Dear Editor:

I want to extend my heartfelt thanks to my family, campaign team, volunteers, and supporters. You have poured your time, energy, and passion into this campaign, and it has truly paid off. This victory belongs to each and every one of you!

I also want to thank Bill Hunt for a spirited campaign. Running for office takes courage, and I respect the effort he put into this race. Now, it’s time for us to unite as a community and move forward together.

This election wasn’t just about winning a seat; it was about amplifying the voices of our community. It was about addressing the

Fraud cost veterans, service members, and their families $477 million in 2023, according to the latest Federal Trade Commission (FTC) data, and this only includes fraud that was reported. With over 85% of veterans having encountered service-related scams in the last 12 months, now is a great time to review some of the most prevalent scams targeting current and former service members.  

Scammers employ vet-focused twists on impersonation scams, investment fraud, and more. Criminals frequently impersonate the VA, often threatening to cut off benefits if you don’t provide sensitive personal

The next public supper will be Nov. 20. The menu will consist of cheese soup, herb rolls, salad, roast turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, peas, squash, and pumpkin cheesecake. The cost is $10 for members and $12 for nonmembers. Additional meals may be purchased for take-out at the same cost when reserved. For more information or to make a reservation, call 882-8230. Please join us for this delicious Thanksgiving meal.

Cribbage results for Tuesday, Nov. 5 with 19 players were first place, Stuart Wyman, 841; second, Doc Schilke, 833; third, Duane Rolerson, 820; high hand, Stuart Wyman

Birders in Rockland had the good fortune a few days ago to discover a very rare bird in Maine: a common gull. Yes, we know that seems like an oxymoron. Gulls of several species here in Maine could be called “common.” There are the ubiquitous herring gulls that most people refer to as  “seagulls” even though they are seen across much of inland Maine, often far from any marine waters. Great black-backed gulls are pretty “common,” too, especially along the coast. And ring-billed gulls are often quite numerous—we saw hundreds at Wharton Point in Brunswick earlier this fall.

But the actual

Lesley Carter Blethen, postmaster at Boothbay Harbor Post Office, is retiring in a couple weeks. After 32 years with the postal service and five and half years in the Army, she is passing on the keys to the kingdom. It’s been quite a journey.

Lesley did assure me that she was not going to return to boot camp at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, or ship out to Germany or Korea, which must have been  significant adventures in 1986. She was able to utilize her years of military service when finally beginning to work at the post office in Boothbay Harbor.

In 1992 Lesley got her first post office

Sitting at my desk on Sunday, I can’t tell you who will win the presidential election. If you spent time reading the newspapers, watching the paid pundits on the morning chat shows, and scrolled through the various sites online, you couldn’t predict the eventual outcome either. Nobody, but nooobody can.

We are on the cusp of an election eve like none other. The polls tell us it is a tie. The last election led to an insurrection. This one could be worse, sayeth some of the so-called experts. No matter who is named the winner after Tuesday’s vote, you can bet lawyers on both sides will crank up

Dear Editor:

When you get a call first thing in the morning and learn your father, grandfather or great-grandfather's house is on fire, it's terrifying. Seeing it is devastating and heart-breaking. While it's easy to focus on the pain and loss, we know John is finding comfort in family members and friends whose support keeps him going. In the days since the Oct. 21 fire in Alna, our family has said to each other time and time again how in awe we are of the way this entire community has come together to show their support and love of John Seigars Sr., the patriarch and beating heart of our

New England boys know a thing or two about road trips, and apparently they were singing about them in the 1800s as they dashed over the river and through the woods filled with holiday cheer. That familiar tune has been working its way into my consciousness with the first signs of frost, particularly now that I am a grandmother myself. Every year at about this time, we start planning a winter wander through the towns of Midcoast Maine to gather the makings of our family’s holiday meal. 

Breaking with tradition, we will not wait this year until everyone is seated at the table before realizing

The next public supper will be Nov. 6. The menu will consist of pumpkin soup, salad, Anadama rolls, baked beans, ham, cole slaw, and apple crisp a la mode. The cost is $10 for members and $12 for nonmembers. Additional meals may be purchased for take-out at the same cost when reserved. For more information or to make a reservation, call 882-8230. Please join us for this delicious meal.

Cribbage scores on Tuesday, Oct. 29 with 24 players: first place: Howard Nickerson, 833; second place: Pam Frenier, 826; third place: Roger Tappan, 819; high hand: Stuart Wyman, 24; low score: James Kip

Fraud is an escalating crisis, with losses far exceeding what is reported. While $9 billion in fraud losses were reported in 2022, The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) estimates the true financial impact at $137 billion due to underreporting. The AARP Fraud Watch Network testified before Capitol Hill lawmakers in September to this effect, urging stronger consumer protections and support for victims of these crimes.

Kathy Stokes, director of Fraud Prevention for AARP, emphasized the rapid rise in fraud, calling it “meteoric”, and urged a coordinated effort from government, industry, and

The city of Cali, nestled as it is in the green valley between two mountain chains in southern Colombia, is incredibly busy this week. That’s because Cali is the host of a meeting of most of the world’s nations to collectively make decisions on how to deal with a problem that literally impacts every single one of us. That issue is the nose-dive in the abundance and diversity of life on planet earth—what is often referred to as the steep decline in global biodiversity.

Colombia is a fitting place to discuss biodiversity since it has the most bird species of any country. It also has the second

Congratulations to the 2024 Boothbay Region High School cross-country, football and field hockey teams. Their seasons are not yet done as of this writing on Tuesday morning but they have all been competitive this fall and have provided excitement for their fans. BRHS coaches and athletes are to be commended for their hard work with all three programs successfully making post-season appearances. Way to go, Seahawks. And thank you, parents of these athletes, for supporting your boys and girls.

Congratulations, too, to the Boothbay Harbor Region Chamber of Commerce award winners announced during

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 Maine teacher of the year. But how about the town's now having scored aid toward the next lives of its defunct industrial sites?

And this week, we tell about one Route One business, Sweetz & More, going strong and a new one, Charm Thai, being ready to open as soon as it gets the nods it needs. Monday, that moved closer to fruition with the planning board. 

That's probably about it, right? That's a lot

I am not going to echo the great Heather Cox Richardson and present you a long and detailed essay, with appropriate historical annotation, telling you who you should vote for on Nov. 5 (or earlier if you choose).

We all have been bombarded with way too many nasty attack ads voiced by sneering announcers, suggesting, nay, ordering us to vote for/not vote for a candidate.

Why should you agree with them? Because they say so? Balderdash.

I'll bet you already have chosen a presidential candidate. You may have voted already. At least that is what the TV talking heads say.

They claim to have

Madisyn and Hayden, grandchildren of Garry Blackman, learned to play instruments at Southport Central School. They both learned to play the ukulele and Hayden added the piano. For Garry, an accomplished musician, this is not small potatoes. Learning how to play a musical instrument is a very significant skill.

I know a little about that skill having choked a metal B flat clarinet to an all but lifeless state when in junior high school. My music instructor suggested once that I had the touch of the village blacksmith — a true assessment of my ability. To the best of my knowledge, I was one of

Garden Club of Wiscasset’s next meeting will be Nov. 7. We are excited to have as our presenter Dr. Irene Brady Barber, who previously was director of land conservation at  Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens.

Her program “Garden Design: A New England Lens” begins at 1 p.m. She will help us establish a sense of place, pertinent to the geographic conditions and cultural antiquity of our Maine Gardens. Maine, like all of New England, presents an unusual and unique landscape, from river valleys to beautiful fields and narrow stony corridors.The meeting is held at First Congregational Church, 28 High

The next public supper will be Nov. 6. The menu will consist of pumpkin soup, salad, Anadama rolls, baked beans, ham, cole slaw and apple crisp a la mode. The cost is $10 for members and $12 for non-members. Additional meals may be purchased for take-out at the same cost when reserved. For more information or to make a reservation, call 882-8230. Please join us for this delicious meal.

Cribbage results for Tuesday, Oct. 22, with 20 players:                                                                      

First place: Catherine Rolerson, 838

Second place: Rita James, 832

Third place

There are many ways to enjoy the outdoors. We birders often do that by hiking a trail through a forest, strolling a boardwalk over a bog or marsh, or perhaps scanning an open field or the ocean from a platform or parking lot. If you’re like us, you can quickly think of lots of places where you regularly do all of these things when looking and listening for birds.

But you also may be like us in that you also have many places that you visit that are not so straightforwardly accessible. Perhaps it’s a place that could use a viewing platform to keep people from trampling habitat and to make

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 the Boothbay Register for 37 years, the total amount of awards received by the staff ranks up there with the most ever. Memories of Bill Harris, the late-great staff artist, carrying home three or four first-place plaques comes to mind, along with John Edwards, Robin Beck, Barbara Freeman and others winning plaques and/or certificates.

I wasn’t able to join the gang in Bar Harbor because I was being honored

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 blue sky that makes a heart and other shapes between the blaze yellow-orange October leaves, like the Woolwich tree in this week’s paper?

If this election season for whatever reason has your eyes and maybe your soul weary at times, go look at something that has grown and/or otherwise been changing for longer than you have been alive.

A tree or river or rock, big or small, just keeps doing its thing, one