Working Waterfront

Parsing the ‘It’s not bad, it’s different’ sentiment

The comment was poignant, maybe reflecting resignation, maybe reflecting sadness. A native of Lubec, speaking about the changes she's seen since her days working in a sardine packing plant ended years ago, described a community where she no longer knows most everyone. The Lubec of years ago was a place… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

The faces of My Island tell their stories

Patrisha McLean's My Island is a celebration of summer and year-round Maine island children, with more than 100 duotone portraits. The 160-page book—five years and countless ferry rides in the making, she says—is distributed by Islandport Press and is a follow-up to Maine Street, the award-winning 2010 book celebrating the… SEE MORE

Renovations included refurbished seats and curtains

Working Waterfront

Bar Harbor’s Criterion Theatre gets curtain call

BAR HARBOR — In just eight months, the vintage Criterion Theater has been transformed from a mold-laden derelict into a historic gem, its elegant Art Deco details restored or faithfully reproduced. "One of the most noticeable achievements, of course, is…" said board president Michael Boland, who then took a deep… SEE MORE

Ellen Cohill and Glen Charles outside Cohill's Pub and Inn in Lubec.

Working Waterfront

‘From away’ influx helps pump up Lubec

LUBEC — An accidental migration of people "from away" to this remote coastal town is helping to transform a dilapidated waterfront into a vital center of the community. Located at the end of a peninsula, Lubec is a stone's throw from Canada. Water Street, Lubec's principal commercial waterfront street, is… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Swan’s Island, Frenchboro face choice between coop and Emera

SWAN'S ISLAND — A straw poll in July could determine the future of the island's ratepayer-owned electric cooperative. The approximately 450 ratepayers in the Swan's Island Electric Cooperative will choose between maintaining an island-based grid, which allows a certain amount of local control in responding to outages and bill collection,… SEE MORE

Jon Bolduc votes at Islesboro's annual town meeting on Saturday

Working Waterfront

Islesboro approves step toward building broadband

An earlier version of this story included a wrong first name. ISLESBORO — At their annual town meeting on Saturday, May 30, residents overwhelmingly approved raising and spending $206,830 to begin the process of building a town-owned broadband Internet network. The money will cover the first steps of the project,… SEE MORE

A cruise ship as seen from Cadillac Mountain.

Working Waterfront

Expect record-breaking number of cruise ships in Bar Harbor

The cruise ship business must have been hit by the Great Recession, as were other sectors of the tourism economy. So the news, reported by the Mount Desert Islander, that the schedule for cruise ship visits to Bar Harbor for this spring, summer and fall shows "the town on track… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Those Cranberry connections, far and wide

Bruce Fernald recently traveled to the Napa Valley to attend the 17th Annual Worlds of Flavor International Conference and Festival at the Culinary Institute of America. He participated in a seminar with Sam Hayward and Cara Stadler, two Maine chefs, who were cooking lobster in various forms. Bruce was there… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

A perfectly planned memorial

Judy Coffin perfectly, and cheerfully, planned her memorial service and the reception that followed it. All that we her grieving neighbors, friends and family had to do was follow instructions. As she entered hospice, she announced to her husband Jack, "We are going to be happy," and she set the… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Facebook, the island version

At the top of Kent's Hill, the one-way road leading into North Haven's downtown, is the community bulletin board. Hand-written notices of transfer station hours, with annotations like "No April Fool's Joke!" and "Dump Closed—Guess Why" are posted there, along with the high school basketball schedule, welcome home notices for… SEE MORE