Episode Details

Producer/Hosts: Ron Beard and Liz Graves College of the Atlantic provides help with production. Engineering by Joel Mann of WERU Community Radio. Theme music for Talk of the Towns Theme is a medley from Coronach, on a Balnain House Highland Music recording. Talk of the Towns: Local Community concerns and opportunities This month: How have various historic preservation projects energized community development, with examples from Ellsworth, Norway and elsewhere in Maine? How has the Heart of Ellsworth organization used its designation of its downtown district for the National Register of Historic Places to spur redevelopment of underutilized commercial spaces? What steps did folks in Norway Maine take to preserve their historic Gingerbread House and how does it figure into the future of the downtown area? What is the role of Maine Preservation to support community-based projects? What is the status of work to preserve the historic Hancock County Jail in Ellsworth? What advice might spur historic preservation in other Maine communities? Guest/s: Cara Romano, Executive Director, Heart of Ellsworth Carla Haskell, Owner, DGC Architects, board member Ellsworth Historical Society Brad Miller, Director of Programs and Services, Maine Preservation Joan Beal, Norway Maine, project to restore Gingerbread House FMI: www.heartofellsworth.org/ www.heartofellsworth.org/historic-preservation www.heartofellsworth.org/dt-housing-opportunity www.heartofellsworth.org/historic-preservation-workshops www.mainepreservation.org/2026-honor-awards/2026/3/17/carla-haskell-ellsworth www.mainepreservation.org/ Maine Downtown Center www.maine.gov/mhpc/ www.mainepreservation.org/2024-honor-awards/2024/3/18/gingerbread-house-norway www.norwaydowntown.org/ www.wfltmaine.org/ www.norwayoperahouse.org/ www.lightsoutgallery.org/ www.norwayuu.org/save-the-belfry/ Our Society and Museum www.fundforsacredplaces.org/ About the hosts: Ron Beard is producer and host of Talk of the Towns, which first aired on WERU in 1993 as part of his community building work as an Extension professor with University of Maine Cooperative Extension and Sea Grant. He took all the journalism courses he could fit in while an undergraduate student in wildlife management and served as an intern with Maine Public Television nightly newscast in the early 1970s. Ron is an adjunct faculty member at College of the Atlantic, teaching courses on community development. Ron served on the Bar Harbor Town Council for six years and is currently board chair for the Jesup Memorial Library in Bar Harbor, where he has lived since 1975. Look for him on the Allagash River in June, and whenever he can get away, in the highlands of Scotland where he was fortunate to spend two sabbaticals. Liz Graves joined Talk of the Towns as co-producer and co-host in July 2022, having long admired public affairs programming on WERU and dreamed of getting involved in community radio. She works as the Town Clerk for the Town of Bar Harbor, and is a former editor of the Mount Desert Islander weekly newspaper. Liz grew up in California and came to Maine as a schooner sailor.

The post Talk of the Towns 5/13/26: Historic Preservation as an engine for building community first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.