Maine News Thursday September 24

Town of Pownal - Pownal continues to offer a Senior Property Tax Assistance Program to help eligible residents offset the cost of property taxes.  The program is available to qualifying seniors who receive Maine's Property Tax Fairness-related tax relief benefits and meet the Town's eligibility requirements. Eligible applicants may receive a supplemental refund or credit from the Town to help reduce their property tax burden. This local assistance program reflects the Town's commitment to helping seniors manage the burden of property taxes. Interested in applying? Applications and eligibility information are available on the Town website or by contacting the Town Office. Town Office: 207-688-4611 

Mortgage rates rose in 37 of the 50 states between Q1 2026 and Q2 2026, the personal-finance company WalletHub today released its new report on the States Where Mortgage Interest Rates Are Increasing the Most, based on proprietary user data.

Maine Stats

• Overall Rank: 44^th

Press Herald -    Bowdoin College has climbed to near the top in a national ranking of higher education institutions, tying for third best liberal arts college. Williams College and Amherst College, both in Massachusetts, were ranked one and two respectively.

The Brunswick school is among seven Maine institutions to appear on the U.S. News and World Report’s 2027 rankings of the country’s best colleges and universities. Third is the highest rank Bowdoin has held, although it last appeared there in 2018. The college dropped to the ninth spot in 2024, and has been rising since.

U.S. News and World Report’s rankings includes separate lists for liberal arts colleges and universities and ranks schools based on factors like graduation rates, how the school is regarded by peer institutions, financial resources and faculty salaries.

On the university list, the public flagship University of Maine sits at 262, five spots below last year and nearly 50 down from its ranking several years ago. It’s now tied with the private University of New England, which climbed more than 30 spots.

JOBS

The Town of Pownal is currently hiring for a full-time Equipment Operator / Laborer position to join our Public Works crew and a part-time administrative assistant to the Road Commissioner. These are great opportunities to be part of a dedicated team that helps keep our community running smoothly year-round. 

Interested applicants can view the job descriptions and download an application on our Employment page:

👉 View Job Opening

• • Rusty Lantern Markets posted a job opening for Food & Beverage Lead - Kitchen Lead in Brunswick. Apply here.
  • Staples, Inc. posted a job opening for Retail Sales Supervisor in Brunswick. Apply here. 
  • You can search for other jobs near Freeport here.

UPCOMING 

Note: In changing our schedule we lost some  links that are useful. In the future we will try to back these up so this doesn't happen again. 

SEP 24

12:30 PM |Calderwood Improved-Access Trail Grand Opening

Discussion Session: Town Sidewalk Maintenance, Care and Responsibility  Town Hall Council Chambers, 30 Main Street, Freeport 1:00 pm

SEP 25
Brickyard Hollow Brewing, 236 Main St., Yarmouth: Vanessa Jones, 6

SEP 26
The Social Goose, 94 Maine St., Brunswick: Nat Hussey with 207 Rhythm Road, 8-11

5PM - 6:30PM  917 Harpswell Neck Road, Harpswell, ME

SEP 27

SEP 30 

On Wednesday, September 30th, Freeport Community Library & RSU5 Community Programs will host a Candidates Forum at Freeport Community Library.  This event will start at 6:00pm.  Join us to hear from candidates for Freeport Town Council, the Water and Sewer Districts, and the RSU5 School Board.

OCT 1

Maine Naturalist and Executive Director of the Maine Humanities Council, Samaa Abdurraqib is the Featured Poet for our October 1st Open Mic Poetry eventaganza. The event will be held at beautiful Meetinghouse Arts at 7:00 PM 

Thursday, October 1, 4:30-6:30 PM, we're bringing back the Great Golf Ball Drop at the state-of-the-art driving range at Maine Golf in Freeport, The event features a $1,000 cash prize for the golf ball closest to the pin, a Longest Drive Contest with $200 prizes for the top-finishing men and women, and special prizes for our youth divisions. golf balls are $5 each or 6 for $25. Each golf ball purchase includes entry into the Longest Drive Contest - (maximum 6 drives per person).  

OCT 2

Mainely Palestine - The Teach-In events at Bowdoin College on Friday, October 2nd, have been cancelled.  ALL Mainely Palestine events will happen on Saturday, October 3, 9 am - 6 pm at the Unitarian Universalist Church, 1 Middle Street, in Brunswick.  Details at www.mvprights.org/mainely-palestine

OCT 2-4

Patch - Freeport residents can look forward to the 27th Freeport Fall Festival Oct. 2-4, with five music stages, local food vendors, kids' activities, and a free shuttle linking downtown and L.L.Bean's redesigned flagship store. The piece also spotlights spooky nights and family Halloween fun at the Desert of Maine, plus fall-themed events in nearby Bath and Brunswick.

OCT 4 

10:00 AM - 2:00 PM | 50th Annual Pettengill Family Farm Day - 2026 is the 50th Anniversary of this beloved event! It is going to be an extra-special Farm Day. Live music, delicious food, vintage arts, crafts, and games, farmhouse and trail tours 31 Pettengil Farm Rd, Freeport

OCT 6

6:00 PM | Invasive Species Workshop Learn how to identify and manage invasive plants with experts from Maine Coast Heritage Trust. Bradley Room, Freeport Community Center 

OCT 7
At just 35, Ken Curtis became the nation’s youngest governor, and went on to transform Maine government. Join author Doug Rooks for a talk on his new book, Transformational: Ken Curtis, Maine’s Reform Governor, and discover what Curtis’s leadership can teach us today. Learn more and register.

OCT 10

The Pownal Fire and Rescue Company will be hosting a Bean Supper on Saturday, October 10, 2026, at the North Pownal Community Center. Come enjoy a homemade meal consisting of beans, hot dogs, breads, and desserts prepared by department members. Dinner will be served in two sittings.  We look forward to seeing you!

Choose from two dinner seatings:

🕟 4:30 - 5:45 PM

🕕 6:15 - 7:30 PM

Donations: ❤️ $10 (ages 15+)

❤️ $5 (ages 6-15)

❤️ Free for children 5 and under

OCT 24

ANNUAL WOLFE'S NECK CENTER FALL FESTIVAL -  Join us for hayrides, family activities, yoga, local food and more! One ticket secures a wagon ride around campus. 

Maine News Wednesday September 23

MS NOW - According to a new investigation from ProPublica, Sen. Susan Collins narrowly escaped being embroiled in an FBI bribery probe into defense contracts, lawmakers and large campaign contributions. For that, she can thank the Trump administration's commitment to making America a place where the wealthy, connected and morally flexible can get away with almost anything. The good news is that if we're determined enough, we can undo the damage that has been done.

ProPublica's story begins in 2019, when the head of Collins' super PAC, Scott Reed, met with executives from a defense contractor called Navatek that the senator had helped land a Navy research contract in Maine. Then Collins' fundraiser made a request: The company should make a six-figure donation to help the senator in her re-election bid. The executives said they would pony up - if Collins helped them get more contracts.

…."To skirt campaign finance laws and conceal the source of the funds," ProPublica reported, "Navatek planned to funnel the donation through a shell company. The CEO [Martin Kao] wanted assurance that Collins would know where the money came from. Reed confirmed that she would, the executive said - and that Navatek would get its government contracts."

More on Susan Collins 

Portland Press Herald on Susan Collins

Maine News Tuesday September 22

Maine Democrats - Last week, Susan Collins endorsed MAGA extremist Bobby Charles for Governor, once again showing she’ll always put her party over the people of Maine.

Collins is proudly backing a candidate who wants to ban abortions, raise the retirement age, and threaten to send ICE to Maine polls – someone so extreme that even his own sister publicly denounced him.

This is yet another example of Susan Collins choosing party loyalty over what’s best for Maine. If she’s re-elected, she will just continue being another rubber stamp for MAGA’s extreme agenda — and her endorsement of Bobby Charles proves it.

Where Susan Collins and Troy Jackson stand on immigration policy

WMTW - Two clam flats are temporarily closed due to a large phytoplankton bloom along southern Maine's coast. According to the Department of Marine Resources, these targeted closures include the entire intertidal growing area of Maquoit Bay in Brunswick and the eastern side of Middle Bay in Harpswell.  Until further notice, no clams, quahogs or oysters can be harvested from Maquoit Bay, and no softshell clams or quahogs can be taken from the eastern side of Middle Bay. The closure notice explains the department's concern that continued harvesting during the bloom will cause additional stress for the area's shellfish and more deaths.

Maine Morning Star -  Independent U.S. Sen. Angus King endorsed Democratic gubernatorial nominee Hannah Pingree at Bowdoin College on Sunday.  Their hourlong conversation, attended by 300 people in a standing-room only auditorium, also covered the stakes of Maine’s gubernatorial election in light of the cuts to health care, food security and affordability as a result of federal policies, as well as the polarization of both parties and how the next governor needs to bridge that gap.  “We’re going to have some challenges, and that’s one of the reasons I’m supporting you, because I think you’re the person to confront them,” King told Pingree as the crowd cheered. 

 

Maine News Monday September 21

Press Herald -   The Chair of the Cumberland Town Council was arrested on Labor Day for operating under the influence, police say.

The Yarmouth Police Department arrested Michael Edes, 67, at approximately 10:20 p.m. on Sept. 7, Chief David Gallant said. While being processed at the Yarmouth Police Department, Edes refused a breath, blood or urine test, police said. Edes was charged with operating under the influence and issued summons for October.

While Edes’ attorney Jon Goodman confirmed Edes was charged with an OUI, he disputed the allegation. “Mike absolutely did not operate any vehicle while under the influence, however, and he looks forward to the opportunity to share his side of the story in court,” Goodman said in an email.

Maine Morning Star -  The implementation of Maine’s recently passed gun safety laws — a red flag referendum voters overwhelmingly approved and a 72-hour waiting period facing a legal challenge — would greatly differ depending on who the next governor is.

Democrat Hannah Pingree said she supports both laws, and detailed how she would implement the red flag law that the current governor, Janet Mills, opposed. Independent Rick Bennett said he would enforce both laws if the waiting period survives its legal challenge while Republican Bobby Charles said he opposes both measures.

Both the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine and the Maine Gun Safety Coalition, groups that are typically on opposing sides of most gun-related legislation, singled Pingree out as being the outlier on an issue that has become increasingly relevant for Maine since the 2023 mass shooting in Lewiston.

“One of these candidates is not like the others,” Nacole Palmer, executive director of the Maine Gun Safety Coalition, which endorsed Pingree in the gubernatorial race. “Only one of these candidates is actually aligned with where the Maine people have shown themselves to be, and the other two are not.” 

WMTW - A building that was under construction in North Yarmouth partially collapsed on Saturday, landing on a crane. Firefighters were called to the construction site on Walnut Hill Road at about 12:30 p.m. and found part of the building had given way. One wall landed on a crane that was being used to lift parts of the building into place. There did not appear to be significant damage to the crane. Officials said the workers were at lunch when the structural failure occurred and no one was hurt.

Maine News Sunday September 20

Press Herald  -  Northern Cumberland County and southern Waldo County, plus a portion of coastal Hancock County, are the driest, but the entire state is now under at least moderate drought conditions, U.S. Drought Monitor says.

Part of Maine is under an extreme drought designation for the first time in several months, and the entire state is now considered to be in at least a moderate drought.

A stretch of Maine’s coastline from northern Cumberland County to southern Waldo County, plus a portion of coastal Hancock County, are considered to be under extreme drought conditions, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor’s latest update on Thursday.

The last time any part of Maine was under an extreme designation was in early April. Conditions gradually improved in the following months thanks to spring showers.

By July, the majority of the state was free from any U.S. Drought Monitor designation, but a lack of rain in the weeks that followed allowed drought conditions to return.

Maine residents who walk through cemeteries to feel more alive

2 areas of Casco Bay temporarily closed to shellfish harvesting as algae bloom spreads (pressherald.com)

JOBS

• Giri Hotel Management LLC posted a job opening for Line Cook - Part Time in Freeport. Apply here.
• Regional School Unit 05 posted a job opening for Custodian (683) in Freeport. Apply here. 
• You can search for other jobs near Freeport here.

Maine News Saturday September 19

Patch -  Freeport town leaders back plan to make shopping district safer for pedestrians (wgme.com) — Freeport’s Town Council just backed a major Village Corridor Initiative to slow traffic and make the Route 1 shopping district safer and more walkable, while adding significant new housing. The plan would narrow parts of Route 1, prioritize pedestrians, and potentially create thousands of new condos and apartments over decades, aiming to keep Freeport livable for workers, seniors, and young residen

Opening of LL Bean’s new structure

Press Herald - Eliot Cutler will soon return to jail to serve two and a half months for repeatedly violating the terms of his probation, a Hancock County judge has ordered. The disgraced two-time gubernatorial candidate appeared in court in Ellsworth on Friday morning and made an impassioned plea to Superior Court Justice Patrick Larson that he should be allowed to continue his probation as normal, despite allegedly violating the terms of his release six times since his 2023 conviction for possessing thousands of sexually explicit images of children.

The Hill - As fuel costs rise amid the U.S.-Iran and Russia-Ukraine wars, Americans in the Northeast may have to pay significantly more to heat their homes this winter.  With the price of diesel, in particular, increasing, so too will the cost of a home heating fuel known as heating oil or fuel oil that is commonly used in Northeast states.

William O’Neil, principal research analyst at S&P Global, said that heating oil and diesel prices tend to move together, so when diesel prices go up, heating oil usually does, too.

“The price of diesel historically has a pretty strong relationship to the price of heating oil because they’re effectively chemically identical. They just have different additives, different treatments,” O’Neil said.  He said that those Americans could end up paying nearly 50 percent more this year to heat their homes than they were last year. 

Press Herald - This summer, the Maine Trust for Local News commissioned a survey of 824 Maine residents by the Siena Research Institute, the primary pollster for The New York Times...The results were predictable in some ways and surprising (and even contradictory) in others.

Overall, three out of four people surveyed described the quality of life in their community as positive. In southern Maine (Cumberland and York counties), that jumped to 84%, but in northern and western Maine, it fell to 68%.

Perhaps paradoxically, 38% said life was either getting somewhat worse or much worse, nearly twice as many as the number of people who said things are getting better. The why here was perhaps the most predictable: Housing and other economic factors, including job opportunities.

.Affordability ranked lowest among the four main categories — and by a wide margin. The high cost of housing, childcare, groceries and fuel contributed to those negative feelings.

The best thing about living in Maine, according to respondents, was the quality of life and sense of community, followed by nature and the environment. More

 

Maine News Friday Setember 18

Maine Morning Star- The Penobscot Nation received 11,000 acres of ancestral land back this week, the first phase of what is expected to be one of the largest land returns ever between a U.S.-based nonprofit and a tribe.  Located near the base of Katahdin, the land return affords the Penobscot Nation access to a culturally significant area, natural resources for hunting and harvesting, and more authority to expand its longstanding conservation work, said Penobscot Nation Natural Resources Director Chuck Loring. While specific plans are still being developed, one goal is to create an access route to the Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument. 

The Campus -  On Thursday, the University of Maine sent a letter to its employees addressing a projected $19 million budget deficit. In the letter, President Joan Ferrini-Mundy and Provost Gabriel Paquette outlined a plan that will include staff layoffs and faculty retrenchments across both UMaine and UMaine Machias campuses to reduce university spending. The plan would go into effect for the next fiscal year (FY28) if the draft budget is approved by the Board of Trustees (BoT). The number of faculty and staff positions that will be eliminated, and when those affected will receive notice, has not yet been determined.  

Maine Fraternal Order of Police Executive Director Arrested on OUI Charge (themainewire.com)

JOBS

• TJX posted a job opening for Store Cleaning Associate in Brunswick. Apply here.
• Bowdoin College posted a job opening for Food Service Worker (part-time) in Brunswick. Apply here. 
• You can search for other jobs near Freeport here.

Maine News Thursday Sep 17

Ten largest businesses in Maine

Shaw Brothers Construction is doing roadwork at the intersection of Mallet Drive and US Route 1 (Main Street). This project will run day and night until it is completed. Lane reductions will occur as necessary as the project continues. The only weekend work scheduled is for Sunday evening (9/20) for paving. As this is a Maine Department of Transportation project, the timeline of the work has been subject to MDOT scheduling. However the Town has been working closely with MDOT to facilitate the work and mitigate traffic disruptions as much as possible. View it on website

Press Herald - The planned pedestrian improvements to the Main and Bow streets intersection of Freeport as outlined in the Freeport village corridor initiative plan include an all-way stop and increased sidewalk space.

….The plan, developed over the past 16 months, includes creating narrower traffic lanes and more sidewalk and multiuse path space, with buffers between pedestrians and vehicles to improve safety. It identifies three areas for improvement stretching about 3 miles along Route 1 from Maine Beer Co. to Upper Mast Landing Road: the “village gateway;” “Freeport village;” and “northern corridor.”

The report sets a goal of adding about 70 residential units per year, Stantec Senior Planner Jessa Berna said at Tuesday’s meeting.

It also calls for an all-way stop with narrower travel lanes and wider sidewalks at the intersection of Main and Bow streets in the Freeport village area and a 2,000 square-foot plaza space in front of Linda Bean’s restaurant.

Maine’s $1B lottery winner wants to drop his lawsuit against a former partner, right before a federal court ruled that he must disclose his identity at trial

State workers union ratifies contract, over a year after previous agreement expires

WGME -- Police say good Samaritans rescued a driver from a burning vehicle on I-295 in Freeport.  Maine State Police say troopers responded to a crash on I-295 northbound near mile marker 20 on Monday around 6:50 p.m. When troopers arrived, they found a Volvo XC60 approximately 60 feet off the road in a wooded area and fully engulfed in flames.

Before first responders arrived, troopers say passing motorists stopped and were able to pull the driver from the burning vehicle and get him to safety. 

Freeport and Yarmouth firefighters extinguished the fire, which had begun spreading into the wooded area.  The driver was taken to Maine Medical Center in Portland with minor injuries. The good Samaritans who helped the driver were treated at the scene for minor injuries and smoke inhalation.

JOBS

·       Domino's Pizza posted a job opening for Delivery Driver (03020) - 208 Maine St in Brunswick. Apply here.

·       Northbridge Companies posted a job opening for Housekeeper, FT- 7a-2:30p in Brunswick. Apply here. 

·       You can search for other jobs near Freeport here.

 

Maine News Wednesday September 16

Press Herald - The Supreme Court will decide later this month whether to hear a lobster fisherman’s challenge to a government requirement that boats use electronic tracking devices. That case could have broad consequences for the American commercial fishing industry.

Maine lobsterman Frank Thompson filed a federal lawsuit against the head of his state’s marine resources department over a requirement that he install a GPS tracker on his boat to keep his fishing license.

In 2023, the state, where lobster fishing is a critical and historic industry, required all federally permitted lobstermen to do so to comply with a new U.S. rule aimed at data collection.

Thompson asserted that the monitoring constituted unreasonable search and seizure, but a federal appeals court denied his claim last year. He appealed to the Supreme Court, which is set to review the claim on Sept. 28.

….Many U.S. commercial fishermen are monitored at sea by human observers and electronic devices to collect data that regulators say is crucial to keeping the industry and fish populations sustainable and healthy. Fishing groups have used the courts over the years to try to curtail monitoring requirements with mixed results. Authorities have said the lobster boat monitoring program is important to improve understanding of the valuable crustacean’s population at a time when it appears to be declining in New England.

The U.S. lobster industry is based mostly in Maine, where fishermen caught more than 78 million pounds of the crustaceans last year. That was on par with the industry’s typical annual catch in the 2000s but a sharp decline from a decade ago, when catches routinely topped 120 million pounds a year.

Press Herald - Maine forests are proving to be more resilient to changing climate conditions in the fall than in the spring and summer, with scientists predicting the colorful canopy will be providing a steady stream of food and photos to wildlife and tourists alike for years to come.

There will still be off years, when the vibrant reds, yellows and oranges of the maples and oaks are dulled by drought or dropped by an early frost, ecologists say, and over time, global warming will drive the onset of the color change deeper into the calendar year.

“But we’re talking days, not weeks,” said Jay Wason, an associate professor of forest ecosystems physiology at the University of Maine. “The pace of fall change is so much slower than what we are seeing in our springs and summers.”

Maine Morning Star -  The average Maine household has paid an average of $4,300 more for goods and services since President Donald Trump began his second term, according to an analysis released last week, which attributes much of that increase to the war in Iran, tariffs and rising healthcare costs. 

The left-leaning Maine Center for Economic Policy (MECEP) released a summary of cost increases last week, relying on analysis from Democrats on the U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee and other sources that have tracked price increases due to Trump administration policies.

Healthcare is the biggest variable: since Congress allowed enhanced premium tax credits for marketplace health plans to expire at the beginning of this year, some families saw much more than the average $4,300 increase, while those with employer-sponsored health insurance have not seen such dramatic price hikes.

But other increases — such as gas, which now costs more than $4 per gallon, and heating oil, which is now $5.15 per gallon — are more ubiquitous, and expected to add more than $2,000 to household budgets by the end of the year.

Friends of Casco Bay - Maine’s Superior Court has upheld key provisions in a federal stormwater permit that applies to the state’s most urban areas. The court’s action upholds a requirement that regulated municipalities must adopt low impact development (LID) ordinances. This is good news for Casco Bay and many other waters in the state because stormwater is one of the largest sources of pollution into our waters.

The permit is called the Municipal Separate Storm Sewer Permit, or “MS4" permit. It is required under the Clean Water Act and covers thirty municipalities in Maine, including thirteen that are in or influence the Casco Bay watershed.

Friends of Casco Bay has long advocated for the LID ordinance requirement in the permit because it is one of the few tools towns have to preserve the natural flow and filtration of water as land is developed. Once those features are lost, it is nearly impossible to restore water quality.

Maine News Tuesday September 15

A homemade 80-ton steel schooner trapped in a Maine backyard may finally see water — if voters agree (boston.com) — A long-running dispute in Freeport over Harold Arndt’s 80‑ton homemade schooner is heading to voters, who may decide whether he can build a temporary ramp to finally launch it. Supporters are racing to collect 774 signatures by Sept. 23 so the question appears on November’s ballot, amid town concerns about zoning, liability, and environmental impacts.

WHOM-   Okay, L.L.Bean fans... the wait is almost over. The iconic L.L.Bean Flagship Store in Freeport is reopening September 18 after nearly two years of renovations, and there are some pretty fun changes inside...

Here's what caught my attention: 

1. A brand-new entrance with a huge staircase. 
2. A bigger, two-level trout pond. Yes, really. 
3. An upgraded stream tank with even more fish. 
4. A new Custom Shop where you can personalize your L.L.Bean gear. 
5. A refreshed 1912 Café with more seating. 
6. A totally redesigned kids' area inspired by a Maine summer camp. 
7. An expanded Discovery Park with more room to hang outside. 
8. New displays showing off L.L.Bean's history and some of its most iconic gear. 
9. And yes... 24-hour shopping is coming back! 

JOBS

• C. & J. Clark International, Ltd posted a job opening for Asst Store Manager in Freeport. Apply here.
• Bowdoin College posted a job opening for Assistant Professor of Earth and Oceanographic Science in Brunswick. Apply here. 
• You can search for other jobs near Freeport here.