Barely three weeks ago Matt Tibbetts awoke to the biggest snowstorm of the year in southern Piscataquis County. The weighty and wet dose of frozen precipitation left him and other homeowners in the area with considerable storm carnage to clear -- particularly broken branches from virtually every tree in every yard.

Tong “Edward” Wu, a John Bapst Memorial High School junior who recently won first place in the 2020 Penobscot County Bar Association (PCBA) Law Day Contest for his artwork commemorating the women’s rights movement, has donated his $500 cash prize to Partners for Peace -- a Maine organization focused on assisting members of the community affected by domestic abuse.

“People were here camping and fishing,” said Craig Watt, vice president of the Indian Hill Trading Post in Greenville. “The numbers weren’t quite on par with previous years, but there were people here.”

The Dover-Foxcroft Shiretown Homecoming Committee announces the cancellation of the 2020 celebration due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The health risk and uncertainty from the pandemic has led the committee to cancel the parade and fireworks scheduled for Saturday, Aug. 1. 

After much consideration the Dexter Revitalization Committee has decided that due to the uncertainty in planning with the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 Maine Red Hot Dog Festival originally scheduled for Saturday, Aug. 15 in downtown Dexter has been canceled.

The Piscataquis County Soil and Water Conservation District (PCSWCD) is very excited to announce that it will be collaborating with Widdershins Farm LLC this summer. Widdershins is a local farm in Dover-Foxcroft offering a wide variety of services and products and includes a creamery and farm store that is open seven days a week. The farm specializes in sustainable agriculture and caring for their livestock in the most natural way possible

The Center Theatre announced that its community theater group, the Slightly Off-Center Players, will be holding open auditions for their summer production of “Born in a Small Town,” a new play written and directed by Bobby Keniston. The auditions, which will take place on June 13-14 from 1-4 p.m. at the Center Theatre, 20 East Main Street.

For more than two months, the staff of Maine’s two largest hospital systems have been making decisions about COVID-19 testing in an environment of near-constant uncertainty. 

Among the 2020 grantees is the Piscataquis Regional Food Center of Dover-Foxcroft to develop a strategic plan for acquiring specialized commercial food processing equipment as part of a program to incubate regional food product businesses

For years, the world’s two largest producers of medical testing swabs -- one based in rural Maine, the other in the foothills of the Italian Alps -- have waged a series of transatlantic legal battles. But for now, both companies seem to be temporarily laying down their arms so they can focus on a much greater challenge: scaling up their production to meet the new demands of the coronavirus pandemic. 

Renovations and recruiting have now begun for the Somerset County expansion of a Guilford company that makes the nasal swabs that are critically necessary to test patients for the coronavirus. Beginning in early July, Puritan Medical Products expects to start churning out the foam swabs from its new Pittsfield factory overlooking the Sebasticook River. 

In Piscataquis County, one of the poorest in Maine, food is flying off the shelves of the Dover-Foxcroft Area Food Cupboard. On a recent day, cars started arriving an hour ahead of the scheduled grocery pickup. By 10 a.m., the line stretched down a long driveway and onto the street.

Annis, born on the Cape, is a business-savvy guy who owned and operated restaurants in the Boston area for 30 years before his intense desire to travel sent him across the country for a stint, eventually returning to Boston, where he would meet the love of his life. Several years ago, and two children later, the couple moved to Dresden, motivated by a pursuit for a simpler life for their daughters. While in Dresden, they began a search for their slice of heaven; a family farm, which eventually landed them in Dover-Foxcroft, and Maison de Chevre (translated as goat house) was born.

Area grant recipients are the town of Dover-Foxcroft, $7,500; Piscataquis Regional Food Center of Dover-Foxcroft, $7,500; Eastern Area Agency of Aging, $15,000; Partners for Peace, $5,000; and Penquis, $20,000.

Maine reached a milestone in its pandemic response on Monday by opening up COVID-19 testing to a greater range of people. 

Northern Light Mayo Hospital’s Nurse Excellence Award is a public commendation given to a staff nurse demonstrating exemplary clinical expertise, commitment to Northern Light Mayo Hospital and continued professional development. This award is given annually by the vice president of patient care services. Denise Scuderi, vice president of patient care services, announced John Chase, RN, as the 2020 Northern Light Mayo Nurse of the Year on Thursday, May 14 during an all-staff Zoom meeting.

Now that the coronavirus has been circulating around Maine for more than two months, the ever-growing mass of numbers, anecdotes and other information about the pandemic may be dizzying to anyone without a very strong interest in biology or disease surveillance. So the BDN has reached out to a few public experts for their advice on the best metrics to pay attention to that demonstrate the severity of the coronavirus pandemic.

Gov. Janet Mills and Maine Education Commissioner Pender Makin announced that the Maine Department of Education has secured internet access and devices to facilitate at home learning for 100% of Maine school children for whom there was a reported need.