A pair of men from Gouldsboro learned the hard way this week that if you find more than 100 feet of heavy cast iron pipe running down the shore from a municipal sewerage pump station, it’s not free for the taking. Bar Harbor officials estimate that the damages from the men attacking the pipe with sledgehammers in order to cart the metal away for scrap at more than $7,000.

While those men may be singing the blues, it’s a different drumbeat that has inspired one MDI man to have love poetry he wrote more than 50 years ago into a country song. Find out if it’s destined to be a hit in this week’s Arts section.

Out on the hardwood, the MDI High School boys continue their dominance of Class B basketball with a hard-fought win over Presque Isle. Other teams meeting success this week include the girls’ varsity basketball team, the track team and swimmers.

Over in Southwest Harbor and Tremont, officials from Mount Desert enjoyed a less than enthusiastic welcome when they approached those towns about chipping in to help redo the intersection at the traffic light in Somesville; one Tremont selectman suggested in return that Mount Desert taxpayers might want to help pay for a new sidewalk in Bass Harbor.

While that issue was discussed with a few fireworks, the town is going to put its foot down on pyrotechnics with officials exploring how best to adopt a local ordinance against firecrackers and bottle rockets.

On the political front, state Rep. Elsie Flemings, a Bar Harbor Democrat, has not decided if she plans to seek another term but the Republicans have announced their candidate, Bar Harbor Town Councilor Paul Paradis. Can you guess the identity of the prominent Democrat who has signed on to be his campaign treasurer?

All that plus, letters, columns, more sports, calendar of events and more in this week’s Mount Desert Islander.