Cundy’s Harbor Library will be serving coffee, tea and hot chocolate with baked goods and doughnuts at the Town Annual Meeting on March 8th.
If you are here in the harbor, come in for a visit. Borrow a book as you browse our newest arrivals or revisit a favorite. We look forward to seeing you.
Click on the Calendar image below to see the calendar of Library Events.
Click on the images below to see the Library Livestream Cameras
Story Walks
Join us on one of our story walks. Joanna Damon and Beth Dufresne, our CHL board members invite you to the Story walks on the Tondreau or the Two Ponds Preserve. Located on Bethel Point, the parking lot is located to the right.
Above is a photo of Library Board Member Joanna Damon putting up the story walk in 2024
Career Training Opportunity https://www.islandinstitute.org/priorities/sustainable-communities/education-and-workforce-pathways/electric-boat-course/
Island Institute is pleased to offer the Electric Boat Course— a collaboration between Island Institute, Kennebec Valley Community College, Mid-Coast School of Technology, Maine Electric Boat Company, and Bayside Marine.
The course is divided into two levels with Level 1 – Electric Boat Motor: Foundations available on our website and Level 2 – Electric Boat Motor Technician Course taking place in-person during two sessions in July and August.
FEMA HELP ….
Do you need to contact FEMA for information or assistance? The team is here now going through our community to distribute information and help you with answers to questions and more
| Working Waterfront Storm Damage Reporting UPDATE from Maine Coast Fishermen Association |
| Earlier today, we shared that individuals and businesses whose working waterfront or fishing businesses were impacted by the recent storm should share those impacts and losses with their local municipality. The response was so overwhelming that the Maine Emergency Management Agency has stepped in to help streamline the reporting process by providing an online survey to fill out instead of calling your local town hall. “It is imperative that individuals of private industry and privately owned commercial infrastructure who sustained property damage from the January 10th storm, including wharfs, floats, vessels, etc. document and report that damage.” Commissioner Keliher (Department of Marine Resources) HOW TO REPORT DAMAGE The online Initial Damage Assessment Survey can be found HERE. This is not an application for assistance nor a guarantee of financial assistance. Submission of damage information will help the State of Maine understand the extent of damage from the January 10th storm. Individuals who sustained damages to their primary residence are encouraged to document and report that damage by filling out the Individuals & Households Initial Damage Assessment Survey (HERE). |
Living in a Working Waterfront Series #4 was held June 15 at Bailey Island Library Hall. Here is the recording of the panel led conversation. Etiquette may not be a term typically associated with the working waterfront but, in this case, it refers to the way that people can both work on and enjoy the waterfront and its coastal waters in a respectful and safe way. Panelists for this event will include Maine Island Trails Association and Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association along with representatives from local fishing and chartering businesses. They will be discussing the various activities that take place on the water and share stories about how to share space and work together. This panel discussion is part of an ongoing collaborative partnership between the Harpswell Anchor, the Cundy’s Harbor Library, the Holbrook Community Foundation, the Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association, and Harpswell Heritage Land Trust.
Living in a Working Waterfront Series #3 was held May 11th covering Waterfront Access for the Fishing Community. Here is the recording of the paneled conversation. The conversation addressed intertidal access, fishing permits and licenses, rights of way and easements along with what Harpswell Town Committees are doing and how to be informed and involved. Thank you to Ben Martens, Robert Boyce II, Mary Ann Nahf and Monique Coombs for leading the conversation.
Come join us June 15th when we wrap this conversation series with a discussion on Water Etiquette at the Bailey Island Library Hall at 6 pm for an opportunity to enjoy light refreshments and beverages before we begin.
Mix and Mingle Sat. June 11 from 1– 3 pm
Have you visited us recently? Come meet our new Board, tour the library and join us to learn about all we are doing. Become a friend and card holder.
Light refreshments and drinks provided
Come Meet Ms. Kymberlee on April 1 from 1 to 3 PM
We are very excited to welcome Kymberlee Piela back to her home in Cundy’s Harbor and here at the library to direct our weekly children’s reading program.
Kymberlee is the niece of our former president, Alice Swallow and is returning to her family home on Bethel Point. She is the daughter of Prescott and Terry Dunning.
Kymberlee has a weekly reading adventure to share with children of all ages. Using a 20 book topic template, Ms. Kymberlee will engage you and your children in reading. Beginning in April, come check in on Saturday afternoon and earn doubloons as you make your way through a reading menu. Read in a car, read a book by an author from your birthplace state, or read a book with a color in the title. It is your choice and Ms. Kymberlee will also provide opportunities for activities with our Librarian David once a month. We have a treasure chest full of doubloons waiting to be collected.
Check out Book Browsing on our menu bar for new books and other information.
Have you clicked on our Working Waterfront Page??? This is devoted to articles, book offerings, materials and information for Harpswell residents and visitors to better assure your time on our 216 miles of Harpswell coastline is positive and allows all to enjoy it together. I cover the Town meetings that directly relate to our community. On the 10th I covered moorings, the inspection process for moorings and licenses for nonresident and resident shellfish licenses. I also added the eel grass project map for those mooring areas to be impacted.
January News
With a grant award, the library purchased 2 laptops and 1 computer for visitors . Now you can access the internet, print and scan documents you may need. You can attend ZOOM or Skype meetings as well as other meetings.
Meanwhile we have gizmos and gadgets and puzzles and games. We have classic books from Kipling to Kellogg. Do you need a computer with a large monitor from time to time? We have it ready for your use; watch recorded meetings or You Tube videos.
December News and Updates
Come get your postcard kits (see the volunteer page for more information)
Celebrate the New Year with a Twist
From the sea with new recipes from the fishing families who catch our amazing bounty throughout the year. Celebrate and learn new ways to prepare seasonal seafood from appetizers to desserts like kelp fudge. Check it out and purchase one for yourself or as a present from the harbor. Each purchase helps not only the library but also sustains Maine’s fishing communities for future generations
Our Living on the Working Waterfront Series is available to view using the following 2 links: The first covers seasonal seafood and the second is a conversation with 4 fishing family members. Do you understand the fishing zones, federal permits and 3 mile limit? Do you know the life cycle of the Maine shrimp? Do you know that a conversation is one of the best ways to strengthen your community? Please click the links and stay tuned for our season tasting events in our back yard we are hosting for the Maine Coastal Fishermen’s Association.
November 18,2021 The library will close earlier at 3 PM in order to prepare for the Waterfront series event at the Cundy’s Harbor Community Hall tonight at 6:00 PM The talk focus is Multigenerational Families in Harpswell. Register through hhltmaine.org See you Saturday!
Welcome to our new Library Board Members …
President Linda Prybylo Secretary Susie Strauss Treasurer Rachel Miller Member at Large Beth Dufresne
Our Annual Meeting was held at the Cundy’s Harbor Community Hall October 16th at 12:45 pm. The new board members were elected. In addition we had our former Library President, Sue Hawkes who spoke about our community past and present.
As the cases of Covid 19 continue to increase, here at Cundy’s Harbor Library we are requesting the return of masks when indoors. Our community has many residents who have health conditions that make their immunity compromised. To protect them, and our unvaccinated visitors, please mask for all of us. Thank you
Indoors we …
HMC has begun constuction of the new deck and ramp. Brock Starbird and his construction crew will be onsite Wednesday and Thursday to give us new improved access.
PLEASE EXCUSE OUR APPEARANCE … WE ARE FINALLY STARTING THE LIBRARY RENOVATIONS AND REPAIRS. CHECK WITH OUR INSTAGRAM OR WEBSITE PAGES REGARDING LIBRARY ACCESS OVER THE NEXT SEVERAL MONTHS. This week R A Webber removed our ramp and deck. This will allow a new ramp and handicapped parking as well as a bigger front deck.
Today’s Gift of Kindness … Demolishing the Basement “Closet”
We will continue to provide service as we can. The Wee Free Library is at the Community Hall and Book Drop and Curbside is at the back door. Call 207-725-1461 for questions about curbside or inter library loan requests.
The Emergency Broadband Benefit is also available to households who are eligible for a broadband provider’s existing COVID relief program, to those who have received a Federal Pell Grant during the current award year, and to those low-income households who suffered a large loss in income during the pandemic due to job loss or furlough since February 2021
Checked Out until June 6 … Sorry checked out again …
People are on wait lists to read this book by Michael Lewis who also wrote The New New Thing about Silcon Valley. This time the book is concerned with the current pandemic. Not an opinion piece of the time line of how it will play out. In stead this is a fascinating and well written story of “how it began. Believed to be the rich country best prepared for a pandemic, we ended up with almost a fifth of the world’s Covid deaths. Popular blame has … on former President Donald Trump. But Lewis has a different thesis. As one character puts it, “Trump was a comorbidity.” The rot ran deep through the American system of public health, and in particular the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, once considered a crown jewel of American government.
We also have new books here for Curbside check out from around the state including; City of a Thousand Bridges, Stephen White’s Warning Signs, Accused by Lisa Scottoline, Girls With Bright Futures and Before the Ruins. All were selected as Best Books of 2021.
Gifts from our Community … see our news section
Do you need the Internet or a LapTop?
Curtis Memorial Library has a solution. Either you can borrow directly from Curtis or with your Cundys Harbor library card, you can request it from us and receive it curbside.
All those familiar names! You hear them and see them everywhere. Roads, Coves, and mailboxes … Stover, Snow, Merryman, Allen, Curtis, Estes, Bailey and Wilson all built vessels. Captains names included Bibber, Dunning, Johnson, Orr, Toothaker and Dyer. The brochure is available on request from the library.
Cundy’s Harbor Library is a small, accessible, public library serving the residents of Harpswell, Maine, particularly those living in Cundy’s Harbor and on Great Island. The library’s mission is to offer community members of all ages a collection of popular books and other materials.Our collection features Maine histories and authors.
The library provides access to technology with free WiFi. We continue to have our books you may request from LibraryWorld and a local site for books requested on Minerva. We strive to be a central point of information dissemination within the community.