A Penobscot elder in the early 1600s stated “through education comes understanding, and from understanding comes respect.” A riverine people, the Penobscot Nation lived and traveled along the Megunticook Watershed for thousands of years. This territory continues to offer their history via stories and memories.

Several years ago on a Spring weekday morning, I was sitting on a bench on upper Harbor Park. Along came a teacher with her “classroom” of Camden middle school students. Each eager student carried a clipboard with a pad of paper and a pencil or pen and received the following instructions

Camden is experiencing one of the most charged public debates about a community decision that any of us have ever experienced. This fact has sadly produced a campaign that, recognizing it is failing on facts, is resorting to distortion, distraction, and disinformation.

It is impossible to miss the yard signs all around Camden advocating for “Yes” and “No” votes on the removal of Montgomery Dam that we will decide on the June 10 ballot.

The topic has tapped the passions of voters both for and against dam removal. But what are the facts supporting these positions? 

The “Yes! On 7” campaign

Christopher Rheault—Chrisso, to us—has been a ‘known quantity’ to my family since he was in high school, and we’re grateful that he wants to join the Camden Select Board. We support him, and we urge you to do so as well. His parents, Sarah and Andy, have been active in Camden and Rockport for decades (I took over Andy’s seat on the old SAD 28 school board long ago) and passed along the gene for volunteerism.

Chrisso is the classic Camden-ite: has lived here long enough to soak up local values, but has also lived away long enough to broaden his perspectives and bring them home. He’s well

The Mainers I grew up with in the 1980s - 1990s were very practical. They knew that if the community was going to accomplish anything, it had to be done by people of goodwill. Maine folks concentrated on the common goals they shared with their neighbors. Citizens didn’t have to agree on all issues (or even most issues!) to collaborate on town government, nonprofit projects, and school boards. Let’s uphold these traditional Maine values.

Instead of working cooperatively to address our economic challenges, Republican politicians try to convince us that the real problem is immigrants, pronouns

In reviewing the website of the Megunticook River Keepers I noticed this simple sentence embedded at the bottom of one of their many paragraphs.

“Restoring the river will open up more opportunities for an extended and enhanced river walk."

Is this a long-range plan to open hiking to the public along the length of the river?  If so, are they suggesting that private property will be taken from the backyards of property owners along the river and put in public domain?

They have said in another written statement they want to open the river to hiking. This plan would put strangers into the

How fortunate is Camden — Rafi Baeza is running for a seat on the Five Town CSD School Board!

Those who have worked with him, as I did on the Camden Design Committee for many years, know about the energy and creativity he brings to any project he is involved in.

I am talking about more than the visual side of his creativity, but the ability to look at a project or issue in more than a linear way. A group working together needs the kind of talent that Rafi brings to it.  But importantly, it is his commitment to Camden’s young people that stands out.

Think back to the gloomy days of the

A large part of the charm of our village of Camden is the river running under Main Street.

As a child visiting my grandmother in Searsport, from our home in Oklahoma, one of my favorite memories was driving down to Camden from Searsport for lunch at Cappy’s Chowder House and visiting our favorite gift shop, The Smiling Cow.  What made The Smiling Cow so memorable was the fact that the back of the store opened onto a little balcony overlooking the dam.  We’d always go out onto the balcony and look over the falls running beneath our feet and out at the harbor and wish, for all the world, that

Just wanted to point out the potential for a very unpleasant surprise regarding the upcoming vote on Camden’s Montgomery Dam. This is not some theoretical argument — it’s based on real-life experience from another small town right here in Maine. A bit of internet searching will turn up extensive news coverage on an issue that’s eerily similar to what Camden voters will face on June 10.

Like Camden, Dover-Foxcroft features a historic dam in the town center. Like Camden, that dam was in dire need of repair. Like Camden, some town residents supported restoring the Mayo Mill Dam, while others

There has been a dam and falls at the Montgomery Dam site since the Town’s beginning in 1771. The dam, its falls, and millpond are in our DNA.  They continually contribute to an active, flowing history.   

It doesn’t seem right to continue our recent legacy of neglect to a conclusion of destroying Montgomery Dam.  Let’s save the dam and let’s rebuild the Harbor Park seawall, both, not sacrifice one to obtain the other.  This is a matter of keeping our local priorities and values intact and no federal grant is worth compromising them.  

We are being asked to vote on removing this longstanding

As the designated stewards of Harbor Park, the Trustees of the Camden Public Library recently made a momentous decision to make regarding the June 10 town vote on the future of Montgomery Dam. They voted unanimously, with one abstention, to support the removal of Montgomery Dam.

Mary Louise Curtis Bok, who was both Camden Public Library’s primary benefactor and Harbor Park’s founder, left the future of her most cherished gift to Camden, not to the Town. She wanted to ensure that future decisions would be done by citizens whose primary responsibilities would be to these intertwined entities –

In reading material from the group who wants us to spend taxpayer dollars to repair and maintain the Montgomery Dam, one could come away with the impression that removing the dam means destroying the waterfall.

FACT: the river drops 140 feet as it flows down to the ocean. There will be a waterfall with the dam removed. Nature’s waterfall will be restored.  

Watching water naturally cascade over ledges and boulders is captivating.  With the dam removed the pool of water behind the dam, often stagnant and unappealing, will be replaced with free-flowing water.  

Vote YES to remove the dam

This letter is not specifically about Camden Ballot Question 7 – whether to destroy or keep the Montgomery Dam.  I am concerned that, as voters and taxpayers of Camden, we have not yet been given the complete and accurate information needed to make an educated and informed decision. There should be a comprehensive plan in place before starting any piece of the project – a plan that lays out in detail what is proposed for the rest of Megunticook River and the other dams. 

At this point, there are far too many questions that need to be answered before we vote on a small part of the project

We are writing to express a profound thank you to all our firefighters and EMS workers for their bravery, skill, and dedication in this life-saving work, and to their families.  And, a hat’s off to the source of private funds that covered the Rockland first responder out-of-pocket screening costs. 

The PenBay Pilot does us all a service to bring to our attention these early diagnostic screenings as well as the sobering “Line of Duty Death” occupational cancer data shared.

Hopefully all our Midcoast first responders can have such early screenings.

With appreciation,

Claudia & Michael

For most of my adult life I have wanted to live in a town (not a city) that was as walkable as possible. Over the years I investigated many towns, especially in New England, looking for the perfect walking town. That factor, walkability, was a major reason I chose to settle in Camden once I retired.

So I can say with some confidence that Camden is a very good walking town. Actually, it’s both Camden and Rockport that I am thinking about. Both of those towns are very walkable now. The question in my mind is, can we keep them that way? Moreover, could we make them even better walking towns in

From where I stand the Article 7 issue appears to have a side that is not being fully considered or ignored completely and that is our ability to fund the project or the lack of.

I am not quite sure why the Town Manager and the Select Board want to support a project for which there is only a percentage of the required funds available.  In this case partial funding apparently depends on the availability of federal and or state grants,   Assuming we know what the town’s matching responsibility would be for the difference, where would that money come from?

Additionally, all of the current

The idea of removing Montgomery Dam is a pretty big question, and immediately raises very reasonable questions about financial impacts, there, and all the way up the river. Removal opens a figurative can of worms as other dams are evaluated as well.

In fact, it was financial impacts that raised the question in Select Board discussions in the first place, in 2018. The Dam, originally built in 1791, has of course required multiple repairs through the centuries. The time for another repair has come around again, raising the question once again. Costs go up; the bills have repeatedly been paid by

As we draw closer to the June town election I wanted to write an open letter to the community of Rockport, introducing myself to those whom I haven’t met and providing a bit of background on my decision to seek my third term as a school board representative from Rockport. 

My name is Brieanna Gutierrez. I was born and raised in Rockport, graduating from Camden Hills in 2004. I went on to study psychology at the University of Maine at Farmington before attending law school at Maine Law in Portland. After I graduated from Maine Law and passed the bar in 2011, I returned home to Rockport and

Everybody loves the American robin. There’s even a song about, “Robin, robin, robin redbreast, flies through the air and sits on a rail.” At least that’s how we learned it when we were kids. It’s easy to be inspired by robins, they live all around us, filling our neighborhoods with their songs, feeding on our green lawns, and nesting in our shrubbery. Given that they are one of the most well-known and regularly seen species of birds, how much do you really know about them? Here we present five surprising facts about the familiar American robin.

1. American robins are considered the most

“All politics are local.” That means the decisions we make right here in Hope shape the future of our children, our economy and the strength of our town.

That’s why it’s so important to preserve Hope Elementary School’s budget — a budget that has already been gutted over and over and has been stretched to its limits. I have children at Hope Elementary, and I’ve seen firsthand how hard this school works to deliver real academic value on a shoestring. And yet, even with minimal resources, this school continues to deliver outstanding teaching, smart administration and real academic results.

We

Camden, Maine, and its Megunticook River are an inseparable pair. Both are tightly integrated together. The bedrock for the Town, the River and the surrounding mountains and bay was created about 350 million years ago. This bedrock has determined the shape of the town, the durability of the town and the life of the Town.

Over this time, Camden has evolved into an amazing place with a working ecological system between humans and nature.

But for at least the past seven years, the Town of Camden, Maine, is aggressively pushing forward with as much as a $35 million project to tear up the