On the surface, Jon Keller’s novel Of Sea and Cloud is a beautifully rendered story of a small Downeast fishing village losing its traditional way of life.  Keller worked as a sternman aboard the South Wind, Oscar Look Jr.’s boat out of South Addison for two years. He learned well the language of fishing and the pulse of small town…

Great Cranberry Island’s 40 or so year-round residents know that if roads need to be plowed, trees cut, fields mowed, firewood split, land cleared, wells drilled or anything hauled, they…

Have you fallen off on writing “thank you” notes? I know I have, and I’m not proud of it. I used to enjoy writing long letters to people before I became…

Not only did Bucksport lose the paper mill business and jobs that sustained its economy and tax base when Verso closed its operation there, but the mill itself—or at least…

A few years ago I went to Florida on vacation. I’d never seen a woman in a thong before. Of course I’d seen pictures of them, but seeing them actually…

  Reflections is a monthly column written by Island Fellows, recent college grads who do community service work on Maine islands and in remote coastal communities through the Island Institute,…

Where’s the cliff? That was the question tourism officials raised at the annual Governor’s Conference on Tourism, held March 21-22 at the Sunday River Resort. The question had nothing to…

The view north on U.S. Route 1 in Wiscasset as interpreted with one of the options for improving traffic flow.   Proposals to deal with the perennial summer traffic delays…

You don’t have to be an economist to understand a simple way to make Maine more prosperous: work to have more dollars coming into the state than leaving. But unfortunately,…

Thriving public spaces contribute to the economic vitality of a community. Early New England communities often were built around a public common or public green. Initially, they might have served…