Category: Communities

Not Aging, But Thriving in Place Safe housing, healthcare for elderly poses challenges on islands. BY SUSAN Q. STRANAHAN PHOTOS BY JIM THRESHER Victoria Smith was born on Chebeague Island on January 6, 1925, surrounded by her family in the neat frame home now occupied by her son and his… SEE MORE

Babies on Board Islands Celebrate Family Growth Story By Courtney Naliboff Photos by William Trevaskis I recently attended a three-year-old boy’s birthday party on North Haven, where I live. His family’s sloping lawn was overgrown with kids. One-year-olds rolled on the grass while toddlers bounced on trampolines. Slightly more sure-footed… SEE MORE

MBNA. Four letters that actually stood for nothing, yet oh-so-much, in the mid-1990s through 2005. The Delaware-based credit-card lender, spun off from Maryland Bank, National Association—hence the name—dominated the Midcoast landscape for those years. From 50 jobs in Camden in 1993 to 4,500 statewide by the early 2000s, its growth… SEE MORE

Carving Out Funds for Island Affordable Housing By Tom Groening For a divorced mother of a five-year-old, moving to the island was a kind of retreat and a kind of homecoming. Except there was no home. Maggy Willcox, who today publishes the Islesboro Island News, grew up in nearby Rockport… SEE MORE

Counting Empty Houses Come Winter Affordable housing finds a foothold on Maine’s islands. BY ANNIE MURPHY Tiffany Tate knows the frustration of looking for affordable housing on an island where all real estate is expensive and rentals are hard to come by. She was raised in Washington County, but Tate’s… SEE MORE

Stonington: A Town on the Edge Contradictions abound, but resiliency abides. STORY AND PHOTOS BY TOM GROENING If anyone has a finger on the pulse of a community, it’s the guy who runs the town’s weekly newspaper. And what does Ben Barrows, general manager of the Island Ad-Vantages, think about… SEE MORE

Island Fellows: A ‘Peace Corps for the Islands’ Fellows reverse Maine ‘brain drain,’ provide extra hands BY ABIGAIL CURTIS The board funded the Fellows program in 1998, and the following year the first two hardy souls were placed on Monhegan and in Casco Bay. It was the kind of blustery… SEE MORE