How can Maine and our local communities get our fishing families living back where they belong – by their boats along the shore? The popular regional conversation series, Talk of the Towns, returns for its third year in Stonington starting Wednesday, November 19 from 7 - 8:30 p.m. on the second floor of the Stonington Town Hall in a roundtable format. The historic gathering space is at the center of the town’s Main Street, with accessible parking and entry from rear of the building.

The public conversation will mark the release of a final report by the Deer Isle-Stonington Housing Task Force, co-chaired throughout the past year by Stuart Kestenbaum and Travis Fifield. The report makes recommendations for how the two towns can accelerate the availability and production of workforce housing in ways that complement the work of the island’s two nonprofit developers, Island Workforce Housing and Homeport.

The evening will include a quick overview of what steps are already being taken and open into a conversation on actions we can each take to ease our regional housing – and with it, labor – crises.

The Talk of the Town events are room-wide community conversations on issues that bridge, matter to, and unite our regional communities. They are intentionally structured to include everyone in the room in addition to special invited guests, and each event’s direction is driven by what those attending most need to discuss and to learn.