Articles

The Alcatraz of the willing

Through the hurricane season of late summer and fall, the long Maine winter and the exaggerated, shameless, Wellie-sucking mud of March and April — at least some years — we who live on islands are interrogated regularly by telephone, by text, by Internet, by single-sideband, by any other available means and asked the same question,

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Planning for the Unthinkable

A group of Maine forest rangers and other responders from Downeast headed for New York City on October 31st to help with the disaster caused by Hurricane Sandy. According to the maine.gov website, the Maine Forest Ranger Incident Management Team (MEIMT) was “requested through the Emergency Management Assistance Compact (EMAC), a mutual aid agreement which

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Gratitude

My aunt always told me to write thank-you notes Unsung heroes lurk in the shadows of every community and workplace. Troubleshooters, first responders, sidewalk psychologists, arms to lean on, shoulders to cry on, resourceful MacGyver types, Johnny-on-the-spots, ride-givers, toolbox-carriers and solution-finders help the rest of us poor slobs get through life. While some college kids

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Island Power Company Tests Hydrogen Fuel System

Matinicus Plantation Electric Company (MPE) has installed a supplemental hydrogen fuel system on one of the engines in the powerhouse, and a couple of island lobstermen have recently added the hydrogen generators to their marine diesel engines in hopes of reducing operating costs. So far, the results look promising. Matinicus lobsterman Jarod Bray was at

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The 24-Hour Interview

How do we actually hire a teacher for our island school? Short of putting each applicant through a rigorous battery of psychological tests akin to what NASA is considering for potential astronauts who think they want to sign up to go to Mars—well, actually, we’d like to do that. The ideal candidate would pass NASA’s

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