By Paul Sylvain

Toby Lamb and business partner Chris Marley met briefly with the Machias Planning Board on Nov. 1 to get approval for a four-foot by eight-foot--or 32-square-foot--concrete pad for an outdoor freezer at the former Bluebird Ranch Family Restaurant at 78 Main St.

“Mostly, we’re just doing renovations inside,” explained Lamb. “We had not planned on changing the outside footprint, although we would like to pour a four-by-eight pad to put a freezer on right outside where the freezers are now. Basically, it’s right next to those.”

By Phil Stuart

In nine years as varsity volleyball coach at Washington Academy, Corey Schwinn has built a powerhouse, and they aren’t going away anytime soon.   After winning the Class C title a year ago with ease, losing only two sets the entire season, the Raiders needed more of a challenge:  they simply outgrew Class C and decided to move up despite graduating 12 seniors.

By Hazel Stark

By Paul Sylvain

The Machias selectboard’s marijuana ordinance subcommittee -- which, in fact, is the entire selectboard -- held its inaugural meeting to begin the process of crafting a new ordinance Oct. 25. However, the meeting was not without drama. 

By Will Tuell

Julianne van Norden has served as the Children’s Librarian at Porter Memorial Library in Machias since 2021, and one thing is apparent from an Oct. 16 interview with the former educator who spent nineteen years working with children before volunteering at the library -- she has a passion for literacy that is infectious. 

Town Officials Could Thwart Developer’s New Plans for Big Building

By Paul Sylvain

Based on a recommendation from the Maine Department of Environmental Protection’s Bureau of Land Resources, the Machias Planning Board on Oct. 23 unanimously voted to rescind its Sept. 20 provisional approval of a multi-unit townhouse-style apartment project at 53 Fremont St.

To the Editor:

On Oct. 16, 2023, the Washington County Budget Committee held a public hearing on the 2024 county budget proposal. After considering the information presented at the meeting, Maine Fraternal Order of Police Lodge #006, representing full-time patrol deputies for the Washington County Sheriff’s Office, is releasing the following statement regarding the proposed Sheriff’s Office line item increase. 

by Phil Stuart

The older you get the more people you know pass on, and the list just seems to keep growing.  It is especially difficult when you see somebody leave this earth thirty years too soon like Andy Foss.

Andy was a Lubec native who lost his father at a young age, and his mother had to bring him up along with two older sisters.  I remember Andy as a basketball and baseball player at Lubec High School in the mid eighties.  He was one of the school’s best 3-sport athletes playing soccer, baseball, and basketball.

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Veteran's Day Special Section 2023! 

November 8th issue.

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By Will Tuell

Even before retired State Trooper Andy Foss left this world Oct. 18, Downeasters from Steuben to Foss’s native Lubec rallied behind the career law enforcement officer and his family. Foss, who retired from the State Police in January after decades in law enforcement, had gone through a heroic battle with cancer several years ago only to learn recently that he had an aggressive, inoperable brain tumor that would ultimately take his life. 

by Phil Stuart

Dickie Norton of Addison became the 15th Washington County resident to be inducted into the Maine Baseball Hall of Fame.  Dickie played baseball in the Quoddy League from 1958 to 1980.

After graduating from Addison High School in 1958, where he played baseball and basketball for the Bucks, Addison resident Julian Ingersoll talked him into playing for the Jonesboro Jets in the Quoddy League.  Dickie was the youngest member of a veteran Jet squad, and after a couple of years he decided to change teams due to a lack of playing time.

by Jonathan Reisman

By Paul Sylvain

Fort O’Brien School in Machiasport is not only “Home of the Comets,” but also the academic home of 12-year-old cross country runner Josie Ingrish, who might even be faster than a real comet.

by Phil Stuart

The Volleyball playoffs are here and two Washington County Schools  – Washington Academy of East Machias and Narraguagus of Harrington – could be crowned state champions in the very near future if their regular season records hold to form.  

by Jonathan Reisman

Among President Biden’s first actions upon taking office was a set of executive orders, decisions and appointments keeping his campaign promises to cancel and reverse President Trump’s foreign and domestic policy, including his mean social media postings. Let’s see how that has worked out:

The southern border was opened and remains open, despite the belated wailing of blue sanctuary cities. Gov. Mills wants to welcome 75,000 illegal immigrants to Maine with taxpayer financed housing, food and medical care.

By Will Tuell

The Machias Valley News Observer received twelve first, second, or third place finishes at the Maine Press Association’s Annual Conference and Awards Presentation Oct. 14 in Portland. Our sister publication, The Calais Advertiser, also won or placed in eighteen categories at the gala. MVNO’s second-place finish in the “General Excellence for Print '' category and third-place showing in the “General Excellence in Advertising '' category topped the list of awards which span the publication year of April 2022 - March 2023. 

By Nancy Beal

If a student athlete misses school the day before or the day after a game, should the student be benched for the next game?

That question dominated the discussion at an Oct. 11 Moosabec CSD school board meeting. The existing policy governing conduct during non-curricular activities, specifically sports, was one of several up for review. During the 20-minute public comment portion of the meeting, Kristi Carver-Kenney opined on the rules governing student participation after absences. 

By Paul Sylvain

In what everyone present agreed will be a long process with numerous public feedback sessions involved, Machias officials and its airport runway design engineers held a public hearing Oct. 12 on the proposed expansion of Machias Valley Airport.

By Will Tuell 

Scottish poet Robert Burns had it just about right when he wrote “the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry,” but he could just as easily have said “of moose and men” were he tramping through the hinterlands of the Allagash WIlderness some 227 years after his passing in search of a bull moose. That, of course, is a gentle way of saying, “We didn’t get the moose.” 

By Paul Sylvain

Organizers behind Porter Memorial Library’s first-ever StoryWalk on Oct. 6, couldn’t have asked for a better day to launch the monthly event.

On an otherwise gloomy day, the clouds gave way to clear, sunny skies as the 3 p.m. event got underway. 

By Will Tuell

Responding to the perceived environmental impact of large-scale commercial aquaculture and a feared loss of ocean-bottom, the Machiasport Board of Selectmen voted unanimously to move ahead with a moratorium on aquaculture Oct. 2, according to Town Clerk Marcia Hayward. The move comes after the board heard extensive testimony -- both for and against -- during a Sept. 25 public hearing, and gives the town up to six months to finalize an ordinance on future aquaculture activity in the seaside community.