Over the summer months children visiting the Thompson Free Library on Wednesday afternoons will have the opportunity to get more comfortable and confident with their word skills thanks to “READing with Erma.”

The search for a plan to bid a Piscataquis County Emergency Management Agency (EMA) storage garage bid will continue after only one proposal was received after the project went out to bid a second time. With the bid totaling more than double the project estimate, the Piscataquis County Commissioners passed a motion during a July 10 meeting for County EMA Director Tom Capraro to speak with contractors himself and negotiate a proposal for the approximate 1,400-square foot building.

The SAD 41 administrative staff for the 2018-19 school year is now all in place as Angela Kelley was hired as principal for the Milo Elementary School, during a July 9 school board meeting. Kelley was hired with a two-year contract running through the end of June 2020 at an annual salary of $64,000.

On Sunday, July 22 Turning Page Farm at 842 North Guilford Road will join similar operations across the state by inviting the public to stop by for Open Farm Day. The event provides an opportunity for attendees to meet the goats, pigs and chickens of Turning Page Farm, see how the cheeses and soaps are made, beer is brewed and experiecne how owners Tim and Joy Bueschen are living their dream.

The Moosehead Lake region is world famous.

For the fifth consecutive year a contingent -is hiking approximately 120 miles over a week and a half from downtown Monson to the summit of Mount Katahdin through the 100-Mile Wilderness along the northernmost section of the Appalachian Trail to raise funds through pledges. This year’s “Honor Rocks” hike supports the Wilderness Walk for Warriors, an organization that raises money for Maine veterans and service members and their families and honors the nation’s fallen heroes through a motto of “Assisting the Living, Honoring the Deceased.”

A former Foxcroft Academy soccer star is again helping dozens of young players in kindergarten through grade 8 improve their skills on the pitch through his annual Ayala Soccer Academy. The third annual camp run by 2016 Foxcroft Academy graduate Tino Ayala was held in Dover-Foxcroft from June 25-29.

Not a lot of Atlantic salmon have danced off the end of my Sage 9-weight fly rod over the years, but just enough to make me a believer. There is no other angling experience quite like it! Not even the 64-pound Alaskan King salmon that a guide netted for me on the Kenai River outshined my first Atlantic salmon hookup on the fabled Upsalquitch River. There a battling 18-lb fresh-run fish took all my backing and left me with an angling memory that has never faded with time.

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court finally announced a decision on the much anticipated Janus v. American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) case. It will prove, I suspect, to be one of the most consequential Supreme Court decisions in a generation, given the impact it will have on American society.

Students at the SeDoMoCha School will have a new principal when they return to classes in several months as the RSU 68 board of directors unanimously (7-0) voted to employ Ridge View Community School of Dexter Assistant Principal/Athletic Director Adam Gudroe during a June 19 meeting.