Articles
VP Finance and Administration
The Island Institute, a nonprofit organization located in Rockland, ME, has an immediate opening for a talented and experienced VP of Finance & Administration to oversee all aspects of the Institute’s finance, Human Resources, retail sales, MIS & technology, and building operations functions. These include but are not limited to supervising the day-to-day activities of the
The Rising Price of Fuel
It should come as no surprise that rising fuel prices are beginning to pinch the fishing industry. There are the direct costs – costlier trips to lobster grounds, for example – as well as indirect ones, such as higher prices for oil-based products and bait. Taken together, these increases can be counted on to stress
Current Use Taxation
Once again, the Maine Legislature has acted on behalf of the coast’s beleaguered middle-income property taxpayers, particularly those with connections to the fishing industry. L.D. 299, which passed both houses unanimously, revives an idea that failed several years ago in a statewide referendum: amending the state constitution to allow “current use” taxing of property used
How to Help
To help the Mizoram Project, send checks, eyeglasses, or good sunglasses to Wesleyan Church, Center Street, Bangor, 04401, contact Peter Leong, M.D. at 207-262-5876, or e-mail pleong@aol.com. To donate to the Souls for Christ mission, send checks to Church of God, 1021 Unionville Road, Steuben, ME 04680, c/o Bruce Portrie, call Portrie at 207-483-4124, or
Doing Good
Maine has an un-heralded corps of volunteers who head off to faraway places when they can to help other people. Their number includes medical workers, translators, builders of houses and schools, teachers, even old-fashioned missionaries. The work these do-gooders perform enriches lives in Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean and other parts of the Third World.
Charlie Oldham
Charlie Oldham, who has been responsible for the design and production of Working Waterfront since the mid-1990s, underwent a liver transplant at New England Medical Center in Boston in early April. Due to complications he remains in very serious condition at the hospital. Readers who wish to help the Oldham family defray its high expenses
Making Decisions
Most things in Maine have their seasons, and this time of year might be dubbed “government season.” Not a time to stir the soul, perhaps, but there’s plentiful evidence that this season is upon us: in Augusta, the legislature is in full swing, grappling for better or worse with matters that affect us all. And
Industry, Ingenuity and Courage
Maine’s thriving mail-order business in live lobsters is an example of ingenuity in the marketplace that business schools and others should be watching. Instead of leaving themselves at the mercy of wholesalers and other big customers, a hardy band of entrepreneurs has taken advantage of improvements in communications and shipping (the Internet, FedEx) to go
Taxes and Conservation
The tax-writers are at it again in Washington, and one of the many oxen up for goring this season is the land trust community. A recent “alert” from Maine Coast Heritage Trust informs us of a proposal to “drastically cut back tax benefits for donations of conservation land and easements.” Just how the cuts would
Trap Wars
When Maine set out to limit lobster traps in the mid-1990s, it imposed a cap on the number of traps an individual fisherman could set. But it didn’t freeze overall effort at a particular level, and as local zone councils set limits the result was more, not fewer, traps in the water. As we report