By Paul Sylvain

Featuring art work and creations in a variety of mediums, from pencil sketches and colorful acrylic painting to models, masks and collages, the annual Porter Memorial Library Youth Art Show is something you won’t want to miss.

On March 9 at 3 p.m., Anna Maria Baeza on clarinet, Joachim Woitun on cello, and Gregory Biss on piano will present a concert for the Sunday Afternoons at the Arts Center series. The program will include Beethoven’s affecting Clarinet Trio, opus 11, written in 1798 when the composer was 28; Bach’s Suite for Unaccompanied Cello, #2 in D minor, played on an instrument fitted out in the 18th century manner; shorter works by Joseph Rheinberger and Giovanni Grazioli; plus two miniatures by Telemann written and played on an ancient clarinet called a chalumeau.

This month’s StoryWalk® at Porter Memorial Library features “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs,” by Judi Barrett. In this clever and engaging tale, hard times hit the fictional town of Swallow Falls, and a failed inventor thinks he has the answer to the town's crisis. He builds a machine that converts water into food. As might be expected, chaos and hilarity ensue. 

By Paul Sylvain

A seemingly improbable sequence of unforeseen events no one could ever have envisioned a year ago has resulted in former Machias Valley News Observer editor Sarah Craighead Dedmon becoming the torchbearer to “Make Here Better.”

By Nancy Beal

After inclement weather canceled a planned demonstration of alternative lobster gear in Jonesport on Feb. 6, the event, which was the first public demonstration of that gear by the state’s Department of Marine Resources, took place on Feb. 18. Its purpose was to allow fishermen to put their hands on gear that is being tested in preparation for an expected future ban on the fixed vertical ropes that lobstermen have historically strung between their traps on the seafloor and a buoy on the water’s surface used to locate their traps.

By Paul Sylvain

Except for traveling to and from the courthouse in Machias to testify in criminal proceedings, it has been a rare sight since July 2023 to encounter a Maine State Police trooper in Washington County.

By Paul Sylvain

Machias Valley Airport is expected to play center stage for a summer military training exercise involving an MV-22 Osprey, military air traffic controllers, a Marine security detachment, and possibly members of other military branches.

Although still in very early planning stages, Machias Selectboard Vice Chairman Ben Edwards was unable to conceal his excitement over the prospect of seeing the airport play a role in a significant military training operation. 

The exercise is tentatively scheduled for late June or early July.

By Will Tuell

The head of Maine’s Department of Marine Resources (DMR) is stepping down next month. Democratic Gov. Janet Mills said Feb. 18 that Commissioner Patrick “Pat” Keliher will be leaving the post he’s held since 2012 on March 14. 

By Paul Sylvain

Class was in session at the Feb. 20 County Commissioners meeting in Machias, as Sheriff Barry Curtis schooled Commissioner Billy Howard in defense of a letter Curtis wrote last month, outlining a policy of not responding to non-emergent complaints in towns with an active police department.

The undated letter sent out mid-January sparked a few moments of sometimes confused discussion between Howard and Curtis.

Selectboard Approves Hiring Third FT Paramedic

By Paul Sylvain

In recent months, Machias Ambulance Service Chief Ryan Maker has led MAS in a transition from a volunteer ambulance service, staffed by per-diem drivers and techs, to a full-time emergency medical service agency boasting three full-time paramedics.