Editorial

From the assistant editor
Assistant Editor

So, in last week's school committee meeting, some pretty stunning things were said about last month's propane incident at Wiscasset Middle High School. And while no workplace or any place is a…

From the editor
Kevin G. Burnham

As we head toward Thanksgiving when family and guests gather for a meal, it is inevitable that conversations happen while you wait for the turkey, duck, goose, ham, or whatever protein you are…

From the editor
Kevin G. Burnham

Public and private events celebrating the holiday season are beginning this week – see public listings in our calendar, ads and articles. There are Thanksgiving dinners, Christmas lights being…

assistant editor

In 2024, you might think when people learn of domestic violence they would, by now, be beyond asking why the victim doesn't leave or, if the victim was slain, why he or she didn't leave if their…

From the editor
Kevin G. Burnham

Congratulations to the 2024…

From the assistant editor
Assistant Editor Susan Johns

Wiscasset was already on a roll this fall, with Town Manager Dennis Simmons's getting a leadership award from his peers statewide and Wiscasset Elementary School's Becky Hallowell's being named…

From the editor
Kevin G. Burnham

Congratulations to my fellow employees for their awards won at the Maine Press Association’s annual Better Newspaper Contest dinner in Bar Harbor on Saturday, Oct. 19.

Having been here at…

From the assistant editor
Assistant Editor Susan Johns

What do you see, in an old tree?

Its mighty limbs outstretched to a fellow tree, making an archway at least as sturdy and beautiful as a person could make, or upstretched straight into the…

From the editor
Kevin G. Burnham

Another Monday holiday! It kind of slows up our operation when the newspaper goes to press on Tuesday afternoons. Reporters deserve a day off and I took half a day off. Also, there were still some…

From the assistant editor
Assistant Editor Susan Johns

Our websites in the last week were showing our strides closer, much closer, to their normal caliber, as we also put out another print edition, all with the new system.

Just please do not…

From the editor
Kevin G. Burnham

They are just about everywhere – political signs – and they are juxtaposed against the prettier fall foliage. There are signs for candidates for various offices, sometimes there are signs for or…

From the editor
Kevin G. Burnham

My co-workers greeted me Monday morning, asking about the highlights of my 11-day vacation, six days in Omaha, Nebraska, where my wife and I attended our nephew’s rehearsal dinner, wedding and…

From the assistant editor
Susan Johns

A couple of weeks ago, I saw an email that misspelled WMHS (Wiscasset Middle High School) as WHMS. And I thought, that’s funny; because, with the HMS, it’s like a ship. It stands for His or Her…

From the assistant editor
Assistant Editor Susan Johns

Mid-last week, did your Morning Catch emails start to look wonky, showing a beta-like menu instead of the usual, user-friendly headlines and more? 

And when you went to our websites, were…

From the editor
Robert Mitchell photo

In late April, when the Major League Baseball season started, Boston Red Sox fans were hopeful for a playoff spot after two years of finishing last in the American League East. Our hopes remained…

From the editor

Fifty years ago was a pivotal year for me. It was the start of my senior year in high school and deciding how I wanted to get through life – what college to apply to, what to major in, where I…

From the assistant editor

How long does it take to inadvertently prove Wiscasset attracts? As in, it attracts people who don’t live and/or work here and therefore who are in town limits because they want to spend time here…

From the assistant editor

As longtime readers and wiscassetnewspaper.com viewers can attest, we cover bigger, ongoing local government news stories pretty wall to wall, like with last year’s principal removal controversy…

From the editor

We have a small but talented reporting staff but we can’t always get all the news, all the time, every waking hour of the day. Yes, we do follow Facebook posts where people post immediate news as…

From the editor

I don’t know if it is my age or whether it is an avalanche of things I want (or need) to get done, but I took a couple of hours on Sunday to write down a list of “things” to accomplish in the next…

From the assistant editor
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You know those days where everything is just busy? Not terrible, just terribly busy. Monday was one for me. Fairly typical, as Monday is the day before we go to press. Plus I had…
From the assistant editor

The double s’s in Wiscasset could have stood for Set for Success earlier this month. Another year of…

From the editor

After witnessing a customer’s verbal abuse of an employee of a business over the weekend, it is shocking to think anyone would do that and require the employee to call in security (and the police…

From the editor

One of our favorite back-to-school commercials was Staples’ take on the Christmas song, “It’s the most wonderful time of the year.” In it, the Dad loads the shopping cart with glee as the faces of…

From the assistant editor

Several weeks ago, John Merry, Wiscasset schools’ longtime maintenance and transportation director, sent us the school bus schedule and we recently ran it in the print edition. Look for it online…

From the editor

Great news for area fishermen. A plan and construction contract for building Carter’s Wharf on Atlantic Avenue, Boothbay Harbor has been announced. It has been in the planning stage for a little…

From the assistant editor

News these days, even soft news – such as news on volunteer-run community events – you would not think could possibly elicit negative comments about Wiscasset, somehow does on social media. No…

From the editor

After reading this in this week’s Ocean Point column – “Wednesday evening Ginna Yerrall has organized a kids’ version of Right Left Center at 7, another fun and enjoyable night for the kids!” – I…

From the assistant editor

Months ago, Wiscasset’s economic development director, Aaron Chrostowsky, started calling selectmen’s attention to the town’s parcel that used to be Maine Yankee’s, off Old Ferry Road. The ideas…

From the assistant editor
The spot where last week’s serious crash occurred in Woolwich, at Route…
From the editor

Last Wednesday evening, as I laid in bed and, for the third or fourth night of trying to relax enough to get to sleep while our dog huddled right beside me shaking from the sound of thunder, I…

From the assistant editor

Kudos to Woolwich’s and Kennebec Estuary Land Trust’s plans for projects near George…

From the editor

It’s not too late to get out on the water. I haven’t been on a boat to see our beautiful coastline for several years. I always hand off the coverage of the Parade of Sail on Windjammer Days to…

From the assistant editor

What if one of our towns’ leaders, hired or elected, was rumored to and/or appeared to possibly have a medical issue that, if true, might impact their service?

A number of factors make…

From the editor

We’ve had a lot of notable anniversary articles in the newspaper lately, including this week’s 60th anniversary of Boothbay Railway Village Museum and the 50th anniversary of Boothbay Region Arts…

From the editor

Summer. More people, more cars, more sunshine … and more news.

One of my jobs is to try and fit as much news on our pages as possible … until it becomes impossible.

Back in the…

From the assistant editor

I don’t think I know anyone who likes sweltering heat, although I know some thunderstorm fans. I am not one. And Monday’s end of day, very windswept rain was wild and surprising, as was Sunday…

From the editor

hindsight: n. 1. the ability to understand, after something has happened, what should have been done or what caused the event.

First of all, we congratulate Earl Brewer on…

From the assistant editor

Covering Wiscasset’s June 11 school committee meeting, I heard a resident noting Eugene Stover’s death. The speaker told the committee he thought Wiscasset Newspaper would have reported it, but…

From the editor

Here’s hoping we saw the Boston Celtics win their 18th NBA Championship on Monday night. My earliest memory of the Celtics winning a championship was when Bill Russell, John Havlicek and company…

From the assistant editor

The Wormfest group has hit on something. The founders picked an apt spot for the worm-digging theme, on the waterfront, and successfully walked the line of both honoring a serious and special…

From the editor

A definition – Copyright: The legal right granted to an author, composer, playwright, publisher, or distributor to exclusive publication, production, sale, or distribution of a…

From the assistant editor

Aug. 27, 2015, at a ribbon-cutting for Wiscasset Middle School’s return to being Wiscasset Elementary, Damon Lincoln, 9, of Wiscasset told me he was a little nervous about going to a different…

From the editor

Five out of seven of our yearly supplements are done, printed and available. The sixth, the Dining Guide, is just about ready to be sent to the printer.

We wish to thank all of our…

From the assistant editor

Alfred Hitchcock was one of the best, and one of his best known films, “The Birds” has become synonymous with any time the birds outnumber the people or nearly dive bomb them. Monday, a bird stood…

From the editor

Driving around the region and seeing the veterans’ banners should make residents proud. Having covered the Memorial Day parades for decades, it’s great to reminisce about the times we have come in…

From the editor

I have sat and worked in three locations/two rooms during my nearly 37 years at the newspaper office here on Townsend Avenue. When I first arrived in 1987, the editorial desks were set up in the…

From the editor

It’s Tuesday. I need to come up with a topic for this column … so I take a drive.

That’s the setting for the dream I had overnight Monday into Tuesday. Dreams are a scrambled mess of what…

From the assistant editor

Last week, Wiscasset’s town meeting-style school budget meeting drew way more residents than usual to that yearly meeting in Wiscasset Middle High School’s Stover Auditorium. Wouldn’t it be nice…

From the editor

It’s hard to believe that one quarter of the year has passed. A lot has gone on since Jan. 1, 2024: storms, storms and more storms; winter sports at area schools ended; and the storm of the year…