January 20, 5-7pm, American Flatbread in Rockport - Midcoast Climate, Energy + Green Building Meetup - Meet Midcoasters working in housing, energy, climate and resilience; share what you’re working on, jobs or other opportunities. Free, open to the public, all ages.

BELFAST — MaineHealth Waldo Hospital welcomes Carolyn Stwertka, MD, to its Pediatrics Belfast practice.

Dr. Stwertka comes to Waldo Hospital from Northern Light Pediatric Care, in Bangor, and Maine Coast Pediatrics, in Ellsworth, where she was a pediatrician at both locations.

UNION — The Town of Union is launching a Severe Weather Infrastructure Risk Management project to assess and strengthen the community's infrastructure against increasingly severe weather events. With support from a Community Resilience Partnership Community Action Grant from the Governor's Office of Policy Innovation and the Future, Union will conduct a thorough vulnerability assessment that will result in concrete strategies to protect the town's critical systems.

The Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation & Forestry is offering up to 90-percent cost-sharing for installation of drilled wells (up to $25,000), and water storage ponds (up to $50,000) through the Maine Farmers Drought Relief Fund. The fund offers financial assistance to farmers to install wells and water storage ponds throughout Maine. 

Thanks to the creativity of the artists and the generosity of the Belfast community, Local Color Gallery raised $1,750 for the Belfast Soup Kitchen this holiday season in its second annual Ornaments for Donations drive.

The Belfast Soup Kitchen provides weekday lunches, both take-out and dine-in, as well as coffee hours, the Kindness Community Market (a food pantry), home delivery meal services, emergency food, children’s food programs, and much more.

The 2026 inductees to the Maine Women’s Hall of Fame will be Dr. Alane O’Connor, director of Perinatal Addiction Medicine at MaineHealth Maine Medical Center who has been in the forefront of addiction medicine in the state, and the late Frances Perkins, U.S. Secretary of Labor under President Franklin Roosevelt and architect of New Deal programs that Americans rely on today.

CAMDEN — On Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025, the nineteenth annual "Ringing in the Season" holiday handbell concert was presented to a live audience in the sanctuary of First Congregational Church of Camden.

In a Dec. 19 news release from the Maine Association of Realtors, the median price of homes in Maine dropped from the state's historic highs.

Example 1). He knew that his grandson was visiting Ireland. Numerous mentions of the trip floated through Facebook. So, when his grandson sent him a message over FB saying that he’d lost his passport and could Grandpa send $300... well, why not?

Example 2). A group of Thomaston police officers were enjoying a break at an outdoor location. A local pulled up next to them. Have you gotten your new vests, yet?

All eyes flew to the local. Vests?

ROCKLAND — A city-wide parking ban in Rockland will be in effect starting 1 a.m., Thursday, January 1, until 9 a.m., Thursday, January 1.

ROCKPORT — MaineHealth Pen Bay Hospital welcomes Matthew Lambrych, MD, to its Emergency Medicine department.

Dr. Lambrych joins Pen Bay Hospital after completing his Emergency Medicine residency at University of Rochester Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, New York.

He earned his medical degree from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry in June 2022 and holds a bachelor's degree in biochemistry and integrative neuroscience from Binghamton University in Binghamton, New York.

For more information, visit mainehealth.org.

ROCKPORT — MaineHealth Pen Bay Hospital welcomes Allison Gold, AGPCNP-BC, to its Primary Care Internal Medicine Rockport practice.

Gold comes to Pen Bay Hospital from Janian Medical Care in New York, New York, where she spent the past three years as a nurse practitioner.

The Peoples United Methodist Church of Union, in conjunction with AARP, invites the public to a presentation by AARP's Fraud Watch Network January 10.

AARP created the Fraud Watch Network to empower consumers to spot and avoid scams, and to provide support and guidance to victims and their families when fraud happens.

The focus will be on:

•Fraud Trends – Understanding how much fraud is out there and what it looks like.

•Changing the Narrative – How we talk about fraud matters – words matter. How we talk to victims matters.

ROCKLAND — The Maine Dept. of Transportation is proposing the construction of a two-story parking garage on the site of the current parking lot at the Rockland ferry terminal, 517A Main Street.

The Internal Revenue Service announced in a Dec. 29, 2025 news release that the optional standard mileage rate for business use of automobiles will increase by 2.5 cents in 2026, while the mileage rate for vehicles used for medical purposes will decrease by half a cent, reflecting updated cost data and annual inflation adjustments. 

U.S. District Judge Stacey D. Neumann sentenced Eric Ericson, 73, to time-served (14 months and 8 days) in prison to be followed by three years of supervised release. On October 16, 2025, Ericson was found guilty of passport fraud following a three-day trial, according to the Dept. of Justice, District of Maine, in a news release.