Articles

Airstrips: insurance, length, availability

The $555,000 Small Community Air Service Development Program grant not only subsidizes passenger tickets; it pays the $8,000 per year tab for liability insurance, covering the hodgepodge of island airstrips, many of them privately owned, where PIA routinely lands. PIA still cannot fly passengers to North Haven — the Witherspoon strip, the only available airstrip

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Web site helps island businesses prosper

With only the purest of civic-minded intentions, Bev Johnson first started her Chebeague Island website back in 1996. “I just wanted to keep islanders informed about the comings and going of people in our community,” says Johnson. Need to know more about the Polar Plunge and the Chili/Chowder/Soup Challenge? Looking for swimming lessons in the

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Island airline wins federal subsidy

On a warm evening last August, when Jeff Northgraves, Knox County Regional Airport Manager, first heard the good news that sizeable federal grant money was recently allocated to fledgling Penobscot Island Air, Northgraves kicked himself (just a little) for not having asked for more. Down to the penny, the U.S. Department of Transportation handed out

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Ocean Gateway: State selects a contractor, developers spar over rail rights

This September, after years of hand wringing and money wrangling, Maine’s Department of Transportation plans to begin building Ocean Gateway on Portland’s Eastern Waterfront. In July the Portland City Council approved borrowing an additional $1.6 million, bringing the city’s contribution to $4.1 million towards the $20 million project. In late June, a contractor was finally

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Portland tackles its eastern waterfront

It takes a little imagination to conjure this picture of imminent change on Portland’s Eastern Waterfront: In the past month, in a somewhat sleepy, largely neglected stretch of town — east of the Old Port and west of Munjoy Hill — developers with visionary dreams have announced plans to pour millions of dollars, not to

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The CAT casts its eye on Portland

In the world of leisure travel, as minutes become precious and hours essential, a high-speed ferry service between Portland, Maine and Yarmouth, Nova Scotia seems to be an imminent necessity to 21st century vacationers. With cautious optimism, Bay Ferries plans to dip into this potentially lucrative market. While their CAT is an amazing aluminum catamaran

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