By Paul Sylvain

Storm-driven floods are nothing new to downtown Machias. According to Tora Johnson, with the Sunrise County Economic Council, there have been nine such floods in the past six-and-a-half years.

But, Jim Lenke, a physical sciences teacher at Machias Memorial High School, is about to embark on a roughly three-year project with his students to measure water levels from the public dock behind Helen’s Restaurant, near the Route 1 dike and causeway over Middle River.