The Maine Warden Service is seeking volunteer searchers. Maine game wardens are planning a search for missing person Diana Esteys in Medford on Sunday, Sept. 17.

More than a year ago residents accepted the conveyance of the approximate 97-acre Derby Shops commercial railroad property on B&A Avenue. Citizens attending the June 2016 special town meeting also authorized the selectmen to apply for and accept any grants for cleaning up the property, which is the home of Central Maine & Quebec Railway and had been a part of the bankruptcy proceedings for the former Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway. Town officials are now in the process of applying for funding to help clean up the site, and a public hearing on the proposed remediation to make the property more suited for economic development was held at the town hall on Sept. 6.

The evening before a public hearing on the process -- please see related story -- Milo selectmen discussed the process for securing funding sources to clean up the town-owned 97-acre Derby Shops commercial railroad property on B&A Avenue during a Sept. 5 meeting.

Numerous volunteers and many donations of funds, materials and hours have gone into an expansion project at the Sangerville Veterans Memorial Park on Route 23. The efforts have created a new all-purpose field and a gazebo under construction, and will help make the property a site to be enjoyed by all ages.

Again in the 2017-18 academic year SeDoMoCha Elementary School families will have the opportunity to read together as part of a shared reading experience through the eighth annual One Book, One School program. For about a month through early October students and family members will read and discuss “Lost on a Mountain in Maine” and then be able to attend an ending celebration on Thursday, Oct. 5.

The resignation of Penquis Valley High School/Middle School Principal Jeremy Bousquet was accepted and the nomination of new building principal Daniel Ross was accepted during a Sept. 6 meeting of the SAD 41 school board.

M. Michelle Hood, FACHE, president and CEO of EMHS announced that Teresa “Terri” Vieira, MHA, FACHE, has been named president of Sebasticook Valley Health (SVH) and Charles A Dean Memorial Hospital. Vieira has led SVH since 2013 and has been acting president at C. A. Dean since 2017.

Starting for the current academic year SAD 4 students in grades 7-8 have been moved up the hill from Piscataquis Community Secondary School, which now is the home of just grades 9-12, to Piscataquis Community Elementary School (PCES) to join their younger peers.

Much of the community’s railroad history, including previously missing components, has now been captured in “More than a Train Yard and a Whistle Stop: The Canadian Railway’s Brownville Division 1886 to 1963.” The book by former resident Ken Hatchette, who now lives in Dartmouth, Mass., is full of photographs and features cover art from a mural painted by resident Suzette East which was a contest-winning submission. Book proceeds will help fund a heat pump for the Brownville-Brownville Junction Historical Society’s Parish House Museum.

Scuba divers Ryan Robbins and Matt Kane swam along the ship’s railings, descending slowly to the stern of the vessel, more than 40 feet below the surface. The two divers were capturing footage for a historical documentary “Sunken Steamboats of Moosehead Lake.” This summer, the Moosehead Marine Museum received two separate $10,000 grants from the Libra Foundation and the Fisher Charitable Foundation to support production of the film, which will include underwater footage and other imagery, combined with stories told by local residents.

A day after a $6,879,013 SAD 4 budget for the 2017-18 academic year was approved -- via a count of 251 to 244 across the six district communities -- the school board set the town assessments during a special meeting on Aug. 30 at Piscataquis Community Elementary School (PCES).

A man who helped engineer some of the largest public land conservation deals in state history has died. Alan Hutchinson, 70, died at his Orono home on Sunday, Aug. 26 according to an official at Brookings-Smith Funeral Home of Bangor.

With Piscataquis County government department heads making their initial requests for the 2018 budget -- the county fiscal year follows the calendar year -- the county commissioners are getting ready to put the budget advisory committee in place so the group can start its work in October.

Three girls will reign as Miss Maple in their respective age groups for the next year after being crowned during the third annual Miss Maple Pageant on the morning of Saturday, Aug. 26 at the 130th Piscataquis Valley Fair.

A proposed $6,879,013 budget for the 2017-18 school year was approved during a district budget meeting on Aug. 24 at Piscataquis Community Elementary School. The near $6.88 million budget is now moved to a referendum in Abbot, Cambridge, Guilford, Parkman, Sangerville, and Wellington on Tuesday, Aug. 29 with residents of the half dozen communities voting either “yes” or “no” to make a district-wide decision on the 2018 budget.

The Maine Highlands Senior Center, to be housed on the first floor of Central Hall on East Main Street, has received two grants.

Earlier in the summer the former Spruce Run-Womancare Alliance announced a name change to Partners for Peace. The organization, which provides support services to anyone affected by domestic abuse and violence in Piscataquis and Penobscot counties, celebrated its new identity with an open house and free barbecue at the 8 Mechanic Street resource center on Aug. 18

Throughout the year the Piscataquis County Democratic Committee is holding a series of non-partisan information forums on various issues facing the region. The most recent “Ensuring the Success of Our Youngest Mainers: A Conversation about Children and Families in Piscataquis County” during the afternoon of Aug. 2 at Mayo Regional Hospital examined related challenges such as poverty, food insecurity, and barriers in accessing care, and the discussion featured Maine Speaker of the House of Representatives Sara Gideon, D-Freeport.