NORTHPORT —- The Original Irregular Newspaper earned nine Better Newspaper awards in the Weekly 1 designation at the Maine Press Association’s annual conference Saturday night at Point Lookout, including a First Place for Feature Photo taken by Steve Mitman.

“I’m proud of my staff and correspondents not only for earning these awards, but for the hard work they put into making the Irregular the vital part of our community it has been and continues to be,” Heidi Murphy, owner and publisher of the Irregular, said.

More than 30 judges from Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Vermont, Connecticut and Rhode Island evaluated hundreds of entries in categories ranging from scenic photos to news stories to advertisements.

In addition to Mitman’s First Place for Feature Photo, “When life deals you snow” (which ran in the March 11, 2009 issue), he won a second for his photo “Morning Glory” (Oct. 22, 2008) in the Scenic Photo category.

Murphy earned a Second Place in the category Specialty Page Design for her Kingfield POPS layout (June 25, 2008).

Staff writer/photographer David Hart secured Third Place for his story “Lady Roadrunners make their mark,” for Sports Story (Oct. 15, 2008).

Robert J. Gray Jr. garnered a Second Place in the Local Black and White Ad category for his Imperial Board Lords advertisement (Aug. 13, 2008). Gray also took home a Third Place for his ad for Tranten Family Shurfine in the Local Ad in Color category (June 25, 2008).

Karen Pease captured a Third Place in the Local Column category for her F.A.R.M. columns “The ‘F’ Bomb” (Oct. 15, 2008) and “Not the Me I Envision” (Dec. 31, 2009).

And the newspaper staff as a whole won a Third Place in the Advertising Layout category for the 2008 Homecoming issue (Oct. 8, 2008), and a Second Place in the Editorial Page category (Nov. 5, 2008, Nov. 12, 2008 & Jan. 28, 2009).

The Newspaper of the Year honors in the daily and weekend editions were swept by the Sun-Journal; the Bridgton News was honored in the Weekly 2 category, and the Mount Desert Islander took first-place in the Weekly 1 division.

James Costello, Bob Diebold, Clayton LaVerdiere and John K. Murphy were inducted into the MPA Hall of Fame at the Saturday luncheon.

Journalist of the Year went to Seth Koenig of the Times-Record, and Steve Bodnar of the York County Coast Star received the Bob Drake Young Writer’s Award.

More information about the Maine Press Association and its contest can be found on its Web site: www.mainepress. org.