Archives for Sears Island

Around Town 12/29/22: New Year’s Eve Opera Downeast!

Producer/Host: Amy Browne

This week:
The Winter Harbor Music Festival has a unique offering this New Year’s eve. Executive Director Deiran Manning is here to let you know how you can be part of an interactive opera experience.

About the host:
Amy Browne started out at WERU as a volunteer news & public affairs producer in 2000, co-hosting/co-producing RadioActive with Meredith DeFrancesco. She joined the team of Voices producers a few years later, and has been WERU’s News & Public Affairs Manager since January, 2006. In addition to RadioActive, Voices, Maine Currents and Maine: The Way Life Could Be, Amy also produced and hosted the WERU News Report for several years. She has produced segments for national programs including Free Speech Radio News, This Way Out, Making Contact, Workers Independent News, Pacifica PeaceWatch, and Live Wire News, and has contributed to Democracy Now and the WBAI News Report. She is the recipient of the 2014 Excellence in Environmental Journalism Award from the Sierra Club of Maine, and Maine Association of Broadcasters awards for her work in 2017 and 2021.

Around Town 12/22/22: Atheist Group Reacts to Bucksport’s Nativity Scene

Producer/Host: Amy Browne

This week:
One of the things people are talking about around town this holiday season is the controversy around a nativity scene in Bucksport. A Penobscot resident made a report to the Freedom from Religion Foundation‘s Maine Chapter about the town sponsored religious display, and the chapter responded by asking to add a small sign nearby, celebrating the solstice and the Bill of Rights. Tom Waddell, columnist for the Kennebec Journal, and the President of Maine Chapter of the Freedom from Religion Foundation explains why they got involved.

About the host:
Amy Browne started out at WERU as a volunteer news & public affairs producer in 2000, co-hosting/co-producing RadioActive with Meredith DeFrancesco. She joined the team of Voices producers a few years later, and has been WERU’s News & Public Affairs Manager since January, 2006. In addition to RadioActive, Voices, Maine Currents and Maine: The Way Life Could Be, Amy also produced and hosted the WERU News Report for several years. She has produced segments for national programs including Free Speech Radio News, This Way Out, Making Contact, Workers Independent News, Pacifica PeaceWatch, and Live Wire News, and has contributed to Democracy Now and the WBAI News Report. She is the recipient of the 2014 Excellence in Environmental Journalism Award from the Sierra Club of Maine, and Maine Association of Broadcasters awards for her work in 2017 and 2021.

Around Town 12/15/22: Energy Efficiency Career Opportunities Downeast

Producer/Host: Amy Browne

This week:
Earlier this month Governor Mills announced that her administration is dedicating $5.4 million dollars to address climate change and create clean energy jobs here in Maine— and a chunk of that funding is coming to Hancock and Washington Counties. If you or someone you know is looking for a paid internship for a career in an energy efficiency job, here are some of the details from Sharon Catus at Downeast Community Partners

For more information, call Derek at (207) 610-5917

About the host:
Amy Browne started out at WERU as a volunteer news & public affairs producer in 2000, co-hosting/co-producing RadioActive with Meredith DeFrancesco. She joined the team of Voices producers a few years later, and has been WERU’s News & Public Affairs Manager since January, 2006. In addition to RadioActive, Voices, Maine Currents and Maine: The Way Life Could Be, Amy also produced and hosted the WERU News Report for several years. She has produced segments for national programs including Free Speech Radio News, This Way Out, Making Contact, Workers Independent News, Pacifica PeaceWatch, and Live Wire News, and has contributed to Democracy Now and the WBAI News Report. She is the recipient of the 2014 Excellence in Environmental Journalism Award from the Sierra Club of Maine, and Maine Association of Broadcasters awards for her work in 2017 and 2021.

Around Town 12/8/22: Develop Sears Island or Mack Point? Public Meeting Next Week

Producer/Host: Amy Browne

This week: Sears Island is an uninhabited 940 acre island off the coast of Searsport that has been eyed by developers for various projects over the years.
The latest threat, to at least part of the island, is the potential that a facility for building and launching offshore wind turbines may be built there.

Friends of Sears Island, Islesboro Islands Trust, and the Maine Chapter of the Sierra club have all spoken out against the site location, instead urging that the facility be built on nearby Mack Point, which is already extensively developed. Theoretically, Mack Point and also Eastport are being considered as possible locations along with Sears Island, but many worry that Sears Island is what the state is really focusing on.

Next Monday morning there will be a meeting of the state’s task force that will be making recommendations about the site location, and advocates for protecting the island are urging the public to listen in. You can read the agenda and register for the zoom meeting here

Earlier this week we checked in with Rolf Olsen, Vice President of the Board for Friends of Sears Island for all the details

About the host:
Amy Browne started out at WERU as a volunteer news & public affairs producer in 2000, co-hosting/co-producing RadioActive with Meredith DeFrancesco. She joined the team of Voices producers a few years later, and has been WERU’s News & Public Affairs Manager since January, 2006. In addition to RadioActive, Voices, Maine Currents and Maine: The Way Life Could Be, Amy also produced and hosted the WERU News Report for several years. She has produced segments for national programs including Free Speech Radio News, This Way Out, Making Contact, Workers Independent News, Pacifica PeaceWatch, and Live Wire News, and has contributed to Democracy Now and the WBAI News Report. She is the recipient of the 2014 Excellence in Environmental Journalism Award from the Sierra Club of Maine, and Maine Association of Broadcasters awards for her work in 2017 and 2021.

Coastal Conversations 4/27/18

Producer/Host: Natalie Springuel
Studio Engineer: Amy Browne

Sears Island: Past, Present, and Future

What is the history of Sears Island, starting from the Wabanaki, into the colonial era and intop the recent past?
Sears Island’s history of multiple industrial development proposals and its eventual conservation.
What is Friends of Sears Island, the legal management entity, doing to engage the public on the island?

Guests
Susan White, President, Friends of Sears Island
Rolf Olsen, VP, Friends of Sears Island
Stephen Miller, Isleboro Islands Trust
Ashly Megquire, Outreach coordinator, Friends of Sears Island

RadioActive 4/02/09

Producers/Hosts: Amy Browne & Meredith DeFrancesco

Segment 1: Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have scathing criticism of the Maine Department of Transportation’s plan to start a federal Umbrella Wetlands Mitigation Bank on Sears Island— and they have made their concerns known to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers who is currently considering MeDOT’s proposal. We talk with Kyla Bennett, Director of the New England branch of PEER, to get the details. FMI: www.peer.org

Segment 2: Rob Brown, Executive Director of Opportunity Maine, talks about LD 1181, the “Green Jobs, Green Savings bill”, a proposal to create jobs and energy efficiency in Maine. Opportunity Maine authored the bill, it was sponsored by Rep. Seth Berry (Bowdoinham), and it has drawn an out-pouring of support from labor activists, environmentalists, students and others in recent public hearings. FMI: www.opportunitymaine.org

RadioActive 3/26/09

Producers/Hosts: Amy Browne & Meredith DeFrancesco
Segment 1: Local workers and union members speak out in support of the Employee Free Trade Act (EFCA)
Segment 2: Army Corps of Engineers Public Meeting tonight in Searsport. At stake: whether “Umbrella Wetlands Mitigation” will allow the Maine Dept of Transportation to build a port on Sears Island. Ron Huber joins us to talk about that issue, and also the lawsuit he recently filed against the state in hopes of protecting the island.
FMI: Ron Huber, 207-691-7485, [email protected], www.penobscotbay.blogspot.com
Comments may be sent to: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New England District, Regulatory Division, Attn: Ruth Ladd, 696 Virginia Rd., Concord, MA 01742-2751 or 800-343-4789 or [email protected] (Reference Proposal File NAE-2008-1703)

RadioActive 11/20/08

Producers/Hosts: Amy Browne and Meredith DeFrancesco

Segment 1:We talk with Jim Harney, a well-known photojournalist and international social justice activist.  Jim is terminally ill, but continues to use his time and energy to speak out about important issues–today he reflects on the “School of the Americas” aka “The School of the Assassins” at Ft. Benning, GA.   FMI: www.soaw.org; www.posibilidad.org, www.pica.ws

Segment2: The Army Corps of Engineers will hold a public meeting in Searsport on December 1st (at 3p.m. at the Union Hall) to address the Maine Department of Transportation’s proposal for a wetland mitigation bank —- a proposal that has serious potential ramifications for Sears Island.  Jody Spear has been working on the issue and will join us later in the program to tell us more.  FMI: www.nae.usace.army.mil and select “Regulatory/Permitting”, then “Weekly Public Notices”, also www.peer.orgmaine.sierraclub.org/