Area grant recipients are the town of Dover-Foxcroft, $7,500; Piscataquis Regional Food Center of Dover-Foxcroft, $7,500; Eastern Area Agency of Aging, $15,000; Partners for Peace, $5,000; and Penquis, $20,000.

The Thompson Free Library will host Susan Pinette, professor of modern languages and literatures and director of Franco American programs at the University of Maine, live via Zoom at 6 p.m. on Thursday, May 28. This online presentation is part of an ongoing Bicentennial series sponsored by a Maine Bicentennial Community Grant.

Brayson’s relationship with firefighting took yet another turn late Thursday afternoon, May 14 as Make-A-Wish Maine gifted him with a firefighter-themed golf cart at the end of a procession featuring more than 30 firetrucks and law enforcement vehicles from Dover-Foxcroft, Newport and more than a dozen surrounding towns.

The sweet of the year started today, May 17. The week of cold north winds did a 180-degree shift, and a south wind moved in where I live at Branch Lake. Overnight the hardwoods in the higher elevations turned from somber gray to a delightful lime green. The forsythia blossomed.  And the first black fly wave came calling. Ah, spring!

Maine reached a milestone in its pandemic response on Monday by opening up COVID-19 testing to a greater range of people. 

A new bill in the U.S. Senate could provide more than $2 billion to state and local governments in Maine to help offset lost revenues due to coronavirus-related economic shutdowns. The proposal, co-sponsored by Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, includes $500 billion for state and local governments nationally and also frees up $1.25 billion previously allocated as part of a stimulus package that passed at the end of March.

The Center Theatre has begun selling theater concessions online for curbside pickup. Pickup is available on Friday and Saturday nights between 6 and 7 p.m. and all orders must be placed in advance online at CenterTheatre.org.

Voices from HOME, a community-based oral history project coordinated by the Thompson Free Library, will host a live storytelling event on the theme “Together” at 6 p.m. on Friday, May 22. This event is free and open to the public, and will be held online via Zoom.

Sen. Paul Davis represents District 4, and he recently published a joint letter with Reps. Higgins, Stearns and Foster about reopening the Penquis region. In response, my mother, who is immunocompromised, wrote him about her concerns of pushing ahead too quickly against the advice of medical experts. My mother received a reply, telling her to stay safe, but that “people are hungry” and “need to get back to work.” This very typical response fails to address key issues.

This spring, tick experts at the University of Maine Tick Lab have noticed a big increase in the number of ticks that the public is submitting for testing. They think this upward trend might be linked to people spending more time outdoors than usual during the COVID-19 pandemic.