How can you fuel an art city without coffee?

Rockland’s main coffee roaster is in danger of closure. Rock City, the roaster and cafe on Main Street, needs to raise funds for a smokeless roaster or the coffee co. may have have roasted its last bean. The keeper of the midcoast caffeine flame since 1992 needs your help. Java lovers unite!!!

“It’s an urgent situation,” said owner Susanne Ward. “I have 23 employees here and am a vital part of the town.”

A few years back the micro-roaster came under fire for emitting pungent coffee roasting aromas (which we tend to like) into the streets. To combat the issue the owner raised their smokestack 15 feet to avoid violation of the city’s odor ordinance. Fast forward to 2015. A five-story boutique hotel is going up next door and the issue is percolating again.

So Saturday, Dec. 12 at 6 p.m., $10 is all you need (I’d throw in double) to help the roaster launch an Indiegogo campaign to purchase a new smokeless roaster (price tag: $100,000). The goal: $80,000.

The all-ages show featuring The Dolphin Strikers, First in Maths, and poet Dave Morrison is held at Rock City Cafe and all proceeds go towards the new machine. “If I can’t do business as a roaster here, my cafe can’t survive,” said Ward, 64. “It’s a tricky situation, and we have gone around and around with it.”