Cranberry Isles: standing room only

Cranberry Isles held its town meeting on Great Cranberry March 10 in the newly renovated Fire House. Not unexpectedly, Hugh Dwelley was elected moderator and sworn in before a standing-room-only crowd that included Islesford students observing the process for a lesson in civics. Frances Bartlett was sworn in as Town Clerk, Treasurer, Collector of Taxes

Continue reading...


Flying oatmeal

To the editor: The essay by Phil Crossman [WWF March 03] was a source of GREAT amusement to me. Unfortunately I was working on a mouthful of oatmeal when I got to the part about “local rednecks whose narrow range of understanding could be understood, even forgiven, with only a cursory consideration of their ancestry.”

Continue reading...


Who benefits?

To the editor: I would like to respond to David Hill’s letter in last month’s Working Waterfront concerning the Maine Land Bank and Community Preservation program. Mr. Hill misses the point that if you are a resident or non-resident who has the luxury of a second or third home and can’t afford the taxes you

Continue reading...


Affordable housing for cats

Ptld.Condo Wtrfrnt w/View; low rent, free food. If you can read this, don’t bother applying. It’s not meant for humans. Down on Portland’s Union and Widgery wharves, Paul and Kim Fischer take care of their feline neighbors. They’ve set up insulated shelters, which they call condos. They feed the cats, and know which flavors and

Continue reading...


Report proposes

A recent report suggests a radical change for state fisheries management in Maine. According to the report, “Reforming Fisheries Management in Maine,” prepared for the Maine Department of Marine Resources (DMR), the agency could take itself out of the day-to-day management of state fisheries by turning management over to a council made up of elected

Continue reading...


Water one could walk on

Rockland Harbor froze all the way out to the breakwater at Jameson Point during February’s frigid weather, and lobstermen could walk to their boats. Most boats stayed on their moorings, but the island ferries plowed through the ice-bound harbor, and a Coast Guard icebreaker also cleared channels. Local historian Bert Snow, who comes from a

Continue reading...


Ten Years

Ten years ago this month – in April 1983 -we published our first issue of Working Waterfront. Since then we’ve grown from a quarterly to a monthly, from 16 to (sometimes) 32 pages, from a paper that ended up in Post Office recycling bins to one that’s read everywhere on the Maine coast. So if

Continue reading...