A version of this story first appeared in the Morning Update newsletter. Sign up here to receive the Morning Update and other BDN newsletters directly in your inbox.
Congratulations, you made it! Friday’s here, and that means another workweek is nearly behind you. If you happen to be retired, just give the rest of us this one win.
We’ve got a surprisingly mild August day ahead of us, with the highs peaking in the mid-70s and winds gradually becoming calmer.
If your plans today involve getting in the water, be aware that the National Weather Service is warning that the water temperatures could fall below 60 degrees, which heightens the risk of hypothermia and loss of muscle control and coordination. That risk is highest along coastal Hancock and Washington counties.
In Portage Lake, where temperatures were running high in a dispute over land rights, 63-year-old Gary Belanger allegedly used a skidder to mangle his neighbors’ home on Route 11. Belanger’s wife claims that their neighbor Peter Beaupre harassed him and sabotaged his logging equipment, which Beaupre denies.
These sorts of disputes aren’t new. Over the years, Mainers have clashed over property disputes, which eventually blew up in a very public fashion. You can read here about six other times when disagreements between neighbors got way out of hand.
Needles are washing up in communities along the Penobscot River
Dirty needles are high-stakes trash, and finding just a few of them in the wrong places can set a community on edge, just ask anyone who has considered a trip to a beach where someone recently stepped on a syringe.
In the last two weeks, five syringes have been found along the Penobscot River in Brewer and Orrington, including one that reportedly “poked” a child.
That’s a tiny percentage of the needles in circulation locally (Bangor’s two syringe services distributed almost 350,000 new needles and collected even more used ones in the most recent year for which data are available), but more such discoveries could bring Bangor’s neighbors into a larger discussion about needle use and disposal in the area.
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From the Opinion Page
“For too long, state government has offered promises while the situation on the ground has deteriorated.”