News
12/7/97... The meeting with the Postal Service went well, a lot of people showed up and a number of good points were raised. We will not know for a few weeks if it made a differance.12/7/97... The Maine Sunday Telegram ran an article on the Post Office, a condensed version is available online.
10/14/97... The Cliff Island School now has its own web site: http://members.aol.com/cliffislme/private/cliffislandschoolportlandm.html
9/23/97... 50 people or so turned out tonight in the Hall to greet the new families
9/15/97... An article in the Press Herald about the new kids in the school
8/3/97... School started today with 12 kids, quite a change form the way things looked last spring.
8/1/97...Two water taxi's have started up this summer:
- Capt. Dan
207/780-1803 - Sea Tow
207/772-6724
7/1/97...Bruce Thomson celebrated his return by snagging 3 Stripers last night off stinky beach, and there were 4 or 5 people trying tonight.
6/23/97... This is a busy time of year for everyone on the Island, and I am no exception. Web site updates and mailings will not be nearly as numerous for the next month or two. Besides... many of you will be getting the news first hand.
6/23/97... I received the following email from the owners of The Nellie G Restaurant on Chebeague: "SORRY TO SAY WE ARE CLOSING AS OF JULY 6. WE ARE UP FOR SALE, HAVING BECOME A CASUALTY OF THE RESTAURANT WARS. WANTED TO LET OUR LOYAL CLIFF ISLANDERS THAT WE APPRECIATE ALL THEIR SUPPORT YOU HAVE SHOWN US. THANKS FRED AND DONNA MARTINDALE"
5/16/97... The "Travels with Harry" Segment on Cliff Island is scheduled to be aired on Friday the 16th during the CBS Evening News, normally shown during the last 10 minutes
5/13/97... Portland High School awarded Tayler Barden the Chorus Award for years of outstanding service, leadership, musicianship, and character.
5/12/97... Keep an eye out for the "Travels with Harry" meets Cliff Island segment, to air on the CBS Nightly News one of these Fridays. I would not be surprised to see it on the 16th.
5/1/97... Press Herald article about the Feds misguided attempt to protect the right whale "Lobstermen attack whale-protection plan"
5/1/97... Browntail season may be over, the latest count: 12,261 almost twice last years.
4/21/97... Check out an interview with Eric in the Press Herald
4/18/97... The school kids put on a bake sale at school today and raised made over $36.00 for Multiple Sclerosis.
4/13/97... The Press Herald article of 3/31/97 is on the Cliff Island Site, linked to the Media page
4/5/97...The latest Newsy News is now online. See what the School kids are writing about. Linked to the school page.
4/4/97... CBS news plans to be on the Island for a couple of days next week.
any families planning to visit the island on the 9th or 10th, as a result of the Yankee article, and would like to be interviewed send me some email
4/1/97... The Spring '97 Seagull is now online (740k pdf
3/31/97... An Island Story in the Portland Press Herald
3/21/97... An article in todays paper discussing a proposed CBL Rate Increase
Also:- Feb '97 Bayliner (418k pdf)... Discusses the proposed rate increase.
- Rate table (57k pdf) only, from Feb Bayliner
Upcoming...- 3/7/97 Slide show by Richard Schultz, 7:00/Hall
- 3/8/97 Sock Hop, 7:30 /Hall
3/1/97... Response from the Yankee article has been overwhelming, Well over 250 letters from interested people.
3/1/97... Saw my first (for this spring) flock of geese
3/1/97...I'm lagging behind in updating the browntail page... the count is up to 5946,
1086 from Reiner's alone
2/14/97... Another cover story, Yankee Magazine appeared in our mail boxes today with a photo of the Island on the cover and more photos inside.
1/27/97... Casco Bay Weekly's cover story this week is about Cliff Island, check it out: http://www.maine.com/cbw/
1/27/97... Help bring back the Pilot Cracker. A group of Chebeague Islanders have been spearheading a campaign to get Nabisco to put Crown Pilots back on the shelves. Those of you who miss this "New England institution" can help Call: 1-800-NABISCO Email: cis@nabisco.com Web: http://www.nabisco.com/nabisco.html Do it soon../ Nabisco is suppose to make a decision by 2/4/97 Barbara Johnson has put up a page on the Chebeague Island Site: http://www.nlis.net/~bjohnson/crownpilot.html.
1/27/97... A new boat arrived in the cove today. Eric Anderson has bought a used Bruno 35, after looking all fall in Maine and Canada. He has spent the last couple of weeks in Portland repowering with a diesel, ironing out a few bugs, and finally made it to the mooring this afternoon He plans to lobster in her this summer.
1/12/96... I uploaded the Winter Seagull (751k) tonight. Let me know if you have any problems.
1/10/96... An 11.6 foot tide along with a storm carrying SE winds caused problems along the coast. The beach road was flooded here on the Island and the noon boat couldn't land because the tide was so high. The Islanders were transfered from the Maquot to the Quickwater off Chegeague then brought to the wharf. Some of the wharves on Portland's waterfront flooded causing concerns for those with cars parked there.
1/1/96... Happy New Year We finally have winter, 6 degrees last night. The ground finally froze on Monday night, as late as anyone can remember.
12/6/96... A letter is going out regarding the future of the Island Post Office.
12/4/96... The School kids where mentioned in Nick's Dec 4 A day on the bay column in the Portland Press Herald
12/6/96... This will be the first game night at the Hall. After Christmas something will be going on every Friday.
11/28/96... Ruth's Thanksgiving Dinner at the Hall was, as always, a success. 28 people were signed up to stuff themselves on the 5 turkeys with all the trimmings.
11/18/96... Both Sue Goodrich and Penny Gikas have moved off the Island. School enrollment is now down to 4.
11/17/96... There was a lasgna dinner at the hall tonight, too acknowledge Muriel's years of service to the school. It was attended by 50 - 60 people.
11/17/96... Today was the beginning of browntail season, first day total588
We decided to start with Kline/Pontoppidan since that area was sort of neglected last year. Blew away last year's one tree record of 127 with a 145, followed by another tree with 94. I guess we're on our way.
Browntail Tally
10/24/96... There will be a memorial service for Al on Sunday 10/27 at 1 PM.
10/21/96... A major storm slammed into the southern Maine area, with Portland getting up to 18 inches of rain and high winds. Cliff however recieved almost no damage. The cap blow off Ben's truck, a couple of riding sails where damaged and one or two trees down. The event to draw the biggest crowd was a sailboat, from S Harpswell, that blow up on Eva's beach
10/19/96... Winter can't be far away. The island is almost down to it's winter population... There are a couple of hangers on, Eva and (well its late and I can't think of anyone else) let's just say its gotten pretty quiet. Been noticing a few Browntails were enough leaves have blown off even picked one.
10/18/96... Peggy, Dick, Annie, Diego, Murphy etc .... moved today :(
10/17/96... Watched a Piliated Woodpecker beat on a dying Birch. Not a common bird here, this one (I assume) has been seen a few times this summer
10/16/96... I have just uploaded the Fall '96 Seagull) (1571k). Most of the photos are in color. The file is in the pdf format, for links to free readers check out the CIA page
9/14/96... There was a get together at the Hall today to welcome the new families on the Island.- Jeff and Libra Cusack moved into Alma's house (from Conn) on Aug 26. They have a 6 year old son, Taylor, who is in 1st grade. Jeff is commuting to Portland.
- Sue Goodrich and her son Nathan have also moved to the Island. Sue also works in Portland and Nathan is in kindergarden. They are staying with Allan Bringolf.
WELCOME 9/2/96.... What a let down, we didn't even get much rain which we need badly.
9/1/96... Looks like we might start September with a bang. The scroll at the bottom of the TV is giving hurracane warnings although there are conflicting reports... could head off to the east of us. The city has sent down a Paramedic just in case the conditions get bad enough so the Fireboat can't land at the wharf.
To track Edouard and his buddies check out The Palm Beach Post's Hurricane '96 site. They will even email the latest to you.
I'll let you know how it turns out... if we have power.
8/26/96... I was mentained in the paper today along with the Cliff Island School. Check out the article on the Press Herald Site
8/17/96... A very successful and, of course entertaining, auction tonight. Norm was great as usual. One of the traditional Seagrave loafs of bread went for $85 dollars even without Hani. Total money raised for the CIA was $3,525... a new auction record
8/15/96... Margaret and Lee Newcomb won the 12 lobsters in the Raffle
8/12/96... Bruce Thompson caught the largest Striper of the summer so far 41" - 27#, two other keepers
were also caught that night. Not bad for one night.
Until I have a minute to link this where it should be...ACE Olympic Road Race And a few pictures of Hope's wedding.
For those who haven't heard Heidi MacVane's foot was severly injured last week by the lawnmower she was using and she is going to be laid up for the rest of the summer. There is going to be a bake sale and lobster raffle on Wednesday 8/14/96 to help make up some of the money she will lose. Call Pam if you want to be in on the raffle but wont be here. The lobsters can be picked up at your convenance, probably even next summer.
8/10/96... HI, Yes I'm still alive just been a bit busy. 10-12 hour days 7 days a week, isn't conducive to playing on the web. Let's see if I can get something new on here over the next few days.
Bob
8/10/96... I think the Island settled a bit today after the noon boat. Or should I say noon boats, yes there were 2, one spit out 257 people and the other 72. I wouldn't be surpised if the population of Cliff Island double in a matter of minutes. Why all the people you ask... 170 of them were going to a wedding at the ballfield and another 100 or so were attending the annual Cliff Island Day at the Seventh Day Adventist Church. Luckly, 230 of them went back on the night boat.
A memorial service will be held Monday (6/17/96) afternoon at 4:00 for Frank
6/12/96...I would say over 80 people showed up for the end of school lasagna dinner and awards ceremony, the Hall was so full a table had to be set up on the porch. Not bad for a school with so few kids. The kids put on a great play about Pacos Bill and sang a few songs. Then dinner of lasagna, salad and bread followed by the presentation of awards.
5/22/96... Sal caught the first mackerel of the season off the wharf today, also spotted a Stripper.
5/14/96... The spraying of Dimilin, for Browntail control, on some of the inner islands in Casco Bay was scheduled to be done yesterday. Windy conditions caused a cancelation, I believe it may have happened this morning, check out the Baynet page for background.
The Travel and Leisure article is now available online.
Part of Cliff Island's Crack Browntail Eradication Team
Fitted out with the latest high tech gear
They don't look mean but don't get between them and the trees
5/1/96... Well spring must be here, there was the smell of fresh mown grass in the air. Dave Crowley was the first to break out his mower this year... usually its Capt. Rod. Speaking of Dave, he's back with his computer so he must be here to stay. He's also looking for work so if you have any, drop him a note
4/20/96... Browntail count: 6504. May be the final, the weather is getting warm and we've seen an occasional caterpiller outside the webs. Peaks Island had a cut last week but I don't know how well they did. I believe Americorp may have been involved.
4/20/94... I think that was the day anyway. In Boston,the Syracuse Crew team with Heidi MacVane on board, placed second just a boat length behind Radcliff and well ahead of Dartmouth. Pretty impressive!
4/15/96... Barney ran in the Boston Marathon today, I'll post his time if I hear it.
4/14/96... Started printing the "Seagull" today. Look for it in the mail this week (if you've payed your dues).
4/14/96... Still getting Browntails but don't know how much longer. The count is up to 5805. 6k is a sure thing, maybe even 6500. Should make a difference come summer.
Received permission to reprint the Travel and Leisure article but have to wait 90 days from publication. If you haven't found it on the news stands, it will be on the web soon.
Hazardous Waste Removal for Cliff Island
The Island seems to have the good fortune of being targeted for removal of hazardous materials. It is cooperative project between Portland's Fire Department, Water District, and Public Works. Unfortunately the there is very little lead time... a list of materials that we would like to have removed is due April 20th and removal is set to begin as soon as May 18. Dave Crowley is working to get these dates changed to the end of June to make it easier for summer residents to be involved, but DEP time restraints may not allow it.
What we need immediately is an idea of how much and what type of waste it is. If you have any materials that the city normally will not take in the weekly trash pick-up or the yearly large item pick-up please send an itemized list to Dave. If you suspect you might have some but can't get to the Island to check you might what to contact someone who can investigate for you, this opportunity doesn't happen very often.
Please make the list fairly specific. Example:
A gallon of pesticide
10 gallons of lead paint
some herbicides
asbestos insulation
Although there is no guarantee that they will take all the items that we might like include everything you can think of. I know there is alot of old paint and partial bottles of poisonous chemicals in cellars and closets all over the Island. Let's get rid of them while we have a chance.
Send your list to:
D. Crowley
%Cheryl Lewis
54 Dutton Hill
Gray, ME 04039
Email: Dave_From_Stave@MSN.COM
Since time is so short it would not hurt to send a duplicate list to:
Bob Howard
Cliff Island, Maine 04019
4/8/96... In the news again, Anna was quoted in Edie Lau's "Marine Watch" column in the Portland Press Heald today. The article is about Cliff's Browntail efforts. Can also be checked out at: http://www.portland.com/baynews/mw.htm which is part of the paper's Baynet site. A link can be found on the Cliff Island home Page
4/7/96... Browntail count 4943, really should have made 5000 but the weather wasn't great and other things going on (excuses, excuses).
4/6/96... Dave, Jamie, Bob and Owen particapated in a a training burn on Cushing Island put on by the Maine Forest Service. The City had a pile of timber in the old quarry that they wanted to get rid of so we practiced laying out hose for timber fires and making fire breaks, while keeping the area wetted down.
the elusive Browntail today and they came up with over 150 nests. People are really getting into it as the deadline draws near. Ben and Peggy cleaned out Barbara Smith's apple trees yesterday and you never know when you'll catch a glimpse of a pole pruner being pushed up into a tree. I wouldn't be surprised if we break 6000.