Due to the snowstorm on Monday, Dec. 2, the Student Cabinet meeting that was scheduled for that day has been postponed to Jan. 24. The Maine Department of Education (DOE) has selected 32 Maine students to serve on its new Student Cabinet. The group is scheduled to meet quarterly with Commissioner Pender Makin to discuss educational opportunities, improvements and policy with an in-person meeting to take place next month.

Several weeks after the selectmen passed a motion to focus on a solar project at an alternate site other than the town airport at the Charles A. Chase Jr. Memorial Field on Pine Street town officials hope to keep the momentum aloft with the establishment of an airport advisory committee. A half dozen committee members representing the board and the public were appointed during a Nov. 26 meeting at the Morton Avenue Municipal Building.

Piscataquis Community School students will be demonstrating their skills as classes, groups and individuals using their voices, instruments and movement on two separate nights during the holiday season.

Back in 2010, the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife began honoring one individual a year with the Legendary Maine Guide Award. That first year, the honoree was Wilmot “Wiggie” Robinson of Millinocket, who won the award posthumously. The award now bears his name, and the DIF&W is seeking nominees for the 2020 award.

For more than six months, the Maine Department of Transportation’s director of freight knew that a large portion of train track that runs through Maine was going to change hands. Recently news broke that one of the largest rail operators in North America would buy the 481 miles of track in Maine and Quebec run by Bangor-based Central Maine and Quebec Railway. The sale to Calgary, Alberta-based Canadian Pacific Railway is expected to close by the end of the year.

Piscataquis County sets aside a day or two in early December to celebrate the wonder of Christmas and the magic of the holiday season. This year Dover-Foxcroft, Greenville (on Saturday, Nov. 30) Guilford, Milo, Monson, Sebec and Dexter are participating.

A proposed $4.8 million-plus Piscataquis County budget for 2020, along with a $1,804,670 Unorganized Territory budget for the 2020-21 fiscal year, was presented at a public hearing on Nov. 25 as part of the process by county officials for developing the pair of spending plans.

The funding includes $191,496 for Northern Light Health has received to implement a telemedicine project in six hospitals, among these is Northern Light C.A. Dean Hospital in Greenville. The project will serve 54,333 residents.

The honorees are Bryson Feltis, kindergarten; Lyric Reed, grade 1; Madison Weymouth, grade 2; Ryan McGary, grade 3; Aislinn Miller, grade 4; Sullivan Carey, elementary unified arts; Thomas Atwater, grade 5; Daniel Turgeon, grade 6; Emily Greenlaw, grade 7; Jack Kingsbury, grade 8; and Tyler Sandberg, middle school unified arts.

The steamship Katahdin is as much a part of Greenville as Moosehead Lake itself. The ship has been a fixture on the lake for more than 100 years. Recently, however, she has experienced some major challenges.

Many of us receive emails (or snail mails, for that matter) from unexpected sources and immediately file them as “trash,” without even taking time to look them over. The Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife is encouraging Mainers to pay close attention to a survey that may be heading their way, and hopes those surveys are filled out and returned, rather than tossed away.

Cobblestone beaches and the dramatic ocean cliffs. Mossy forests and scenic trout ponds. Open mountaintops and a roaming moose. These are some of the scenes you’ll enjoy in the new outdoor film “Untold Secret,” recently released by the Maine Bureau of Parks and Lands.

For three and a half decades Pine Tree Hospice has served individuals and families, free of charge, during the time of dying and bereavement. The organization’s volunteers assist through all life changes -- as stated with the theme “Seasons of Change” on the cover of the 2019 annual report -- and those involved with and contributing to Pine Tree Hospice were honored during the annual meeting Thursday, Nov. 21 at the Dover-Foxcroft Congregational Church.

A railway company that owns tracks stretching through much of Canada and parts of the northern U.S. will buy Bangor-based Central Maine and Quebec Railway by the end of the year, adding 481 miles of track in Quebec and Maine to its network. Canadian Pacific Railway, based in Calgary, Alberta, will buy Central Maine and Quebec Railway from its parent company, New York-based Fortress Transportation and Infrastructure Investors LLC.

U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, chairman of the Transportation Appropriations Subcommittee, announced that Newton Field Airport in Jackman has been awarded $3,200,000 to extend the runway to accommodate ambulance air service by LifeFlight of Maine. This funding was awarded through the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Airport Improvement Program (AIP).

A week before the holiday, students at Piscataquis Community Elementary School enjoyed a Thanksgiving meal and were able to personally thank their teachers and school staff members.

Back in October, I was pleased to share the stage for my book launch with Maine Secretary of State Matt Dunlap, an outdoors enthusiast I’ve known for more than 35 years, since the high school days when our respective track teams competed against each other.

The Land Use Planning Commission (LUPC) is pleased to announce confirmation of the appointment of Judy East as incoming executive director. East, a Washington County resident, brings over three decades of rural land use planning and conservation experience to LUPC.