Today

Verona may not be the smallest of Hancock County towns, but it comes close at number four.

Mickey the shop cat relaxes with Denise Sheehan’s at Bend in the Road. Chris Newcomb of Bucksport opened Newcomb Auto Body in mid-November.

STAFF PHOTO BY JOHN HUBBARD

At 4,347 acres, it ranks larger than Frenchboro at 1,539 acres, Cranberry Isles at 2,043 and Sorrento at 2,580. And at a population of 533, it truly meets the definition of a small Maine town.

Despite its diminutive size, Verona has several active businesses lining Route 3 and at one time was an active shipbuilding town.

Bend in the Road, a Route 3, shop, carries sundries, antiques, collectibles, gifts, fine china and home décor.

The shop also carries art and art supplies and provides matting and framing services.

“It’s a little bit of everything,” said Denise Sheehan, a Bend partner.

This is the third year that the shop has been open.

Down the road toward Bucksport are Island Pool & Spa, hot tub and spa shop; Newcomb’s, a new body shop that opened only weeks before; an auto repair shop; an antique shop; a convenience store/gas station; seafood takeout; and Kravings, a bakery/restaurant.

At Kravings, Glenn Redman said that the take-out had been expanded and now featured a cozy restaurant in the back, overlooking the Penobscot River and woods.

Redman is food service manager for the Bucksport School Department and works at MacLeod’s Restaurant—in all, a busy schedule but not atypical for an ambitious, young Maine person.

A large chapter of history was written at Verona in the spring of 1905 when Cmdr. Robert E. Peary’s steamer Roosevelt slid down the ways at the McKay Dix Shipyard.

The Roosevelt would take Peary and his courageous crew on a voyage to the North Pole in 1909 ringing in a new era in exploration.

The Roosevelt was the strongest wooden ship of its day—or any other, perhaps—with a 30-inch-thick hull and displacement of 1,500 tons. It was a handsome ship with rakish lines designed to break through arctic ice under power and withstand being left imprisoned in ice while Peary’s crew trudged north from Cape Sheridan on Ellesmere Island to the North Pole.

Verona had another shipyard, the William Beazley Shipyard, which, like McKay Dix, looked toward Bucksport in the busy heyday of shipping.

In those days, the Verona-Bucksport Bridge was made of wood and near it, shipyards and a steamboat wharf did brisk business.

Verona, bounded by the Penobscot River, starts at the Waldo-Hancock Bridge and ends at the Verona-Bucksport Bridge.

Today, it is largely a bedroom community, rural and coastal in character, but with growing businesses on its main thoroughfare.

Many of its services are provided by the town of Bucksport—refuse collection and disposal, police, fire, ambulance and schools.

Verona’s town office is small but located in a large building on School Street that includes a kitchen, offices and a town meeting hall.

Annual town meetings are preceded by suppers cooked downstairs. Fortified with supper, residents’ debate may last for hours as they decide spending issues.

At the last town meeting in March, voters debated 35 articles that included about $132,000 in spending.

At town meetings, items such as spending $500 for the Buck Memorial Library are considered as important as those where $29,000 is raised for waste disposal fees or $19,704 for fire protection.

Recently, Verona officials teamed up with Bucksport to improve Bucksport’s waterfront.

To boaters intent on launching recreational or working craft into the Penobscot River, Verona’s launch facility is there for free.

The launch ramp was built by the state in 1971.

That summer, the Maine Department of Parks and Recreation bought the launch area for $15,000 and set about doing $10,000 in improvements that included building the launch ramp and a picnic area.

Company D, 262nd Engineer Battalion, Army National Guard built the ramp during a summer when the guard unit stayed in Maine instead of going to an out-of-state training camp.

The result was a facility that came without a steep price tag but which has served the community well for 31 years.

Unfortunately, the rapid water current there changes with the tides and often leaves boaters in a difficult position as it changes from outgoing to incoming.

A new design for the launch facility will include piers and a realignment with the river that will help boaters deal with the currents.

Across the river will be a fisherman’s pier by the Bucksport-Verona Bridge. This, together with the Bucksport town marina, will create a marine recreational area better than anything seen before on the riverfront.