Working Waterfront

Maine’s internet stuck in slow lane, but local innovation helps

Nearly 20 years ago, the phrase “information superhighway” was used—and probably over-used—to explain the internet and what it offered. In 2016, the analogy remains in use, though it has become more nuanced. Representatives from internet providers and island and remote coastal communities speaking at the Oct. 26 Island Broadband Conference… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Available Light: The intersection of poetry and Castine

Available Light: Philip Booth and the Gift of Place Jeanne Braham; Bauhan Publishing, Peterborough, New Hampshire, 2016; color photographs; 144 pages, paperback, $23.95. In the mid-1980s, Island Institute co-founder Philip Conkling traveled to Castine to interview Philip Booth for an upcoming issue of the Institute's Island Journal. Booth, Conkling later… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Swan’s Island welcomes new ambulance

Swan’s Island residents Sonja Philbrook, Charlie Wiegle, Debbie Staples and Tammy Tripler had prepared for the special town meeting. They had slides, timelines, recommendations and everything else they might have needed to convince residents it was time for a new ambulance. But first responders on an island know to expect… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Bath’s beloved trolley driver loves his town…

The city of Bath has its well-known institutions. The Maine Maritime Museum, Bath Iron Works, the Chocolate Church Arts Center, the Patten Free Library. But the city’s best kept secret is not a place; rather, it’s a person. One Charles “Charlie” Williams. Known to most in the city of ships… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

In politics, it’s location, location, location

It’s a day in early May, and the TV weatherman on the midday report is practically giddy about the bright sun and unseasonably warm temperatures. But you’ve just ascended the Tableland on Mt. Katahdin, and Portland’s 70 degrees and light winds are irrelevant for you and your hiking party, as… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Clock is ticking on vision for Southport’s ‘Ruth’s House’

It’s linked by a small bridge to busy Boothbay Harbor, but don’t tell Southport residents that theirs isn’t an island community. Summer houses, used by multi-generational seasonal visitors, line the shore. The pre-K to 6th-grade school educates just 30 kids. And the civic and business lives of the 600-plus year-round… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Island tick survey gathering data, but more participants sought

An online and print survey of Maine's island residents on ticks has garnered more than 500 responses, but more data is being sought. Susan Elias of the Maine Medical Center Research Institute said some about half the respondents are women 55 and older, and there is an even split between… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Adventures in eating out

A new restaurant that opened up a while back had itself a maitre d’ and its own bartender and everything. They had a lot of live music and as a result the place was quite a draw some nights. They tapped the locals as waitresses and waiters and these folks,… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

A love letter to the seasons

Summer To Fall: Notes and Numia from the Maine Woods Dana Wilde/North Country Press 2016 Remember in the film Jerry Maguire when Dorothy says, “You had me at hello…”? Author Dana Wilde had me at the first paragraph of the preface when he writes: “…this book is about the transit… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Taking back the cellar

Just about once a year, often in the fall, Martha Ballard, the midwife who lived in Augusta in the late 1700s and early 1800s, cleaned her “sellar.” I do, too, usually this time of year before I haul down there the last of potatoes gathered up, the apples and other… SEE MORE