Island school superintendents: cost savings can be elusive

Geographic isolation, pre-existing savings, and new or about-to-be renovated school buildings defined how three Penobscot Bay island schools responded to the state’s requirement for cutting education costs to taxpayers. Responding to state calls for school district consolidation to save money, island superintendents prepared plans to show cost cutting or containment measures in administration, transportation, facilities

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Not the Only Vessel

To the editor: Just finished your Dec/Jan issue. Well done as always. Just wanted to make Sally Noble, author of “Anchor to Windward,” aware that her info on the MAINE RESPONDER being the only oil spill recovery vessel in the port of Portland is wrong. I work for National Response Corp. and the company has

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Moonsailors

WoodenBoat Books Sailing (and Drawing) Around the Moon Reading about Buckley Smith’s life at his website www.buckleysmith.com, one comes away with the distinct impression of the quintessential free spirit. Born in southern California in 1947, from an early age Smith cultivated twin passions, sailing and art. When he wasn’t building boats or sailing them along

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Different Commute, Same Experience

To the editor: I read your interesting story about the Swan’s Island ferry and couldn’t help think about riding our Staten Island Ferry. I feel Molly Bryan would feel very much at home. Yes, people read their books, listen to music with their earphones or just meet their friends to catch up on the latest

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The Book of Old Houses

Bantam Books, 2008 Headed for Eastport, Packing Heat Sarah Graves’s latest murder mystery, The Book of Old Houses, has a number of corpses, as you might expect, and a host of twists and turns — including a point of view and a narrative of a character other than Eastport’s amateur sleuth Jacobia Tiptree — that

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The Boatbuilder’s Apprentice: The Ins and Outs of Building Lapstrake, Carvel, Stitch-and-Glue, Strip-Planked, and Other Wooden Boats

Camden: International Marine/McGraw Hill, 2007 Hardcover, $39.95 “Logical Associations, Interesting Digressions” Greg Rossel is an engaging, talented and funny man who builds boats in Troy, Maine, and teaches at the WoodenBoat School. He also writes regularly about boatbuilding. This book’s origins lie in articles he wrote for WoodenBoat magazine and other publications, including at least

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Not Easy

To the editor: As a recent transplant to Maine, and as a contributing writer to the Texas Observer, another small paper in Texas (where my wife and I just moved from), I’m picking up all the local newspapers I can. Yours is now my favorite, and we will probably subscribe for some friends who once

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