Congratulations to the recipients of the annual Boothbay Harbor Region Chamber of Commerce awards. You can read all about who won and the event online and in this issue in the story and photos done by our news contributor Candi Joneth. Having missed it this year after covering it for several years, I always enjoyed catching up with our area business owners after a busy summer.  

Speaking of a busy summer, you can also read news contributor Jane Carpenter’s article (online and in this issue) on some businesses’ takes on what the summer of 2023 was like for them. To me, the tourists came to the region in droves but it is always questionable whether they spent a lot of money or how they spent their money. We do know that the rain didn’t help with outdoor offerings. One thing I did notice is that many of the tourists came from about every state in the nation, according to their license plates. 

Absentee ballots for voting in the Nov. 7 election are available at area town offices. Contact them if you want to avoid standing in line at the polls on that Tuesday. 

It is always nice to catch up with our fellow journalists once a year at the Maine Press Association’s annual conference, as we did on Saturday in South Portland. It was especially nice to see and talk with our former reporter, Joseph Charpentier, who was there wearing his Sun Journal badge. Joe covers the police beat for the daily and said he and his family are doing fine – nice to hear.

So New England Patriots, who do we cheer for now?

Have a good week.