The Islesford Dock restaurant as seen from the water.

Working Waterfront

Change in the air inspires… chocolate cake

By mid-September, island life has usually slowed down a bit from the frenzied social pace of July and August. The third week of classes at the Ashley Bryan School is underway with 17 students this year. Nine are from Islesford and eight commute daily from Great Cranberry. The ferry schedules have… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Eight simple rules…

Editor's note: One of the best programs the Island Institute (publisher of The Working Waterfront) ever created is its cadre of Island Fellows, recent college grads who do community service work on islands through the Institute and AmeriCorps. At the annual fellows luncheon in July, each fellow offered comments about… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

How many lightbulbs does it take?

When your community's electric rates are among the highest in the nation, it pays to consider ways to cut consumption. Work done on Monhegan Island, with help from the Island Institute (publisher of The Working Waterfront), was both simple and effective, and could reduce the island's collective annual electric bill… SEE MORE

Members of the Passamaquoddy Tribe celebrate with a dance.

Working Waterfront

Passamaquoddy Tribe returns to traditions

SEE THE SLIDESHOW For the first time in years, the Passamaquoddy tribe used the traditional tribal inauguration ceremony on Aug. 9 to honor its leaders in an event held at Sipayik, the tribe's reservation at Pleasant Point in Perry. Fred Moore III and Vera Francis were elected as tribal chief… SEE MORE

An artist's depiction of what the redevelopment of the Portland Co. site will look like.

Working Waterfront

Portland’s waterfront clash a familiar struggle

The tension between communities seeking to keep their waterfronts economically viable and the residents who want to preserve their views is one that is happening all over the world, say national development experts. “I think that’s an inherent tension that won’t ever go away,” said Jon Golinger, a San Francisco-based… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

‘Community Economics’ is topic of next Community Institute session

Cities and towns in Maine are making decisions each day that improve their economic health or, unfortunately, can make things harder for community members, businesses and taxpayers. The Community Institute, a program of the Friends of Midcoast Maine, offers its fourth workshop on such matters, Community Economics, on Thursday, Oct. 22… SEE MORE

Courtney Naliboff as Annie Oakley in the North Haven production of Annie Get Your Gun.

Working Waterfront

Teaching is doing, and teachers can do what they teach

There is a particularly odious saying that gets bandied about from time to time: "Those who can, do; those who can't, teach." Rather than get my hackles up, I let it goad me into action. I teach music, theater and English. I studied music and theater as an undergrad at… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Chebeague Island and the tides of time

What thou lovest well remains, the rest is dross – Ezra Pound, Canto LXXXI In the blue distance of inner Casco Bay, the smokestacks of the Cousins Island power plant could be seen poking into the sky. This was in 1980, looking northeast from the… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

A summer of learning, leadership along Maine coast

On Swan's Island, community leaders and nearly 200 residents debated the future of the Swan's Island Electric Cooperative, the ratepayer owned distributor of electricity on that island and nearby Frenchboro (Long Island). There is nothing so heartening as watching community members of diverse background and economic standing give stump… SEE MORE

Vinalhaven village as seen from the harbor.

Working Waterfront

A deal too good to be true

A few weeks ago, a big man burst into the Tidewater Motel lobby mid-morning carrying a half-dozen unmarked white cardboard boxes, each about 18-inches by 18-inches and 4-inches deep. He’d emerged from an unmarked white pickup that held three white chest freezers in its bed, tied down haphazardly with pot… SEE MORE