Preseason training camp for the Maine Shrine Lobster Bowl all-star football game will return to Foxcroft Academy in Dover-Foxcroft for the next five years under a new agreement reached recently between the school and the game’s board of directors.

Maine Gov. Janet Mills announced stricter limits on public gatherings on Wednesday, ordering restaurants and bars to stop dine-in service effective that day, banning social gatherings of more than 10 people and urging many private businesses to close.

The General Federation of Women’s Clubs (GFWC)/MIOSAC Club meeting for Feb. 4 was held at Thayer Parkway. President Suzanne Raymond called the meeting to order with 11 members present. Diane Leighton and Brenda Quiet were hostesses for the evening. Program chairman was Wendy Hutchins.

Before adjourning on Tuesday because of the coronavirus, the Maine Legislature passed a package of bills letting municipalities and schools operate on current budgets through January and giving Gov. Janet Mills wide authority over the June primaries.

Rebekah Anderson, owner of the popular Lakeshore House in Monson, has always been a civic-minded person, and in early January, she really stretched herself by traveling to Africa to assist the organization Eagle Projects International as they disseminated medical supplies and reading glasses to tribal groups in the wilds of Kenya.

The Maine Principals’ Association football committee took a step Monday toward branching out beyond the traditional criterion of school enrollment to classify high school teams around the state in that sport. The panel voted unanimously to approve the addition of 16 schools to the state’s two, eight-player divisions this fall.

It is absolutely amazing and so gratifying how the entire community comes together every year to provide for the children of our area at Christmas. Now an unexpected crisis is at our doorstep.

Most outdoors people that I know would rather take an alder branch in the eye or get thumb-snagged on a rusty hook than spend 10 minutes at a political rally. But sometimes political reality gets close to home, especially for recreational hunters whose heritage is linked inextricably to their right to possess and use firearms in the field.

The BDN’s March 13 editorial called President Trump’s urgency “welcome.” Give me a break! Welcome? This urgency should have been displayed months ago when President Trump was first briefed on COVID-19 and downplayed it! 

With an effort to support social distancing and reduce potential exposure to COVID-19 within the Piscataquis community, the Piscataquis Regional YMCA announced that the facility will close on Monday, March 16 through Friday, March 27.