Cranberry Lime Snowballs, Gingerbread, Hot Cocoa Cookies, Molasses & Ginger. Just the names of the cookies are swoon worthy and lucky were the judges who got to taste every single flavor! At the end of the judging during Marketfest’s Christmas Cookie Challenge on Dec. 7, the winning cookie was the Double Chocolate Peppermint Bark Cookie baked by Becca Thayer of Wiscasset.

The Maine real estate market is beginning to see a shift to a more balanced market. Maine Listings reported Dec. 19 a 6.81 percent increase in sales of single-family existing homes during the month of November compared to November 2023. The median sales price (MSP) increased 8.45 percent to $385,000. The MSP indicates that half of the homes were sold for more and half sold for less.

The Maine real estate market is beginning to see a shift to a more balanced market. Maine Listings reported Dec. 19 a 6.81 percent increase in sales of single-family existing homes during the month of November compared to November 2023. The median sales price (MSP) increased 8.45 percent to $385,000. The MSP indicates that half of the homes were sold for more and half sold for less.

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Northern Shrimp Section is maintaining the current moratorium on northern shrimp fishing through the 2025 fishing year. That makes 11 years of no commercial shrimp fishing in Maine.

That action followed the 2024 Stock Assessment Update, "which indicates the northern shrimp stock has been at low levels of biomass for over the past decade despite the fishery being under a moratorium since 2014," said the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission in a Dec. 13 news relesae.

Veggies to Table, a non-profit grow-to-donate vegetable and flower farm in Newcastle, has received a matching gift that will double the impact of any donation made before Dec. 24. Veggies to Table is $20,000 away from reaching their year-end goal to raise $100,000, which will support the organization’s growth over the next year and fight local hunger.

1 in 5 children and 1 in 7 adults go hungry daily in Maine:  

$50 feeds a child for a week 

$100 feeds an adult for a week 

$250 feeds a child for five weeks 

Wiscasset Yacht Club got its OK Monday night to fix riprap that took storm damage last January. Wiscasset planning board's Jackie Lowell said via email later, everything on the night's agenda passed. Chair Karl Olson said he could not get Zoom going in the town office's meeting room.

The Skidompha Secondhand Book Shop in downtown Damariscotta is offering a half-price sale on all children’s books, starting on Tuesday, Dec. 10, and continuing through Christmas Eve.

Rosie Bensen, co-manager of the shop, said, “We’ve recently received many donations of wonderful children’s books for all ages, from board books for the little ones, to fiction and non-fiction for young adults. This would be a great time for customers to stock up on gifts and for winter reading.”

The next Ocean on Tap event will take place on Thursday, Dec. 12 from 6 to 7 p.m. at Footbridge Brewery, 25 Granary Way in Boothbay Harbor.

Megan Shapiro, a marine resource specialist, will be speaking about tips and information on making smarter seafood choices that help support our ocean, seafood economy, and local fishermen. It should be very interesting about how the seafood industries work, even if you're not a huge seafood eater! The Facebook event link is at: https://shorturl.at/tJups.

Holiday gift shopping is a pleasurable experience during Wiscasset Holiday Marketfest weekend in the Village, from Dec. 6 through Dec. 8. A fine collection of unique shops offers a vast array of gift possibilities and the pop-up Holiday Gift Shop, in the historic Nickels-Sortwell House barn, is chock full of one-of-a-kind artisan-made items for sale.

Lincoln County Registry of Deeds provided the following information on property transfers recorded in November:

Alna: Moon, Noelle Catherine to Wiscasset Waterville & Farmington Railway Museum, Waterville Farmington & Wiscasset Railway Museum and Farmington Wiscasset & Waterville Railway Museum; Newrez LLC and Shellpoint Mortgage Servicing to Boynton, Madison E and Alexander, Samuel D.; Flanagan, Gerald and Flanagan, Virginia to Cooper, R. Christopher.

“Snow drops and cookies and cakes of white chocolate, bright shiny trees and mulled spices in goblets, Holiday trees and wreaths of pine branches, Fairy houses and bird feeders the size of small ranches ...These are a few of their holidaze things …” (sing to the tune of “My Favorite Things”)

JAR Cannabis has its OK from Wiscasset's planning board. In October, the board voted to have Lincoln County Regional Planning Commission Executive Director Emily Rabbe review the recreational cannabis retail store proposed for 564 Bath Road, formerly Seacoast Coffee Company. And Nov. 25, at Rabbe's recommendation, the board nodded the project.

In an advance email, Rabbe noted the square footage was tweaked by 20 square feet to a new total of 1,420 after the Lewiston-based business and its design team refined the floor layout.

With the launch of a 13-foot Lawton Dory, Carpenter’s Boat Shop (CBS) said good-bye to its 2024 class as it also completed a project started a year ago by its 2023 group of apprentices. 

Home buyers across the state of Maine are actively pursuing the purchase of single-family existing homes, yet they still face a lack of available inventory. Maine Listings today reported a statewide median sales price (MSP) of $395,000 in October 2024—an increase of 5.05 percent over October of last year. Sales rose 3.21 percent over October 2023, and 1,481 homes changed hands. The MSP indicates that half of the homes were sold for more and half sold for less.

Home buyers across the state of Maine are actively pursuing the purchase of single-family existing homes, yet they still face a lack of available inventory. Maine Listings today reported a statewide median sales price (MSP) of $395,000 in October 2024—an increase of 5.05 percent over October of last year. Sales rose 3.21 percent over October 2023, and 1,481 homes changed hands. The MSP indicates that half of the homes were sold for more and half sold for less.

Wear your best PJs to bed this Friday night, and remember to set your alarm on the bright and early setting (a.k.a. 5 a.m.) because the 36th Early Bird Sale & Pajama Party is this Saturday, Nov. 23. And you know what that means ...  you have an excuse to stay in your jammies most of the day and go shopping! Early Bird really is a beautiful thing.

Alna selectmen agreed Nov. 14 to send the planning board a copy of a draft of a blasting ordinance for the panel to review and make recommendations on by Dec. 15. Chris Cooper, who moderated a selectboard-appointed mining committee that produced the draft ordinance, said letting the planning board edit the document might lead committee members to "disavow" the proposal. 

The selectboard decided it will review recommendations the planning board gives it about the document, and consider incorporating them.

The Maine Yankee Community Advisory Panel (CAP) on Spent Nuclear Fuel Storage and Removal convened its annual public meeting Oct. 29. Panel members and attendees heard presentations on the status of the Maine Yankee Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation (ISFSI) along with updates on federal and state topics related to the long-term storage and future removal of the Spent Nuclear Fuel (SNF). The meeting took place at Montsweag Restaurant in Woolwich.