Mayo Regional Hospital of Dover-Foxcroft was recognized for meeting the Gold Level in the 2018 Gold Star Standards of Excellence Program for efforts to prohibit smoke and tobacco use on campus and address client tobacco use. This is the seventh year Mayo Regional Hospital has participated in the initiative showing a longstanding commitment to addressing tobacco use and exposure.

October in Maine has a cinematic feel. From the red, orange, and yellow-tinged backdrops to the fallen leaves swirling in the wind to the jack o’ lantern grinning from the porch. One minute a bittersweet Lifetime romance, the next the ominous foreshadowing of “Something Wicked This Way Comes,” before culminating in a tension building scene straight out of “Halloween.” Whatever lens you view the month through, the Thompson Free Library in Dover-Foxcroft has programs to fit your shifting mood as autumn takes hold and All Hallow’s Eve approaches.

I’d like to correct the record and assure every voter in Senate District 4 that I support ALL of the 26 Amendments to our Constitution, including the 2nd Amendment, our right to keep and bear arms. I have no interest in taking anyone else’s guns; we have our own. If you know me, you know that this is true.

With so many struggling churches and businesses in our community, it is wonderful to see a ray of sunshine at the Guilford United Methodist Church.

It was a case of just having to get away, and what better idea than a short fall fishing trip with friends. They nicknamed me Scoop a long time ago from newspaper work and I thought writing about it would be fun. We traveled to Nesowadnehunk Wilderness Camps in the northern reaches of Piscataquis County. Pronounced Sow-da-hunk by the local folk, this lake is the largest fly-fishing-only lake in Maine.

When it comes to the legality of openly carrying a handgun in Maine, or concealing that handgun, questions abound.

There it is again. A Facebook post from someone announcing they’ve not smoked a cigarette in 365 days. We see or hear more precise variations on that theme, such as, “I haven’t had a cigarette in 10 months, 20 days, 13 hours.” Whenever I see or hear such declarations from smokers I think about helium balloons.

The Maine Department of Corrections Mountain View Correctional Facility completed its American Correctional Association (ACA) accreditation audit on Oct. 3, achieving a score of 99.6 percent of all standards.

Everyone is invited to hop aboard the Maine Poetry Express workshop and community reading at the Thompson Free Library. Maine Poetry Express is a program of the Maine Humanities Council and the Maine State Library to bring Maine poetry and poets to local libraries and their communities. Community members in Dover-Foxcroft will select Maine poems, learn to perform those poems in a workshop with Millinocket poet Paul Corrigan, and host a community poetry-reading event, where all are invited to come together to celebrate Maine poetry. The event will take place at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 18 at the Thompson Free Library. All are welcome and no registration is necessary.

I am writing in support of Sue Mackey Andrews for State Senate District 4. I am known to wear “many hats” in the community, but Sue has me beat by a long shot!