Working Waterfront

Brenna Cohen makes electrical connections

Name: Brenna Cohen Title: Community development officer in Island Institute's Center for Climate and Community Focus: The Energy Transitions Team collaborates with state and national experts to help island and coastal communities build energy resilience. We work to reduce power outages, boost the local energy supply to support electrification and… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Giving Vinalhaven’s downtown its due

Historic Downstreet, a registered nonprofit on Vinalhaven, began in 2011 when a dozen concerned citizens embarked on an effort to save an archaeological historic Main Street structure on Vinalhaven from being lost at auction. The former Knights of Pythius Hall at 30 Main Street had been foreclosed upon by a… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Lora Whelan’s travel lift

“If you like industrial equipment, and I certainly do,” Whelan writes, “a travel lift is hard to resist.” She calls it “the lifeblood” of a boatyard, moving vessels from the water onto land. “I had never given it a good look-see to understand how it worked,” she relates... SEE MORE

At the Boothbay Opera House in 2023. PHOTO: ROBERT MITCHELL

Working Waterfront

Taking the Ellington, Strayhorn train

Combined, Ellington and Strayhorn produced more than 3,000 compositions. SEE MORE

Volunteers with the Waldo County Woodshed work on cutting and stacking wood. PHOTO: COURTESY BOB MacGREGOR

Working Waterfront

Warming up Waldo County

The Woodshed, Barry Feero says, is a reflection of the community. “It’s like a big family,” he says. “The people who use it also help out when it’s needed.” SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Being a messenger is risky business

I’ve been thinking about a play I saw on public TV many years ago, and believe it or not, my thoughts had nothing to do with the election. An Enemy of the People, written in 1882 by the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, had been adapted by Arthur Miller, best known… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

This ‘God-forsaken rock’

When the deadline is looming for the next edition of The Working Waterfront, I reflect on what I’ve seen, heard, and shared in communities along the coast. Without fail, Tom Groening, our talented editor who has taken the pulse of the coastline for years, has said, “Write about your own… SEE MORE

C. Ronald Bechtle in his Maine studio, ca. 2002. PHOTO: COURTESY REID BECHTLE

Working Waterfront

A modernist visits Hinckley boatyard

Bechtle offered an intriguing assortment of symbols and shapes to represent the marine setting, including bright red pennants, a black cross, circles, and squares. SEE MORE

Lia Morris, center, on a mussel farm in Penobscot Bay. PHOTO: JACK SULLIVAN

Working Waterfront

At the mussel farm with Island Institute’s Lia Morris

I spent the day on the water with members of local and state government and staff from Sunrise County Economic Council touring Marshall Cove mussel farm off Islesboro. SEE MORE

Andy Wyeth and the hearse in question being moved off Louds Island. PHOTO: KOSTI RUOHOMAA COLLECTION/PENOBSCOT MARINE MUSEUM

Working Waterfront

A misheard word led to iconic photo

A working waterfront is loosely defined as critical access to coastal waters for people engaged in commercial and recreational fishing, seafood processing, boat building, aquaculture, and other water-dependent businesses. The accompanying photograph of the pier on Louds Island pushes that definition a bit, but it was in fact a water-dependent… SEE MORE