After discussing the idea of following their counterparts in Somerset County by drafting a letter in formal opposition to additional industrial-scale wind development for customers in Massachusetts overlooking Moosehead Lake, the Piscataquis County Commissioners signed a document of their own during an Oct. 3 meeting.

The Maine Warden Service is pleased to announce the hiring of a new pilot to complement the air wing division. Pilot Christopher Hilton, 32, from Brunswick, was sworn in Oct. 5 in Augusta before warden service staff and family. Pilot Hilton will serve in the bureau’s third pilot position and began working as a game warden pilot at the start of the month.

From a pool of over 375 nominations to 16 county winners who were narrowed down to eight semifinalists and three finalists, there is just a single Maine 2018 Teacher of the Year. The honoree is SeDoMoCha School music teacher Kaitlin Young, and the award announcement was made by Maine Department of Education Commissioner Dr. Robert G. Hasson Jr. during a surprise assembly in the school gym on the morning of Oct. 4.

A huge pumpkin grown in Charleston has squashed the record for the heaviest one ever grown in Maine. But breaking the record wasn’t a slam-dunk for Elroy Morgan’s Atlantic Giant pumpkin, which topped the scales at 1,756 pounds.

The town of Dover-Foxcroft has joined numerous other municipalities and organizations in recognizing October as Domestic Violence Awareness Month, as the selectmen formally signed a proclamation during a Sept. 25 meeting.

The Aroostook County community of Limestone’s search for a new town manager has concluded with the selectboard hiring Matthew S. Pineo, who previously held the same position in Brownville and later Sangerville on an interim basis.

Heather Wheaton, Penquis Autism Community Services program manager, accepts a $1,200 check from representatives of the Widow Sons Temple Guard on Sept. 29 at Penquis’ Dover-Foxcroft office.

Partners for Peace, the domestic violence resource center serving Piscataquis and Penobscot counties which earlier this year announced a name change from the Spruce Run-Womancare Alliance, will mark Domestic Violence Awareness Month with a free Walk to End Abuse in the late afternoon of Wednesday, Oct. 4 in Dover-Foxcroft.

A Dover-Foxcroft resident who family members say lived her life with kindness, generosity, good humor and grace, including during her 15-year battle with cancer, will be remembered through the Tracy Hibbard Kasprzak Cancer Treatment Center on the second floor of Mayo Regional Hospital. The center was formally dedicated on the morning of Sept. 23.

In recognition of their decades of being land stewards through forestry and farming at Breakneck Ridge Farm and efforts to educate young and old about conservation management at the local, state and national level, Steve and Diana Hobart were recognized by the Piscataquis County Soil and Water Conservation District (PCSWCD) by receiving the organization’s Lifetime Achievement Award during a presentation at their farm on Sept. 16.

The Piscataquis County Commissioners are looking to follow their counterparts in Somerset County by drafting a letter to express their opposition to additional industrial-scale wind development near Moosehead Lake. The commissioners authorized County Manager Tom Lizotte to write a letter during a Sept. 19 meeting, and the document is scheduled to be on the agenda for the Tuesday, Oct. 3 session for a formal vote.

In an effort to deal with space issues at the SeDoMoCha School, RSU 68 officials are considering moving the superintendent’s office from the second floor to a vacant building a stone’s throw from campus. During a Sept. 19 school board meeting, Superintendent Stacy Shorey was authorized to make a $36,000 offer for the former Head Start building off of Autumn Avenue next to the SeDoMoCha campus.

The selectmen gave their approval to both a $155,000 financing package for a fire department brush truck and an approximate $41,700 bid for a 2018 Ford Expedition to serve the police department, during a meeting on Sept. 11.

Several days into the job new Dexter Town Manager Jim Chandler was welcomed and sworn in during a Sept. 14 town council meeting.

During a Sept. 12 meeting of the SAD 4 school board at the PCSS, Principal John Keane said the idea of changing the name of the secondary school back to just Piscataquis Community High School (PCHS) has been discussed by students and staff.

Maine Highlands Senior Center Directors President Dr. Lesley Fernow, left, and Piscataquis Thriving in Place Collaborative Project Director Meg Callaway hold open a bin for two young helpers during for the Piscataquis Shredding Event on Sept. 16 behind Central Hall on River Street in Dover-Foxcroft. The center, collaborative and the AARP Fraud Watch Network sponsored a visit by the Shredding on Site company to enable resident to bring documents, such as those with confidential and personal information, to be shredded. Dr. Fernow and Callaway said older adults are at a greater risk for fraud and those stopping by could watch the bins be automatically dumped into the rear of a truck with the papers then cut into numerous little thin strips.

The Maine Warden Service is seeking interest from the public to create a volunteer search and rescue team in Piscataquis County. There will be an informational meeting held at the Greenville Fire Department, 10 Minden Street, at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 20.

From 6-8 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 12 the Piscataquis Chamber of Commerce will hold its annual meeting and Business of the Year celebration. The chamber’s board of directors is pleased to announce that this year’s Business of the Year recipient is Pleasant River Lumber of Dover-Foxcroft.