Schooner helps with Haiti relief deliveries

EASTPORT – A schooner familiar to Eastporters has been chartered to bring relief supplies to earthquake victims in Haiti.

The Halie & Matthew is assisting the relief vessel Liberty in delivering nearly 45,000 pounds of needed food and medical items. The Liberty, docked in Miami, could take only about a quarter of that amount, so her owners looked around for help and noticed the Halie & Matthew in its Key West winter quarters, preparing to sail back to Maine.

“They contacted my partner Pat Driscoll,” said Butch Harris of Eastport. “There was no hesitation saying yes, just as long as they bring her back to Eastport afterward.”

The Halie & Matthew, which can carry 100 passengers, is being rented out at a nominal cost to cover dock fees, food and other basic expenses.

Harris spent four days in Florida helping to prepare his vessel, which was still waiting for good weather before sailing to Haiti.

Harris described the Halie & Matthew’s captain, Jared Talarski, and the crew on the humanitarian voyage as “experienced. They come from all over the country — Oregon, Alaska, New Jersey, Texas. And most all of them are commercial boat people. There is one guy who is a rigger for tall ships.”

“I would have liked to go, too,” he said. “But there’s too much going on at home.”

— The Quoddy Tides

http://www.quoddytides.com

BAR HARBOR

Odor leads officials to send school staff, students home early  

Students and staff at Mount Desert Island High School were sent home early Friday after an unidentified odor was detected throughout the building.

Assistant Principal Matt Haney said an odor — which one observer said smelled like sulfur — spread from the cafeteria area throughout the first floor just before 2 p.m.

“As a precautionary measure, we decided to send the students and staff home at that point, about 15 minutes early. We had no reason to believe that the smell was dangerous, but we also could not be sure that it wasn’t,” Haney said.

“We contacted the Bar Harbor Fire Department, who came to assess the situation. The officer did not believe that anything dangerous had happened but thought that we had done the right thing sending people home. “

Haney sent out an e-mail and notes home with students to apprise parents of the situation.

“I didn’t want parents to be concerned for the health of their child,” he said. He urged any parents with concerns to contact him directly.

— Mount Desert Islander

http://www.fenceviewer.com

BAR HARBOR

Former Sierra Club chief to give talk at college graduation 

Carl Pope, former executive director of the Sierra Club and its current chairman, will be the speaker when the College of the Atlantic holds its 38th commencement at 2 p.m. June 5.

Joining Pope will be two honorary degree candidates, Ambassador Bo Lidegaard, permanent undersecretary of state in the Office of the Prime Minister of Denmark, and Ambassador Janusz Reiter, director of the Center for International Relations in Warsaw and the former Polish ambassador to Germany and the United States.

Pope will speak to about 75 graduates from 10 nations, their guests and the extended college community. All graduates will receive degrees in human ecology, COA’s one major.

Pope has spent his life in conservation, working with unions and other diverse groups to build common ground toward a solid, broad-based environmental movement.

During his more than 30 years with the Sierra Club, 17 years as executive director, the organization helped protect nearly 10 million acres of wilderness, including the California Desert, Utah’s Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and California’s Giant Sequoia National Monument.

— The Ellsworth American.

http://www.fenceviewer.com

BRISTOL

Attack by raccoon triggers warnings about rabid animals 

After surviving an attack by a rabid raccoon April 1, Dan Scuorzo hopes families — and especially children — watch out for wild animals.

A week after his encounter at the Padebco Boat Yard in Round Pond, where he works, Scuorzo continues to return to Miles Memorial Hospital, where he has received six shots as a precautionary treatment.

After a 911 call, it took two hours for Animal Damage Control Agent Michael Witte of the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife and other animal emergency personnel to capture the animal. After euthanizing the raccoon, they confirmed it had rabies.

This makes the sixth case of rabies in Lincoln County so far this year. With the warm weather and mild winter, animals are moving about more, Witte said.

It is important to seek medical help right away if bitten by an animal.

“Make sure your domesticated animals are vaccinated (against rabies), and warn children to stay away from wild animals,” Witte said.

— The Lincoln County News

http://lincolncountynewsonline.com