Maine
York Beach: Here’s what’s new at Short Sands Beach, Wild Kingdom and more in 2024
YORK, Maine — Summer 2024 is approaching, and business owners, town officials and locals are gearing up for a season of hotel openings, music festivals and a new tiger at York’s Wild Kingdom.
The Nevada Motel is reopening with its 1950s-style décor and battleship appearance intact, as well as a new tiki-style restaurant owner Joe Lipton hopes to open to the public eventually. Meanwhile, the Anchorage Inn has finished gutting 72 of its rooms for a new look this summer.
The town of York is ramping up its summer activities, from the week-long York Days to the end-of-the-season Beach Bonfire. Local beer and spirit makers say they plan to host events through the summer, from live music and cocktail classes.
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Nevada Motel, ViewPoint and other hotels gear up for summer season
Joe Lipton said this may be his last big summer of projects for a while at his York Beach hospitality businesses. Two of them, the Nevada Motel and the ViewPoint Hotel, have been under renovation, in some form, over the last few years.
The Nevada, which Lipton bought in 2021, will be reopened with a new third floor and improved amenities while maintaining its classic appearance. The motel was built in the early 1950s by Henry de la Pena, who served on the USS Nevada in World War II. He designed the building to look like a battleship flybridge with a mid-century modern aesthetic.
Also new to Nevada is the tiki-style restaurant Lulu’s, which will only be open to hotel guests this summer. Lipton said he will eventually go before the town’s Planning Board to make Lulu’s open to the public.
Lipton is also adding to his ViewPoint Hotel, which last year saw the completion of seven new hotel rooms built into the side of the hill overlooking the Nubble Lighthouse. He recently received approval for a new spa at the hotel that will be available this summer.
Lipton said he expects a busy summer as long as the weather stays sunny, noting last year saw many rainy days. Stones Throw restaurant, he said, will also be open seven days a week this summer.
“If the water’s nice, people come to the beach,” Lipton said.
At Long Sands Beach, the Anchorage Inn has finished renovating its atrium building with 72 rooms remodeled. Caitlynn Ramsey, whose family owns the Anchorage, said their restaurant Sun and Surf is preparing to open full-time the week before Memorial Day. She said they are adding a second webcam at the restaurant so tourists can see Long Sands Beach facing north and south.
Jimmy Asprogiannis said he has spruced up his Grand View Hotel’s exterior with new windows, doors, sliders, glass decks and siding. He is also in the Planning Board process for a bigger project to add a new structure with eight hotel units, which he hopes to build for the 2025 season.
Asprogiannis is also adding a new cocktail menu and different food items at Inn on the Blues, an inn and restaurant he owns at Short Sands Beach.
Landmark hotel reopens in June: Nevada Motel at York Beach makeover almost complete
York’s Wild Kingdom returns with new tiger, baby goats
Moxy the Bengal tiger is home at York’s Wild Kingdom, marking the return of one of the park’s most popular big cat species. Rewa, the white Bengal tiger, died in 2020 after nearly 15 years at York’s Wild Kingdom.
Moxy, who arrived last year at 70 pounds, has continued to grow, according to Samatha Sauls, the park’s general manager. The 1-year-old tiger was donated to the Wild Kingdom from another facility.
Moxy joins the park’s two lions, as well as its gibbons, camels, alligators, and several other species. Many, like the baby goats born this spring, are available for petting and feeding.
Sauls said the addition last year of a new Ferris wheel-type ride called the Balloon Wheel has been a success.
The park opens for the season on Saturday, May 25, a short walk from Short Sands Beach. Sauls said York’s Wild Kingdom is looking for employees this summer, the busiest month of which is August.
More: How a 26-year-old saved Nick’s Beachside Grille from closing down at York Beach
Breweries and spirit makers offer entertainment, food trucks
Live music, cocktail classes and a craft beer festival are on the calendar for York’s local beermakers and distillers. The season kicks off with the May 11 Oddity by the Ocean 3 festival, hosted by Cape Neddick’s Odd by Nature Brewing.
The festival will take place at the brewery, with about 600 people expected to attend, according to Odd by Nature owner Jay Grey. Bands Fortunate Youth, Spose and Over the Bridge will perform, and unlimited samples will be available from 35 different breweries, some never distributed in Maine.
“I really don’t think there’s a better deal in craft beer or music festivals,” Odd by Nature owner Jay Grey. The brewery also just opened its second location in Worcester, Massachusetts.
York Beach Beer Company is ramping up its entertainment for the summer season with live music every Saturday and Sunday starting in May, according to Sarah Rowland, whose family owns the brewery.
A variety of food trucks will be coming to the brewery seven days a week during the summer. Most days will feature the Rowland family’s own York Beach Eats, which launched last year and serves a variety of lobster rolls. Other trucks on the schedule include Stone and Fire Pizza, which serves pizza from a brick oven on wheels.
York Beach Beer Company’s sister brewery, Southern Maine Brewing Company, stylized SoMe, will continue to feature live music on Fridays. Rowland said the brewery started a book club on the third Wednesday of the month with the local bookstore The Booktenders.
Nearby on Route 1, Wiggly Bridge Distillery will be hosting monthly cocktail classes in their historic barn-turned tasting room on Route 1. The distillery makes award-winning spirits, including whiskey and rum. This year, they received a Gold medal from The Fifty Best for their New England Single Malt Whiskey.
“We started doing cocktail classes years ago but on a really limited basis,” said Amanda Woods, whose family owns the distillery. “It’s exciting, and we love being able to offer something fun to do in York.”
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Town Parks and Rec to bring York Days, September Beach Bonfire
Road races, pickleball, fireworks and more return to York this year as the town Parks and Recreation Department prepares for its summer season of activities.
York Days kicks off July 28 with the annual York Days 5K, then continues until the following Sunday. The week’s events include the York Days craft fair on Aug. 3 and 4. Fireworks will be held Aug. 4 at 9 p.m. to close out York Days for 2024.
Darby said this year’s craft fair features more than 50 vendors and may feature entertainment like live music.
“Making it more of a festival hangout than just a craft fair,” Darby said.
At the end of the summer, Darby said the annual Beach Bonfire will take place Aug. 31. The Bonfire features music, food, and dancing, raising money for the York Community Services Association and York Food Pantry.
On Sept. 21 and 22, Parks and Rec will host the Battle at the Beach pickleball tournament. Registration is open online until Sept. 15. The sport combines elements of tennis and badminton and is considered the fastest-growing sport in the country.
Darby said the activities hosted by Parks and Rec are a fun tradition for visitors and locals alike.
“It’s really cool to just celebrate York,” Darby said, “And bring some culture.”
Nubble Lighthouse, one of Maine’s biggest attractions
Sohier Park gets busy in the summertime as tourists gather for views of York’s iconic lighthouse Cape Neddick Light, commonly known as the Nubble Lighthouse. It was built in 1879 and remains the centerpiece of York’s tourism.
“It’s picturesque, it’s beautiful, and a lot of people have shared the experience with families,” said Brenda Knapp, chair of the Sohier Park Committee that oversees the lighthouse.
This year’s lighting of the Nubble takes place July 26, kicking off the Parks and Recreation Department’s week-long York Days Festival that lasts until Aug. 4. The Nubble will feature a display similar to its winter holiday for the duration of the festival.
Also, this summer is the Nubble Light Challenge on Aug. 3, in which swimmers race for 2.5 miles through the “gut” of the Nubble that separates its island from the mainland. The race is sold out, but viewers can watch the swim when it kicks off at 8:30 a.m.
Nubble Lighthouse scavenger hunt: York man behind the ‘Keepers Quest’
Surf shops ready for busy season with Surf Re-Evolution party
York Beach’s surf shops, clothing stores and board makers are looking forward to another tourist season in a town where they say surfing is a big part of local culture.
Liquid Dreams will open its York location at Long Sands Beach Memorial Day weekend, then open seven days a week starting June 10, depending on weather, according to manager Tori Knoepful. The shop rents boards and hosts surf camps and lessons all summer long.
New England has become increasingly known for its surf culture, with some of the best waves arriving later in the year during hurricane season which starts mid-August and goes until fall.
Mike Lavecchia, owner and founder of Grain Surfboards in York, said that does not stop summertime visitors from enjoying the local surf culture. His company has been making wooden surfboards for 19 years on Webber Road at Long Sands Beach and offers workshops in the summer for those looking to make their own board.
Grain Surfboards hosts a summer sendoff on Sept. 21 called Surf Re-Evolution, a ticketed event featuring food, live music and industry members sharing some of their newest products and ideas.
Lavecchia said summer brings many tourists with their surfboards, including several with Canadian license plates. Shops like Beach Bum Threads, started by an owner who grew up surfing here, cater to surfers as well.
“Surfing’s been a big part of Long Sands since the 60s,” Lavecchia said.
New playground and volleyball area at Ellis Park
Families with kids will look forward to an updated playground at Ellis Park at Short Sands Beach with an updated merry-go-round and slide, according to David Bridges of the park’s board of directors. Meanwhile, he said a new volleyball area is being erected this summer in the sand to give guests one more activity to enjoy.
The upgrades are part of the overall capital improvement plan by the park directors. The park is also home to summer outdoor music series on its bandstand.
They also include updated security this year to improve safety at the beach, like cameras that can provide more visibility. Sidewalks will also be improved this year, and in future summers the directors intend to make improvements to the parking lot.
“The demand gets greater, and we try as hard as we can to make it a fun, safe place for the people to come and visit,” Bridges said.
York’s Short Sands Beach: Playground makeover, new volleyball courts and more
York parking rate doubles, adds ParkMobile app
Day-trippers will pay twice as much to park at York Beach this summer as York raises its price from $2 per hour to $4 to remain competitive with other tourist towns. At the same time, the town is adding ParkMobile as a new app to pay. The cost of the resident sticker was not increased from its cost of $40 per year.
The Selectboard began talks last year about raising the parking rate after town staff examined other communities and what they charge. They learned Ogunquit charged $5 to $7 per hour in the summer season. New Hampshire State Parks charges $3 per hour for parking at Hampton, North Hampton and Rye beaches.
Parking fees will be in effect for the season again starting May 15, according to Town Manager Peter Joseph. He said the town just finished negotiating a contract with ParkMobile, meaning the phone app should be available May 15.
The town recently removed its kiosks and switched to having customers pay through the app Pango. Joseph said ParkMobile is a more commonly used app, though visitors can continue to pay with Pango as well.
Julie Smith of Readfield is a single parent whose son was in the Principles of Economics class at Brown University during the Dec. 13 shooting that resulted in the deaths of two students.
When classrooms become crime scenes, leadership is no longer measured by intentions or press statements. It is measured by outcomes—and by whether the people responsible for public safety are trusted and empowered to act without hesitation.
On December 13, 2025, a gunman opened fire during a review session for a Principles of Economics class at Brown University. Two students were murdered. Others were wounded. The campus was locked down as parents across the country waited for news no family should ever have to receive.
Maine was not watching from a distance.
My son, a recent graduate of a rural Maine high school, is a freshman at Brown. He was in that Principles of Economics class. He was not in the targeted study group—but students who sat beside him all semester were. These were not abstract victims. They were classmates and friends. Young people who should have been worried about finals, not hiding in lockdown, texting parents to say they were alive.
Despite the fact that the Brown shooting directly affected Maine families, Gov. Janet Mills offered no meaningful public acknowledgment of the tragedy. No recognition that Maine parents were among those grieving, afraid, and desperate for reassurance. In moments like these, acknowledgment matters. Silence is not neutral. It signals whose fear is seen—and whose is ignored. The violence at Brown is a Maine issue: our children are there. Our families are there. The fear, grief, and trauma do not stop at state lines.
The attack and what followed the attack deserve recognition. Law enforcement responded quickly, professionally, and courageously. Campus police, city officers, state police, and federal agents worked together to secure the campus and prevent further loss of life. Officers acted decisively because they understood their mission—and because they knew they would be supported for carrying it out.
That kind of coordination does not happen by accident. It depends on clear authority, mutual trust, and leadership that understands a basic truth: in moments of crisis, law enforcement must be free to work together immediately, without second-guessing.
Even when officers do everything right, the damage does not end when a campus is secured. Students return to classrooms changed—hyper-alert, distracted, scanning exits instead of absorbing ideas. Parents carry a constant, low-level dread, flinching at late-night calls and unknown numbers. Gun violence in schools does not just injure bodies; it fractures trust, rewires behavior, and leaves psychological scars that no statement or reassurance can undo.
That reality makes silence—and policy choices that undermine law enforcement—impossible to ignore.
After the Lewiston massacre in 2023, Governor Mills promised lessons would be learned—that warning signs would be taken seriously, mental-health systems strengthened, and public-safety coordination improved. Those promises mattered because Maine had already paid an unbearable price.
Instead of providing unequivocal support for law enforcement, the governor has taken actions that signal hesitation. Her decision to allow LD 1971 to become law is the latest example. The law introduces technical requirements that complicate inter-agency cooperation by emphasizing legal boundaries and procedural caution. Even when cooperation is technically “allowed,” the message to officers is unmistakable: slow down, worry about liability, protect yourself first.
In emergencies, that hesitation can cost lives. Hesitation by law enforcement in Providence could have cost my son his life. We cannot allow hesitation to become the precedent for Maine policies.
In 2025 alone, hundreds of gun-related incidents have occurred on K–12 and college campuses nationwide. This is not theoretical. This is the environment in which our children are expected to learn—and the reality Maine families carry with them wherever their children go.
My son worked his entire academic life—without wealth or legacy—for the chance to pursue higher education, believing it would allow him to return to Maine rather than leave it behind. Now he is asking a question no 18-year-old should have to ask: why come home to a state whose leaders hesitate to fully stand behind the people responsible for keeping him alive?
Maine’s leaders must decide whose side they are on when crisis strikes: the officers who run toward danger, or the politics that ask them to slow down first.
Parents are done with hollow promises. Students deserve leaders who show their support not with words—but with action.
Cory LaForge always liked a particular restaurant space on Main Street in Bucksport, which recently housed My Buddy’s Place and the Friar’s Brewhouse Tap Room before that.
So much so that, when it became available two months ago, he decided to open his own restaurant there.
Salsa Shack Maine, which opened in early December, is a physical location for the food truck business he’s operated out of Ellsworth and Orland for the last two years. The new spot carrying tacos, burritos and quesadillas adds to a growing restaurant scene in Bucksport and is meant to be a welcoming community space.
“I just loved the feeling of having a smaller restaurant,” LaForge said. “It feels more intimate. This place is designed where you can have a good conversation or talk to your customers, like they’re not just another number on a ticket.”
After growing up in the midcoast, LaForge eventually moved west to work in restaurants at ski areas, where he was exposed to more cultural diversity and new types of food – including tacos.
“It’s like all these different flavors that we’re not exposed to in Maine, so it’s like, I feel like I’ve been living a lie my whole life,” he said. “It was fun to bring all those things that I learned back here.”
When he realized his goal of opening a food truck in 2023 after returning to Maine, LaForge found the trailer he’d purchased on Facebook Marketplace was too small to fit anything but tortillas – and the Salsa Shack was born.
It opened at the Ellsworth Harbor Park in 2023 and operated out of the Orland Community Center in the winter. What started as an experiment took off in popularity and has been busy ever since.
LaForge calls his style “Maine-Mex:” a mix of authentic street tacos in a build-your-own format with different salsas and protein. Speciality salsas include corn and black bean, roasted poblano, pineapple jalapeno and mango Tajin.
The larger kitchen space in the new restaurant has allowed a menu expansion to include quesadillas, burritos and burrito bowls in addition to the tacos, nachos and taco salad bowls sold from the food truck. Regular specials are also on the menu.
More new menu items are likely ahead, according to LaForge, along with a beer and wine license and expanded hours in the spring.
The food truck will live on for now, too; he’s signed up for a few events in the coming months.
Starting Jan. 6, the restaurant will also offer a buy-two-get-one-free “Taco Tuesday” promotion.
“It’s a really fun vibe here, and I feel like everyone finds it very comfortable and easy to come in and order,” LaForge said, comparing the restaurant’s atmosphere to the television show Cheers. “Even if you have to sit down and wait a little while, we always have some fun conversations going on.”
So far, the welcome has been warm locally, he said, both from residents and the other new restaurant owners who help each other out. LaForge’s sole employee, Connor MacLeod, is also a familiar face from MacLeod’s Restaurant, which closed in March after 45 years on Main Street.
When it shut its doors, people in town weren’t sure where they would go, according to LaForge. But four new establishments opened in 2025, offering a range from Thai food to diner offerings.
“It’s kind of fun to see so [many] culinary changes,” he said.
The Salsa Shack is currently open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.
Maine consumers will soon see a new line on their monthly Netflix and Hulu bills. Starting Jan. 1, digital streaming services will be included in the state’s 5.5% sales tax.
The new charge — billed by the state as a way to level the playing field around how cable and satellite services and streaming services are taxed — is among a handful of tax changes coming in the new year.
The sales tax on adult-use cannabis will increase from 10% to 14%, also on Jan. 1. Taxes on cigarettes will increase $1.50 per pack — from $2 to $3.50 — on Jan. 5.
All three changes are part of the $320 million budget package lawmakers approved in June as an addition to the baseline $11.3 billion two-year budget passed in March.
Here are a few things to know about the streaming tax:
1. Why is this new tax taking effect?
Taxes on streaming services have been a long time coming in Maine. Former Republican Gov. Paul LePage proposed the idea in 2017, and it was pitched by Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat, in 2020 and 2024. The idea was rejected all three times — until this year.
State officials said last spring the change creates fairness in the sales tax as streaming services become more popular and ubiquitous. It’s also expected to generate new revenue for the state.
2. What services are impacted?
Currently, music and movies that are purchased and downloaded from a website are subject to sales tax, but that same music and those same movies are not taxed when streamed online.
The new changes add sales tax to monthly subscriptions for movie, television and audio streaming services, including Netflix, Hulu, Disney Plus, Spotify and Pandora. Podcasts and ringtones or other sound recordings are also included.
3. How much is it likely to cost you?
The new tax would add less than $1 to a standard Netflix subscription without ads priced at $17.99 per month. An $89.99 Hulu live television subscription would increase by about $5 per month.
Beginning Jan. 1, providers will be required to state the amount of sales tax on customers’ receipts or state that their price includes Maine sales tax.
4. How much new revenue is this generating for the state?
The digital streaming tax is expected to bring in $5 million in new revenue in fiscal year 2026, which ends June 30. After that, it’s projected to bring in $12.5 million annually, with that figure expected to increase to $14.3 million by 2029.
The tax increase on cigarettes, which also includes an equivalent hike on other tobacco products, is expected to boost state revenues by about $75 million in the first year.
The cannabis sales tax increase, meanwhile, will be offset in part by a reduction in cannabis excise taxes, which are paid by cultivation facilities on transfers to manufacturers or retailers. The net increase in state revenue will be about $3.9 million in the first full year, the state projects.
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