Working Waterfront

North Haven Community School seeks magnet students for unique high school experience

Maine’s smallest K-12 public school, located on a Penobscot Bay island, is seeking high school magnet students for the 2018-2019 school year. North Haven Community School, which has a total enrollment of approximately 65 students K-12, hosted two magnet students during the 2017-2018 school year, and hopes to add more.… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Long Island builds on-island wellness clinic

Amy Tierney didn’t plan on making health a focus of her volunteer work on her native Long Island, but she was dealt a responsibility she couldn’t—and wouldn’t—ignore. Her father, a mechanic at Johnson’s Boat Yard on the Casco Bay island, was suffering with lung cancer, and she became his caretaker.… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Monhegan Museum wins $1 million Wyeth Foundation grant

The Monhegan Museum of Art & History has received a $1 million challenge grant from the Wyeth Foundation. The museum has up to three years to match this gift, the largest in the museum’s history. The grant will support the museum’s campaign to raise $4 million toward an endowment,… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Vinalhaven faces addiction with compassion

Vinalhaven has always had a substance abuse problem and, historically, I guess we were OK with it, but now we’ve got a crisis and we’re not. Addiction is a disease; it is not a moral failing. There is no room for argument. While the initial exposure might have been a… SEE MORE

The Port Clyde waterfront in St. George.

Working Waterfront

Seeking community, and time by the water

Reflections is a monthly column written by Island Fellows, recent college grads who do community service work on Maine islands and in remote coastal communities through the Island Institute, publisher of The Working Waterfront. I never thought I would find myself craving less alone time. Last year I longed for stretches… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Learning from pioneers in problem solving

I’ve given presentations at many island and coastal community meetings over the past 15 years, and I believe all of them have been in Maine. But now, I was preparing to present to a group on Molokai Island in Hawaii. I was invited by the group Sustainable Molokai to join… SEE MORE

The Island Institute's press conference on the Cranberry Isles getting a USDA grant.

Working Waterfront

Cranberry Isles wins $1.3 million for internet upgrade

The Cranberry Isles learned this month it has won a $1.3 million USDA grant to pay for the construction of its broadband network. The work is complete on Islesford (Little Cranberry Island), one of three islands in the five-island Hancock municipality that will have access to the network. At a… SEE MORE

Bicycles in a rack on Chebeague Island's Stone Pier.

Working Waterfront

Chebeague Island urges changes to keep bicyclists safe

Riding a bicycle along a quiet, island road on a summer day is a near idyllic experience. Except when it’s not. Late last year and through the new year, community leaders on Chebeague Island worked to craft a set of recommendations for changes that are aimed at keeping bicyclists safe,… SEE MORE

The Murphy house at its current location.

Working Waterfront

Saving a fisherman’s humble home

Ninety-three years ago, fisherman John Murphy and his wife, Pearl, moved into their new 12-foot by 15-foot house in the village of Sebasco in Phippsburg near present-day Anna’s Water’s Edge Restaurant. This year, after 16 years of fundraising and restoration, the town of Phippsburg hopes the Murphy home gets a… SEE MORE

Passengers disembark from the Islesboro ferry.

Working Waterfront

Ferry service impacted with rising emergency trips

The state ferry service is concerned about a recent trend in which more emergency boat trips are made from the islands to the mainland, disrupting scheduled trips. At its March 1 meeting in Rockland, the ferry advisory board learned from ferry service manager Mark Higgins that statistics from the last… SEE MORE