A 2018-19 academic year budget totaling $7,087,042, which includes a local assessment of just over $4,180,000, was approved by the SAD 4 school board during an April 10 meeting at Piscataquis Community Elementary School. The directors also set the district budget meeting for 7 p.m. on Thursday, May 3 at PCES.

There’s a new store in downtown Greenville, right next door to The Crazy Moose on Pritham Avenue – Northern Maine Minerals. For those in the know, its former location was atop Indian Hill, across the street from the Trading Post.

Maine’s newest state troopers received their badges April 13 in ceremonies at the Maine Criminal Justice Academy. Among the five new state troopers is David Olmstead.

In keeping up with the changing educational world, Foxcroft Academy has big plans in the coming months regarding the science lab. A large scale renovation is planned for the third floor science center during the summer break. The overhauled lab will include new equipment and new workstations, all with science students’ needs and safety in mind.

The sun-drenched Florida Keys, with its cobalt skies, swaying palm fronds and gliding pelicans, got under my skin more than 40 years ago. As a Maine Naval Reservist, official orders sent me down there more than once for a two-week training tour at the Key West Naval Air Station.

For a decade the Valley Grange of Guilford has sponsored advertisements in the Piscataquis Observer’s annual Newspapers in Education supplement, which features business advertisement content created and drawn by school children from across the area. The advertisements for the Valley Grange have been drawn by students at the former Guilford Primary School and currently at Piscataquis Community Elementary School as again this year PCES third- and fourth-graders put their talents to work.

U.S. Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine and Angus King, I-Maine announced that Maine Superior Court Justice Lance Walker, a native of Piscataquis County, has been nominated by President Donald Trump to the U.S. District Court for the District of Maine.

A project to make the Penquis Valley School complex more energy-efficient will be heading to the voters of Atkinson, Brownville, LaGrange and Milo on Thursday, May 10. Eight days prior the public is invited to learn more at an information meeting scheduled for 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, May 2 in the Penquis Valley cafeteria. Both events were set by the SAD 41 school board during an April 4 meeting.

A look at the past four decades serving the region and a look to the future of helping the community were both features of the 40th anniversary celebration for Mayo Regional Hospital on the afternoon of Monday, April 9 in the Resource Center.

The current figures have the 2018-19 RSU budget totaling $11,559,907 for the 2018-19 academic year, Superintendent Stacy Shorey said during an April 3 school board meeting at the Harland A. Ladd Municipal Building.

Bridges in Blanchard and Williamsburg townships are both set to be repaired later in the year as the bids were opened and approved by the Piscataquis County Commissioners during an April 3 meeting.

Well over a dozen students in the younger grades at Piscataquis Community Elementary School are now HEROs for their outstanding conduct during the month of March. The HERO honorees were recognized with the presentation of certificates during the school-wide morning meeting on April 6.

This year marks the 35th anniversary of Beyond A Century, a local family-owned business that sells vitamins, supplements and other health products, situated on the Lily Bay Road in Greenville.

Jacob Reed earned top honors at the annual SeDoMoCha Middle School Science Fair on April 5. Reed came in first for examining habitat influence on the behavior of the common shiner. Grade 7-8 students at the school in Dover-Foxcroft prepare their projects for an evening public exhibit.

What is it about a well-cast fly line that unfurls gently across a quiet trout pond or a roiling river? Done properly it is a graceful ballet. There is a rhythm that can mesmerize, not only the angler, but the onlooker as well. And when the softly whispering line finishes its ufurling roll, and the floating tippet dances the #16 parachute Adams upon the water like a descending butterfly, well, sir, that is the crescendo moment.

On April 5 U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine visited students elementary and middle school students at the SeDoMoCha School.

U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine announced the awarding of $10,836,220 in federal funds to replace the three bridges in what she called “the Penquis Region Rural Bridges Project” and on the morning of April 5 she had the opportunity to tour the Pleasant River Bridge on outer Pleasant Street with MDOT Commissioner David Bernhardt.

Sen. Paul Davis’, R-Sangerville bill to amend the penalties for hunting deer over bait survived a veto override by a vote of 33-0 in the Senate and 148-0 in the House.