SEARSPORT - Voters at a special town meeting Thursday approved spending up to $475,000 toward completing a nearly-20-year-old program of repairs to the town wharf.
Roughly 80…
Maine
Town manager hopes grants will help finish project started in 1996
‘This is really the board’s attempt to see what’s out there’
BROOKS - A year ago, Regional School Unit 3 switched to a single…
Self-evaluation, Nov. 12
SEARSPORT - Public comment took up a substantial portion of the Regional School Unit 20 board of directors meeting, Nov. 12. Or rather, the evening started with a lengthy internal debate about the…
$150,000 divvied up among 14 businesses for equipment, façades and more
BELFAST - The City Council last week approved a slate of 14 small businesses to receive grants for improvements under the state-funded Micro-Enterprise Assistance Program.
The $150,000…
100 turn out for ribbon cutting ceremony and a bit of history
BELFAST — The Belfast Harbor Walk has been open to the public since about June. Informally, the clipped string of alleys, sidewalks and parks has been passable…
Council makes committee appointments, revises Shipyard agreement
BELFAST - City officials got a first look at plans for a grant-funded overhaul of the roads and sidewalks in small portion of the downtown.
The area, which includes Cross Street, portions of…
From the Working Waterfront
BELFAST — The planned dredging of parts of Searsport Harbor is unprecedented in scope with potentially catastrophic results, a group of coastal legislators and…
The third time, maybe the charm
BURNHAM - Given a choice between converting their former elementary school into town offices and selling the building Burnham voters on Nov. 5 favored selling…
A guide to the state ballot questions
AUGUSTA - Election Day always comes with a slate of state ballot questions, and this year it’s bonds, bonds and more bonds — almost $150 million worth ($182 million with interest), to…
Proposals would close schools, shuffle students, and maybe save the district
BELFAST - Recent talk of consolidation in Regional School Unit 20 has left some parents and residents waiting anxiously for the other shoe to drop. This week, Superintendent Brian Carpenter…
Updated: Belfast goes dark twice, other coastal communities hit
MIDCOAST - Strong winds caused power outages in pockets around the state Friday morning and early afternoon.
…
Cause unknown, wood stove may have been a factor
Stockton Springs - Fire destroyed an outbuilding in Stockton Springs, Thursday morning.
No one was injured in the fire on a Meadow Road property, near Muskrat Farm Road. The building was…
Old building, new owner
BELFAST - After a long dormancy, the former Peirce Elementary School showed signs of life this week as the new owners began work on the 100-year old brick building.
…
First female editor in magazine’s 60-year history
ROCKPORT — Kathleen Fleury, the new editor-in-chief of Down East Magazine, the publication’s first female editor in its 60-year history. I talked with her about the job, her…
Mass.-based company to turn fabric into lumber
WARREN - Earlier this year the Maine Department of Environmental Protection offered 27,000 tons of automobile trunk upholstery remnants to the business with the…
A side-by-side look at the three contenders in front of a live audience
BELFAST – The city’s three candidates for mayor sat down together for the first time at a public forum, Oct. 24. During the 75 minute session, they talked about their backgrounds and…
Superintendent: reorganization proposals to be disclosed in December
BELFAST - The Regional School Unit 20 board of directors made a rough list of long-term objectives at a special meeting, Oct. 22. The goal-setting session is an annual procedure for the board, but…
City Manager’s weekly report to Mayor and Council
ROCKLAND — James Smith, Rockland City Manager, submitted his weekly report to the Rockland mayor and city council. Top municipal news this past week: herring quota has been reached; lobster prices…
A new steeple just like the old, and a clock that finally runs on time
MIDCOAST – Two Waldo County church restoration projects wrapped up this week. In Belfast, the antique machinery of the First Church UCC clock tower was replaced with modern electronic works, and…
Texting and driving, privacy, no jury duty for grandma
AUGUSTA – A slew of laws that were passed during the first session of the 126th Maine Legislature, or were included in the state’s $6.3 billion biennial 2013-14 spending plan, took effect on…
$150,000 pool to go toward renovations, equipment and more
BELFAST - Over two dozen businesses have applied for grant money to be used to improve facades and interiors, buy new equipment, upgrade machinery or technology and other projects that, in the…
Application complicated by government shutdown
BELFAST - The Federal Communications Commission is planning to accept proposals for low power FM radio stations next week for the first time in over a decade. Assuming the government reopens or…
Elephants, royalty, dragons and a storybook end
BELFAST - Chinese-style dragons, knights, princesses, a giant sausage and a pair of elephants rolled into downtown Belfast behind a light rain, Saturday as part of the annual Church Street…
Gubernatorial hopeful says state should be run more like Front Street Shipyard
BELFAST - Two days after formally announcing his candidacy for governor, independent Eliot Cutler swung through the Midcoast, touring Front Street Shipyard in Belfast then heading to a fundraiser…
‘People think they are bad for the city, but in reality they are very good.’
ROCKLAND — They are called TIFs, the acronym for tax increment financing. In a special meeting of the Rockland City Council, Monday, Sept. 23, in Council Chambers at City Hall, councilors read…
Sandor Katz draws a crowd on the way to the Common Ground Fair
BELFAST - After the publication of his book Wild Fermentation in 2003, Sandor Katz loaded his car with sauerkraut and set out to spread the word on the…
Lighting on pathway criticized as excessive; defended as valuable
BELFAST — The new waterfront pedestrian and biking path known as the Belfast Harbor Walk has been well received since workers broke ground early this summer. But on Sept. 17,…
Searsmont and Northport support withdrawal bid; budget passes on third try
Voters from the eight towns of Regional School Unit 20 collectively approved the school district’s 2013-14 budget on Tuesday by a vote of 914-749. The validation ended a stalemate between district…
Votes on Town house, Town Office and Community Center
MONTVILLE - An inspection by the Maine State Fire Marshal’s Office earlier this year set the stage for an upcoming special town meeting, Sept. 28, at which residents will be asked to consider the…
No decision yet on agriculture association’s Unity property
THORNDIKE - An application by the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association for property tax exempt status in Thorndike has been denied by town officials. Waldo County officials have denied…
Will third time be the charm?
BELFAST — RSU 20 Superintendent Brian Carpenter opened Tuesday night’s public budget meeting with a plea to the 150 voters in attendance: accept that the 2013-14 budget will result in a property…
Ballot set for city’s municipal and school board elections
BELFAST - With nominations recently closed, city residents can look forward to the first three-way race for mayor in over a decade — or more dramatically, the first of the millenium.
T…
EcoCor anticipates five jobs in passive home building
BELFAST - The City Council on Tuesday approved a plan to give a lot in the Airport Business Park to a green building entrepreneur in exchange for jobs.
Chris Corson of Northport proposes to…
$220,000 high bid nets Peirce School building
BELFAST - The building that was home to Peirce Elementary School for nearly a century, and most recently was headquarters of the Belfast Academy of Music, sold at an auction, Aug. 28, for $220,000…
Formulized in Warren, manufactured in Maine
WARREN — Ronald Haney, of Warren, is hopeful his product will be voted into Walmart stores. He markets several types of waxes under the name of Ron's Detail and Wax that are manufactured in Maine…
Van about town
BELFAST - I followed this van once. It was all red, apart from some detailing along the sides and a sign on the front reading, “Coca-Cola Chicks.”
A branded ride on a whistle stop tour of…
Town joins Belfast in supporting second seccession attempt
BELMONT - Voters in a special refendum Thursday favored a second attempt to withdraw from Regional School Unit 20 by a tally of 36-15.
The town joins Belfast, where voters approved a new…
Belfast joins with national company to offer free fluorescent bulb recycling
BELFAST - Not long after the tranfer station here dropped its fee for fluorescent bulbs, manager Sandy Carey noticed a trend. The number of people returning bulbs was rising in a predictable word-…
Video: Poet, new to Belfast, performs spoken word and jazz
BELFAST - From the hills of San Francisco, the verdant landscape of northern Vermont, the concrete Coltrane district of Philadelphia; from these and other far-flung places, Toussaint St. Negritude…
Century-old building travels by truck, and horse
KNOX - To look at it, the East Knox School — a one-room school house built in 1898 — hadn’t received much attention in recent years. The paint was peeling and…
Advocates see GAC as potential model for other industries
SEARSPORT - The beachcombers had come expecting to see signs of pollution, but the first one — a bright yellow object, the size and shape of a date — seemed to…
Notes from abroad: BELFAST—BELGIQUE
June 28
According to the small television screen attached to the cabin ceiling, we are somewhere over…
Referendum results send school officials back to the whiteboard
Voters from the eight towns of Regional School Unit 20 rejected the district’s proposed school budget for the second time in a referendum on Tuesday.
Turnout at the polls was low across the…
Referendum, Tuesday, July 30
BELFAST – Voters in the eight towns of Regional School Unit 20 will take a second shot at the district's 2013-14 budget in a referendum Tuesday, July 30. The $…
Extreme conditions dash plans for new course records
GLOUCESTER, Mass. - Howard Blackburn set a high bar for endurance rowing. While fishing off the coast of Newfoundland…
Art and extracurriculars out again, library and secretaries in again
SEARSPORT - Regional School Unit 20 voters trimmed the district's draft 2013-14 budget by just over $360,000 at a public budget meeting at Searsport District High School, July 22.
Monday…
Belfast sets referendum date, Belmont and Northport to come
BELFAST – After a fraught loss at the polls in June, activists from six Waldo County municipalities are launching a second campaign to withdraw from Regional…
Study finds room for 100 more cars downtown
BELFAST - City officials this week reviewed a list of ideas aimed at boosting the number of parking spaces downtown. A multi-level garage was not one of them.…
Select Board approves new policy
CAMDEN -- Unanimously, Camden's Select Board voted Monday evening to prohibit smoking within 20 feet of a town-owned building, park, beach, playground, picnic area, trail or athletic facility.…
BELFAST - In the years before Belfast's celebrated downtown revival, a common refrain among longtime residents was that what the city really needed was a bowling alley.
Several years and one…
