U.S. Sens. Susan Collins and Angus King announced that HealthReach Community Health Centers, the Maine Hospital Association, Inc., the Penobscot Community Health Center, the Katahdin Valley Health Center -- which has a clinic in Brownville -- and the Maine Primary Care Association have been awarded a total of $5,794,031 to support their efforts to provide health care to Mainers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Barely three weeks ago Matt Tibbetts awoke to the biggest snowstorm of the year in southern Piscataquis County. The weighty and wet dose of frozen precipitation left him and other homeowners in the area with considerable storm carnage to clear -- particularly broken branches from virtually every tree in every yard.

Tong “Edward” Wu, a John Bapst Memorial High School junior who recently won first place in the 2020 Penobscot County Bar Association (PCBA) Law Day Contest for his artwork commemorating the women’s rights movement, has donated his $500 cash prize to Partners for Peace -- a Maine organization focused on assisting members of the community affected by domestic abuse.

During the morning of Friday, June 5 staff from the SeDoMoCha School will be traveling throughout the RSU 68 district towns, waving to students and families as a way to say thank you for all their hard work --  staff miss them very much.

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.

Increasingly, turkey hunters I know are telling me that they are hanging up their turkey hunting gear. The reason: ticks. What a sad thing when all they need to do, to be safe, is to spray their hunting duds well with Permethrin, and remain vigilant. 

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