Like a true rite of spring, the opening of Stutzman’s Farm Café & Brick Oven Bakery on Friday, April 5 ushers in the beginning of the farming season. This third generation family farm located at 891 Douty Hill Road, enters its sixth season as a field to fork restaurant and its 40th anniversary since operators Sid and Rainie Stutzman took over the family farm.

DOVER-FOXCROFT -- For the seventh year students and teachers at SeDoMoCha Middle School celebrated the 14th day of the third month with various events for Pi Day. The activities connect to the dessert which is a homophone of the term for the non-terminating ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter.

Mayo Regional Hospital has announced four community forums to provide updates and answer questions regarding the potential merger with Northern Light Health, a statewide health care system. The forums will be held in four of the 13 towns that make up Hospital Administrative District (HAD) 4 and will provide an opportunity for citizens in the district to learn more about what a merger might mean for the hospital and local access to quality care.

Bissell Brothers opened its newest brewery location in Milo last summer, making it the first brewery in Piscataquis County. Last Friday, the brewery that got its start in Portland celebrated the release of its first sour beer brewed from start to finish in Milo.

Phil Adams spends three days a week in a heated, wooden structure at the top of the chairlift at Big Squaw Mountain near Moosehead Lake. The 72-year-old has been making sure everyone gets safely off the chairlift for six years. He loves his job. He loves the clean air and the views from his “office.”

After discussion that day about issues facing young adults and what can be done, Mills encouraged those present to go back to their schools and form a Positive Action Team. “Our group thought if kids had more positive things to do then maybe they would not turn to drugs,” Keane said. The teams have caught on.

An act of the Legislature is needed if Mayo Regional Hospital’s merger with a statewide health care system is to go forward in the way administrators at the Dover-Foxcroft hospital are proposing. But no legislator from Piscataquis County has publicly committed yet to sponsoring the legislation that would eliminate the charter the hospital has operated under since the 1970s.

On Feb. 27 the board that oversees Mayo Regional Hospital (Hospital Administrative District 4) voted 14-2 to tax the 13 communities it serves should it need to in order to balance its debt service. Two board members abstained and one member was absent.

The public board that oversees Mayo Regional Hospital has voted to begin a merger with Northern Light Health, the statewide health care organization that’s based in Brewer and includes Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor. The board members, who are elected from 13 Piscataquis County communities served by the hospital and who oversee a quasi-municipal entity known as Hospital Administrative District No. 4, approved the merger agreement in a 15-3 vote during a meeting Wednesday night, Feb. 27.

The public board that oversees Mayo Regional Hospital in Dover-Foxcroft will vote Wednesday on whether to go forward with a proposed merger with Northern Light Health, the statewide health care system that’s based in Brewer and includes Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor.

A few significant projects in Senate District 4 include bridge replacement on Route 150 in Athens, highway construction and rehabilitation on Route 6 in Abbot and bridge improvements on Pleasant Street in Milo.

On Wednesday night, Feb. 27, following months of due diligence, planning, and gathering public input, the board that oversees Mayo Regional Hospital (Hospital Administrative District 4) plans to vote on a non-binding merger agreement with Northern Light Health, a statewide health care system.

Greenville has long been considered a town on the edge of wilderness. Centuries ago the wild forests were logged and Moosehead Lake was instrumental in moving those logs from the forests to mills downstream of the lake’s outlets. The town, incorporated in 1836, prospered as a result of this industry. Homes and churches were built.

Directors from Dexter and the other dozen communities making up HAD 4 are awaiting negotiation details between officials with Mayo Regional Hospital and Northern Light Health on a potential merger of the Dover-Foxcroft facility serving the region with the statewide healthcare system, the town council learned during a Feb. 14 meeting.

Mayo Regional Hospital has been awarded participation in a remote, technical assistance program with the Texas A&M University Center for Optimizing Rural Health. Mayo Regional Hospital is one of five hospitals in the state to be selected for support and training through the year-long program. Technical assistance will begin this spring.

Sen.Paul Davis, R-Sangervlle has submitted LD 784 “An Act To Amend the Laws Governing Eligibility for Unemployment Benefits.” If passed, this legislation would require individuals who are collecting unemployment benefits to accept and attend interviews for jobs they are reasonably fitted for. Failure to attend would result in disqualification from benefits.

Five rural Maine hospitals, including one that recently filed for bankruptcy protection and others that have cut key services in recent years, will receive expert help in stabilizing their business models after winning a rare federal award.

MONSON — Once upon a time many years ago, when horses pulled carts and carriages, winter transportation required sleighs to get around.