FREEPORT NEWS
WGME - Freeport breaks ground on new downtown housing project — Downtown Freeport is getting a major boost with construction underway on The Dash, a 51‑unit apartment building one block off Main Street. Town leaders and longtime residents say the project, and another expected soon, aim to revive year‑round downtown living, support local businesses, and bring back the neighborhood feel many remember from earlier decades.
Press Herald - What are those boxes in Casco Bay's mudflats?— If you've spotted mysterious wooden boxes on Freeport's mudflats, they're part of a coastwide research project tracking how well softshell clams survive against predators like invasive green crabs. Downeast Institute scientists are using these "recruitment boxes" in Freeport and other Casco Bay towns, and they're looking for local volunteers this fall to help haul and process the heavy, mud-filled boxes when tides allow.
Taking the Kids - Wolfe's Neck Woods State Park in Freeport offers locals easy-access trails, Casco Bay views, and daily hours from 9 AM to 7 PM right on Wolfe's Neck Road. The article walks you through its accessible paths, birdwatching, forest bathing, picnic spots, and seasonal scenery, with tips on when to visit for quieter walks and how families, seniors, and dog owners can enjoy the park comfortably.
Jobs: Skechers USA, Inc. posted a job opening for Retail Key Holder in Freeport. Apply here....Under Armour posted a job opening for Seasonal Stock Associate in Freeport. Apply here. You can search for other jobs near Freeport here.
Shaw Bros. plans to start sewer work on Friday morning, May 8th at Depot Street and the access road to First Parish Church. There will be flaggers on site and at times Depot Street and the church access road will be down to one lane of traffic. This work should roughly take all day Friday. After Friday, the sewer work will continue on the access road for the next 1.5 weeks.
Maine Morning Star - Maine’s Judicial Branch is warning residents of a new scam demanding payments for unpaid traffic violations. The texts include an image of a “final enforcement notice” and demand payment for unpaid traffic violations, including failure to pay tolls, speeding tickets and parking violations.
The state wants accessory dwelling units. Cities and towns are seeing mixed results.
Press Herald - The City Council on Monday approved an ordinance update that extends limitations on cooperating with federal immigration authorities to all public employees, but not without some last-minute wrangling over the final language. The updated language, proposed in response to this winter’s immigration enforcement surge, further limits how public employees can interact with federal immigration authorities and includes restrictions on allowing agents into municipal buildings, using public funds to assist with operations and more.
The council conducted a first reading of the ordinance April 13 after negotiating amendments with the city’s legal team and the American Civil Liberties Union of Maine, which has brought the language to multiple cities.
The 7-1 vote followed some back and forth over the final language, which led Mayor Mark Dion to cast the lone vote in opposition.
Dion argued that language barring city employees from allowing federal agencies to access nonpublic portions of municipal buildings sends an “unfair” message to city staff. He offered an amendment that would’ve protected staff from discipline for violating the section, if they were found to have granted such access because of intimidation by federal agents, but it failed.
Press Herald - A Portland teenager whose immigration case has garnered national attention is set to be released by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement after nearly six months in custody. A judge ordered on Wednesday that Olivia Mabiala Andre, 19, be released by Friday, according to one of her attorneys, Todd Pomerleau.
“She’s just overjoyed and ecstatic and going through a lot of emotions,” Pomerleau said in a phone call Wednesday evening, “but she’s getting out.” Olivia Andre and her mother, Carine Balenda Mbizi, and two siblings, Joel and Estefania Andre, were taken into custody by U.S. Border & Customs Protection after the family sought asylum in Canada on Nov. 12.
According to Border Patrol, the family entered the United States illegally in 2022 and a judge ordered their removal in February 2025. They appealed that order, but were denied in October. The mother and two siblings were released in March. Ahead of their release, attorneys had argued that the mother and two high schoolers must be released from custody under the Flores Settlement Agreement, which details protections for people under 18 who have been detained by immigration authorities.
Jacobin - Troy Jackson, a fifth-generation logger and labor leader, is the first to say he’s not from the Left or the Right — he’s from the bottom. Troy worked eighty-hour weeks in the woods for big timber corporations as an “independent contractor” forced to accept the prices they set and leave his family for six days a week. In 1998, Troy led the fight to shut down the US-Canadian border to protest the illegal hiring of Canadian loggers, whose national health care system and exchange rate allowed them to work for less.
Jackson initially made his bid for the Maine State Legislature in 2000 as a Republican (and later became an independent), reflecting the political sentiments of many of the people he grew up with and worked alongside. His voting history details votes against marriage equality and legalized abortion. However, Troy is an elected official that actually talks to his constituents. Following his 2009 vote against marriage equality, which he calls “the worst vote he ever took,” he met with a group of pissed-off gay people from Aroostook County. In 2004, Jackson made the switch to the Democratic Party and now is a firm supporter of trans rights, women’s bodily autonomy, and progressive tax reform to make millionaires pay their fair share.