Editorial

From the assistant editor

Kudos to the artists who came this month to capture Wiscasset’s outdoor beauty, which is both easy and hard to do. As I recall once saying about Westport Island, Wiscasset, too, cannot take a bad…

From the editor

Olympic Games: Are you looking forward to watching the 2020 Olympic Games from Tokyo, Japan the next two weeks, July 23 to Aug. 8? Even with a few American athletes already out of the Games due to…

From the assistant editor

I used to be afraid of heights, including on the teeter-totter. Being really high up, enough so you could fall, was not fun. It was something to get through.

Being back on the ground was a…

From the editor

We made it through the hottest June on record in Maine and now we're halfway through July. There is still plenty of time to enjoy the season many of us look forward to the rest of the year before…

From the assistant editor

Wiscasset and some of our other towns have serious things on their plates this summer, from schools’ future to the immediate crisis Bill Pearson reports on this week, several area eateries’…

From the editor

Thank you, Mark and Dianne Gimbel, Peter Ripley, their Friends of the Windjammer committee members, Boothbay Harbor Region Chamber of Commerce, and everyone else…

From the assistant editor

What did Wiscasset do with a rainy day? Have a parade anyway! Good call. Everyone we talked to agreed. That’s one more for normalcy.

So is First Congregational Church of Wiscasset’s return…

From the editor

Whoa, Nelly! I had to adjust my eyes Monday morning after hooking up my laptop to the 12" x 24" monitor I haven't used in 15 months. After working from my 7.5" x 14" screen over the past year and…

From the assistant editor

This is Wiscasset’s chance.

Usually, area residents and visitors have more choices to get their Fourth of July fill. Bath Heritage Days is off this year, including the parade, but several…

From the editor

We don't always look forward to winter ending. Why? Because that's when the clock seems to move faster and the deadline draws near to get our special publications – Home and Landscapes, Summertime…

From the assistant editor

A week after we said one Wiscasset official’s apology to a committee for a drop in communication was sufficiently swift, we have seen another Wiscasset official’s apology that, this time, we are…

From the editor

It's that time of year again ... when the news hole shrinks but the news, columns, press releases, photos and more come flooding in.

It actually started last week when we weren't able to…

From the assistant editor

Wiscasset’s controversies over fences proposed to the then-Wiscasset Historic Preservation Commission were at least in part communication issues. The same goes for the town’s new fence controversy…

From the editor

To the graduates of Boothbay Region High School and Wiscasset Middle High School, I first would like to congratulate you on completing an important first phase of your lives. You've formed your…

From the editor

As we turn the calendar to this year's sixth month, there is a little more "Joy in Mudville," unlike as the poem, "Casey at the Bat" reads. People are on the move – did you witness the traffic…

From the assistant editor

Since face mask guidelines have changed, usage has, to little surprise, been dropping to varying degrees, from what I am seeing around. You will still see me wearing one indoors and outdoors in…

From the editor

I "got out of Dodge," as the saying goes, last week. My wife and I finally got to use our airplane tickets, paid for in 2020, to visit our son, Tim, in Nebraska. We met him and his lady, Megan, in…

From the assistant editor

Don’t wear a life jacket on the water? You might want to start. Without them, a pair of West Virginians canoeing Chamberlain Lake in Piscataquis County on Sunday would be dead now, according to…

From the assistant editor

Which makes a better comprehensive plan for a town: One a few (read dozen or so) residents draft, or one dozens or, dare we say it, hundreds had input on?

I’m going with B.

The more…

From the editor

Looking back at local news a year ago this week, we reported on the wonderful tribute organized by Sue Burge and others presented to the Hannaford staff for maintaining vigilance and being on the…

From the assistant editor

Garden Club of Wiscasset’s plant sale last weekend and other events and venues reopening have seemed like old home week, people seeing others they haven’t seen in so long due to the pandemic, or…

From the editor

The fluctuating weather gave us a bit of summer, spring and fall this week. I guess we get that during the spring, but I would prefer some more temperatures in the mid-to-high 60s ... and perhaps…

From the assistant editor

A proposed James Weldon Johnson memorial plaque on Wiscasset selectmen’s plate this week sounds like it would hit the right chord: The town and private hands chipping in a plaque on a downtown…

From the editor

I wonder what goes on in the minds of a young girl or a young boy these days when they officially become a teenager?

My oldest granddaughter turned 13 this week and, although I talk with…

From the assistant editor

The line at Bath Iron Works’ annual picnic at Thomas Point Beach when I was growing up was long, but part of the tradition, with people holding big empty cardboard boxes and returning to their…

From the editor

My fellow dog walker on Back Narrows Road, Peggy Kotin, wrote a letter to the editor this week which inspired me to get out there and do what I have been putting off for months. I spent about an…

From the assistant editor

Stay hydrated and watch for ticks, all you volunteer roadside picker uppers in Westport Island and Alna. It is getting warmer in this second pandemic spring and yet you have given or have signed…

From the editor

Having lived in the Boothbay region most of my life and been at the forefront of knowing what has transpired as the editor of this newspaper for over three decades, I am still amazed at the amount…

From the assistant editor

Soda comes caffeine-free and sugar-free, bread gluten-free, and the Wiscasset June ballot budget committee races, candidate-free. This is not an isolated incident for the panel that reviews and…

From the editor

The Maine Bureau of Highway Safety and Maine State Police were scheduled to hold a press conference on Tuesday, April 6 to talk about "a disturbing trend," excessive speed, speeding through…

From the editor

Maine, as we all know, is a state with an elderly population. Perhaps that is one reason why, in the 2020 America's Health Rankings, the state received very low marks for having multiple chronic…

From the assistant editor

You have to hand it to locals who give vast amounts of their time week in and week out, and year in and out, to their towns. Jack Sarmanian has, helping Edgecomb get its long needed fire station…

From the editor

My Monday mornings can be unpredictable in a squeamish way. I might receive a phone call about someone's personal problem (which we may or may not be able to fix by reporting on it) or an email…

From the assistant editor

Nothing can take town meetings’ place, for their debate, humor, common sense, muffins and egg salad sandwiches.

But for many towns, including Alna’s this weekend, something has: The ballot…

From the editor

Have you filled out your brackets for the NCAA men's and/or women's tournaments yet?

After last year's tournaments got canceled because of the pandemic, I have enjoyed watching college…

From the assistant editor

The pandemic and the gradual climb out of it, with vaccines and easing restrictions, have made the shop local slogan more important. For some businesses, locals’ loyalty, or rediscovery of…

From the editor

We have one of those dogs who chases cars and other things. Motorists who travel Back Narrows Road, Boothbay often see Lacey, our friendly mini (actually a medium-size) Australian shepherd,…

From the assistant editor

Yes, April sometimes kicks a snowstorm our way, and March has been having its wintry winds. But the more bare ground that appears on the Midcoast, the more it feels like spring. 

Good…

From the editor

There is light at the end of the COVID-19 tunnel with the available vaccines, but what we don't know is the length of the tunnel and whether the variants or other factors will slow the process of…

From the editor

Two weeks ago, the Boothbay-Boothbay Harbor Community School District school committee and board of trustees moved forward with Lavallee and Brensinger’s master plan concept design phase.…

From the editor

This is the first February vacation week that I have taken since as least 1986, which is the year before I started at the Boothbay Register. I may have taken the traditional winter school vacation…

I can see it, can you?

The light at the end of the COVID-19 tunnel remains distant for all who would like a normal Midcoast summer and normal town meetings and more this spring, but it…

From the editor

I feel we have come to a point during this pandemic where we, well, most of us, know how to safely celebrate birthdays, anniversaries, holidays and the good things that are offered to us on the…

From the assistant editor

Noticed all the news about schools across the country trying to reopen after nearly a year’s remote learning?

When area ones were reopening last fall, they showed readers all the work they…

From the editor

This week, we are celebrating Women in Sports Day. On Feb. 4, 1987, President Ronald Reagan declared the first National Women in Sports Day in recognition of the history of women’s athletics.…

From the assistant editor

We all know by now, I am pretty into Groundhog Day. So between this week’s Nor’easter and the pandemic, I was wondering when or if Punxsutawney Phil would have his moment Tuesday, Feb. 2. Monday…

From the editor

I don’t know about you but I am tired of the negativity that has been around for … too long.

February is perhaps best known as the month of love, with Valentine’s Day smack dab in the…

From the assistant editor

What is the best thing about a full plate? Be it a plate of to-do’s or a dinner plate, the best part is, it is there. A town working on little is a town not gaining ground. Wiscasset has a full…

From the editor

The state of Maine needs to work on creating affordable housing, especially for our senior citizens. The closing of Boothbay Green is disheartening but I do understand the reasons why, as…

From the assistant editor

Thank you to readers who have responded to our invitation to email pix@wiscassetnewspaper.com with their new, winter photos, scenic or people ones, for us to consider publishing in print, online,…