By Nancy Beal

Beals’ annual town meeting took place in late March and lasted nearly six hours (see Machias Valley News Observer, April 3, 2024). Three weeks later (April 19), voters from the island town of around 500 souls were back in session, picking two selectmen to replace the two who had suddenly resigned the previous week. Between 40 and 50 people crowded into the meeting room of the town office, many standing in the back or the adjacent kitchen, and spent less than an hour replacing them.