University of South Carolina Press Hardcover, 201 pages, $24.99 Making those dreams come true This is a book about dreams and dreamers. It’s the story of a young mixed-race South African, Neal Petersen, who aspires to become a yacht-racing sailor. As dreams go, this one was particularly implausible at a time when non-white South Africans
Washington County gets federal grants to identify contaminated sites
The Washington County Council of Governments recently won two grants totaling $400,000 from the United States Environmental Protection Agency to identify brownfield sites in the county for cleanup. The council is beginning to sift through potential sites for testing, favoring land that has the most potential for redevelopment. Brownfields are sites with soil that has
Government-funded lobster council formed in Canada
In the 1950s the television show “Omnibus” presented a documentary called “Maine Lobsterman,” a day in the life of a Deer Isle lobsterman named Eugene Eaton. It had a narrative written and spoken by E.B. White. Between Eaton’s trap hauls White says, “The catching of lobsters is not always a profitable enterprise.” In 2010 that
Improvements planned for island airstrips
Each day that the weather cooperates, residents of Matinicus drive to the gravel airstrip on the north end of the island, where pilots and islanders unload groceries and prescriptions, furnace parts and birthday cakes, mail bags and UPS boxes, medical oxygen and plumbing fittings from the small Cessna airplanes operated by Penobscot Island Air. They
Objects in Mirror: Chance, luck and hard work
April is career and/or college month for many, many young people and their families across the length and breadth of this coast, as a new batch of graduates hits the job market. Because I was just asked to submit a “personal statement” for my 40th class reunion report-suggesting respondents summarize reflections and achievements and any
Long View: Presuming to speak for islanders
When Peter Ralston and I-a pair of outsiders (flatlanders, if you like)-started the Island Institute more than 25 years ago, we knew one important thing about island life. The fox is clever and knows many things; but the hedgehog knows one big thing. The one thing we knew is that we would never presume to
Distance learning brings economic promise to Washington County
Coverage of Washington County is made possible by a grant from the Eaton Foundation. Sonja Mingo has lived in Washington County her whole life, but for years she thought the only way she could get a master’s degree was to leave. “I was working full time and had two kids,” she said. She had thought
Commitment to improve school cannot be judged by SAT scores
Deer Isle-Stonington High School has recently been identified by the Maine Department of Education as a “persistently low-achieving” school as part of the state education department’s application for federal Race to the Top funds. The Maine Department of Education (MDOE) identified its list of ten persistently low-achieving schools using data from the last three years
Venturing: Wood that has history
Up the street in my town a group of guys is merrily taking apart an old building. The windows and the siding are already gone; the sheathing boards and the frame are on their way. Everything is being carefully sorted-wide boards of any value in a neat pile, other boards and lots of two-by-fours in
Vinalhaven and Spruce Head lobstermen benefit from working waterfront program
All Maine lobstermen are facing big challenges: new rope requirements intended to reduce risk to North Atlantic Right Whales put a financial strain on lobstermen at the same time that lobster prices plummeted; herring quota cuts threaten to cause bait shortages and cost increases; and development and rising land values are squeezing out traditional working