago, artists memorialized their existence on paper and canvas. The Moosabec area was no exception; the work of artists in Beals and Jonesport is often exhibited at home and abroad. 

Last week’s Reception for the Artists at Jonesport’s Peabody Memorial Library was one of several for those who frequently show their work on the library’s walls.

A week earlier, not half a mile down Main Street from the library, there was a different sort of art