Maine

Reality intrudes on a magical slice of Maine | Opinion

Published

11 months ago

May 4, 2025

Reality intrudes on a magical slice of Maine | Opinion

In 1991, my father-in-law purchased a modest three-bedroom bungalow in Kennebunk Beach, Maine, as a 60th birthday gift to himself — a retirement haven nestled 470 kilometers from Westmount, Quebec. It was, and still is, the closest ocean to Montreal. The dollar was almost at par. The drive south, winding through New Hampshire’s rugged Dixville Notch State Park, was as much a part of the journey as the destination itself. The mountains were the overture to the sea.

The driving route traces a dizzying map of backroads, crossing the border at a ramshackle outpost between Canaan-Hereford Road in Vermont and Saint-Herménégilde, Quebec. There, the Canaan Line House, a sagging two-story relic straddling the international boundary, stands as a monument to a bygone era. Its splintered walls once buzzed with Prohibition-era revelers — Americans slipping through the internal door to the Canadian side for a legal drink, then back again, smuggling laughter and liquor under the radar. A century later, the building’s decay has elevated it to folklore, its warped floors, broken windows and sagging roofline whispering secrets of bootleggers and blurred borders.

Back then, crossing into the U.S. felt like stepping into a neighbor’s kitchen. A driver’s license — or a Bloomingdale’s card, or a grocery receipt scrawled with your name — was passport enough. No one scrutinized the apples in your trunk for forbidden stickers, or asked about firearms, or cared how long you’d stay. The trust was implicit, the camaraderie effortless. But on June 1, 2009, the rules tightened. After passports became mandatory, the line between “us” and “them” thickened like a fog rolling in off the Atlantic.

Kennebunk itself is a study in contrasts. A few miles from our bungalow, the Bush family estate, Walker’s Point, juts into the sea, all granite rock and New England grandeur — a symbol of generational wealth. Yet our corner of the cove near Mother’s Beach clings defiantly to its unpretentious charm, sheltering working artists, lobstermen and families who call it home year-round.

Reid Hannaford

Wherever you find yourself, sandpipers dart through tide pools, bald eagles circle above and periwinkles cling to rocks untouched by manicured hands. The garden in front of our house mirrors this duality, a steadfast contrast to the ocean’s restless expanse: a collection of fairy houses, dozens of bird feeders and rosa rugosa battling invasive bittersweet. At the entrance, two hand-painted wooden birdhouses stand sentinel: one adorned with a Canadian maple leaf, the other with American stars and stripes. By the water, a flagpole flies both nations’ colors — the U.S. flag always higher, a nod to geography, though the Canadian one dances just as fiercely in the salty wind.

When my father-in-law passed away, we inherited more than a house. We inherited the garden: a borderless bird sanctuary for all to enter. We also inherited sand dollars scattered like porcelain coins at low tide, a little deck where we’d watch storms roll in, and the rhythms of a town where neighbors still share clambake recipes and spare keys. Kennebunk’s soul lies in its volunteer garbage removal on Gooch’s Beach, its lobster boats chugging home at dusk, its annual debate over the price of a lobster roll. People are kind. They drop off cookies, haddock soup and tomatoes from their gardens. They lend wheelbarrows. We’ve never been separated by our nationality. Yet even here, change gnaws at the edges.

Reid Hannaford

For years, I told myself the garden’s magic — its defiant whimsy, its binational birdsong — was immune to politics. The flags, after all, had fluttered in harmony through decades of diplomatic spats. But lately, the world beyond the cove feels unmoored.

When border agents began rifling through phones, when “America First” curdled into hostility toward old allies, when President Donald Trump took aim at Canada — tariffs, insults, the unraveling of a century’s trust — I felt the ground shift. “Governor” Trudeau was an unforgivable slight. I’ve never been more proud of our former Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau. He united us all when, hand over heart, he said, “Canada will never become the 51st state.”

But uncertainty is no longer confined to politics; it seeps into the air, the water, the land itself.

And so that little sandpiper — a newly endangered species — once a metaphor for resilience, now seems an omen: a creature scuttling from encroaching tides and climate change, its habitat vanishing, never certain where the next wave will break.

Yet the little ocean garden persists.

The fairy houses still gather moss, Elmira Gulch’s red bicycle rusts poetically in the shadows by the woodpile, and the bittersweet claws its way through every crack, speaking the language of invincibility. Maybe borders, like shorelines, are not fixed but negotiated — day by day, storm by storm. I can still sprinkle pixie dust in the wishing well and plant another rugosa, its thorns a quiet promise: roots run deeper than fences. The flags still fly. The eagles still circle. And somewhere in the Canaan Line House, a loose floorboard still creaks beneath the weight of history, a reminder that even the most rigid lines can, in time, bend.

Tears blur these words, the saltwater kinship with the sea. Deep down, I feel it — the fracture, the cracks, irreversible, like a sand dollar shattered beneath a boot. Yet here I stand, clinging to love’s stubborn algebra, its relentless proof that fractions can still become whole. They must. To paraphrase Hemingway, we need to find our power in the broken places. For what else can we plant in the cracks but seeds of belief, seeds of trust, seeds of love?

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Maine

Maine officials issue warning about scam involving roof replacement program

Published

6 hours ago

April 9, 2026

Press Room

Maine officials issue warning about scam involving roof replacement program

Maine Bureau of Insurance issues warning about scam involving roof replacement program

MOVE TO THE NEW LOCATION AT RIVERFRONT PLAZA IN WESTBROOK. AND A NEW SCAM TO TELL YOU ABOUT THIS AFTERNOON — THE BUREAU OF INSURANCE — ALERTING MAINERS TO BE AWARE OF FAKE WEBSITES CLAIMING TO BE THE NEW “FORTIFY MAINE HOMES” ROOF REPLACEMENT PROGRAM. YOU SHOULDN’T CLICK ON OR TRUST ANY WEBSITES NOT HOSTED BY MAINE DOT GOV THAT OFFER TO CHECK YOUR HOME’S ELIGIBILITY OR OFFER INFORMATION ABOUT THE PROJECT. APPLICATIONS FOR THE áREAL PROGRAM AREN’T BEI

Maine Bureau of Insurance issues warning about scam involving roof replacement program

Updated: 7:25 PM EDT Apr 9, 2026

Editorial Standards ⓘ

The Maine Bureau of Insurance is warning people about fake websites that claim to represent its new Fortify Maine Homes roof replacement program.Officials said Mainers should avoid any websites not hosted by www.maine.gov that offer to check eligibility or provide information about the Fortify Maine Homes Program because they are not affiliated with the program or the Bureau of Insurance.The Bureau of Insurance said its website, www.maine.gov/insurance/home, is the only website where Maine consumers can access information about the Fortify Maine Homes Program. People can click the “Fortify Maine Homes Program” button at the top of the Bureau of Insurance homepage or click here to find that information.Officials said applications for the Fortify Maine Homes Program are not currently being accepted. People can check the Fortify Maine Homes website for updates on the program and the application process.

GARDINER, Maine —

The Maine Bureau of Insurance is warning people about fake websites that claim to represent its new Fortify Maine Homes roof replacement program.

Officials said Mainers should avoid any websites not hosted by www.maine.gov that offer to check eligibility or provide information about the Fortify Maine Homes Program because they are not affiliated with the program or the Bureau of Insurance.

The Bureau of Insurance said its website, www.maine.gov/insurance/home, is the only website where Maine consumers can access information about the Fortify Maine Homes Program. People can click the “Fortify Maine Homes Program” button at the top of the Bureau of Insurance homepage or click here to find that information.

Officials said applications for the Fortify Maine Homes Program are not currently being accepted. People can check the Fortify Maine Homes website for updates on the program and the application process.

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Maine

Educators across Maine congregate to discuss biggest issues

Published

18 hours ago

April 9, 2026

Press Room

Educators across Maine congregate to discuss biggest issues

State educators met on Thursday to discuss the future of education as technology continues to creep its way into the classroom.

School officials from Portland, Gorham, and more joined the “Eggs and Issues” panel to discuss some of the biggest issues facing education in Maine.

K-12 educators say they continue to feel the long-term effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in their education and now have to pivot their teaching once again as artificial intelligence plays a bigger role in the classroom.

Pender Makin, the commissioner of the Maine Department of Education, was asked what she thinks Mainers need to know about the state of education.

“People really need to know and to be reminded of constantly is that your local public schools are the foundation of our civilization really. It’s the most important work that we engage in as a community,” Makin said.

Thursday’s panel was the third “Eggs and Issues” event of the year.

A fourth focusing on Maine’s 2026 elections will be happening next month.

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Maine

Slow start costs Maine Mariners

Published

1 day ago

April 8, 2026

Press Room

Slow start costs Maine Mariners

“ACTIVE MINDS / KYLE CARES” PAY FOR THEIR YEAR-ROUND PROGRAMMING. THE MAINE MARINERS AND PORTLAND SEA DOGS BOTH HAD HOME GAMES TONIGHT. AND WHILE THE SEA DOGS SEASON IS JUST UNDERWAY, THE MARINERS ARE IN THE STRETCH RUN TO THE PLAYOFFS. THEY HOSTED THE ADIRONDACK THUNDER AT THE CROSS ARENA. AND THE MARINERS HAD A BAD START. ALEX CAMPBELL SCORES LESS THE THREE MINUTES INTO THE GAME TO GIVE THE THUNDER THE LEAD. THE THUNDER SCORED FOUR GOALS IN THE FIRST PERIOD AND LATER TOOK A 5-0 LEAD. THE MARINERS ACTUALLY CAME BACK TO TIE IT BEFO

The Maine Mariners fell behind 5-0 and then lost 6-5 in a shootout.

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