Maine Gov. Paul LePage is waiving state park fees for residents as a show of appreciation. His office said that day use fees will be waived for residents at Maine State Parks and Historic Sites from Saturday, Aug. 11 through Labor Day.

The Maine Red Hot Festival will be back in downtown Dexter on Saturday, Aug. 11 as the third annual event will feature activities, with free admission, from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. -- rain or shine.

The 27th annual Maine Forest Heritage Days is scheduled for Aug. 9-12. The weekend includes a bus tour through Maine’s working forest, a craft fair, carriage rides, chainsaw carving, a woodsman demonstration featuring chopping and ax throwing and the regional Game of Logging competition.

In the cool and pleasant basement of the Abbott Memorial Library Friday evening (Aug. 3) for the monthly gathering of Dexter Dover Area Towns in Transition (DDATT), about two dozen area people watched the short film “A Farm for the Future” in which the foundations of modern agriculture are questioned by a young farmer trying to figure out how to make her family’s land productive and profitable.

Bring your inner child and see a show for free. The Wayside Grange and Theatre is a proud sponsor of the free Frogtown Puppeteers show at the Maine Red Hot Dog Festival in downtown Dexter at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 11. Great entertainment for all ages.

The fourth annual Dexter Sunrise Kiwanis CRUISE-IN will be held from 4-7 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 4 (rain date is Aug. 5) in the parking lot at the Ridge View Community School on Fern Road off Route 94.

This weekend the annual Dover-Foxcroft Shiretown Homecoming and Foxcroft Academy’s 2018 Alumni Weekend together will feature a number of events on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

Observer photo/Stuart HedstromTALES OF THE WATER — A mid-morning parade from outer Elm Street to the downtown athletic field helped celebrate Guilford’s annual Piscataquis River Festival on Saturday, July 28.

This summer, you could win a beautiful, handmade quilt at the Maine Red Hot Dog Festival on Saturday, Aug. 11. The Dexter Public Health Association will raffle this colorful, unique work-of-art that will add beauty to your life and comfort to your body.

An essential tool for hiking enthusiasts, the newest edition of the “AMC Maine Mountain Guide” features more trails than ever before. Compiled and edited by avid hiker Carey Kish of Mount Desert, the 11th edition of the guidebook describes more than 625 trails on 300 Maine mountains.

There is stressful busy and there is exciting busy. We’re going for the latter this August at the Thompson Free Library and inviting you along for a fun, multidimensional, sensory-awakening ride. All ages -- families and individuals -- will find programs to make the most out of the dog days of summer.

Every guitar has a story to tell, believes David Iverson as the history of each instrument may reveal who has played it, where it has been and can also conjure up memories for the guitarist. Iverson plans to share many tales when his Story Teller Guitars store opens in early August.

On Friday, Aug. 3 from 6 to 8 p.m. Dexter Dover Area Towns in Transition (DDATT) will show the 2009 independent movie “A Farm for the Future,” as part of a free presentation at the Abbott Memorial Library with a public discussion following.

The Center Theatre is hoping to show the movie "Little Pink House" at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 23. Based on a true story, the movie is about a group of neighbor's fight with corporate and political interests who want to use eminent domain to take their property. The Center Theatre needs to get 86 advance reservations in order to show the film.

Join more than 80 beautiful parrots for a free, family-friendly open house at Siesta Sanctuary from 1-5 p.m. on Saturday, Aug 4. Play catch with them, hear them talk and sing, watch them play and dance and learn about their care.

The 14th annual Piscataquis River Festival returns on Saturday, July 28 with a day of events in the downtown area.

Over a half dozen groups of paddlers tried to traverse the Lake Hebron cove from the boat launch to the Lakeshore House dock during the Anything Floats Race on the afternoon of Saturday, July 21 during the annual Monson Summer Festival.

Early in its existence the Dexter Historical Society received a donation of negatives and photos from Bert Lincoln Call, a photographer in Dexter from 1886 until the early 1940s. Call's stock-in-trade was portraiture of local citizens, but his passion was for the woods, lakes and rivers of northern Maine which he visited annually.