Penobscot to consider clearing path for town’s first pub

Plus: Town to seek more cemetery space at Oct. 10 special town meeting

Oct. 7, 2026

Photo by Unsplash.

By Lydia Hart

PENOBSCOT — The town of Penobscot will hold a public hearing and special town meeting to decide whether to allow the state to issue a liquor license for what would be the town’s first pub. The town meeting will also ask voters to consider allowing the town to legally obtain a cemetery in North Penobscot to give the town more burial plots.

This hearing and special town meeting will be held at the Penobscot Fire Department at 12 p.m. on Oct. 10.

Town’s first pub?

Until 2019, the town of Penobscot remained dry from Prohibition almost a century earlier. That all changed that year when Jamie MacNair, owner of the town’s general store, sought and received a liquor license for Northern Bay Market. 

Now MacNair is moving to open a seasonal pub in the building that sits behind the general store. To do so, the town of Penobscot must vote to approve the license before the state can issue the official license. 

The approval to serve alcohol is granted through two votes. The first vote authorizes the sale of alcohol Monday through Saturday. The second vote authorizes alcohol sales on Sundays. 

MacNair intends for the pub to serve as a gathering space for Penobscot residents. 

“We’re just hoping to add a meeting space for Penobscot. To bring the community together, indoor and outdoor space, where functions can be held and have more of a sense of community,” MacNair said. 

If the license is approved, MacNair hopes to open the pub in 2027. 

More burial plots needed

Penobscot’s only town-owned cemetery has run out of room.

The Bay Cemetery in Penobscot, located behind the post office, has no more available plots, prompting officials to find new options for burials.

With that in mind, the town of Penobscot will ask its citizens to grant the town permission to take control of the Hatch-Hutchins cemetery in North Penobscot on Rte. 15.

Town records state that no one has paid property taxes on the Hatch-Hutchins cemetery since the 1890s. 

Since the Hatch-Hutchins Cemetery has no verifiable owner, moving the cemetery into town ownership could be as simple as running an ad in a local paper stating that the town will take the property through eminent domain, said Harold Hatch, chair of the Penobscot Select Board. The more than one-acre cemetery has plenty of additional space for new burials, Hatch said.

“I don't like to bring out the word eminent domain,” Hatch said. “Everyone thinks that you're taking something from somebody. This hasn't been on the tax roll since 1890.”