Working Waterfront

Cruel April twice experienced

April has always been a month that plays hard with my emotions. The weather has intense mood swings and suddenly there are a million things to do, not enough hours in the day to accomplish them all, and dinner is always later than I planned. The busy-ness of it wears… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Market economics, island style

It’s only been a year since the scope of this scourge began to make itself apparent. During those 12 months, several island businesses have closed and probably won’t re-open. Others have only clung to existence and hope to resurface this year. A few have remained healthy and prosperous because the… SEE MORE

Folks enjoy tasty treats at Choco-Latte in downtown Bar Harbor on the first weekend in May, as tourism traffic gradually picks up. PHOTO: EZRA SCHREIBER-MACQUAID

Working Waterfront

‘Revenge travel’ driving Bar Harbor reservations

The tourist season is still gearing up, but by early May, owners of hotels, inns, and campgrounds were seeing strong reservations and looking forward to a busy year. Many owners and operators said the numbers so far were better than 2019, which was already a strong year. They attributed the… SEE MORE

Students rehearsing the play D&D. PHOTO: ALICE GREENWAY

Working Waterfront

It’s play time on North Haven

Spring is taking a particularly “playful” form on North Haven. Twenty playwrights, tapping at their laptops over the winter, have submitted manuscripts. Seven directors are taking time away from boatyards, school, and gardens. And 38 actors of all ages are striding the boards, which this year includes the fields at… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Downeast ‘oasis’ subdivision marketed for urban dwellers

A high-end housing development is being planned for a 1,000-acre peninsula on Howard Lake in Robbinston. Merriwood Sustainable Community is described on its website as “just beyond the edge of the paved world—a vibrant and comfortable oasis nestled within the splendor of the Maine wilderness. Completely off the beaten path… SEE MORE

Ready Seafood’s 52,000-square-foot lobster processing facility in Saco, built in 2019, is the largest such operation in Maine. Front row, from left are Curt Brown, Francisco Bumba, and Lori Talbot. Back row, from left, Van Bo, Pamela Lukasa, Lee Stafford, and Korina Costanzo. PHOTO: KELLI PARK

Working Waterfront

‘New Mainers’ are key to seafood industry

Welcoming immigrants to Maine is more than just the polite, hospitable thing to do. It’s critical to the state’s economic future. That’s the view of the authors of Maine’s community development strategy for 2020-2029, who assert that the state will lose 65,000 workers to retirement by 2029 and that to… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Lobster fishery’s history suggests a response

The current threats to the lobster fishery, and consequently our coastal economy, presented by pending federal regulations to protect the critically endangered right whale have me reflecting on my experience as an academic studying the fishery and my family’s experience within the fishery. It was almost exactly 100 years ago… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

The strange tale of a would-be chicken king

The Island Institute, publisher of this newspaper, has done a lot of work with small island schools and one of its best efforts was helping form the Outer Islands Teaching and Learning Collaborative, or TLC, which facilitates links between students from those small schools. Recently, the Institute’s education team asked… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

‘Lost and found’ a metaphor for this year

I pulled out my laptop to write just now and asked my six-year-old what this month’s column should be about. I had some vague ideas around maybe the virtual one-acts festival my students participated in back in March, or an ode to my greenhouse, which currently has the first tiny… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Deer Isle, Stonington affordable housing breaks ground

Fundraising is nearly complete and construction will soon start on the first phase of an affordable housing project, called Oliver’s Ridge, that’s designed to serve workforce housing needs in Deer Isle and Stonington. Island Workforce Housing, a nonprofit organization formed in 2018 by Deer Isle and Stonington residents to address… SEE MORE