From left: panel moderator Carol Coultas

Working Waterfront

Coastal tourism businesses brace for worker shortage

As summer arrives, there’s worry in the tourism industry—not about seeing enough customers, but about having enough staff. At a May 31 breakfast forum hosted by the Portland Press Herald, coastal business owners and managers described the challenges they face this year, which range from a local workforce unable to… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Flying just for fun

Because I go back and forth between Matinicus and Rockland a lot, and because our island doesn’t have a daily ferry or mail boat, and because the pilots who fly for Penobscot Island Air are friends, I spend probably too much time hanging around underfoot in the air service office… SEE MORE

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Help on the way from island caretakers

As May began with limited sunshine and two weeks of showers in the forecast, I said to Bruce, “Remember that one year when we had 23 days of rain in May?” He reminded me it was the year we built our house. “We were so lucky to get the whole… SEE MORE

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Matches, the half-life of cake, and other kitchen observations

Where are the kitchen matches of yesteryear? I’m not looking for something that existed 50 or 100 years ago—just maybe ten or so, the wonderful red-tipped, strike-anywhere Diamond matches that have been replaced with the atrocity named Green Light. I loathe these new matches. They come 300 to a box,… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Fresh recruits take on first-responder charge

On an island with a more-or-less fixed population of fewer that 400 people, burn-out is an all-too-common phenomenon. After so many years on a board or in a volunteer position, enthusiasm wanes and performance slips. The flip side is the narrowing perspective that can come from one person occupying a… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Moons, little islands, big names and tragedy

In the Great Green Room The Brilliant and Bold Life of Margaret Wise Brown By Amy Gary New York: Flatiron Books, 2017 Different things draw us into writing projects. Sometimes it’s a great story or a narrative that instructs or informs in some unique or unusual way. Sometimes it’s a… SEE MORE

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Confronting a simple truth, a word at a time

I’ve been struggling with a simple truth visited on me recently, something that came much sooner than anticipated. It’s been suggested that writing about it might help me cope. I’ll try it one word at a time. The first word is “I’m,” short for “I am,” and “I am” is,… SEE MORE

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Vinalhaven college student served in French refugee camp

Resettling refugees is one of the biggest hot-button issues of our time. Here and in other countries, many fear an influx of refugees, citing heightened risk of terrorism and overpopulation. Vinalhaven's Izza Drury, 22, sees the issue differently. After taking a Brown University class on capitalism, colonialism, and the systems… SEE MORE

Chris Rich with his rebuilt boat engine.

Working Waterfront

The engine and the iPhone

When Beverly Johnson and David Hill founded Chebeague.net, Chebeague Island’s internet provider, their primary goal was to provide islanders with a faster alternative to dial up. Little did they know it would become an important tool for lobstermen. Lobstermen use the internet to call home, receive lobster orders, check the… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Chebeague voters consider solar array for town use

Short of slashing municipal services, a plan to reduce property taxes is often just a politician’s hollow promise. But what about doing so by cutting a substantial expense the town faces, year after year? Chebeague Island residents will vote on a plan that aims to achieve just that at their… SEE MORE