Only in Maine
- Thread starter cany
- Start date
I think you'll find it a very changed place now, more into selling the latest Columbia, Northface, Patagonia, etc. ladies fashions than a real outdoor store.
That being said, the firearms/ammo department, which is still THE place for firearm sales... Fishing is just OK now, not the best...
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Yippee, mo' free money!! This makes $2600 in the last 12 months thanks to the generosity of the State of Maine. I really wish they used a far more stringent needs test for these payments to provide more money to those who really need it. On the other hand, the outboard needed around $2600 of attention this year...
Mills signs emergency bill providing heating assistance, $450 relief checks
Nearly 880,000 income-eligible taxpayers are expected to begin receiving the $450 checks by the end of January under the $473 million package.
Long Tail Duck my AZZ, will always be an Old Squaw in my hunting logs.
Lifetime turns Zumba prostitution scandal into made-for-TV movie
pressherald.com/2023/01/07/lifetime-turns-zumba-prostitution-scandal-into-made-for-tv-movie/By Ray Routhier January 7, 2023
Jenna Dewan, right, in the new Lifetime movie “Let’s Get Physical,” as a small-town fitness instructor arrested for prostitution. Photo courtesy of Lifetime
If ever a real-life event had the quintessential elements of a Lifetime TV movie, it was the case of Alexis Wright.
Alexis Wright, left, and actress Jenna Dewan as Sadie Smith, a character loosely based on Wright.
Wright was indicted in October 2012 for running a prostitution business out of her Zumba fitness studio in the picturesque small town of Kennebunk. Before she was sentenced in May 2013, her story and trial attracted worldwide media attention and created a gossip frenzy, as police released her client list in dribs and drabs and locals speculated wildly about who else might be on it. Vanity Fair magazine’s “Town of Whispers” story depicted Kennebunk as a modern-day Peyton Place.
Ten years later, Wright’s story has indeed become a Lifetime movie, though neither Maine nor Wright gets credit.
The film is called “Let’s Get Physical,” starring Jenna Dewan, and is part of Lifetime’s “Ripped from the Headlines” movie series. It’s the story of a fitness studio owner in the fictional small town, whose prostitution ring has the locals in a tizzy. The 86-minute movie premiered on the Lifetime network Oct. 15 and began streaming on the Lifetime website Jan. 1.
Though the film doesn’t specifically name Wright or Kennebunk, the many similarities are obvious to Mainers who followed the case a decade ago. There’s a written introduction at the beginning of the film that says it was “inspired by actual events” but that the characters and events depicted in the film are fictional. There is no information, however, as to what the actual events were.
Publicists for Lifetime said the film was “loosely inspired by” but not based on Wright’s story, and that writers researched the case and looked at court records. Wright told the Press Herald Friday she was not involved with the film and had not seen it.
The film’s description on the Lifetime website confirms that the movie has all the major elements that the Kennebunk case had.
“Inspired by actual events, ‘Let’s Get Physical’ is the story of fitness instructor Sadie, who by day taught fitness and dance to soccer moms, but by night led a double life running a sophisticated prostitution ring with a customer list that included very prominent men in the community. After an anonymous tip, authorities raided her studio, leading to Sadie’s indictment and ignited a firestorm in the small town leading everyone to ask, who exactly was on the client list. ”
A scene from the new Lifetime movie “Let’s Get Physical,” which has a plot very similar to the real-life Zumba prostitution case in Kennebunk a decade ago. Photo courtesy of Lifetime
In “Let’s Get Physical,” the town is called Luton, New Hampshire, the fitness instructor is named Sadie Smith and she teaches pole dancing instead of Zumba. The studio is called Dazzle & Spin instead of Pura Vida, the name of Wright’s studio. But other than that, the plot is true to the Kennebunk case, including the frenzy caused by the existence of a client list and the unwanted attention it brought to town.
When asked by the Press Herald about the film this week, Wright declined to talk at length but texted a brief statement: “I have not seen the film presented by Lifetime. This is not a project that I was approached to be a part of nor did anyone seek out my permission. To my knowledge, there has not been an accurate portrayal anywhere of my story.”
The investigation and the charges against Wright and her business partner, Mark Strong, dominated local news for months in 2012 and 2013. Many Mainers were on edge, as police charged wave after wave of “johns” from a client list of more than 140 names. Wright, who was 30 at the time of her sentencing, told the judge that she was manipulated by Strong, 57. Wright said Strong, whom she met when she was an exotic dancer in 2003, pushed her into prostitution.
The film’s executive producers include Kelly Ripa, host of the syndicated TV morning show “Live with Kelly and Ryan,” and her husband, Mark Consuelos. Dewan, who is a regular on the ABC drama “The Rookie” and as a dancer has worked with several pop music stars, plays the dance and fitness instructor and is also an executive producer.
According to Lifetime, the film was shot outside of Vancouver, British Columbia, which has become known as “Hollywood North” for the large number of films and TV shows made there. The exteriors of the small town in the film, including the quaint Main Street, could easily pass for a New England village center.
A scene from the new Lifetime movie “Let’s Get Physical.” Photo courtesy of Lifetime
Wright was 29 and living in Wells when she was indicted in October 2012 on multiple charges, including prostitution. Kennebunk police began a five-month investigation into alleged prostitution activity based out of her Zumba studio in September 2011, which later included the north and south divisions of the Maine State Police Major Crimes Unit.
In March 2013, Wright pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor counts of theft by deception for income tax and welfare fraud, two misdemeanor counts of evasion of state income tax, one count of promotion of prostitution, one count of conspiracy to promote prostitution, and 14 counts of engaging in prostitution.
Wright was sentenced to 10 months in jail. She was released in November of 2013 after serving six months. Her jail term was cut short because of good behavior and participation in a work program. According to police, her business partner, Mark Strong of Thomaston, watched the sexual encounters at the studio unfold in real time on a computer in his insurance business office. Strong was convicted of 13 counts related to promotion of prostitution and sentenced to 20 days in jail.
Wright leaves Cumberland County Court after a meeting with attorneys to discuss a plea agreement in March 2013 prior to her trial. John Ewing/Staff Photographer
This is not the first time Wright’s story has been fodder for a film. Just a couple months after Wright was sentenced, the TLC cable network aired a one-hour documentary on the case called “Sex, Lies and Zumba.” The film included interviews with police, lawyers, journalists and others close to the case.
Oh the humanity!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
pressherald.com/2023/01/13/suvs-careening-ride-on-maine-turnpike-comes-to-end-at-back-of-guinness-delivery-truck/
By Joe Lawlor January 14, 2023
There were numerous reports Friday of a black Chevy Suburban traveling northbound on the Maine Turnpike in Saco driving very erratically. The Suburban eventually crashed into the back of a Nappi Distributors Guinness delivery truck in Scarborough. Courtesy Maine State Police
A man driving a Chevrolet Suburban crashed into a Guinness delivery truck Friday afternoon on the Maine Turnpike in Scarborough, Maine State Police said.
Cory Girard, 34, of Lyman, the driver of the Suburban, was transported to Maine Medical Center in Portland with minor injuries. The delivery truck driver was not injured. The Suburban was totaled while the delivery truck had minor damage.
Numerous people called 911 about 2 p.m. on Friday and reported a Suburban traveling northbound on the turnpike “driving very erratically,” the state police said in a statement.
“Many callers observed the vehicle crash into different guardrails and continue to drive north. A short time later that vehicle crashed into the back of a Nappi Distributors Guinness delivery truck (at mile marker 42) in Scarborough,” state police said.
Maine State Police are investigating the cause of the accident.
SUV’s careening ride on Maine Turnpike comes to end at back of Guinness delivery truck
pressherald.com/2023/01/13/suvs-careening-ride-on-maine-turnpike-comes-to-end-at-back-of-guinness-delivery-truck/By Joe Lawlor January 14, 2023
There were numerous reports Friday of a black Chevy Suburban traveling northbound on the Maine Turnpike in Saco driving very erratically. The Suburban eventually crashed into the back of a Nappi Distributors Guinness delivery truck in Scarborough. Courtesy Maine State Police
A man driving a Chevrolet Suburban crashed into a Guinness delivery truck Friday afternoon on the Maine Turnpike in Scarborough, Maine State Police said.
Cory Girard, 34, of Lyman, the driver of the Suburban, was transported to Maine Medical Center in Portland with minor injuries. The delivery truck driver was not injured. The Suburban was totaled while the delivery truck had minor damage.
Numerous people called 911 about 2 p.m. on Friday and reported a Suburban traveling northbound on the turnpike “driving very erratically,” the state police said in a statement.
“Many callers observed the vehicle crash into different guardrails and continue to drive north. A short time later that vehicle crashed into the back of a Nappi Distributors Guinness delivery truck (at mile marker 42) in Scarborough,” state police said.
Maine State Police are investigating the cause of the accident.
Civil Disobedience, Downeast Style!!
pressherald.com/2023/01/22/what-do-mainers-say-when-it-comes-to-the-ethics-of-eating-lobster-pass-the-butter/
By Peggy Grodinsky January 22, 2023
For generations, eating lobster has been a ritual, almost a way of life in Maine. And lobstermen, like lighthouses and Maine’s distinctive rocky coastline, have been synonymous with the state. So when two high-profile conservation nonprofits this fall advised people to stop eating Maine lobster, it felt to some Mainers like an attack on motherhood and blueberry pie.
Conservationists say entanglement in lobster lines is a top threat to the right whale, hastening the chance the critically endangered animal will go extinct. Commercial fishermen blame ship strikes and climate change for the whales’ decline. As with related questions of culinary conscience – whether to eat eggs from caged chickens, beef from ranches that are destroying the Amazon rainforest, or almond milk from thirsty trees in drought-stricken California – the lobster-whale debate raises an ethical dilemma for eaters: Should restaurants be serving Maine lobster, fishmongers be selling it and ordinary people be cracking into the crustacean?
According to Maine chefs, restaurateurs, fishmongers and diners, the answer is: yes. Lobster remains on local restaurant menus, on offer at local fish markets and was recently the centerpiece of many holiday tables around the state. Chefs and fishmongers say they have not seen lobster sales decline, and they have heard little to nothing from customers about the controversy. Food industry professionals were unable to name a single restaurant in Maine that has removed lobster from its menu out of concern for the right whale. And Maine diners say they have no plans to change their eating habits.
Most who are familiar with the issue believe that the California-based Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch and the London-based Marine Stewardship Council failed to understand the nuances of Maine’s lobster fishery and its ongoing efforts to address the plight of the whales. Nor, they say, did those groups take into account the importance of preserving a way of life that goes back centuries in Maine and is deeply entwined with the state’s economy – to say nothing of its sense of self.
“We’ve talked about it a lot at HospitalityMaine,” said David Turin, chef and owner of longstanding David’s restaurant in Portland and David’s 388 in South Portland, and a board member of the trade association. “We have a conflicting interest, because as hospitality and tourism people in the state of Maine, our brand is: We have a sustainable, eco-friendly Maine. There isn’t anybody in our industry that wants to spoil the environment or kill right whales.”
But, he continued, “the consensus is there doesn’t seem to be the absolute evidence that has the smoking gun pointing at the lobster industry as being the reason the whale has so dropped in population.”
MAINE MENU ICON
For Darcy Smith, owner of Boone’s Fish House & Oyster Room on Commercial Street in Portland’s Old Port, “It’s my livelihood. Lobster is the base of everything we do. We just booked today an 85-person dinner. It’s a full lobster bake. That’s in July. Whether it’s a wedding party that wants to do a lobster bake or people coming in off a (cruise) ship, we will do lobster rolls, baked stuffed lobster, lobster risotto, all of it. That’s all they want.”
Even when lobster isn’t the star, it’s often a draw and a top seller at restaurants around Maine. Turin uses it in lobster rolls, seafood ravioli, seafood pappardelle and to dress up haddock or hake when he has an oversupply of the fillets. “You can add lobster to almost any dish, and it will sell it. You can put lobster on top of a pork chop, and it will sell,” he joked.
SoPo Seafood Market & Raw Bar in South Portland’s Knightville neighborhood sells lobster rolls, lobster roll kits and lobster meat wholesale. “I looked at sales for Christmas week,” co-owner Josh Edgcombe said just after the holiday. “Lobster is one of the top-selling items, revenue-wise. People love their lobster.”
Certainly, customers in Maine expect it. “It’s part of why people come here. It’s part of the experience they take home,” said Barton Seaver, a former fish restaurant chef and a nationally known seafood sustainability expert who lives in South Freeport. “Going to a restaurant in Maine without lobster is like going to a brewery that doesn’t serve their own beer.”
From an economic perspective, the question of whether lobster dishes are moneymakers for Maine restaurants has no simple, one-size-fits-all answer. The calculation is different for the lobster shack than for the restaurant that includes a few chunks of lobster in a single a la carte dish. As a general rule, though, “The margin on lobster is poor but the markup is good,” Turin said. So while the cost of the ingredient may be steep, because menu items with lobster command high prices, they’re typically profitable.
But restaurants and markets, even places like Luke’s Lobster for which lobster is its bread and (drawn) butter, say that survival of an iconic Maine way of life is their chief concern. Who is more at risk, they ask, Maine’s lobstermen and lobstering communities or the right whales?
“To me, the moral question is to take the entire circumstance into account,” Seaver said. “Ultimately, sustainability is a broad context that includes both the biology of marine science as well as the biography of the communities that engage with it. And to say that a charismatic, iconic economic powerhouse of a species such as lobster should be avoided is an enormous statement to make that directly disregards the well-being of an entire community.”
Melissa Kelly, chef/proprietor of Primo in Rockland, has long been famous for her conscientious farm-to-table cooking. At the 5-acre farm attached to her restaurant, she grows much of what she serves as well as the flowers that dress up the dining room. She uses no chemicals or pesticides. The pork comes from the heritage pigs she raises, the eggs and meat from her chickens.
Kelly says she is “constantly” trying to educate herself about the whales and thinks the Seafood Watch and Marine Stewardship Council labeling decisions may have been hasty and based on inaccurate data. Sustainability labels from these organizations are meant to help people determine which seafood is, environmentally speaking, acceptable to buy and eat.
Rockland is the self-proclaimed lobster capital of the world, and Kelly counts lobstermen among her friends and neighbors. On her days off, she often eats at McLoons Lobster Shack in South Thomaston. She serves lobster occasionally at Primo, including on her holiday menu last month. Kelly has taken at-risk fish off her menu before, including cod and wolffish. (So have others, who also cite Maine shrimp, shark and Chilean seabass as fish they no longer serve or sell.) But her own eyes, experiences and expertise tell her that Maine lobstermen are not responsible for the decline of the right whale.
Ben Conniff, who co-founded restaurant chain Luke’s Lobster with Cape Elizabeth native Luke Holden in 2009, shares some of Kelly’s views. The company has 10 locations in the U.S. and Asia, including on Portland’s working waterfront, as well as a branded grocery store business. It buys about 5 million pounds of live lobster a year, Conniff said. To retain its status as a certified B Corporation, the company must meet high standards of environmental and social performance.
“I’m a lifelong environmentalist. I have a huge appreciation for the importance of biodiversity. I wouldn’t have gotten involved in a business that wasn’t sustainability-focused,” Conniff said. He can speak at length and in great detail about the differences between the two labelling processes at Seafood Watch and Marine Stewardship Council, and what he thinks they got wrong. Among many other points, the last whale entanglement that can be traced to Maine “happened five years before we even existed,” he said.
“This (issue) takes up probably the majority of my time, and that’s all time I could be spending making our business better, helping us get out of the lingering mess of COVID, finding more innovative products, and doing more work on the problems we really could fix,” Conniff said, his frustration evident. “Every minute I have to spend defending a fishery against these claims that have no evidence to back them up is time that I can’t spend improving the carbon footprint of the fishery.”
A five-minute walk from Luke’s Lobster, Harbor Fish Market on Custom House Wharf sells hundreds of thousands of pounds of lobsters annually, according to co-owner Nick Alfiero. “You can’t shut down an entire industry and basically shut down an entire state for six years because (our efforts are) not enough for whales,” Alfiero said. “I just have a hard time saying, ‘OK, starting next year we’re not going to trap lobster anymore.’ Give me the answer, environmentalists. Tell me what we are going to do. Shut down the entire industry to protect a whale or two?”
THE DINING PUBLIC
At a cooking class Kelly hosted at Primo recently, she deliberately included her version of a lobster dish that had been served earlier that week at a White House state dinner, where it engendered some national coverage and controversy – delicata squash with tarragon sauce and butter-poached lobster. “I am going to cook that, and I want to talk about it with my guests and see what they feel,” she said she thought as she prepped for the class. “And they were all pro-lobster.”
At David’s restaurants, Turin said a nightly note circulated among managers routinely makes him aware of any problems in the dining rooms. When he took a public stance on a recent, contentious Portland referendum regulating tips for servers, for instance, “I heard about that instantly.” But the question of serving lobster, and what that means for the vanishing population of right whales, hasn’t even come up.
Few Maine diners seem to have reservations about eating lobster – even those who are savvy about the impact of their diets on the environment and say they address that by eating less beef and more local food, foraging for invasive plants and animals or abstaining from dining on (famously intelligent) octopus.
“I haven’t heard any instance where a lobsterman has caused death, or harm, to a right whale,” said retired teacher and Portland resident Barbara Epstein, as she was walking into the Portland location of Whole Foods; the company announced in November that it would stop selling Maine lobster at its 500 stores nationwide. (In January, though, frozen lobster claws labeled from Maine were available at the Portland store; the fishmonger said the market was still using up inventory it had before the announcement was made).
Falmouth resident Susan Geffers, a former vegan and vegetarian who now eats a mostly pescatarian diet, said she’s seen no proof that lobstermen have hurt any whales. “I mean, if they are going to outlaw selling lobsters here, they should also outlaw beef and chicken. To me, it’s not consistent.”
Portland resident Timothy Wilson, who described himself as “very much in tune with what our ecosystem is going through,” said he “understand(s) the plight of the right whale. But I think that the lobstermen need to also survive. We all need to survive.”
THE RIGHT WAY
Short of taking lobster off our tables, other ideas for saving the right whale range from controlling demand to buying seafood from trusted sources.
Kelly blames too much demand for a piece of the problem. “People have lost the flavor of place,” she said. “When you are in New Orleans, you eat gumbo. When you are in the Pacific Northwest, it’s Dungeness crab. When you are in Florida, you eat stone crab, and when you are in Maine, you eat lobster. If people only ate what they should eat in their region, if we didn’t ship food around the world, (our food supply) would be much more sustainable.”
Figuring out the real threat is step one, said Smith, from Boone’s. “We need to identify the problem first, and then fix it,” she said. “I don’t believe we have all the right information. Someone got a hold of a tale, and the telephone message went down the line.”
If there is one thing people on both sides of the debate can probably agree on, it’s that the situation is complicated.
Portland-based Gulf of Maine Research Institute runs a program that advises more than 30 restaurants, as well as grocery stores and school cafeterias, on buying local seafood responsibly. The nonprofit has its own ecolabel, Gulf of Maine Responsibly Harvested. Local lobster still meets its criteria.
In September, GMRI published an informational paper explaining its thinking.
“Sustainability is rarely black and white,” it said. “We will continue to evaluate how the fishing industry works with regulators on solutions and how regulators follow the laws in place to protect whales, and we hope for the best science-based outcomes possible.”
What do Mainers say when it comes to the ethics of eating lobster? Pass the butter
pressherald.com/2023/01/22/what-do-mainers-say-when-it-comes-to-the-ethics-of-eating-lobster-pass-the-butter/By Peggy Grodinsky January 22, 2023
For generations, eating lobster has been a ritual, almost a way of life in Maine. And lobstermen, like lighthouses and Maine’s distinctive rocky coastline, have been synonymous with the state. So when two high-profile conservation nonprofits this fall advised people to stop eating Maine lobster, it felt to some Mainers like an attack on motherhood and blueberry pie.
Conservationists say entanglement in lobster lines is a top threat to the right whale, hastening the chance the critically endangered animal will go extinct. Commercial fishermen blame ship strikes and climate change for the whales’ decline. As with related questions of culinary conscience – whether to eat eggs from caged chickens, beef from ranches that are destroying the Amazon rainforest, or almond milk from thirsty trees in drought-stricken California – the lobster-whale debate raises an ethical dilemma for eaters: Should restaurants be serving Maine lobster, fishmongers be selling it and ordinary people be cracking into the crustacean?
According to Maine chefs, restaurateurs, fishmongers and diners, the answer is: yes. Lobster remains on local restaurant menus, on offer at local fish markets and was recently the centerpiece of many holiday tables around the state. Chefs and fishmongers say they have not seen lobster sales decline, and they have heard little to nothing from customers about the controversy. Food industry professionals were unable to name a single restaurant in Maine that has removed lobster from its menu out of concern for the right whale. And Maine diners say they have no plans to change their eating habits.
Most who are familiar with the issue believe that the California-based Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch and the London-based Marine Stewardship Council failed to understand the nuances of Maine’s lobster fishery and its ongoing efforts to address the plight of the whales. Nor, they say, did those groups take into account the importance of preserving a way of life that goes back centuries in Maine and is deeply entwined with the state’s economy – to say nothing of its sense of self.
“We’ve talked about it a lot at HospitalityMaine,” said David Turin, chef and owner of longstanding David’s restaurant in Portland and David’s 388 in South Portland, and a board member of the trade association. “We have a conflicting interest, because as hospitality and tourism people in the state of Maine, our brand is: We have a sustainable, eco-friendly Maine. There isn’t anybody in our industry that wants to spoil the environment or kill right whales.”
But, he continued, “the consensus is there doesn’t seem to be the absolute evidence that has the smoking gun pointing at the lobster industry as being the reason the whale has so dropped in population.”
MAINE MENU ICON
For Darcy Smith, owner of Boone’s Fish House & Oyster Room on Commercial Street in Portland’s Old Port, “It’s my livelihood. Lobster is the base of everything we do. We just booked today an 85-person dinner. It’s a full lobster bake. That’s in July. Whether it’s a wedding party that wants to do a lobster bake or people coming in off a (cruise) ship, we will do lobster rolls, baked stuffed lobster, lobster risotto, all of it. That’s all they want.”
Even when lobster isn’t the star, it’s often a draw and a top seller at restaurants around Maine. Turin uses it in lobster rolls, seafood ravioli, seafood pappardelle and to dress up haddock or hake when he has an oversupply of the fillets. “You can add lobster to almost any dish, and it will sell it. You can put lobster on top of a pork chop, and it will sell,” he joked.
SoPo Seafood Market & Raw Bar in South Portland’s Knightville neighborhood sells lobster rolls, lobster roll kits and lobster meat wholesale. “I looked at sales for Christmas week,” co-owner Josh Edgcombe said just after the holiday. “Lobster is one of the top-selling items, revenue-wise. People love their lobster.”
Certainly, customers in Maine expect it. “It’s part of why people come here. It’s part of the experience they take home,” said Barton Seaver, a former fish restaurant chef and a nationally known seafood sustainability expert who lives in South Freeport. “Going to a restaurant in Maine without lobster is like going to a brewery that doesn’t serve their own beer.”
From an economic perspective, the question of whether lobster dishes are moneymakers for Maine restaurants has no simple, one-size-fits-all answer. The calculation is different for the lobster shack than for the restaurant that includes a few chunks of lobster in a single a la carte dish. As a general rule, though, “The margin on lobster is poor but the markup is good,” Turin said. So while the cost of the ingredient may be steep, because menu items with lobster command high prices, they’re typically profitable.
But restaurants and markets, even places like Luke’s Lobster for which lobster is its bread and (drawn) butter, say that survival of an iconic Maine way of life is their chief concern. Who is more at risk, they ask, Maine’s lobstermen and lobstering communities or the right whales?
“To me, the moral question is to take the entire circumstance into account,” Seaver said. “Ultimately, sustainability is a broad context that includes both the biology of marine science as well as the biography of the communities that engage with it. And to say that a charismatic, iconic economic powerhouse of a species such as lobster should be avoided is an enormous statement to make that directly disregards the well-being of an entire community.”
Melissa Kelly, chef/proprietor of Primo in Rockland, has long been famous for her conscientious farm-to-table cooking. At the 5-acre farm attached to her restaurant, she grows much of what she serves as well as the flowers that dress up the dining room. She uses no chemicals or pesticides. The pork comes from the heritage pigs she raises, the eggs and meat from her chickens.
Kelly says she is “constantly” trying to educate herself about the whales and thinks the Seafood Watch and Marine Stewardship Council labeling decisions may have been hasty and based on inaccurate data. Sustainability labels from these organizations are meant to help people determine which seafood is, environmentally speaking, acceptable to buy and eat.
Rockland is the self-proclaimed lobster capital of the world, and Kelly counts lobstermen among her friends and neighbors. On her days off, she often eats at McLoons Lobster Shack in South Thomaston. She serves lobster occasionally at Primo, including on her holiday menu last month. Kelly has taken at-risk fish off her menu before, including cod and wolffish. (So have others, who also cite Maine shrimp, shark and Chilean seabass as fish they no longer serve or sell.) But her own eyes, experiences and expertise tell her that Maine lobstermen are not responsible for the decline of the right whale.
Ben Conniff, who co-founded restaurant chain Luke’s Lobster with Cape Elizabeth native Luke Holden in 2009, shares some of Kelly’s views. The company has 10 locations in the U.S. and Asia, including on Portland’s working waterfront, as well as a branded grocery store business. It buys about 5 million pounds of live lobster a year, Conniff said. To retain its status as a certified B Corporation, the company must meet high standards of environmental and social performance.
“I’m a lifelong environmentalist. I have a huge appreciation for the importance of biodiversity. I wouldn’t have gotten involved in a business that wasn’t sustainability-focused,” Conniff said. He can speak at length and in great detail about the differences between the two labelling processes at Seafood Watch and Marine Stewardship Council, and what he thinks they got wrong. Among many other points, the last whale entanglement that can be traced to Maine “happened five years before we even existed,” he said.
“This (issue) takes up probably the majority of my time, and that’s all time I could be spending making our business better, helping us get out of the lingering mess of COVID, finding more innovative products, and doing more work on the problems we really could fix,” Conniff said, his frustration evident. “Every minute I have to spend defending a fishery against these claims that have no evidence to back them up is time that I can’t spend improving the carbon footprint of the fishery.”
A five-minute walk from Luke’s Lobster, Harbor Fish Market on Custom House Wharf sells hundreds of thousands of pounds of lobsters annually, according to co-owner Nick Alfiero. “You can’t shut down an entire industry and basically shut down an entire state for six years because (our efforts are) not enough for whales,” Alfiero said. “I just have a hard time saying, ‘OK, starting next year we’re not going to trap lobster anymore.’ Give me the answer, environmentalists. Tell me what we are going to do. Shut down the entire industry to protect a whale or two?”
THE DINING PUBLIC
At a cooking class Kelly hosted at Primo recently, she deliberately included her version of a lobster dish that had been served earlier that week at a White House state dinner, where it engendered some national coverage and controversy – delicata squash with tarragon sauce and butter-poached lobster. “I am going to cook that, and I want to talk about it with my guests and see what they feel,” she said she thought as she prepped for the class. “And they were all pro-lobster.”
At David’s restaurants, Turin said a nightly note circulated among managers routinely makes him aware of any problems in the dining rooms. When he took a public stance on a recent, contentious Portland referendum regulating tips for servers, for instance, “I heard about that instantly.” But the question of serving lobster, and what that means for the vanishing population of right whales, hasn’t even come up.
Few Maine diners seem to have reservations about eating lobster – even those who are savvy about the impact of their diets on the environment and say they address that by eating less beef and more local food, foraging for invasive plants and animals or abstaining from dining on (famously intelligent) octopus.
“I haven’t heard any instance where a lobsterman has caused death, or harm, to a right whale,” said retired teacher and Portland resident Barbara Epstein, as she was walking into the Portland location of Whole Foods; the company announced in November that it would stop selling Maine lobster at its 500 stores nationwide. (In January, though, frozen lobster claws labeled from Maine were available at the Portland store; the fishmonger said the market was still using up inventory it had before the announcement was made).
Falmouth resident Susan Geffers, a former vegan and vegetarian who now eats a mostly pescatarian diet, said she’s seen no proof that lobstermen have hurt any whales. “I mean, if they are going to outlaw selling lobsters here, they should also outlaw beef and chicken. To me, it’s not consistent.”
Portland resident Timothy Wilson, who described himself as “very much in tune with what our ecosystem is going through,” said he “understand(s) the plight of the right whale. But I think that the lobstermen need to also survive. We all need to survive.”
THE RIGHT WAY
Short of taking lobster off our tables, other ideas for saving the right whale range from controlling demand to buying seafood from trusted sources.
Kelly blames too much demand for a piece of the problem. “People have lost the flavor of place,” she said. “When you are in New Orleans, you eat gumbo. When you are in the Pacific Northwest, it’s Dungeness crab. When you are in Florida, you eat stone crab, and when you are in Maine, you eat lobster. If people only ate what they should eat in their region, if we didn’t ship food around the world, (our food supply) would be much more sustainable.”
Figuring out the real threat is step one, said Smith, from Boone’s. “We need to identify the problem first, and then fix it,” she said. “I don’t believe we have all the right information. Someone got a hold of a tale, and the telephone message went down the line.”
If there is one thing people on both sides of the debate can probably agree on, it’s that the situation is complicated.
Portland-based Gulf of Maine Research Institute runs a program that advises more than 30 restaurants, as well as grocery stores and school cafeterias, on buying local seafood responsibly. The nonprofit has its own ecolabel, Gulf of Maine Responsibly Harvested. Local lobster still meets its criteria.
In September, GMRI published an informational paper explaining its thinking.
“Sustainability is rarely black and white,” it said. “We will continue to evaluate how the fishing industry works with regulators on solutions and how regulators follow the laws in place to protect whales, and we hope for the best science-based outcomes possible.”
Looks like Gosling's Rum has a new "Stormy" for their "Dark and Stormy" labeling...
pressherald.com/2023/01/23/slippery-seal-evades-police-in-snowy-cape-elizabeth/
By Gillian Graham and Megan Gray Staff Writer January 23, 2023
A gray seal pup explores a Cape Elizabeth neighborhood during the storm on Monday morning. Photo courtesy of Cape Elizabeth Police Department
Undeterred by the snow, a wayward gray seal spent Monday morning exploring Cape Elizabeth’s coastal neighborhoods.
A public works employee plowing the Oakhurst Road neighborhood called police at 1:30 a.m. to report an unusual sight: a seal scurrying through the neighborhood.
“An officer responding to the area located the seal in the roadway enjoying the hush of a snowy winter night,” Cape Elizabeth police wrote on Facebook.
Thus began a game of catch-and-release around the town’s coastal neighborhoods. The officer reported the seal to a hotline run by the Marine Mammals of Maine, a nonprofit that responds to stranded marine mammals and sea turtles in southern and Midcoast Maine, and provides triage and rehabilitative care to seals from across New England.
It turns out they already had his number – No. 6, as the young, male gray seal is called in their records. (The organization does not name wild animals and instead identifies them in chronological order of response during the year.) A trained volunteer had responded to a call about the same seal the previous day when he was lounging in a backyard on Oak Knoll Road in Cape Elizabeth.
Lynda Doughty, executive director of Marine Mammals of Maine, said No. 6 weighs about 35 pounds. (An adult can weigh between 800 and 1,000 pounds.) Gray seals are born between December and February, and the mothers leave their pups after just three weeks of lactation. Some, like No. 6, have trouble adjusting during this weaning period.
“They’re in the ocean on their own for the first time and trying to learn how to eat on their own,” Doughty said. “It’s not surprising to find these young animals that come up on the roadways or parking lots.”
She described No. 6 as “on the thinner side, alert, bright and active.” Seeing no injuries or other causes for significant concern, the volunteer who assessed him on Sunday decided to leave him be in the yard, and he eventually returned to the water on his own.
The gray seal pup, a male known as No. 6 by Marine Mammals of Maine, was returned to the ocean several times but kept coming back on shore in a game of catch-and-release with Cape Elizabeth police. Photo courtesy of Cape Elizabeth Police Department
But then he ventured into the road in the middle of the night. Concerned about the danger that posed, the dispatcher advised the officer to capture the seal and bring it to a more protected area in Fort Williams Park, where it was released back into the ocean.
But by 7 a.m., the seal was making its way down Shore Road, “possibly following the delicious scent of Cookie Jar donuts being baked,” police said.
This time, an officer found the seal crossing a lawn on Olde Fort Road. With the help of a bystander, the seal was captured and brought back to the beach at Fort Williams Park.
But the seal wasn’t done exploring Cape Elizabeth.
An hour later, the young pup was spotted in Fort Williams. An officer and several citizens captured the seal and released it back into the ocean.
“This time, the seal swam off in search of bigger and better adventures,” police said.
After No. 6 came back ashore Monday afternoon, Marine Mammals of Maine decided it would be best to bring him to its rehab center in Brunswick, where the rescue organization will keep him on fluids and come up with a nutrition plan. The 35-pound pup was likely recently weaned from his mother and it wasn’t clear if had been successful at eating fish in the wild. Courtesy of Lynda Doughty at Marine Mammals of Maine
A STINT AT REHAB CENTER
Doughty said Marine Mammals of Maine was in touch with the police during the response, and the officer did the right thing by calling the group’s hotline for stranded animals. A volunteer went to the park Monday afternoon to do another assessment of the seal and found him yet again on the run.
“The animal was in the Fort Williams parking lot, headed away from the water,” she said.
So the organization decided to bring the seal to its rehab center in Brunswick. It’s too soon to know whether he has been successful at eating fish in the wild, but they’ll keep him on fluids for a couple of days and make a treatment plan for his nutrition. Doughty said she expects him to have a relatively short stay of one or two months.
A young gray seal rests at Marine Mammals of Maine after he was taken in by the group Monday. Courtesy of Lynda Doughty at Marine Mammals of Maine
Three other gray seals are at the rehab center right now, but No. 6 is getting some rest on his own so far.
“With all his travels, he’s been snoozing quite a bit,” Doughty said.
Slippery seal turns the tide on Cape Elizabeth police
pressherald.com/2023/01/23/slippery-seal-evades-police-in-snowy-cape-elizabeth/By Gillian Graham and Megan Gray Staff Writer January 23, 2023
A gray seal pup explores a Cape Elizabeth neighborhood during the storm on Monday morning. Photo courtesy of Cape Elizabeth Police Department
Undeterred by the snow, a wayward gray seal spent Monday morning exploring Cape Elizabeth’s coastal neighborhoods.
A public works employee plowing the Oakhurst Road neighborhood called police at 1:30 a.m. to report an unusual sight: a seal scurrying through the neighborhood.
“An officer responding to the area located the seal in the roadway enjoying the hush of a snowy winter night,” Cape Elizabeth police wrote on Facebook.
Thus began a game of catch-and-release around the town’s coastal neighborhoods. The officer reported the seal to a hotline run by the Marine Mammals of Maine, a nonprofit that responds to stranded marine mammals and sea turtles in southern and Midcoast Maine, and provides triage and rehabilitative care to seals from across New England.
It turns out they already had his number – No. 6, as the young, male gray seal is called in their records. (The organization does not name wild animals and instead identifies them in chronological order of response during the year.) A trained volunteer had responded to a call about the same seal the previous day when he was lounging in a backyard on Oak Knoll Road in Cape Elizabeth.
Lynda Doughty, executive director of Marine Mammals of Maine, said No. 6 weighs about 35 pounds. (An adult can weigh between 800 and 1,000 pounds.) Gray seals are born between December and February, and the mothers leave their pups after just three weeks of lactation. Some, like No. 6, have trouble adjusting during this weaning period.
“They’re in the ocean on their own for the first time and trying to learn how to eat on their own,” Doughty said. “It’s not surprising to find these young animals that come up on the roadways or parking lots.”
She described No. 6 as “on the thinner side, alert, bright and active.” Seeing no injuries or other causes for significant concern, the volunteer who assessed him on Sunday decided to leave him be in the yard, and he eventually returned to the water on his own.
The gray seal pup, a male known as No. 6 by Marine Mammals of Maine, was returned to the ocean several times but kept coming back on shore in a game of catch-and-release with Cape Elizabeth police. Photo courtesy of Cape Elizabeth Police Department
But then he ventured into the road in the middle of the night. Concerned about the danger that posed, the dispatcher advised the officer to capture the seal and bring it to a more protected area in Fort Williams Park, where it was released back into the ocean.
But by 7 a.m., the seal was making its way down Shore Road, “possibly following the delicious scent of Cookie Jar donuts being baked,” police said.
This time, an officer found the seal crossing a lawn on Olde Fort Road. With the help of a bystander, the seal was captured and brought back to the beach at Fort Williams Park.
But the seal wasn’t done exploring Cape Elizabeth.
An hour later, the young pup was spotted in Fort Williams. An officer and several citizens captured the seal and released it back into the ocean.
“This time, the seal swam off in search of bigger and better adventures,” police said.
After No. 6 came back ashore Monday afternoon, Marine Mammals of Maine decided it would be best to bring him to its rehab center in Brunswick, where the rescue organization will keep him on fluids and come up with a nutrition plan. The 35-pound pup was likely recently weaned from his mother and it wasn’t clear if had been successful at eating fish in the wild. Courtesy of Lynda Doughty at Marine Mammals of Maine
A STINT AT REHAB CENTER
Doughty said Marine Mammals of Maine was in touch with the police during the response, and the officer did the right thing by calling the group’s hotline for stranded animals. A volunteer went to the park Monday afternoon to do another assessment of the seal and found him yet again on the run.
“The animal was in the Fort Williams parking lot, headed away from the water,” she said.
So the organization decided to bring the seal to its rehab center in Brunswick. It’s too soon to know whether he has been successful at eating fish in the wild, but they’ll keep him on fluids for a couple of days and make a treatment plan for his nutrition. Doughty said she expects him to have a relatively short stay of one or two months.
A young gray seal rests at Marine Mammals of Maine after he was taken in by the group Monday. Courtesy of Lynda Doughty at Marine Mammals of Maine
Three other gray seals are at the rehab center right now, but No. 6 is getting some rest on his own so far.
“With all his travels, he’s been snoozing quite a bit,” Doughty said.
More a "Rural America" than an "Only In Maine" problem of remote areas where the main source of employment has disappeared. At least in Maine it's a bit easier to do since there are many unincorporated areas...
pressherald.com/2023/01/30/can-a-town-just-dissolve-dennysville-considers-de-organizing/
By JOYCE KRYSZAK January 30, 2023
Dennysville Third Selectwoman Violet Willis say funding for services is only part of the town’s problem. Several town officials are set to retire or step down and no one has expressed an interest in replacing them. Alan Kryszak
Once a thriving lumber community that dates back to the late 1700s, the humble town of Dennysville in far Downeast Maine now could be easily overlooked. Travelers zip along U.S. Route 1 on their way to busier, more prosperous places, such as the city of Calais, 50 minutes farther east at the Canadian border.
But wander left onto Route 86 and you’ll find the quaint town of Dennysville and its 326 residents tucked away on hilly residential streets that meander along the Dennys River, and ramble to the Cobscook shore. Majestic snow-laden pines, rippling streams, and historic buildings create a picturesque scene not unlike a Currier and Ives painting.
“A historian visiting here once said Dennysville is like a fly in amber, frozen in time,” said Ronald Windhorst, president of the Dennysville Historical Society and pastor of the Dennysville Congregational Church.
That obscurity, along with a dwindling population – down 34% over the last 10 years – and harsh economic times, provide limited resources for sustaining town services. A $7 million estimate last year for crucial road repairs was just the most recent hit.
The town has $88,000 in its budget of just $450,000 of appropriations to cover all road expenses. The disparity, coupled with other drains on the coffers and ever-higher taxes, led Dennysville’s town officials to make a tough decision – recommending to residents that the town de-organize and turn their burdens over to the state.
Dennysville’s selectboard members held a town meeting last fall to lay out the fiscal realities and asked residents how they’d feel about dissolving Dennysville as an independent town. First Selectwoman Dawn Noonan said about 20 residents attended, many expressing interest in pursuing de-organization.
“That’s the only option we have at this point in time,” she said. “We have so many people in town that are on fixed incomes, elderly people, some who can’t afford the taxes now.”
The rural Washington County town has no substantial industry, other than a handful of small businesses. There’s a library, a museum, and a church. Children attend schools in other towns. The median income is $36,429, according to the 2022 U.S. Census. Eastport is 20 miles away, Lubec is 25.
Adding to the town’s fiscal woes, some of its most valuable properties are being scooped up by the Butler Foundation to expand its Cobscook Shores conservation efforts. Forty-three acres purchased in Dennysville last year by the philanthropic group have already been converted to non-taxable shoreline parkland, costing the town $2,587 in lost tax revenue.
Unorganized territories common in Maine
If it succeeds in dissolving, Dennysville would be in good company. About half of Washington County is unorganized territory. Half of the state is also comprised of unorganized territories.
To date, 53 towns have reverted to unorganized status, with Washington County leading the pack with 11 de-organizations, including the Codyville Plantation, which de-organized in 2019. Magalloway Plantation in Oxford County is the most recent in 2021, but the trend dates back to 1878 when Township 6N of Weld in Franklin County signed away its autonomy.
Despite ample precedent, after contacting the state, Noonan found out it’s not as simple as just handing over the reins.
“It is a very serious decision for a municipality,” said Nancy Bodine, Maine’s fiscal administrator for unorganized territories. “And the process with all of its steps can take from two to three years.”
The 12-step process includes a raft of requirements town officials must fulfill, beginning with a petition. Before moving on, officials must succeed in getting at least 50% of the residents who voted in the last gubernatorial election to sign in favor of de-organization.
In Dennysville’s case that formula means 77 people would have to vote for de-organization. Noonan is currently in the process of drawing up the petition, which will be circulated among residents in a few weeks.
That hurdle, however, is only the first step in the grueling process. Among other requirements, subsequent steps call for: additional town-wide meetings, information gathering, notices to the state and legislature, a detailed plan of what services will be turned over to the state, an accounting of liabilities and assets, an education and a land use plan.
Three blind-ballot votes by residents are required at various points throughout the process, as well as a vote by the legislature to either approve or disapprove the town’s de-organization.
The voting requirement is a tough gauntlet, with a majority of residents needing to vote affirmatively for the process to proceed at each point. A majority nay vote at any point stops the effort cold, no matter how far along. If the plan survives past the first 11 steps, the bar for the final vote is even higher, with two-thirds of residents needed to approve the de-organization.
‘It shouldn’t be easy’
Washington County Manager Betsy Fitzgerald knows first-hand how difficult it is to de-organize after assisting the Codyville Plantation’s nine residents – yes, nine – with their de-organization.
“I was with them the whole time, not for the county, but just helping them get through the maze,” Fitzgerald said. “So, it’s not easy, but it shouldn’t be easy.”
Once a town de-organizes, Fitzgerald and Bodine say residents lose any voting rights or decisions regarding town affairs, including zoning decisions and property assessments. Those duties, along with any others outlined in the de-organization plan, become the responsibility of the Maine’s Department of Unorganized Territories (UT), overseen by UT supervisors in each county.
Drew Plantation in Penobscot County, with 26 residents, is at the final stage in the multi-year process. Others, however, have failed, sometimes by as little as one vote. Still other towns voluntarily bow out of the process, such as Hanover in Oxford County. According to Bodine, Hanover ended up at the very beginning of the process voting not to pursue the de-organization. She said sometimes towns discover solutions for maintaining their municipal status as a result of the exhaustive process of information gathering.
But in Dennysville, First Selectwoman Noonan and Third Selectwoman Violet Willis say there are challenges money alone can’t fix, such as who will run the town when their terms expire within the next couple of years. So far, they say no one is stepping forward. And the town clerk, who is in her 80s, will soon retire, too.
Driving along Dennysville’s 15 square miles of roads to point out the most damaged thoroughfares, Willis takes a minute to check out a culvert that’s been backed up by over-eager beavers. A little farther along, she takes note of a missing stop sign.
“If something like the roads don’t get plowed, I’ll get Facebook messages with people asking, ‘Violet, what’s going on with the roads’,” Willis said. “It’s a lot of responsibility.”
So far, residents seem to be taking a wait and see attitude, hoping to learn more as the process goes on, including life-long resident Wayne Garnett, fire chief for the Dennysville Volunteer Fire Department.
“I really don’t know if it’s probably good or bad,” Garnett said. “I mean, I’m not sure making a big move is gonna stop taxes from going up. You don’t get anything for free, you still got to pay taxes.”
Ironically, according to Bodine, whether residents will pay more or less wouldn’t be determined until after a de-organization is finalized and the county’s UT officials perform new property assessments. But she said the most important thing town officials can do is communicate with residents throughout the process to make sure everyone understands what is being proposed and how services will be delivered if de-organization is approved.
“I want the town to do what the town wants to do. I’m not here to push anything on anybody,” Noonan said. “I just hope everybody can come together to make the decision.”
Can a town just dissolve? Dennysville considers de-organizing
pressherald.com/2023/01/30/can-a-town-just-dissolve-dennysville-considers-de-organizing/By JOYCE KRYSZAK January 30, 2023
Dennysville Third Selectwoman Violet Willis say funding for services is only part of the town’s problem. Several town officials are set to retire or step down and no one has expressed an interest in replacing them. Alan Kryszak
Once a thriving lumber community that dates back to the late 1700s, the humble town of Dennysville in far Downeast Maine now could be easily overlooked. Travelers zip along U.S. Route 1 on their way to busier, more prosperous places, such as the city of Calais, 50 minutes farther east at the Canadian border.
But wander left onto Route 86 and you’ll find the quaint town of Dennysville and its 326 residents tucked away on hilly residential streets that meander along the Dennys River, and ramble to the Cobscook shore. Majestic snow-laden pines, rippling streams, and historic buildings create a picturesque scene not unlike a Currier and Ives painting.
“A historian visiting here once said Dennysville is like a fly in amber, frozen in time,” said Ronald Windhorst, president of the Dennysville Historical Society and pastor of the Dennysville Congregational Church.
That obscurity, along with a dwindling population – down 34% over the last 10 years – and harsh economic times, provide limited resources for sustaining town services. A $7 million estimate last year for crucial road repairs was just the most recent hit.
The town has $88,000 in its budget of just $450,000 of appropriations to cover all road expenses. The disparity, coupled with other drains on the coffers and ever-higher taxes, led Dennysville’s town officials to make a tough decision – recommending to residents that the town de-organize and turn their burdens over to the state.
Dennysville’s selectboard members held a town meeting last fall to lay out the fiscal realities and asked residents how they’d feel about dissolving Dennysville as an independent town. First Selectwoman Dawn Noonan said about 20 residents attended, many expressing interest in pursuing de-organization.
“That’s the only option we have at this point in time,” she said. “We have so many people in town that are on fixed incomes, elderly people, some who can’t afford the taxes now.”
The rural Washington County town has no substantial industry, other than a handful of small businesses. There’s a library, a museum, and a church. Children attend schools in other towns. The median income is $36,429, according to the 2022 U.S. Census. Eastport is 20 miles away, Lubec is 25.
Adding to the town’s fiscal woes, some of its most valuable properties are being scooped up by the Butler Foundation to expand its Cobscook Shores conservation efforts. Forty-three acres purchased in Dennysville last year by the philanthropic group have already been converted to non-taxable shoreline parkland, costing the town $2,587 in lost tax revenue.
Unorganized territories common in Maine
If it succeeds in dissolving, Dennysville would be in good company. About half of Washington County is unorganized territory. Half of the state is also comprised of unorganized territories.
To date, 53 towns have reverted to unorganized status, with Washington County leading the pack with 11 de-organizations, including the Codyville Plantation, which de-organized in 2019. Magalloway Plantation in Oxford County is the most recent in 2021, but the trend dates back to 1878 when Township 6N of Weld in Franklin County signed away its autonomy.
Despite ample precedent, after contacting the state, Noonan found out it’s not as simple as just handing over the reins.
“It is a very serious decision for a municipality,” said Nancy Bodine, Maine’s fiscal administrator for unorganized territories. “And the process with all of its steps can take from two to three years.”
The 12-step process includes a raft of requirements town officials must fulfill, beginning with a petition. Before moving on, officials must succeed in getting at least 50% of the residents who voted in the last gubernatorial election to sign in favor of de-organization.
In Dennysville’s case that formula means 77 people would have to vote for de-organization. Noonan is currently in the process of drawing up the petition, which will be circulated among residents in a few weeks.
That hurdle, however, is only the first step in the grueling process. Among other requirements, subsequent steps call for: additional town-wide meetings, information gathering, notices to the state and legislature, a detailed plan of what services will be turned over to the state, an accounting of liabilities and assets, an education and a land use plan.
Three blind-ballot votes by residents are required at various points throughout the process, as well as a vote by the legislature to either approve or disapprove the town’s de-organization.
The voting requirement is a tough gauntlet, with a majority of residents needing to vote affirmatively for the process to proceed at each point. A majority nay vote at any point stops the effort cold, no matter how far along. If the plan survives past the first 11 steps, the bar for the final vote is even higher, with two-thirds of residents needed to approve the de-organization.
‘It shouldn’t be easy’
Washington County Manager Betsy Fitzgerald knows first-hand how difficult it is to de-organize after assisting the Codyville Plantation’s nine residents – yes, nine – with their de-organization.
“I was with them the whole time, not for the county, but just helping them get through the maze,” Fitzgerald said. “So, it’s not easy, but it shouldn’t be easy.”
Once a town de-organizes, Fitzgerald and Bodine say residents lose any voting rights or decisions regarding town affairs, including zoning decisions and property assessments. Those duties, along with any others outlined in the de-organization plan, become the responsibility of the Maine’s Department of Unorganized Territories (UT), overseen by UT supervisors in each county.
Drew Plantation in Penobscot County, with 26 residents, is at the final stage in the multi-year process. Others, however, have failed, sometimes by as little as one vote. Still other towns voluntarily bow out of the process, such as Hanover in Oxford County. According to Bodine, Hanover ended up at the very beginning of the process voting not to pursue the de-organization. She said sometimes towns discover solutions for maintaining their municipal status as a result of the exhaustive process of information gathering.
But in Dennysville, First Selectwoman Noonan and Third Selectwoman Violet Willis say there are challenges money alone can’t fix, such as who will run the town when their terms expire within the next couple of years. So far, they say no one is stepping forward. And the town clerk, who is in her 80s, will soon retire, too.
Driving along Dennysville’s 15 square miles of roads to point out the most damaged thoroughfares, Willis takes a minute to check out a culvert that’s been backed up by over-eager beavers. A little farther along, she takes note of a missing stop sign.
“If something like the roads don’t get plowed, I’ll get Facebook messages with people asking, ‘Violet, what’s going on with the roads’,” Willis said. “It’s a lot of responsibility.”
So far, residents seem to be taking a wait and see attitude, hoping to learn more as the process goes on, including life-long resident Wayne Garnett, fire chief for the Dennysville Volunteer Fire Department.
“I really don’t know if it’s probably good or bad,” Garnett said. “I mean, I’m not sure making a big move is gonna stop taxes from going up. You don’t get anything for free, you still got to pay taxes.”
Ironically, according to Bodine, whether residents will pay more or less wouldn’t be determined until after a de-organization is finalized and the county’s UT officials perform new property assessments. But she said the most important thing town officials can do is communicate with residents throughout the process to make sure everyone understands what is being proposed and how services will be delivered if de-organization is approved.
“I want the town to do what the town wants to do. I’m not here to push anything on anybody,” Noonan said. “I just hope everybody can come together to make the decision.”
Damn, no matter how hard I try, more and more people from away are moving up here. Here's some bad news, right now the wind chill in Searsport is -32°F!! Go down and visit the Market Lady Onacock...
SEARSPORT, Maine — In 2019, when Celine Kelley’s daughter was born, there were 13 births and 31 deaths in the coastal town of Searsport — a familiar phenomenon in a state where deaths had outpaced births for more than a decade.
But the pandemic brought a countervailing force. Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire have seen an uptick in new residents arriving from other states, more than 50,000 across the three states since April 2020, even as other Northeastern states — and especially large metro areas — have experienced a surge in out-migration. While experts say it is unclear if the blip will become a lasting trend in largely rural northern New England, Ms. Kelley already sees both good and bad effects.
With more children showing up, she said, it feels more certain that her 3-year-old will have activities to join, from youth soccer to Easter egg hunts in the park. But Ms. Kelley also owns a cafe and bakery in Searsport, a town of 2,600 about two hours north of Portland, and as she watches her employees struggle to find housing in a market gone wild, she worries about unintended consequences.
One of her kitchen workers just moved back in with his parents, she said; another lives in a house with no running water, unable to afford rent elsewhere while making repairs. Many residents make do in drafty, run-down trailers.
“No one can just work and save and buy a home,” Ms. Kelley said. “No one I know in their 20s can afford to rent an apartment on their own.”
Population shifts — even small ones — carry high stakes in this rural, sparsely populated state, and across northern New England, where leaders have worried for years about a so-called “silver tsunami” with implications for the economy and the fate of rural communities. Maine had the oldest population in the nation in 2020 (Vermont and New Hampshire ranked in the top 10) and one of the lowest birthrates; the only consistent population growth has been among those 65 and older.
But the latest census numbers suggest Maine has been thrown an unexpected lifeline. In a milestone few would have imagined a few years ago, it was the only state in the country where the median age declined from 2020 to 2021, the state economist said, largely the result of younger people moving in.
This turn of events has received enthusiastic notice from leaders including Gov. Janet Mills, who heralded the burst of new arrivals — which gave Maine the seventh-highest in-migration rate in the country, ranking among Sun Belt states like Florida, Arizona and North Carolina — in her recent inaugural address.
“For decades we’ve been complaining about a brain drain, young people leaving, and we’re turning that around,” Ms. Mills said in an interview. “We’re excited about people coming to Maine, and we want to make sure it remains affordable.”
In Searsport, known for its seafaring heritage and museum of maritime history, the effects of the influx have been far-reaching. Housing prices were already on the rise before the pandemic struck, but the sudden surge in interest from outsiders cranked up new pressure on the market.
The median sales price for a home in Waldo County, where Searsport perches at the edge of Penobscot Bay, ballooned to $292,000 in 2022 from $181,500 in 2019, an increase of 60 percent, according to the Maine Association of Realtors. As eager out-of-state buyers snapped up desirable properties sight unseen, relying on video tours and waiving inspections, the supply of available housing drastically contracted.
Three years into the pandemic, outside interest in the region remains strong. “Normally, this would be a quiet time, and I would be in Florida,” said Fran Riley, a longtime area real estate agent who spent January working instead.
The frenzy has frozen many renters and would-be buyers in place, preventing them from entering the market. The squeeze affects not just waitresses and other low-wage earners, but a wide spectrum of workers including Searsport’s library director, Sue McClintock, who said she would like to sell her house and buy a new one but finds herself stymied by out-of-reach prices.
In every Maine county except one, “the average house price is unaffordable to the average income household,” according to a report last fall by the state housing authority.
Given the shortage of affordable housing near Searsport, Ariel Grotton feels lucky to live with her husband and three young children in a studio apartment in a family member’s basement. But after several years of saving money and building her credit score in hopes of buying a house, Ms. Grotton, 28, recently deleted the Zillow app on her phone, weary of looking at homes she can’t afford.
“If I think about it too much, I just get anxious and depressed, because I want better for my kids, and myself,” she said.
The latest state budget proposed by Governor Mills includes $30 million for new affordable housing, targeting rural areas, on top of $70 million in new investments last year.
Experts say it is too soon to know if pandemic-driven population gains will continue, hold steady or dwindle as newcomers change their minds, driven off by long winters, a lack of suburban amenities or a tightening of remote-work policies.
“I never believe someone will stay until they’ve made it through two winters,” said Ms. Kelley, the bakery owner, who grew up near Seattle and moved to Maine in 2012 to be near her husband’s family.
Andrew Crawley, an economist at the University of Maine who is scrutinizing housing, labor and school data for clues to the future, said the number of workers in the state is still down since the pandemic. School enrollment may be ticking up, he added, but so far, the results are inconclusive.
“For now, it’s a blip, not a trend — but even as a blip, it’s incredible, and if it holds steady, then it’s huge,” Mr. Crawley said. “For those arguing we need more people, more nurses, more teachers, more plumbers, this is good news; the question is if it will continue.”
The blip may mean the most in the state’s farthest reaches, like Washington County, the easternmost place in the United States, which has steadily lost population since the 1990s. Even there, 300 miles from Boston, newcomers have been popping up, and median home prices have crossed the $200,000 mark.
“Rural America has been found again, and it’s an opportunity for us,” said Chris Gardner, a county commissioner who hopes the state will seize the moment and send recruiters nationwide to tout Maine’s charms. “Second-home buyers are welcome, but we’re hoping to get real, year-round community members to grow our strength.”
Across the country, movement out of major metropolitan areas more than tripled between 2020 and 2021, census data shows, driven by factors including the freedom of some professionals to work anywhere, a desire to flee densely populated areas for health reasons, and, for some, a new focus on quality of life.
Massachusetts, New York, Connecticut and Rhode Island all lost population to out-migration — by more than 100,000 in Massachusetts and more than 600,000 in New York — from April 2020 to July 2022, the same period when arriving migrants shored up populations to the north, by 30,000 in Maine, 16,000 in New Hampshire and 6,000 in Vermont.
Among those who fled the Boston area for Searsport were Arnaud and Allison Lessard. When the world shut down in 2020 and quiet descended, Mr. Lessard heard with sudden clarity the question he had pushed aside for years: How did he really want to spend the rest of his life?
The answer crystallized quickly — and it did not include a four-hour commute in peak Boston traffic. Within a few months, the Lessards hatched a plan to quit their corporate jobs, sell their suburban home outside the city, and pursue a decades-long dream of running an inn and restaurant with their close friend Kip Dixon, a chef who made the leap to Maine with them.
“We said, that’s it — we’re going to do the things we want to do with the time we have left,” said Mr. Lessard, 46, now a proud owner of the lovingly restored Homeport Inn and Tavern, a former sea captain’s home built in 1861.
The new owners committed to keep the restaurant open all winter, and won a local following, with bowls of expert gumbo and crawfish étouffée prepared by Dixon, a Mobile, Ala. native, and live music five nights a week. On a Thursday night in January, with snow falling steadily outside and a Celtic band set to play, there were 26 dinner reservations.
Down the road in the village center, patrons also braved the snow to gather at Hey Sailor!, a “gastro dive bar” serving tacos, arepas and $15 craft cocktails in a cozy space with an artsy, upscale vibe. The area’s newer residents have given a boost to the year-old business, which will soon expand into an adjacent space, said Kirk Linder, who started the restaurant with his husband, Charlie Zorich, after they moved to Maine from Portland, Ore., in 2017.
New businesses bring new jobs, though the lack of housing can make workers hard to keep. Frustrated by job vacancies, one restaurant owner in Lincolnville, 20 miles south of Searsport, bought an inn last year to house employees — a solution few here can afford.
Ms. Grotton said her family of five is on a waiting list for an affordable apartment complex nearby. Larger units are hard to come by, but she hopes a spot will open up before her children, now 8, 5 and 3, need more space and privacy.
She noted another link between population and housing: “I know people who stopped having kids,” she said, “because they’ve seen how the rest of us struggle.”
In Maine, a Rare Influx of New Residents, and a Housing Crunch
New arrivals over the last few years have fueled hopes of population growth, but workers increasingly struggle to find housing in a market gone wild.SEARSPORT, Maine — In 2019, when Celine Kelley’s daughter was born, there were 13 births and 31 deaths in the coastal town of Searsport — a familiar phenomenon in a state where deaths had outpaced births for more than a decade.
But the pandemic brought a countervailing force. Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire have seen an uptick in new residents arriving from other states, more than 50,000 across the three states since April 2020, even as other Northeastern states — and especially large metro areas — have experienced a surge in out-migration. While experts say it is unclear if the blip will become a lasting trend in largely rural northern New England, Ms. Kelley already sees both good and bad effects.
With more children showing up, she said, it feels more certain that her 3-year-old will have activities to join, from youth soccer to Easter egg hunts in the park. But Ms. Kelley also owns a cafe and bakery in Searsport, a town of 2,600 about two hours north of Portland, and as she watches her employees struggle to find housing in a market gone wild, she worries about unintended consequences.
One of her kitchen workers just moved back in with his parents, she said; another lives in a house with no running water, unable to afford rent elsewhere while making repairs. Many residents make do in drafty, run-down trailers.
“No one can just work and save and buy a home,” Ms. Kelley said. “No one I know in their 20s can afford to rent an apartment on their own.”
Population shifts — even small ones — carry high stakes in this rural, sparsely populated state, and across northern New England, where leaders have worried for years about a so-called “silver tsunami” with implications for the economy and the fate of rural communities. Maine had the oldest population in the nation in 2020 (Vermont and New Hampshire ranked in the top 10) and one of the lowest birthrates; the only consistent population growth has been among those 65 and older.
But the latest census numbers suggest Maine has been thrown an unexpected lifeline. In a milestone few would have imagined a few years ago, it was the only state in the country where the median age declined from 2020 to 2021, the state economist said, largely the result of younger people moving in.
This turn of events has received enthusiastic notice from leaders including Gov. Janet Mills, who heralded the burst of new arrivals — which gave Maine the seventh-highest in-migration rate in the country, ranking among Sun Belt states like Florida, Arizona and North Carolina — in her recent inaugural address.
“For decades we’ve been complaining about a brain drain, young people leaving, and we’re turning that around,” Ms. Mills said in an interview. “We’re excited about people coming to Maine, and we want to make sure it remains affordable.”
In Searsport, known for its seafaring heritage and museum of maritime history, the effects of the influx have been far-reaching. Housing prices were already on the rise before the pandemic struck, but the sudden surge in interest from outsiders cranked up new pressure on the market.
The median sales price for a home in Waldo County, where Searsport perches at the edge of Penobscot Bay, ballooned to $292,000 in 2022 from $181,500 in 2019, an increase of 60 percent, according to the Maine Association of Realtors. As eager out-of-state buyers snapped up desirable properties sight unseen, relying on video tours and waiving inspections, the supply of available housing drastically contracted.
Three years into the pandemic, outside interest in the region remains strong. “Normally, this would be a quiet time, and I would be in Florida,” said Fran Riley, a longtime area real estate agent who spent January working instead.
The frenzy has frozen many renters and would-be buyers in place, preventing them from entering the market. The squeeze affects not just waitresses and other low-wage earners, but a wide spectrum of workers including Searsport’s library director, Sue McClintock, who said she would like to sell her house and buy a new one but finds herself stymied by out-of-reach prices.
In every Maine county except one, “the average house price is unaffordable to the average income household,” according to a report last fall by the state housing authority.
Given the shortage of affordable housing near Searsport, Ariel Grotton feels lucky to live with her husband and three young children in a studio apartment in a family member’s basement. But after several years of saving money and building her credit score in hopes of buying a house, Ms. Grotton, 28, recently deleted the Zillow app on her phone, weary of looking at homes she can’t afford.
“If I think about it too much, I just get anxious and depressed, because I want better for my kids, and myself,” she said.
The latest state budget proposed by Governor Mills includes $30 million for new affordable housing, targeting rural areas, on top of $70 million in new investments last year.
Experts say it is too soon to know if pandemic-driven population gains will continue, hold steady or dwindle as newcomers change their minds, driven off by long winters, a lack of suburban amenities or a tightening of remote-work policies.
“I never believe someone will stay until they’ve made it through two winters,” said Ms. Kelley, the bakery owner, who grew up near Seattle and moved to Maine in 2012 to be near her husband’s family.
Andrew Crawley, an economist at the University of Maine who is scrutinizing housing, labor and school data for clues to the future, said the number of workers in the state is still down since the pandemic. School enrollment may be ticking up, he added, but so far, the results are inconclusive.
“For now, it’s a blip, not a trend — but even as a blip, it’s incredible, and if it holds steady, then it’s huge,” Mr. Crawley said. “For those arguing we need more people, more nurses, more teachers, more plumbers, this is good news; the question is if it will continue.”
The blip may mean the most in the state’s farthest reaches, like Washington County, the easternmost place in the United States, which has steadily lost population since the 1990s. Even there, 300 miles from Boston, newcomers have been popping up, and median home prices have crossed the $200,000 mark.
“Rural America has been found again, and it’s an opportunity for us,” said Chris Gardner, a county commissioner who hopes the state will seize the moment and send recruiters nationwide to tout Maine’s charms. “Second-home buyers are welcome, but we’re hoping to get real, year-round community members to grow our strength.”
Across the country, movement out of major metropolitan areas more than tripled between 2020 and 2021, census data shows, driven by factors including the freedom of some professionals to work anywhere, a desire to flee densely populated areas for health reasons, and, for some, a new focus on quality of life.
Massachusetts, New York, Connecticut and Rhode Island all lost population to out-migration — by more than 100,000 in Massachusetts and more than 600,000 in New York — from April 2020 to July 2022, the same period when arriving migrants shored up populations to the north, by 30,000 in Maine, 16,000 in New Hampshire and 6,000 in Vermont.
Among those who fled the Boston area for Searsport were Arnaud and Allison Lessard. When the world shut down in 2020 and quiet descended, Mr. Lessard heard with sudden clarity the question he had pushed aside for years: How did he really want to spend the rest of his life?
The answer crystallized quickly — and it did not include a four-hour commute in peak Boston traffic. Within a few months, the Lessards hatched a plan to quit their corporate jobs, sell their suburban home outside the city, and pursue a decades-long dream of running an inn and restaurant with their close friend Kip Dixon, a chef who made the leap to Maine with them.
“We said, that’s it — we’re going to do the things we want to do with the time we have left,” said Mr. Lessard, 46, now a proud owner of the lovingly restored Homeport Inn and Tavern, a former sea captain’s home built in 1861.
The new owners committed to keep the restaurant open all winter, and won a local following, with bowls of expert gumbo and crawfish étouffée prepared by Dixon, a Mobile, Ala. native, and live music five nights a week. On a Thursday night in January, with snow falling steadily outside and a Celtic band set to play, there were 26 dinner reservations.
Down the road in the village center, patrons also braved the snow to gather at Hey Sailor!, a “gastro dive bar” serving tacos, arepas and $15 craft cocktails in a cozy space with an artsy, upscale vibe. The area’s newer residents have given a boost to the year-old business, which will soon expand into an adjacent space, said Kirk Linder, who started the restaurant with his husband, Charlie Zorich, after they moved to Maine from Portland, Ore., in 2017.
New businesses bring new jobs, though the lack of housing can make workers hard to keep. Frustrated by job vacancies, one restaurant owner in Lincolnville, 20 miles south of Searsport, bought an inn last year to house employees — a solution few here can afford.
Ms. Grotton said her family of five is on a waiting list for an affordable apartment complex nearby. Larger units are hard to come by, but she hopes a spot will open up before her children, now 8, 5 and 3, need more space and privacy.
She noted another link between population and housing: “I know people who stopped having kids,” she said, “because they’ve seen how the rest of us struggle.”
Goodbye and Good Riddance, My Little Chickadee???
All for this, love the "old" flag and wished that went back to that instead of the unoriginal State Seal that most states have on their flag. @Old Mud - Your thoughts?
pressherald.com/2023/02/14/state-mulls-plan-for-new-license-plate-replacing-chickadee-with-1901-flag/
By Hannah LaClaire February 14, 2023
The new plate features the design of the 1901 Maine flag. Photo courtesy of Office of Secretary of State
Maine’s longtime chickadee license plate may be endangered.
State officials on Tuesday released a proposal for a new vehicle registration plate incorporating the pine tree image from the state’s historic 1901 flag. The proposed plate would succeed the chickadee design and would feature a buff background, a navy blue star and a dark green pine tree.
The new plate would still display the state’s nickname, Vacationland, across the bottom.
“License plates serve not only to identify vehicles, but are a way of expressing our love for our state,” Secretary of State Shenna Bellows said in a statement. “We’re excited to present this new design proposal for the coming license plate reissuance.”
Maine’s chickadee license plate. Photo courtesy of Maine.gov
Maine’s chickadee plate has been in circulation since 1999.
After 24 years, many of the plates have deteriorated beyond identification, creating safety concerns, the Bureau of Motor Vehicles said.
Poor-quality plates can hinder the effectiveness of law enforcement officers, who rely on identifying plates to solve and prevent crime, the bureau said in a news release. Automated toll collection also could be reduced, and as plates lose their reflectivity over time, a vehicle’s visibility at night and in bad weather is reduced.
The new plates would be issued to Mainers registering their cars between March 2025 and the end of February 2026, said Cathie Curtis, a deputy secretary of state.
“Mainers across the state have embraced the 1901 flag and we think they’ll love the new plate design as much as we do,” Curtis said.
The flag was used as Maine’s official flag from 1901 to 1909 before lawmakers went with a more traditional state seal design, similar to the approach used in many other states.
A FLAG WITH A HISTORY
Over the past few years, multiple tries to replace the current state flag with its predecessor have failed in the Legislature. Another bill, the second push sponsored by Rep. Sean Paulhus, D-Bath, is expected in the current legislative session.
While it has so far failed to win over the lawmakers, the so-called “1901 flag” has boomed in popularity. In addition to flying outside many homes and businesses, the 1901 version has been emblazoned on T-shirts and patches, sewn into hats and, during the current pandemic, adorned the face masks of state political leaders.
“I always say we lost the battle but won the war,” said Janice Cooper, a former state representative from Yarmouth who pushed to have the state flag replaced in 2019.
“You see it everywhere. … It’s because it’s the perfect design,” she said.
The star symbolizes the North Star, a reference to “Dirigo,” the state’s motto, “I lead.” The pine tree is a reference to the state’s nickname and natural environment.
Cooper was initially delighted by the idea of the flag on Maine’s license plate, but disappointed to hear it would replace the chickadee. The chickadee, the lobster and the flag are all important to the state for different reasons, she said.
“I don’t think we should have to choose to drop one of them.”
Paulhus, the representative from Bath, is supportive of retiring the chickadee in favor of the flag.
“It’ll look great on a license plate and looks great as a flag again,” he said. The chickadee was a good design, but it’s time for an update, and he believes the 1901 flag is a good choice.
“It’s simple, it invokes Maine and it’s easy to recognize.”
But Nick Lund thinks it may be a little too simple. Lund writes online as “The Birdist” and works at Maine Audubon. He likes the way the chickadee plate merges the state bird and state flower, showcasing the state’s natural beauty.
“(The chickadee) is a beautiful-looking plate, more so than the flag,” he said. “The flag looks a little basic.”
Lund is actually supportive of making the 1901 flag the new (old) Maine flag, but he thinks officials should “focus on knocking that out first before getting rid of the chickadee.”
In 2018, Lund “stirred up controversy” surrounding the state bird. Specifically, he pointed out the ambiguity in the statute that declares the chickadee as the state bird but does not specify which chickadee: the black-capped chickadee or the boreal chickadee.
It’s the more common, black-capped chickadee that graces the current license plate. That chickadee is also the state bird of Massachusetts.
“If we lose ours, Massachusetts may swoop in and scoop it up,” he said the plate design.
While he’ll be sad to see the chickadee go, he noted that the state’s two dozen or so plate options include one showing a loon. Registering a vehicle with that plate design provides funding to support conservation efforts in Maine.
The Legislature’s Transportation Committee will consider the plate-change proposal over the next several weeks, after which it will go to the full chamber for consideration.
All for this, love the "old" flag and wished that went back to that instead of the unoriginal State Seal that most states have on their flag. @Old Mud - Your thoughts?
Pine tree would replace chickadee on new Maine license plate design
pressherald.com/2023/02/14/state-mulls-plan-for-new-license-plate-replacing-chickadee-with-1901-flag/By Hannah LaClaire February 14, 2023
The new plate features the design of the 1901 Maine flag. Photo courtesy of Office of Secretary of State
Maine’s longtime chickadee license plate may be endangered.
State officials on Tuesday released a proposal for a new vehicle registration plate incorporating the pine tree image from the state’s historic 1901 flag. The proposed plate would succeed the chickadee design and would feature a buff background, a navy blue star and a dark green pine tree.
The new plate would still display the state’s nickname, Vacationland, across the bottom.
“License plates serve not only to identify vehicles, but are a way of expressing our love for our state,” Secretary of State Shenna Bellows said in a statement. “We’re excited to present this new design proposal for the coming license plate reissuance.”
Maine’s chickadee license plate. Photo courtesy of Maine.gov
Maine’s chickadee plate has been in circulation since 1999.
After 24 years, many of the plates have deteriorated beyond identification, creating safety concerns, the Bureau of Motor Vehicles said.
Poor-quality plates can hinder the effectiveness of law enforcement officers, who rely on identifying plates to solve and prevent crime, the bureau said in a news release. Automated toll collection also could be reduced, and as plates lose their reflectivity over time, a vehicle’s visibility at night and in bad weather is reduced.
The new plates would be issued to Mainers registering their cars between March 2025 and the end of February 2026, said Cathie Curtis, a deputy secretary of state.
“Mainers across the state have embraced the 1901 flag and we think they’ll love the new plate design as much as we do,” Curtis said.
The flag was used as Maine’s official flag from 1901 to 1909 before lawmakers went with a more traditional state seal design, similar to the approach used in many other states.
A FLAG WITH A HISTORY
Over the past few years, multiple tries to replace the current state flag with its predecessor have failed in the Legislature. Another bill, the second push sponsored by Rep. Sean Paulhus, D-Bath, is expected in the current legislative session.
While it has so far failed to win over the lawmakers, the so-called “1901 flag” has boomed in popularity. In addition to flying outside many homes and businesses, the 1901 version has been emblazoned on T-shirts and patches, sewn into hats and, during the current pandemic, adorned the face masks of state political leaders.
“I always say we lost the battle but won the war,” said Janice Cooper, a former state representative from Yarmouth who pushed to have the state flag replaced in 2019.
“You see it everywhere. … It’s because it’s the perfect design,” she said.
The star symbolizes the North Star, a reference to “Dirigo,” the state’s motto, “I lead.” The pine tree is a reference to the state’s nickname and natural environment.
Cooper was initially delighted by the idea of the flag on Maine’s license plate, but disappointed to hear it would replace the chickadee. The chickadee, the lobster and the flag are all important to the state for different reasons, she said.
“I don’t think we should have to choose to drop one of them.”
Paulhus, the representative from Bath, is supportive of retiring the chickadee in favor of the flag.
“It’ll look great on a license plate and looks great as a flag again,” he said. The chickadee was a good design, but it’s time for an update, and he believes the 1901 flag is a good choice.
“It’s simple, it invokes Maine and it’s easy to recognize.”
But Nick Lund thinks it may be a little too simple. Lund writes online as “The Birdist” and works at Maine Audubon. He likes the way the chickadee plate merges the state bird and state flower, showcasing the state’s natural beauty.
“(The chickadee) is a beautiful-looking plate, more so than the flag,” he said. “The flag looks a little basic.”
Lund is actually supportive of making the 1901 flag the new (old) Maine flag, but he thinks officials should “focus on knocking that out first before getting rid of the chickadee.”
In 2018, Lund “stirred up controversy” surrounding the state bird. Specifically, he pointed out the ambiguity in the statute that declares the chickadee as the state bird but does not specify which chickadee: the black-capped chickadee or the boreal chickadee.
It’s the more common, black-capped chickadee that graces the current license plate. That chickadee is also the state bird of Massachusetts.
“If we lose ours, Massachusetts may swoop in and scoop it up,” he said the plate design.
While he’ll be sad to see the chickadee go, he noted that the state’s two dozen or so plate options include one showing a loon. Registering a vehicle with that plate design provides funding to support conservation efforts in Maine.
The Legislature’s Transportation Committee will consider the plate-change proposal over the next several weeks, after which it will go to the full chamber for consideration.
Yeah, snow supposed to start on Thursday and go through Friday AM. The weathermen are loathe to say how much, just rambling on about "Plowable Snow" for the entire state which is Mainese for at least 3".
However, it's the classic coastal storm, if if the eye moves inland, then rain starts to show. Right now I'm "iffy", but L/A is still in the snow bull's eye. Don't freak yet, it's a long way to Thursday...
When I was there when my granddaughter was born, it rained the whole time. I’d rather have some decent weather while we are there no rain or snow
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