HARPSWELL — Town Meeting will be asked to approve a 7 percent budget increase this year, but a tax increase seems unlikely. Town Administrator Kristi Eiane said that could change if selectmen do not approve using money from the town’s fund balance to keep the tax rate low, or if she receives new information on […]

SCARBOROUGH — The spotlight at Scarborough Public Library this month goes to recently translated Russian literature. Bowdoin College Russian instructor Lisa Hayden Espenschade will present works of fiction and nonfiction at the library at 2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 26.  Espenschade received her master’s degree in Russian literature from the University of Pennsylvania and lived in […]

SOUTH PORTLAND — A Massachusetts company with a warehouse in South Portland has agreed to pay more than $68,000 in fines to the Environmental Protection Agency. Monson Cos. also will provide training and equipment worth nearly $33,000 to local emergency response teams, according to a statement from the EPA. The fines will settle claims that […]

A clammer finishes his day on the flats near the Town Offices in Harpswell, as the fading sunlight bathes Harpswell Sound.

TOPSHAM — The Board of Selectmen on Feb. 2 unanimously approved moving a Bridge Street crosswalk about 100 feet south, to where it used to be. The board also called for a sign to be installed that warns traffic of the crosswalk. Resident Jeff Deletesky, who proposed the move, said a crosswalk at the intersection […]

Gene and Delores Carey of South Portland watch the seagulls beg for more crumbs from the couple’s lunch in the parking lot at the South Portland Municipal Boat Ramp near Bug Light on Feb. 6.

HARPSWELL — For generations, the Abenaki carried their boats from Harpswell Cove to Middle Bay across a narrow point of Harpswell Neck. Now a new study identifies that low-lying marsh, and the intersection of Route 24 and Coombs Road along Buttermilk Cove, as two of the most vulnerable areas to sea-level rise and flooding. The […]

BATH — Regional School Unit 1 signed a five-year lease last week to move its central office to the Wing Farm Business Park. The move is designed to cut costs for the school district, which serves Bath, Arrowsic, Phippsburg, West Bath and Woolwich. RSU 1 operated at the John E. L. Huse Memorial School on […]

BATH — The Planning Board on Tuesday unanimously approved the site plan for a new dormitory at Hyde School. George Paton, facilities director at Hyde, said demolition of the existing dorm is planned for June. Construction of the new dorm on the site is expected to be finished next January. The 17,000-square-foot Campus Drive building […]

BRUNSWICK — Ever since he first stepped inside the small red building at 54 Maine St. and bit into a glazed twist, Nels Omdal has wanted a piece of Frosty’s Donuts. “I said multiple times to my family, ‘I’m going to buy this place someday,’” Omdal said Monday while sitting at a booth inside the […]