A step for bringing four questions concerning four Dover-Foxcroft land use ordinance items to a public vote was taken by the planning board during a May 28 meeting conducted via. Zoom. The planning board voted to move each question to the board of the selectmen, who would then make a decision to place some or all of the four items on an upcoming referendum ballot.

Maine courts will return slowly to normal operations over the next three months, but it will be September before activities fully return, provided there isn’t another outbreak of the coronavirus.

In this unusual time of restrictions on schools, churches, public meetings and gatherings, and of rural reopening, the Parkman Grange is announcing plans to award 2020 Minnie Welts Bridge Memorial Scholarships to one or more deserving Parkman students continuing their education beyond high school. There will be no Memorial Grange Supper this year, but scholarships will be awarded anyway.

There will be a graduate parade immediately following the ceremony. The parade, to be led by Dexter police and fire departments, will begin at approximately 2:30 p.m. leaving from the high school, proceeding down Lincoln Street, on to Main Street to the lights, then turning left and ending by the fire department.

“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.

Since the middle of March the Morton Avenue Municipal Building has been closed to the public due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Starting on Monday, June 1 the town office will be reopening for business with provision in place to help make the facility as safe as possible for the public and staff, as a plan was approved by the selectmen during a May 26 meeting conducted via Zoom.

The coronavirus pandemic and the related suspension of school sports this spring allowed Luis Ayala a rare respite to consider his big picture. The longtime Foxcroft Academy wrestling and soccer coach typically spent his offseasons coaching both sports at the middle-school and youth levels.

In recognition of Arbor Week in Maine from May 17-23, the town of Dover-Foxcroft maintenance department planted a maple tree at Kiwanis Park. This is the first of five new trees that will go in at Kiwanis Park to replace over 10 trees that were lost there during the April snowstorm.

Scheduled for the final day of school, Wednesday June 10 and starting at 1 p.m., the parade of vehicles will travel through the SAD 4 campus with appropriate waving, balloons, decorated vehicles, horn-blowing and yelling. Teachers and staff will line the edges of the driveway in what Boomsma hopes becomes a “huge event” that marks the official end of the school year and the start of summer.

Maine's top election official is encouraging people to vote via absentee ballot during the July primary election to limit the exposure voters and polling workers have to the coronavirus. The state will still hold in-person balloting July 14 with new social distancing protocols, but it's easier -- and safer -- to vote via absentee ballot, Secretary of State Matt Dunlap said this week.

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.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the previously scheduled Relay For Life live events across Massachusetts, Maine and New Hampshire through June have suspended their live events, and many now are participating on Sunday, June 7 in a virtual online experience called Hope From Home. Participants should register for their local event at http://RelayForLife.org and then on June 7 join the activities at https://bit.ly/RelayHopeFromHome.

After two months of being unable to hold live support group meetings because of the COVID-19 distancing policies, NAMI Piscataquis County will reconvene via Zoom on the first Wednesday of each month at 1 p.m.

Memorial Day Weekend marks the beginning of the boating season in Maine for many, and the Maine Warden Service is urging all boaters to wear your life jacket, boat safely and maintain proper social distancing while out on the water.

Therefore, we found it fitting and proper to remember. On behalf of Post #29 Chadbourne-Merrill American Legion we would like to offer a few words of remembrance in honor of those who have loved so deeply as to give their all for the cause of freedom and everything it entails. At this important and solemn time, we remember the hard-earned liberty gained through the sacrifice of so many on our behalf, a grateful nation.