The Maine Department of Corrections (MDOC) announced it will begin to ease certain restrictions within correctional facilities. The decision to ease restrictions, such as those related to visitation, community restitution, work release and transfers, have been made in close consultation with the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention (Maine CDC). Many of the restrictions scheduled to be lifted in the coming weeks have been in place since early March.

Recently Northern Light Health leadership announced their systemwide plan to eliminate racism and other forms of discrimination and promote a strong future for social and medical justice.

Everyone knows you cannot run elections in Maine without election workers. Yet, in the midst of a public health emergency, as well as during “normal” times, finding people to staff election polls and process absentee ballots is not easy.

Twelve of Maine’s 16 counties are now reporting fewer than 10 active cases of the virus, including three -- Piscataquis, Aroostook and Washington counties -- with zero. The prevalence of COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, also seems to finally be dropping in more heavily populated southern Maine counties even as the state has ramped up testing in recent weeks. 

Charles Shaffer of Sebec is announcing his candidacy for Piscataquis County commissioner, District 2, representing Sebec, Atkinson, Dover-Foxcroft, Medford and Orneville. A graduate of Quinnipiac University School of Law, he has a long history of advocacy and service to people with intellectual disabilities as well individuals dealing with mental health and substance abuse issues. Shaffer is currently a community case manager in Bangor.

The Maine Department of Transportation is doing paving work along parts of Route 7 in Dexter, Garland and Dover-Foxcroft. One work area on Route 7 begins in Dexter, north of the intersection with Route 23, and extends north for nearly six miles, through Garland, ending in Dover-Foxcroft. Another work area is south of the intersection with Grove Street in Dover-Foxcroft.

The Center Theatre and Piscataquis County Ice Arena announced that they are partnering to bring a temporary drive-in movie theater to Dover-Foxcroft. The drive-in, which will be in the ice arena parking lot, is scheduled to show its first movie (“Wonder Woman”) on Friday, June 19 and Saturday, June 20. There will be one showing per night starting at 9. Currently the drive-in is scheduled to show movies for four weeks, but that may be extended depending on demand.

Bishop Robert Deeley has announced that Fr. Roland Daigle, OFM Cap. has been appointed as a parochial vicar of Our Lady of the Snows Parish (St. Thomas Aquinas Church, Dover-Foxcroft; St. Anne Church, Dexter; SS Francis Xavier & Paul the Apostle Church, Milo) and St. Agnes Parish in Pittsfield.

State environmental officials are looking for a way for 115 communities now sending their trash to landfills after the recent closure of a Hampden waste plant to instead send it to an Orrington facility that burns waste to create electricity. 

Solutions will not happen overnight but some changes could be made to improve downtown Dover-Foxcroft for vehicular and pedestrian traffic alike. Nearly a year ago the town began to look for some possible solutions for the stretch of road where East Main, Pleasant, South, West Main, North and Lincoln streets converge having agreed to use up to $25,000 for the municipality’s 50/50 share with the Maine Department of Transportation (MDOT) on a cooperative agreement for a traffic study. The downtown includes the major routes to Bangor, Dexter, Milo and Greenville. Gorrill Palmer Consulting Engineers Inc. of South Portland came on board as a consultant.

Our plan is to host our Zoom conference series through the summer, every Thursday from 11 a.m. to noon. Each week we will have focused topics based on what we’re hearing from our communities. Our experts in the fields of medicine, infection prevention, human resources, mental health and more offer guidance, tools and materials so people can leave the session and apply to their situation.

Sen. Paul Davis, R-Sangerville has received the endorsement of the National Rifle Association (NRA) in his primary election to return to the Maine State Senate in District 4.

On Thursday the Maine Department of Education released a draft framework to assist schools in planning for return to school scenarios in the fall. The framework was developed with input from multiple stakeholder groups, including the Department of Education’s Student Cabinet, community health experts and educators representing the many roles in schools.

But the RSU 68 superintendent of schools was more than willing to relive that experience along with the teachers and staff at the SeDoMoCha School, who toured the district Wednesday, June 10 morning to see their students in person for the first time in nearly three months due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The new waste plant in Hampden has had to temporarily close this month as it struggles to pay its expenses and faces a new lawsuit from a contractor that alleges it’s owed at least $1.2 million for staffing and running the facility. 

While Naisbitt was startled to find the fawn lying so close to a well-traveled trail, her experience wasn’t that unusual. In Maine, people often stumble upon baby wildlife, especially in the spring and early summer. As a result, the Maine Warden Service and state biologists field a multitude of phone calls about wild animals that people worry have been abandoned or orphaned this time of year. And their message is always the same: If you care, leave it there. 

After closing its facilities on March 17 due to safety concerns and Gov. Janet Mills’ stay-at-home order surrounding the spread of COVID-19, the Piscataquis Regional YMCA will reopen on June 12. The reopening will be conducted under the guidance of state and local health authorities and will take place in phases.

Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, this year the Dover-Foxcroft annual town meeting process will consist solely of a vote at the polls on Tuesday, July 14. In years past decisions on the municipal budget have been made with an in-person town meeting in the gymnasium at the Morton Avenue Municipal Building, with items approved that day then moved to referendum for final approval.