NORTH HAVEN — Waterman’s Community Center, on this island 12 miles distant and an hour’s ferry ride from the mainland, has become a central institution in the ten years since it was founded in 2003. The nonprofit center is busy all year long with after-school, pre-school and summer programs for youth; senior activities; theater, dance
Wizard of Oz ‘witch’ loved her Maine island
CAPE ISLAND — Tour boat operators sometimes entertained their passengers by referring to Cape Island as “Witch’s Island.” That’s because the primary resident there, during summers from 1961 to 1985, was Margaret Hamilton, the actor who played the Wicked Witch of the West and Elmira Gulch in the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz. Contrary
Maine PUC OKs Monhegan wind project
AUGUSTA — The Maine Public Utilities Commission in a 2-1 vote on Jan 14 approved terms for a project that would put two floating wind turbines off Monhegan Island as part of a test for the new technology. Permitting and other hurdles must be cleared before the turbines are built. The PUC approval was needed
On the record with… LifeFlight’s Tom Judge
CAMDEN — It’s one the few good things the Vietnam War brought us. When medics and doctors returned from the conflict, they shared what they had learned—lives could be saved when helicopters transported patients from battlefield to hospital. Maine, said Tom Judge, executive director of LifeFlight of Maine, was the last of the lower 48
Dragging the line Downeast
Captain Milton Chute and his crew, Roger Wright and Roger’s nephew Justin Wright, left Lubec at 6 a.m. in late December to be out on the waters of South Bay in time to drop their drag at sunrise 7:03 am. Dragging can’t begin until sunrise, according to state regulations. Cobscook Bay regulations limit the daily
College ‘cottage’ saved in nick of time
BAR HARBOR — The major renovation of The Turrets—a summer “cottage” built in 1895 and repurposed in the 1970s as the centerpiece of College of the Atlantic—is nearly complete. The renovation of the massive granite structure came not a moment too soon. “It was getting to the point that it was dangerous—slate falling from the
Boothbay bridge is welcoming again, thanks to sister act
BOOTHBAY HARBOR — In a small seaside town, a footbridge connecting the one side of the harbor to the other can be like the heart of a community. It was that way a century ago in Boothbay Harbor. The most important feature of the wooden footbridge there, which was originally built in 1901 with a
An important question for our young adults: Why stay?
It’s been a perennial worry in Maine for decades, maybe even longer: our young people are leaving the state for greener, more prosperous pastures to the south and west. And worse, it’s not just some of those in their 20s making the leap; it tends to be those with college educations, with skills, ambition and
Looking down on islands magnifies their meaning
I spent the majority of my academic career examining large-scale concepts and ideas through micro-level controlled experiments. Having to arrive at an answer for a question you’ve posed about an overarching theoretical concept is very daunting. You have to start small. It’s through specific experiments that you can begin seeing the larger picture. Upon moving
It was so cold, I almost got weird
OK, time to talk to the weatherman. As in what the freak is going on? As in how do we go from wind-lashed, never-before-recorded sub zero temperatures and then rubber band to mild sunny days with gentle zephyrs bathing us in warmth? As in why did we spread a month’s worth of sand and salt