Articles
Maine builds an Egyptian-inspired bridge across the Penobscot
What started as a routine bridge inspection during the summer of 2003 has turned into one of the most exciting and dramatic construction projects in Maine’s history. When they examined the 72-year-old Waldo-Hancock Bridge that spans the Penobscot River between Prospect and Verona Island, engineers from Maine’s Department of Transportation (DOT) discovered more corrosion than
Deer Isle volunteer helps hurricane evacuees
When social worker Roberta Johnson of Deer Isle responded to an e-mail from the National Association of Social Workers asking for Red Cross emergency volunteers, she had no idea what she was getting into. She remembered thinking that because she worked in a school with summers off she could help in the summertime if she
Museum presents annual history conference
For 14 years the Penobscot Marine Museum has held a daylong conference on different historical aspects of Penobscot Bay, its islands and the surrounding mainland. Library and Education Director John Arrison, who organizes the conferences and introduces the speakers, said he also enjoys storytelling, and for the last couple of years he has been trying
Heating and Housing: A community agency helps Downeasters cope
Dreading the thought of your heating bill this winter? Most of us are, but if you meet federal low-income guidelines and live in Washington or Hancock County, there is an agency that can help. The Washington Hancock Community Agency (WHCA) is a nonprofit, private, non-governmental or state agency that was incorporated in 1966. An 18-member
Stonington Teen Raises His Own Tuition for Ocean Classroom
“I fell in love with it the first day,” recalled Stonington high school junior Tabor Johnson, of his ten-day cruise on the schooner HARVEY GAMAGE when he was in eighth grade. By then, Tabor had been on the water for five years: he’d started lobstering in his 16-foot outboard with his father, Stonington Harbormaster and
At a special Stonington town meeting, developers fail to get firehouse land
For weeks this summer, Stonington townspeople talked about little else than the fate of a small parcel of town-owned land situated between two larger properties on the waterfront recently purchased by Harper’s Development. One of the two larger properties had housed Bartlett’s Market; the other, Atlantic Avenue Hardware. Between them lies the land that houses
Competency Afloat – A Maine-based training center teaches multiple marine skills
“I’ve been teaching non-traditional students for 13 years,” said Shawn J. Ahern III, Ocean Master and president of the Down East Maritime Training Center, based in Freedom, Maine. The school offers 15 courses, specializing in Merchant Marine officer licenses, Able Bodied Seaman’s licenses and endorsement courses for mariners. All courses are geared toward certification for
After frenzied preparations, the STATE OF MAINE departs for the Gulf Coast
Days after classes at Maine Maritime Academy (MMA) had begun for the semester, the U.S. Maritime Administration activated the academy’s Training Ship STATE OF MAINE to respond to the crisis in the New Orleans area. According to MMA president Leonard H. Tyler, the Maritime Administration ordered the federally-owned vessel, on permanent loan to the academy,
Low-tech lobster conservation
“In the ocean, the survival rate of lobsters is less than one out of one thousand,” said David Mills, whose lobster hatchery is part of his Mount Desert Oceanarium. “We’ve had some years of 15 to 20 percent survival.” That’s an achievement, but the story of Mills’s success started with years of failure as he
Woodlawn: The Black House – A fine old Maine house museum picks itself up
How long has it been since you visited the incredible three-generational time capsule house museum in Ellsworth, The Black House, or as it is now called, Woodlawn? At least ten years? Never? No wonder. It wasn’t particularly inviting. For 70 years a board of directors, the Hancock County Trustees of Public Reservations, maintained the museum,