Steve Little, President of the Cliff Island Association, was surprised by a phone call at 7:15 a.m. on Wednesday, May 7. Roger Berle, fellow Cliff Island resident and chairman of the Maine Islands Coalition, called to inform Little that neighboring Hope Island was a potential site for a Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) terminal. The previous
Retirees Share Maine Lore
Brunswick, Maine: Thornton Oaks Retirement Community, 2004. Paperback, 80 pp. $10. Some very good writing emerges from ordinary experience. When residents of the Thornton Oaks Retirement Community in Brunswick formed a writing group a few years ago, they seem to have decided to focus on personal experiences – observations of nature, local history, remembered places,
In Search of the Glocal
After high school, I left my home in southwestern Maine under the misguided impression that I was headed for the “real” world and leaving a small farm town that had little to do with it. A few years later, at the apartment of a new friend thousands of miles away, I came across a bag
The Long View – Follow the Money
After two years of study, 15 public hearings and months of deliberations, the U.S. Oceans Commission has released its long awaited and much anticipated report on the state of the nation’s oceans. If you are a little confused in believing that this important event had already occurred, you are forgiven. Almost a year ago amid
A Trip to Turner
“Faster, Harry, faster!” “Get this crate moving!” These were the more polite words of encouragement that came from the passengers in my 1951 Ford, as we hurdled down the road at 80 mph heading towards Turner in the summer of 1956. I pressed down on the accelerator, but with seven husky ballplayers on board, my
From Newfoundland to New York, No Lines in the Sea
In days gone by, when a lobsterman’s world was limited to his own harbor and the surrounding bays, state government, let alone federal government, barely intruded. Now, with U.S. federal laws and regulations on lobster fishing layered over state laws and regulations, and all interacting with their Canadian and provincial counterparts, lobstermen everywhere have a
Evel Knievel Lives
Harold Seavey had a dream, an unquenchable dream, to jump the school pond. It took on a life of its own back in 1975, and the whole island came out to partake of it. I was about 6 years old at the time, and I remember it vividly. Grades K-8 were released early from school,
Cranberry Report: Fishing Boat Names are as Diverse as Their Owners
March 18. With the weather still cold, Amy and Will Palmer became parents of Islesford’s newest citizen, Adele Louise, at 8 p.m. Adele was born in Bar Harbor weighing just over 10 pounds and measuring 23 inches long. Warmer weather was forecast for later in the week, providing a good opportunity for Adele’s first homecoming.
College Closes Boatbuilding Program to “Reinvigorate” It
The Washington County Community College administration has suspended the boatbuilding and marine mechanics programs at its Marine Technology Center, better known as the Eastport Boat School. Citing a lack of resources and a drop in enrollment, WCCC President Bill Cassidy says, “We were dying on the vine; we had no choice but to do what
Boiling It Down: Paris Hill Firm Creates Gourmet Seafood Extracts
When Chef Stuart Littlefield returned in the early 1990s to settle in Maine with his wife, Janelle, they first lived in Portland and then moved to Oxford, to raise their children near his family and hometown of Paris Hill. He says they had to recognize from the beginning that there was little opportunity in Oxford