Miriam Libby proudly serves as Grand Marshal for the 2025 Octoberfest Parade in Baileyville held last Saturday, Oct. 11. (Photo by Jayna Smith)

Sparse Turnout for Bond Hearing in Machias as Cuts Loom Either Way 

Paul Sylvain

“It’s like what you see on TV when someone hits the Megabucks and two years later, they’re broke. The county is the same way. They got that ARPA money, and a year and a half later we’re broke.”

Will Tuell

Fifty-nine years after It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown first aired on American television, Jeff Bossie and Heidi Nelson of East Machias have brought a bit of Peanuts joy to life by growing what Charles Schulz himself might have called “The Great Pumpkin.” Though not the first to achieve such a feat, their massive melon tipped the moose scale at an impressive 422 pounds, Nelson said in an email on Oct. 16, setting off what’s sure to be a Downeast pumpkin-palooza. 

Pay Hikes ‘Difficult to Ignore in the Face of Bankruptcy’ says Edwards

Paul Sylvain

The county Budget Advisory Committee’s (BAC) daylong session on Oct. 22 got off to a rocky start when officials from two of the three unions representing all but a handful of county employees slammed the door on reopening salary discussions over three-year contracts agreed to last fall by former county commissioners Vinton Cassidy, John Crowley, and Chris Gardner.

Commissioners Hold Off Decision on Staff Cuts Until After Election Day 

Paul Sylvain 

A bone-chilling wind failed to deter media and some hearty county citizens from attending an outdoor press conference on the steps of the Washington County Courthouse on Oct. 23. 

Members of the Golden Eagles basketball team from Washington County Community College helped to build a new retaining wall at Eastport's Labor of Love Food Pantry last week.  Shown are Odessey “O” Keeling, Isaiah Fox, Christian Roebuck, and Coach Seth Martin, working with Rick Brown from Edmunds. Their volunteer labor is much appreciated by all. (Submitted photo)

Paul Sylvain

Machiasport Harbor Master David Cale awoke on Oct. 29 with a headache that no amount of Extra Strength Tylenol could have relieved.

His headache was caused by a boat that sank at its Bucks Harbor mooring overnight, after its owner — Anthony Morascini, believed to be from Connecticut — ignored repeated written and verbal warnings from Cale about properly tying up his boat from its bow and not the vessel’s stern. 

Paul Sylvain

The second in a continuing series of public hearings and discussions on the Upper Machias Bay Master Plan was held at the Pellon Center in Machias on Nov. 3. Its focus was on options for the more than 140-year-old failing Machias Dike and causeway separating the Middle River freshwater ecosystem in Marshfield from the tidal Machias River.

Paul Sylvain

When it came to last week’s county bond referendum, Machias town officials were clearly prepared for the worst. 

Meeting just hours following the bond’s defeat at the polls, the Shiretown’s selectboard quickly put into motion a plan to deal with a massive jump in the county's 2026 budget, needed to fully repay a 2025 tax anticipation note (TAN) by Dec. 31.