by Nancy Beal

Porter Memorial Library celebrates the accomplishments of homeschooling families by sponsoring an annual art exhibit to showcase the work of homeschool students who live in Machias and surrounding towns.

A bill sponsored by Rep. Robert Alley, D-Beals, to allow rural Mainers to check out mobile wi-fi devices from their local libraries was signed into law Tuesday by Governor Mills. The bill was enacted unanimously in both the House and the Senate.

“We had a grant a couple of years ago that paid for devices people could check out of the local library and have wireless internet service in their homes,” Alley said. “This was a great benefit to people, especially students who don’t have regular access to the internet at home. Then the grant ran out.”

by Ruth Leubecker

Pierre Little, MVNO publisher, was welcomed as a Machias Rotary speaker last week. His brief talk focused on weeklies as the backbone of communities and fake news as the dangerous scourge of truth in print.

Little, born in Moncton, New Brunswick, and educated in New Hampshire, has deep ties to New England. He has owned the MVNO for five years and the Calais Advertiser for seven. Under his leadership, editorial content and advertising revenue have steadily expanded.

by Nancy Beal

It was not a clash of towns but a clash of cultures that brought Beals Selectman Louis “Tony” Unger to his feet to speak angrily to Jonesport selectmen last week after losing his bids on a pair of tax-acquired properties. On April 17, the Jonesport panel opened, reviewed and voted to award five properties that had undergone foreclosure due to non-payment of taxes. Unger had bid on two of them but acquired neither.

On Friday evening April 12, 20 members of Eastern Star attended the stated meeting of Rumery Chapter #46 at the Masonic Lodge at Addison Point. Refreshments were served afterward during the social hour. Six Eastern Star members came from Irene Chapter 97 of Ellsworth.

by Nancy Beal

The 19th Beth Wright Center’s annual Walk for Life will take off from the center of Addison village on May 18 and, for the first time, will run simultaneously with one in Ellsworth. The Ellsworth event will be part of the Pink Tulip Project sponsored by the Ellsworth Garden Club. That walk will start at Knowlton Park on State Street, go out the Shore Road and double back, ending at Donald Little Park where there will be food, face painting, a silent auction and a plant sale, including pink tulips.

Calais Celtic Concerts will present Dave Gunning at the Knights of Columbus Hall, 2 Park St., Calais, Maine on Sunday, April 28, at 7 p.m. U.S., 8 p.m. Canadian time. The doors will open at 6 p.m. EST.

Entering its eighth season, Calais Celtic Concerts is coming off its best year last year with huge audiences and making Calais a destination with award-winning groups from Ireland, Scotland, Canada, and the USA.

A group of 13 gathered at Eastport Arts Center for two four-hour Saturday sessions, March 2 and 9, to explore block printing on fabric with Susan Lehnen, an artist and educator who lives in Perry. The first meeting included a lesson in the traditional techniques and symbolism of adinkra cloth, a hand-printed fabric developed by the Ashanti people in Ghana. Workshop participants then began developing their own symbolic stamps, cutting designs into linoleum mounted on PVC plastic plates and making their first efforts at printing the stamps.

The Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry has announced a formal quarantine on emerald ash borer (EAB) and material that may harbor it.

The  State Board of Veterinary Medicine issued this warning today, April 17, about Dr. Cynthia Teer in Machias.  

by Sarah Craighead Dedmon

There were lights, there was action, and now there’s going to be a film premiere at the University of Maine at Machias. “When the Chevy Breaks (How Small Towns Solve Big Problems)” is a production of the film class led by Alan Kryszak and features interviews with more than a dozen people from Eastport to Jonesport. The title plays on the Led Zeppelin song, “When the Levee Breaks” and looks at the unique ways people in small towns big address problems, even dating back to the founding of Machias.

by Nancy Beal

by Wayne Smith

Kristian Gerrish is currently a sixth-grade student who attends Cherryfield Elementary School. He has recently been accepted to attend the Summer Institute for the Gifted (SIG) at the University of Miami. SIG is an educational experience for gifted and talented children to explore new interests, strengthen current skills and interact with other children who are also driven to explore learning.

by Nancy Beal

Despite an early spring snowstorm that kept schools closed, nearly three dozen Beals Islanders pulled on their boots and came to town meeting April 11. They authorized nearly a quarter of a million dollars, elected a new select person, and opted to raise their assigned percentage of costs at the Pleasant River Solid Waste Disposal District. (See related story for the discussion on the transfer station.)

On Friday, April 26 at 7 p.m., The Grand continues its 80th birthday year of monthly “Throwback 80’s” screenings of beloved 80s movies through its state-of-the-art digital projection system on the Coastal Eye Care giant screen, with a movie that will make you fall in love with baseball all over again - “Field of Dreams.” See it any other way... and it wouldn’t be Grand!  

by Joseph Horn

by Sarah Craighead Dedmon

Covering topics as diverse as Nutrition for Infants, the Evolution of the Ford Mustang and Seasonal Employment in Downeast Maine, area seniors have just completed their Senior Exhibitions, a rite of passage at Machias Memorial High School. Students choose their subjects and their mentors early in the school year, then conduct their research all year long before delivering a formal presentation for their final grade. Every MMHS senior participates in the seminar, which is conducted as part of the English program.

by Ruth Leubecker

For many decades the hub of its community, the Milbridge Theatre, as part of a lively comeback, recently announced an ambitious summer season as well as an impressive milestone in its capital campaign.

“The CF Adams Charitable Trust gave us $20,000 for a matched challenge,” explained Richard Bondurant, chair of Gateway Milbridge and the Milbridge Theatre Project. “We have recently topped $300,000 in fundraising, and now the building fund has $200,000. We have a goal we want to reach by September, and a second goal to reach by 2020.”

by Jayna Smith

A recent vote in the Maine House of Representatives has approved the bill to trade what we know as Columbus Day for a tribute to Native Americans--Indigenous Peoples Day. The vote count in this initial approval was 88-51.

Columbus Day, recognized as a federal holiday on the second Monday in October, remembers the anniversary of Christopher Columbus’ arrival to the Americas on October 12, 1492. In today’s times, most know that the holiday is a controversial one.

by Rep. Jeff Hanley (R-Pittston)

Living in Maine is more expensive than many parts of the country. Our size and location require Mainers to pay more to heat our homes in winter and to travel longer distances to and from work.

In spite of this fact, Maine Democrats in the legislature seem to be relentless in their pursuit of taxing our fuels. They are seeking to tax home heating fuel, our propane, kerosene, diesel, gasoline and other fuels.

They are intent on taxing every conservable thing we need in our daily lives.