A sailboat approaches Portland's waterfront.

Working Waterfront

Island students learn by serving other Mainers

For some island kids, overnight trips to the mainland are no big deal. For others, a night or two in a strange place, especially with teacher chaperones and not parents, is a truly daunting prospect. For that reason, we try to regularly build overnight off-island experiences into the North Haven… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

The myth and reality of widow’s walks

By Leigh Donaldson You’ll see them as you drive along the coast, what appears, at first glance, to be rooftop patios. I marvel at what could be an ideal place to get a panoramic view of the landscape and ocean while having a barbecue picnic. Even the mosquitoes could not… SEE MORE

Community

Working Waterfront

Islander teamwork rescues feathered family

As near as anyone has been able to tell so far, there were ever only two water-powered granite polishing mills in the world (one may have been in Springfield, Mass.), and only one powered by tidal water. The latter was on Vinalhaven and it was powered by big iron turbines… SEE MORE

An aerial photo shows the North Haven Community School with the Camden hills on the horizon.

Working Waterfront

North Haven school will try magnet program next year

North Haven Community School, Maine’s smallest K-12 public school with an average of 60 students, is seeking mainland students to participate in the pilot year of its new magnet program. Magnet schools are permitted by Maine law and allow publicly funded schools to accept students from outside their service area.… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Private air-traffic control could impact Penobscot Bay

By Kevin Waters In 1998, an ice storm swept through Maine, leaving some communities completely inaccessible. Without general aviation, many towns and island communities would have been cut off from resources for an unknown period. It was general aviation pilots who stepped up to the plate, providing a vital link to ensure… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Transportation decisions must consider community identity

Here’s a question to ponder, maybe while you’re stuck in traffic this summer: What would Maine be like if the interstate highway system ended in Portsmouth, N.H.? Transportation infrastructure impacts the way our communities grow, the way they function, and even what sort of relative prosperity they enjoy. A decision… SEE MORE

Yellow ribbons mark trees that would be removed from a stretch of U.S. Route 1 north of Camden village slated for work by the Department of Transportation

Working Waterfront

DOT’s planned Route 1 upgrade raises aesthetic, safety conflicts

It is a familiar dilemma across the country—making roadways safer vs. protecting an area’s aesthetics, which residents are particularly vigilant about in scenic, coastal Maine. The Department of Transportation is planning a $7.5 million rebuild and widening of 1.5 miles of Route 1 from Camden Hills State Park north to… SEE MORE

An especially high tide in Wells a few years back shows the Maine coast's vulnerability to rising sea levels.

Working Waterfront

Climate decisions reflect who we are as nation

Our government’s decisions project a story to the world about who we are as people. When we step off a plane in another country, we encounter these stories, as the people we meet repeat them back to us. We find that we are asked to personally represent and explain the United States,… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Addiction tidal wave crashing over our coast

The Island Institute, publisher of The Working Waterfront, is working to understand the opioid epidemic on the coast of Maine, and to learn more about the issue, we recently hosted a presentation by Dr. Ira Mandel, founder of the Knox County Recovery Coalition. One comment from a staffer summed up… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Help on the way from island caretakers

As May began with limited sunshine and two weeks of showers in the forecast, I said to Bruce, “Remember that one year when we had 23 days of rain in May?” He reminded me it was the year we built our house. “We were so lucky to get the whole… SEE MORE