PHIL DI VECE, News Contributor Tue, 03/02/2021 - 7:00am
The masthead of The Wiscasset Newspaper as it appeared in 1979.
My first look at the Wiscasset Newspaper came in the autumn of 1978. I was living in Fort Collins, Colorado finishing my senior year at Colorado State University where I majored in journalism. I was looking for a job as a newspaper reporter and some friends convinced me to come to Maine. They mailed me a package with copies of: the Portland Press Herald, Kennebec Journal, Times Record, Coastal Journal and The Wiscasset Newspaper.
Just a few months later, I started working as a reporter and photographer for The Wiscasset Newspaper. Dan DeRepentigny, the owner and publisher of the Boothbay Register, hired me. Dan in 1970 had started The Wiscasset Newspaper which began as a small, eight-page tabloid. It was printed on a letter press in the basement of the Boothbay Register on corner of Townsend Avenue and Union Street in Boothbay Harbor; the same small bu
SUSAN JOHNS
Past Alna town clerk, turned interim town clerk Amy Stockford. File photo
Amy Stockford never stopped serving Alna after she left as town clerk in 2016. The co-owner of Old Narrow Gauge Farm with Toby Stockford, and mother of Etta, pushing 4, has been town treasurer more than five years. And now, after the town’s latest clerk, Sheila McCarty, resigned, Stockford has agreed to be interim clerk.
Selectmen named Stockford to the job at a board meeting Monday afternoon, First Selectman Melissa Spinney said. Spinney explained via text, Stockford will still be treasurer. “The (deputy clerks Linda Verney and Lynette Eastman) will handle most of the day to day duties as they’ve been doing. Amy really only needs to do a few hours a week of clerk stuff, like getting ready for election.”
SUSAN JOHNS
Courtesy of Michelle Blagdon
WMHS English teacher Michelle Fraser, left, and Technology Coordinator/VHS Site Coordinator/Student Council Advisor Deb Pooler. Courtesy of WMHS
Michelle Blagdon and son Payton, a WMHS sophomore. Courtesy of Cindy Collamore
Courtesy of Michelle Blagdon
Treats the staffs of Wiscasset Elementary and Middle High schools received last week were a thank you from parents. And staff members told Wiscasset Newspaper they appreciated it.
WES fifth grade teacher Justin Stygles said in an email response, “For one who is trying to kick a Coke-a-cola habit, the apple juice was a welcome gesture. It s been a trying year, since March 13. There s a lot of tension, which is hard for all of us, including parents, to deal with. The token of appreciation is humbling and appreciated.
SUSAN JOHNS Sat, 01/30/2021 - 7:45am
About five months before the COVID-19 pandemic halted events like these, Morris Farm’s Madelyn Hennessey brings out her apple-cherry pie at the nonprofit’s Nov. 2, 2019 silent auction and bean supper. File photo
Morris Farm is going 21st century on its fundraising, after a pandemic-induced, $30,000 budget shortfall, board chair Madelyn Hennessey said in a phone interview Friday night. A press release hours earlier said the Gardiner Road, Wiscasset nonprofit “is facing an uncertain future.” The release’s headline read: “Your help is needed to keep Morris Farm in the Wiscasset and Midcoast communities.”
Wiscasset Newspaper asked Hennessey a lot of questions to understand where Morris Farm stands. Hennessey answered them all.
PHIL DI VECE News Contributor Mon, 01/11/2021 - 7:45am
Linda and David Pope on the back porch of their Federal Street home. PHIL DI VECE/Wiscasset Newspaper
One of the two trail entrances into Sortwell Memorial Forest off Willow Lane. PHIL DI VECE/Wiscasset Newspaper
David Pope said rediscovering the solitude of the outdoors is one of the best things about hiking a network of trails behind Wiscasset Community Center and Morris Farm. Visitors to the vast land preserve minutes from Route 1 can see majestic white pines, flourishing hemlock groves, cascading streams, unusual glacial erratics, tranquil ponds and more. There are just a few problems. Parts of the trail system have become overgrown, trail markers are missing and a map needs updating.