Rachael Sickles, a senior at Dexter Regional High School, has been selected to receive the school’s 2020 Principal's Award, Principal Stephen Bell announced.  The award, sponsored by the Maine Principals' Association, is given in recognition of a high school senior's academic achievement and citizenship.

Dexter Regional High School Principal Stephen Bell is honored to announce the Valedictorian for the Class of 2020, Rachael Sickles and Salutatorian Logan Perkins.

A widely used model that projects the path of the coronavirus outbreak in each state estimates that Maine could start relaxing its social distancing rules by May 13. But that prediction includes a number of conditions that have yet to be met.

Many Maine hospitals have more critical care beds and ventilators available right now than before the coronavirus pandemic began, positioning medical providers to be able to handle an increase in critically ill patients if a surge occurs, a top hospital administrator said Wednesday.

Similarly, the Ridge View Community School that runs a school pantry program in Dexter has gone from serving 40-50 families a week to 110 and the nearby Dover-Foxcroft Area Food Cupboard has gone from serving 85 households to 140, plus an additional 10 deliveries to home-bound community members.

Whom do you and other members of your group believe deserves to be your community’s 2020 Spirit of America Foundation Tribute honoree for their help to your organization and/or other causes?

I was 12 when my family moved into the lodge on the western shore of Umsaskis Lake. The lodge sat up on a high bank overlooking the lake. My siblings and I would spend the next five summers exploring the outdoors there. As long as Mama had a general idea of where we were, we were allowed to be free range kids. We did a fair amount of canoeing, berry picking and hiking, but most of my free time in the out of doors was spent swimming and fishing off the dock in front of the lodge. We could swim or we could fish, but never at the same time. I now realize that Mama didn’t want to be digging fishhooks out of my younger brothers.

The lack of a vaccine to combat COVID-19 has left the battle against the pandemic to more direct human approaches -- the most common of which is social distancing. But one Piscataquis County company is helping to fight that battle in situations where the six-foot separation between people isn’t possible. JSI Store Fixtures in Milo has been among the nation’s leaders in producing transparent hygiene barriers that perhaps are best recognized as those plexiglass shields that have popped up at local grocery stores to separate the customers from the cashier.

Rita Page, secretary of the Kiwanis Club of Dover-Foxcroft, was overwhelmed when she learned that Shaw's in Dover-Foxcroft was going to donate several boxes with 500 new reusable bags to its backpack program. Pat Hinkley, president of the club, was on hand with Page to gratefully receive those bags from Tina Desimone, Shaw’s customer service manager. T

Any other spring, Lary Funeral Home would be busy organizing graveside services for people who died during the winter and couldn’t be buried in the frozen earth. Now, the dead rest in tombs, and mourning rituals have to wait as the pandemic upends life across Piscataquis County, which on Sunday became the last Maine county to confirm a case of the coronavirus.

The Maine Warden Service, working with the Maine Border Patrol, Maine Forest Service, West Forks Fire and Rescue, Upper Kennebec Ambulance and civilian volunteers, rescued an injured hiker who had to be Lifeflighted after he slipped and fell 30 feet down an embankment into Moxie Gorge on Monday.

President Donald Trump is reportedly planning to use a Korean War-era law to help a Piscataquis County company increase its production of the medical testing swabs that are necessary to confirm cases of the coronavirus. 

The SeDoMoCha School recently received a $7,350 grant from the Maine Community Foundation to rebuild a nature trail. In the 1970s Dorothy Warren built this trail for students to learn about nature.

When employees at Northern Light Health locations in the county arrived on Friday, April 17 they were greeted with signs featuring messages of encouragement amidst the coronavirus pandemic such as “heros work here” and “you are champions.” The healthcare workers soon learned the gratitude messages had been posted during the early morning hours by Makayla Goodrich, 12 of Monson.

Two local long-term care facilities now have the opportunity to connect residents and their families who have been restricted from visiting due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Thanks to a gift from The Commons, the Hibbard Skilled Nursing & Rehabilitation Center and Hilltop Manor have new iPad 4 tablets to help residents see and talk to family using Zoom or other technology platforms.

Piscataquis County may not be at the epicenter of Maine’s battle against the COVID-19  pandemic -- as of Sunday there is only one positive test among its 16,800 residents. That’s not to say the impact of the coronavirus stops at the county line, including the food insecurity that comes with rapidly expanding unemployment around the state.

More and more, the government’s nationwide COVID-19 mitigation measures are resembling a fictional nightmare from the pages of “1984,” George Orwell’s dystopian novel about oppressive government run amok.

All 16 of the state’s counties have confirmed cases with the first case confirmed in Piscataquis County on Sunday. It was last Maine county to report a case.