Charles Shaffer of Sebec is announcing his candidacy for Piscataquis County commissioner, District 2, representing Sebec, Atkinson, Dover-Foxcroft, Medford and Orneville. A graduate of Quinnipiac University School of Law, he has a long history of advocacy and service to people with intellectual disabilities as well individuals dealing with mental health and substance abuse issues. Shaffer is currently a community case manager in Bangor.

While creating an arts community along the shore of Lake Hebron has been at the heart of the Libra Foundation’s efforts to revitalize the Monson area, a newly developed health center should serve as an equally important development for the town’s 680 residents. The Monson Health Center, located in the town’s former elementary school, already is home to primary care services for patients of all ages through Northern Light Health, which opened last week.

The Maine Department of Transportation is doing paving work along parts of Route 7 in Dexter, Garland and Dover-Foxcroft. One work area on Route 7 begins in Dexter, north of the intersection with Route 23, and extends north for nearly six miles, through Garland, ending in Dover-Foxcroft. Another work area is south of the intersection with Grove Street in Dover-Foxcroft.

The Center Theatre and Piscataquis County Ice Arena announced that they are partnering to bring a temporary drive-in movie theater to Dover-Foxcroft. The drive-in, which will be in the ice arena parking lot, is scheduled to show its first movie (“Wonder Woman”) on Friday, June 19 and Saturday, June 20. There will be one showing per night starting at 9. Currently the drive-in is scheduled to show movies for four weeks, but that may be extended depending on demand.

I am writing this letter to ask the Town of Dover-Foxcroft to consider delaying the downtown road improvement project for several years. The logic for this is simple: Roads and sidewalks throughout the town are in a state of serious disrepair and we should allocate our limited resources towards existing needs instead of spending even more money on new studies to find new problems.

I am writing this letter as an indication of my full support for Adrienne Bennett (for Maine’s 2nd Congressional District). It has taken me some time and consideration, but the differences between her and the other candidates is glaring.

A devoted and dedicated group of hikers is not about to let the current COVID-19 pandemic keep them from honoring fallen soldiers. The 2020 Wilderness Walk for Warriors, created by Houlton resident Chris Robinson to pay tribute to fallen or injured soldiers, kicks off July 11 and features a 10-day, 120-mile journey along the Appalachian Trail to the top of Mount Katahdin.

Bishop Robert Deeley has announced that Fr. Roland Daigle, OFM Cap. has been appointed as a parochial vicar of Our Lady of the Snows Parish (St. Thomas Aquinas Church, Dover-Foxcroft; St. Anne Church, Dexter; SS Francis Xavier & Paul the Apostle Church, Milo) and St. Agnes Parish in Pittsfield.

There was no uniformity when it came to stipends paid to sports coaches by Maine high schools this spring. The COVID-19 pandemic forced schools to implement remote learning and led to the cancellation of the baseball, softball, tennis, lacrosse and outdoor track seasons. No official practices were held.

State environmental officials are looking for a way for 115 communities now sending their trash to landfills after the recent closure of a Hampden waste plant to instead send it to an Orrington facility that burns waste to create electricity.