To the editor: This letter is in response to the letter printed in the February issue of Working Waterfront from Mr. Sean Hall of Orr’s Island. Mr. Hall references a survey he received in the mail concerning sidewalks and roadways. I am not quite sure what he was reading, but the survey he received simply
Peaks undertakes neighborhood-based planning
In the spring of 2001, responding to a state mandate that it update its comprehensive plan by January 2003, Portland established a neighborhood-based planning (NBP) process. The intent is to allow for broader public participation; create plans that are conscious of unique neighborhood character; help form bonds between community members, groups and businesses; provide a
Student author visits Islesboro Central School
Islesboro Central School students’ stereotype of authors as middle-aged academics with elbow patches on their tweed jackets was challenged when seventh-grader Sarah Dugan visited the school on Feb. 8 to read from her book Pearl Business and discuss its creation. After reading her 24-page book to the school’s elementary students, Sarah shared with them the
Islesboro Central School awarded library grant
Islesboro Central School has been awarded an $11,253 grant from the MBNA Foundation to boost its school library. Island Institute Fellow Sherry Marcum wrote the grant, which will be used to purchase library materials to directly support teachers’ curriculum. Indiana native Marcum (who became an Island Institute fellow through an Internet posting) formerly served as
Farming Oysters: Where diplomacy is a valued skill
If you want a cushy job and some easy money, you’d better not raise oysters. Take it from Tim Dowling, who with son Jesse has launched Port Clyde Oyster Company, farming oysters on a nearby lease. This winter, the Dowlings were building a porch on a summer resident’s bungalow to bring in a few extra
Study tracks lobsters’ travels, estimates adundance
The first season of a two-year lobster research project co-sponsored by Sea Grant and Island Institute was completed last fall. The aim of the study is to improve trap-based methods of quantifying lobster, by employing newly developed mark-recapture methods. Estimates of abundance by these new methods are to be ground-truthed against diver-based counts. The research
“Spokesfish” retires: In Ken Coons’ view, fishing and hockey aren’t that far apart
An era ended in the history of New England fisheries with the recent retirement of Kenelm Coons, the longtime executive director of the New England Fisheries Development Association, and the closing of the organization’s doors. Coons was the first and only executive director of NEFDA, the organization that worked for more than 20 years on
Fishermen’s waterfront access continues to shrink
Maine’s commercial fishermen know first hand that their access to the ocean shrinks yearly as demand for residential shorefront property skyrockets. They’ll have a chance to talk about these issues at this year’s Fishermen’s Forum in Rockport. A new study on the loss of shorefront access and remedies will be the subject of at a
Salmon aquaculture: savior or sinner? | Fish and feedlots | Waterfront access
For ten years between the mid 1980s and the mid 1990s, the emergence of salmon aquaculture in Maine was hailed by many sate leaders as a clean new industry. The industry would, the conventional wisdom was, finally turn the economic tide in towns with long histories of entrenched unemployment in Washington and Hancock County. Because
All at Sea: “Plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose”
It was the spring of 1936, if you can imagine such an ancient date, when we received our inheritance from Grandmother Lizzie Winslow, late of Congress Street in Belfast: five shares of AT&T, market value five bucks per share, annual dividend $1.25. This bonanza allowed a college sophomore (who knew everything, and in Mark Twain’s