“When I first started I thought, `there’s no way we can do that,’ ” said Vinalhaven High School senior Caitlyn Warren of the timber frame shop her vocational technology class is building. The difference six weeks makes. In approximately that amount of time the VHS vocational technology class, which is building the timber frame for
A watershed advocate in Guatemala respects local economic realities
A watershed advocate in Guatemala respects local economic realities Last month, Working Waterfront highlighted the Friends of Casco Bay’s efforts to protect and preserve Casco Bay. This story features the efforts of a similar organization — AMSCLAE — to protect and preserve Lake Atitlan, considered Guatemala’s most valuable natural resource. Environmental work in Guatemala, a
Dana Rice, Birch Harbor: A respect for the past, an eye toward the future
The things that produce leaders, that cause them to do the things they do, are not always obvious. In Dana Rice’s case, only those who’ve known him since he was a child would have any inkling of what drives him, and even then they might not realize that those formative factors were what most would
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
Teenaged Stonington fisherman heads for Australia
In July, 14-year-old Stonington lobsterman Patrick Shepard will have to leave his pots with their Rocket Red and black buoys (a variant on the family colors) in the water for the three weeks he’ll be away as a student ambassador Down Under in the People to People program. While there, he’ll stay with an Australian
In the Mail: Public Safety Committee responds
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
Opinion: Let’s protect people as well as trees!
Once again Mainers who live on the coast are under siege. We are victims of Maine’s property tax law, which requires town assessors to calculate our taxes based on the “highest and best use” of our homesteads. Unfortunately, this market driven philosophy assumes that we all want to sell out to the folks who can
The Broadbill Swordfishery of the Northwest Atlantic
The author gives a very informative and readable account of the swordfish for those of us who like fish and fishing; and also for those who enjoy reading of the fascinating life that goes on in our oceans. Dana Gibson has done a good bit of research on his subject, as well as drawing from
Old Ducka
If it wasn’t for “Old Ducka” the clambake would have disappeared, never to be seen again. It was too much, having to deal with wind and rain and knocks on the fish house door. We were either going to get a reasonable facsimile of a restaurant, with a roof, or forget the whole idea. So
Great Waters: An Atlantic Passage
In this book, Deborah Cramer sought to take the view we are all familiar with, that of our own bay or cove stretching out horizontally to a not-too-distant horizon, and to expand our viewpoints both higher and deeper enough to carry that view out across and down into the whole Atlantic. This ocean, with the