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The American House, constructed in 1836, was a hotel that once stood where the Ellsworth post office is today. Arthur I. Saunders and his wife ran the business around the turn of the century. At one point, the American House was sold to Benjamin Tinker, and the name changed temporarily to Tinker’s Tavern. The building was demolished in 1917. ALAN BAKER COLLECTION
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Hello and welcome to Summer 2.0! It's Thursday, Sept. 24. We hope you were able to spend some time outside on this beautiful day. Americans, on average, spend about 93 percent of our time indoors - 98 percent, actually, if you count all of the time we spend in cars, trains, planes, buses and other transit. As the historian Jill Lepore recently pointed out: "Most humans who live in the United States and Europe spend more time indoors than some species of whale spend underwater." Of course you can (and should) spend time outdoors all year round, but it's about to require slightly more layers. It'll stay mostly lovely throughout the weekend, so head outside and enjoy it.
High tide was at 5:35 p.m.; low tide is at 12:09 a.m. |
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ED DAMM PHOTO
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GRAHAM LAKE WATER LEVELS PLUMMET
If this story seems familiar, that's because it is: Nearly five years into the process of renewing the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission license for its Graham Lake and Leonard Lake dams, Black Bear Hydro seems no closer to solving the issue of fluctuating water levels in Graham Lake than when the process began. Earlier this month, shoreland owners reported that the water level in Graham Lake had dropped to extremely low levels and that acres of mudflats are carpeted with dead and dying freshwater mussels. “When will this drastic drop in water level stop?” Graham Lake shoreland owner Ed Damm asked recently. “Brookfield Renewable (the parent of Black Bear Hydro) is allowed to change the Graham Lake water level by over 10 feet with extensions and appeals to their license,” Damm said. “This has to change.”
SURRY VOTERS TO DECIDE ON RETAIL MARIJUANA
The first licensed retail marijuana stores are set to begin sales on Oct. 9, and in November, Surry voters will also get to decide if they want to allow retail sales. The question, which will be on the ballot, asks voters: “Do you want to allow the cultivation, manufacture, distribution, testing and sale of marijuana products subject to state regulation, taxation and town ordinances in Surry?” Town officials are hoping the timing of the vote will draw more participation, since turnout during an election year usually surpasses that at Town Meeting. “This way we’ll get more people to actually vote on it,” said Selectman Betsy Armstrong of the timing of the vote. Want to weigh in before then? There's a public hearing about the marijuana question and other items on Wednesday, Sept. 30, at 7 p.m. at the Surry Fire Station.
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Ellsworth High School seniors Samantha Carter (left) and Samantha Higgins battle for the ball during soccer practice Sept. 18. The Eagles are set to play their first games of the 2020 season next week. For more sports news, see Sec. I, pages 5-6.
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HERE COMES THE FLU
Have you gotten your flu shot yet? If you're not allergic, now's the time. That's the message from doctors, including MDI Hospital's own Dr. Julius Krevans Jr. and Dr. Mike Murnik, VP senior physician executive of Northern Light Blue Hill and Maine Coast hospitals. “The flu shot is available now,” said Krevans, who got his on Tuesday. “It will help you as an individual, but it will also help the community by limiting the amount of virus that is circulating,” he said, allowing the community to remain healthy and to keep schools and businesses open. Every sniffle and sore throat is likely to produce a heightened response this fall, since many of those symptoms overlap with symptoms of the novel coronavirus. Even that one distinguishing feature of COVID-19 — the loss of smell and or taste — might also occur when a cold or allergies clog the olfactory system. As of May 16, 42 Maine residents had died from the flu, and it's unclear what this season will bring. Precautions taken to prevent the spread of COVID-19 have also resulted in dramatically lower numbers of flu cases in some areas of the globe, and health officials aren't sure whether that trend will hold here or not.
CITY RACES SET
In case you forgot, election day is Nov. 3, and it's not just a president we'll be electing: City and School Board races will also be on the ballot, although they won't be as hotly contested as they looked at the outset. Four residents, Dale Hamilton (current chairman), Gene C. Lyons, Bronson Platner and Edmund J.M. “Mike” Springer, will be running for two council seats that are being vacated. Those seats are held by Hamilton and Councilor John Moore. Five residents, Elizabeth Alteri, Kelli J. Casey, Joel R. Horne, Rob A. Hudson and Kelly J. McKenney, will be on the ballot for the School Board, which also has two available seats. The seats being vacated are held by Hudson and Brenda Thomas. On the library front, Kathleen B. Cravens and Spencer Patterson King will be running for two open seats on the Board of Trustees. The seats being vacated are held by King and Ann Dyer. All of the six seats have three-year terms set to expire in November 2023.
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WEAVER WIND TO BE ONLINE BY END OF YEAR
A 22-turbine wind project known as Weaver Wind should be online by the end of the year at the latest, said Chief Development Officer Matt Kearns of Longroad Energy Partners, the company behind the project. “All of the towers are up,” said Kearns. “By the end of November, we will be electrically connected to the grid and in December I think we will do some testing.” Eight of the turbines are in Eastbrook and 14 in Osborn. Most of the turbines are on the hills south of Route 9 and Spectacle Pond, including Hardwood Hill, Birch Hill, Eden Ridge and Little Bull Hill. Once they’re finished, the turbines will be among the world’s tallest, measuring 591 feet from ground to blade tip. The company reached an agreement with the Maine Public Utilities Commission last year to sell power in Maine to Versant (formerly known as Emera Maine, which was bought by a Canadian company in March). Under the PUC agreement, Weaver Wind will sell its energy for 3.5 cents per kilowatt hour, increasing at 2.5 percent per year. At that price, the turbines would generate around $7 million in revenue for Longroad in a year, according to Ellsworth American calculations.
DROUGHT DRAGS ON
“The pastures are dry, the gardens are dry. We watered what we could and we did alright," said farmer Andrew Birdsall this week, who will soon be feeding his sheep at Horsepower Farm the hay he'd planned to feed them over the winter. The sheep usually rely on grazing in the pastures, where nothing is growing thanks to the drought. “I’ll probably be using hay that I got for the winter and I’ll have to buy more hay because my hay crop is less than half what it usually is,” Birdsall said. “I can tell you it’s a bad one.” All of the state of Maine is currently in a drought with over half the state classified as being in “severe drought,” according to the U.S. Drought Monitor, meaning crop and pasture loss are likely and water restrictions may be imposed.
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JOANNE PARKINSON PHOTO
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FRIENDS IN ACTION MAY BE DOWN, BUT NOT OUT
Yes, it’s been a bumpy few months, with programming changes and other complications brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. But, “The reports of our death are greatly exaggerated,” said Jo Cooper, executive director of Friends in Action. “More than 90 percent of what we actually do has been with our volunteer services,” said Cooper, referring to the nonprofit’s programs bringing residents to doctor’s appointments, visiting with them and taking them grocery shopping, among other activities. “That is not as visible,” said Cooper, but is, in fact, the majority of what Friends in Action does. “It’s not that you just pull up somewhere and beep their horn,” said Cooper. “The volunteer is a friend, somebody there to really help someone. It’s really as a friend, as someone who may have some experience themselves, being in a situation where they needed assistance. It’s a very respectful approach, very human.”
NOVO BIOSCIENCES WANTS TO HEAL YOUR HEART
Broken heart? Novo Biosciences wants to help with that. The company, which is seeking to develop a drug that could help stimulate the formation of new heart muscle after an acute heart attack, has moved its laboratory into the Union River Center for Innovation (URCI) on Water Street. A seven-year-old, for-profit spinoff company of the MDI Biological Laboratory, Novo Biosciences is run by Voot P. Yin and Kevin Strange, who, along with their collaborator Michael Zasloff, were granted a patent in 2016 for use of the small molecule MSI-1436, also known as Trodusquemine, to stimulate the repair and regeneration of heart tissue damaged by injuries such as a heart attack. “If you look across all kinds of animals in nature, there are many animals that have profound capacity to repair and replace tissue after it’s been damaged or amputated,” said Strange. “So the approach we have here is to look at these animals, study them intensely, and ask a very basic question: ‘How do these animals accomplish this amazing feat and why is it, for the most part, that most of our tissue — our heart, our spinal cord, our brain, for example — don’t regenerate after an injury?’”
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Autumn Gold decorations were out in force this week. Look for the schedule of celebrations out in this week's paper and at the end of this email!
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AQUACULTURE INDUSTRY QUALIFIES FOR RELIEF
Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced that it was releasing some $530 million appropriated by Congress last March under the CARES Act to assist the beleaguered U.S. seafood industry and fishermen damaged by retaliatory tariffs imposed primarily by China and the European Union on imports of U.S. live and processed seafood. Total payments to Maine lobstermen based on 2019 landings figures could reach $50 million, but the total initially available to Maine fish farmers was zero. Last week, the aquaculture industry got a chance to share in federal relief funds, but whether most Maine fish farmers will benefit is open to question. Producers may be eligible for up to $250,000 per individual or entity; eligible aquacultural species must be raised by a commercial operator and in water “in a controlled environment.” And there’s the rub. The full USDA announcement refers to “a controlled environment including raceways, ponds, tanks and recirculating systems.” It does not say anything about species commonly raised in Maine such as oysters, mussels, scallops and seaweed that are raised on lease sites in the state’s coastal waters.
PLANE MAY HAVE RUN OUT OF GAS BEFORE CRASHING
Late on the afternoon of Monday, Aug. 17, a small, bright yellow airplane made a crash landing off the beach on the eastern shore of Morgan Bay. The pilot and his one passenger were uninjured, and both were able to climb out of the plane and swim to shore. The plane sank in shallow water but was completely covered at high tide. Now we may know what happened: a preliminary report released by the National Transportation Safety Board on the crash of an airplane into Morgan Bay last month suggests that the plane may have run out of fuel. “I would be very comfortable stating that a highly probable cause was fuel-related,” Steve Pocock, a retired jet captain for a major U.S. airline, said last week. “On any airplane, there is always a small amount of residual, unusable fuel in the tank.”
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A FAIR TO REMEMBER
It’s the last hurrah of summer, time to splurge on a snow cone, doughboy, funnel cake, giant pretzel or whatever’s your pleasure and throw dietary cares to the wind. Time to ride the Ferris wheel or hold tight, close your eyes and scream while being spun at triple G-force in the Gravitron. Or kick back and take in the demolition derby or the farmers ox pull. The 2020 Blue Hill Fair was sorely missed by Hancock County residents of all ages. So much so that the Parker Ridge Retirement Community’s residents and staff staged their own fair, complete with a dunk tank, baby animals, cotton candy, slushies, pie and produce contests and much more over Labor Day weekend. Just like the Blue Hill Fair, the Parker Ridge Fair’s organizers turned the Parker Inn’s carport into an exhibit hall, where residents and staff displayed their homemade creations ranging from fine quilts and knit and crocheted garments to flowers and oil paintings. It was such a great time. These past six months have been tough for everyone,” Mote said. “This was just a way to bring something fun to lift everyone’s spirits.”
CONSERVANCY LOOKS TO PRESERVE 1,400 ACRES
Frenchman Bay Conservancy (FBC) is hoping to raise a total of $900,000 to preserve 1,400 acres in Hancock as part of a larger 4,500-acre conservation project. “To find a larger, intact property like this is becoming less and less frequent,” said FBC Land Protection Manager Kat Deely. “The fact that that land is intact makes it a really special place.” Once part of a parcel owned by logger Dale Henderson, who owned more than 6,000 contiguous acres, the land is crisscrossed by the Egypt and Kilkenney streams and lies just 5 miles from Ellsworth along the Down East Sunrise Trail. The nonprofit plans to eventually build walking, hiking, biking and snowshoeing trails on the property, if it is able to purchase it. It will be open to hunters as well, in part to help manage the large population of white-tailed deer, which can be detrimental to other species if left unchecked. “This area is under particular threat of development,” said Deely. “It’s an area that is kind of primed for subdivision and new homes, it’s close to the coast ... this property really could be cut up, be fragmented, very significantly if we don’t try and protect it.”
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LEISA WELCH PHOTO
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POPPY THE PUG RETURNS HOME
If you've been anywhere near Lamoine in recent weeks, you've seen the posters: the sweet face of Poppy the pug, who went missing three weeks ago. We're happy to report that Poppy is home, and that Leisa and Wade Welch and their children had a happy reunion on Sunday with Poppy, who finally returned home. After escaping through their fence alongside their Lab, Sugar, Poppy eventually ended up at a home on the Washington Junction Road. While the home was 6 miles away from the Welches’ home in Lamoine, Leisa suspects Poppy traveled much farther due to the several reported sightings of her throughout her zig-zagged journey. “I traversed miles and miles every day putting up flyers,” said Leisa, adding that Poppy is just happy to be home. |
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ATHLETES, COACHES EMBRACE RETURN TO PLAY
Tyler Frank still has the same feeling he gets every time September arrives. True, the sports scene looks a bit different at Mount Desert Island High School, where Frank is beginning his seventh year as head coach of the boys’ soccer team. Between masked players and coaches, sanitization stations throughout athletic facilities and the absence of team huddles and high-fives, it’s a setting that would have been head-scratching to fans and coaches alike at this time last year. For Frank, though, coaching soccer amidst a pandemic is no less thrilling than it would be any other year. Even with added precautions and a late start to the season, the rush he experiences as he roams the MDI practice fields is the same as it’s always been. “You still get that chill that you do when you’re back into it for the season,” Frank said. “It’s definitely different, but that’s just the reality of the day. I think for all of us, we’re all just really excited to be back at practice and getting game-ready.”
SUMNER ATHLETES COPE WITH LOST SEASON
Scarlet Capitano and Skylar Soule had been looking forward to the 2020 fall sports season for a long time. As juniors a year ago, Capitano and Soule were key players on a Sumner girls’ soccer team that found itself shorthanded for much of the season. After the Tigers fought to a five-win campaign despite frequently fielding only eight or nine players as a result of injuries, the two had high hopes for what could happen when the team got healthy once again. “This is the longest I’ve ever gone without playing soccer,” Soule said. “Soccer was the main thing that made me focus [on academics]; it always pushed me to make my grades better. It gave me a break from school, and without it, there’s no break in between.”
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Heard Around Town: Hats off to Massimo Daul of Bar Harbor, formerly of West Gouldsboro, who is among 60 U.S. students to land a merit-based David Scholarship to continue his high school studies at the United World College-Adriatic in Italy. The son of Matthew and Kara Daul, Massimo completed his junior year at Mount Desert Island High School. His love of music and mathematics helped him make many international cultural connections while living on MDI. He seeks to broaden his world view while studying in Italy. UWC, which has 18 campuses worldwide, is an international high school for 16 to 19-year-olds. The college’s mission is to unite cultures through education, thus creating a peaceful, sustainable world. Students represent up to 90 countries at some campuses; many come from conflict regions. UWC offers the international baccalaureate, a two-year pre-university program that is the most widely recognized secondary school diploma in the world.
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