PROSPECT — A break in below-freezing temperatures forecast for Sunday is prompting the state Department of Transportation to again close the Penobscot Narrows Bridge, this time to allow ice to…
Commerce
Votes to let the public decide
CAMDEN — Voting 4 to 1, the Camden Planning Board is sending the matter of a Fox Hill amendment to the Camden Select Board, recommending that citizens vote on proposed changes to the town’s zoning…
Economic releases showed strength going into the year end. International Strategy & Investment's Ed Hyman reported that their survey of retailers showed that this was…
This week's economic releases showed strength in both the U.S. and Europe. The Federal Reserve’s announcement that it would reduce (ie "taper") the monthly bond purchases was balanced by the…
Andrew Stewart talks commerce, community and the challenges of conservation
HOPE - Almost nine years after he opened Hope General Store, Andrew Stewart has put the business on the…
Shop-local series highlights three unique Maine-made goods
For the holidays, we’re continuing our series to shine the spotlight on Maine craftspeople who make products by hand. It’s important to shop locally and support the innovators and…
‘Think Local, Shop Local, Buy Local’ event supports small businesses
MIDCOAST—As the Midcoast gears up for Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday, hundreds of area small businesses are participating in American Express’s Small Business Saturday Nov. 30. Widely…
Pecha Kucha presenter Kathleen P. Brown on Victorian costumes, pirates and dealing with nude scenes
Welcome to our ongoing feature Behind The Slides, where we meet up with an artist who just presented at Pecha Kucha Night and find out the deeper story…
Think of it like cash for the Internet. Beyond that, the reality is a little more confusing
An anonymous computer programmer. An online trading card exchange. A secure black market website. An asset capable of over 160 percent …
For 21 years Shipyard has been brewing in Maine
PORTLAND — ‘Tis the season and Shipyard Brewing Company’s Pumpkinhead Ale, brewed in Portland, was as much Halloween to the adults as candy apples are to children. And just in time for…
$150,000 divvied up among 14 businesses for equipment, façades and more
BELFAST - The City Council last week approved a slate of 14 small businesses to receive grants for improvements under the state-funded Micro-Enterprise Assistance Program.
The $150,000…
From the Working Waterfront
BELFAST — The planned dredging of parts of Searsport Harbor is unprecedented in scope with potentially catastrophic results, a group of coastal legislators and…
A guide to the state ballot questions
AUGUSTA - Election Day always comes with a slate of state ballot questions, and this year it’s bonds, bonds and more bonds — almost $150 million worth ($182 million with interest), to…
Old building, new owner
BELFAST - After a long dormancy, the former Peirce Elementary School showed signs of life this week as the new owners began work on the 100-year old brick building.
…
Mass.-based company to turn fabric into lumber
WARREN - Earlier this year the Maine Department of Environmental Protection offered 27,000 tons of automobile trunk upholstery remnants to the business with the…
Starts the job in February
CAMDEN — Doug Sensenig, of Rockport, will become the next executive director of Coastal Mountains Land Trust in February, following the retirement of current executive director, Scott Dickerson.…
WASHINGTON, D.C. — On behalf of his leadership in business and community development, Kyle Murdock, founder of Sea Hag Seafood, Inc., in Tenants Harbor, has received a 2013…
And the ‘Rocky Horror Picture Show,’ too
ROCKPORT — Where can you find the Chop House, Torture Chamber and the Electric Avenue Chamber? It’s all waiting for you at the Megunticook Haunted Campground at 620 Commercial St. (Route 1) in…
Texting and driving, privacy, no jury duty for grandma
AUGUSTA – A slew of laws that were passed during the first session of the 126th Maine Legislature, or were included in the state’s $6.3 billion biennial 2013-14 spending plan, took effect on…
Where? It's a secret, it's a speakeasy...
Rockland — Shhhhhh, it’s a secret. It’s a speakeasy and it is in Rockland.
Although speakeasies were popular during Prohibition, they were also called Blind Pigs and Blind Tigers. It was a…
Open through the holidays; first time in restaurant’s 35 years
Camden — Dave Robichaud owner and operating manager of Cappy’s, said the restaurant’s bakery will be open all year, the first time in Cappy’s history that the bakery has kept winter hours.…
Three sent to hospital, store reopens after clean-up
BELFAST - A chemical spill at Hannaford supermarket in Belfast sent three employees to the hospital and kept portions of the store closed from Thursday afternoon through late Friday morning.
…
$150,000 pool to go toward renovations, equipment and more
BELFAST - Over two dozen businesses have applied for grant money to be used to improve facades and interiors, buy new equipment, upgrade machinery or technology and other projects that, in the…
At work: Now home to the Thorndike Creamery
Rockland - The Thorndike Hotel, built in 1857, closed in the 1970s. A facelift in 2005 with…
The craft of energy efficiency
ROCKLAND — Black Bros. Builders, of Rockland, are the only net zero builders in Maine. Net zero translates into energy efficiency. What does that mean? Black…
Economic releases were mostly positive, but not robust this week in an economic environment that International Strategy and Investment's Ed Hyman characterized as a "synchronized global expansion…
The economic releases were mixed this week, but the U.S. Central Bankers commanded the attention of the capital markets. First, former secretary of treasury, Lawrence Summers, took himself out of…
Shop For The Cause Fundraiser for P.A.W.S.
CAMDEN - Petey the plush P.A.W.S. puppy arrived in Camden Friday morning, the day before the big Shop for the Cause event in Camden and Rockport Saturday, Sept. 21.
Getting checked in to the…
EcoCor anticipates five jobs in passive home building
BELFAST - The City Council on Tuesday approved a plan to give a lot in the Airport Business Park to a green building entrepreneur in exchange for jobs.
Chris Corson of Northport proposes to…
$220,000 high bid nets Peirce School building
BELFAST - The building that was home to Peirce Elementary School for nearly a century, and most recently was headquarters of the Belfast Academy of Music, sold at an auction, Aug. 28, for $220,000…
What lies beneath
CAMDEN — A slowly growing puddle of water on a Mechanic Street parking lot was barely noticeable for weeks, if not months. In a climate where it rains a lot, it was…
Formulized in Warren, manufactured in Maine
WARREN — Ronald Haney, of Warren, is hopeful his product will be voted into Walmart stores. He markets several types of waxes under the name of Ron's Detail and Wax that are manufactured in Maine…
State looks to private sector for solution to longtime fire hazard
WARREN - “Think of this as cookies,” said Michael Parker, project manager with the Maine Department of Environmental Protection. “You roll out the dough and stamp out the cookies and this is what…
Belfast joins with national company to offer free fluorescent bulb recycling
BELFAST - Not long after the tranfer station here dropped its fee for fluorescent bulbs, manager Sandy Carey noticed a trend. The number of people returning bulbs was rising in a predictable word-…
This week's economic releases showed that the global economy was firm but not robust. Europe releases showed that the EU appeared to be returning to a path of growth; the U.S. releases were…
Economic releases were stronger this week, not only in the U.S., but in Europe as well. As we near the end of the quarterly corporate earnings-reporting season, the number of companies exceeding…
Opportunities for advertisers expand with heightened reach
Penobscot Bay Pilot has released the first mobile version of its rapidly growing website, making it easier to keep up…
Week ending Aug. 2
Economic releases were mixed again this week. The U.S. Employment report came in on the low end of expectations, and, as such, eased concerns that the Central Bankers were going to taper their…
Week ending July 28
Economic releases were mixed this week. The power of the corporate earnings surprises was less than it has been over the last four years (see Perspective below). U.S. equity markets were little…
Governments and politicians get in trouble when they try to pick local winners, punish outsiders
Ben Polito grew up on an island—one bridged to the mainland— at the remote end of Georgetown Island, beyond the reach of Central Maine Power utility poles, for the first seven years of his life. “…
The good thing about Roth IRAs is that their growth over the years is totally tax-free and the funds do not have to be distributed according to any timetable; they can even be left for heirs. The…
BELFAST - In the years before Belfast's celebrated downtown revival, a common refrain among longtime residents was that what the city really needed was a bowling alley.
Several years and one…
Week ending July 7
Economic releases, particularly the U.S. Employment report, were on the firm side this week. Equity markets responded to the "good news" by rising; bond markets fell in anticipation of tapering of…
Roadside distraction
KNOX - Drivers traveling on Route 220 during the past week may have noticed a ring of unusual steel structures and a lot of displaced dirt on a rise just south of Knox Ridge Baptist Church. But…
Belfast brokers deal for trailhead parking and bathrooms
BELFAST - A series of deals struck this week has apparently cemented the future role of City Point Station as a shared hub for excursion train rides and a recreational rail trail.
Joe Feero…
When some don't pay, everybody else does
CAMDEN — There are many reasons why Mainers no longer freely incinerate their trash on site, be it at their home or place of business. For one thing, it's illegal. And…
Week ending June 14
Central Bankers have been noticing that the global economy has been picking up. This "good news" has had a "bad news" reaction from the capital markets. The good news had raised the fear that the…
First in the U.S., full-scale version planned for 2016
CASTINE – The Roman god of the east wind could not be summoned in Castine on Thursday. Central Maine Power would have to do.
The occasion was the ceremonial transmission of the first…
