A draft of the budget for the 2018-19 academic year is nearing completion, the RSU 68 school board heard during a March 6 meeting at the SeDoMoCha School.

Game wardens are investigating the death of a Greenville man found dead on Wednesday morning in Moosehead Lake.

U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, the chairman of the transportation appropriations subcommittee, announced that the Maine Department of Transportation (MDOT) will receive $10,836,220 to replace three bridges in Piscataquis and Penobscot counties that are either structurally deficient, in a fracture-critical state, or both. Among the three is the Pleasant River Bridge in Milo on outer Pleasant Street.

The Northern Forest Center, in partnership with the Moosehead Lake Brand Leadership Team (BLT), is offering matching grants of up $2,000 to support downtown façade improvements by Greenville businesses and business property owners.

The Kiwanis Club of Dover-Foxcroft is involved in a variety of projects that involve fundraising, community service, and assisting children locally and worldwide, and now the group is serving as the charter organization for Boy Scout Troop 61.

On Saturday, March 3 the Ponies outlasted 48 other Maine schools to win the state robotics championship at Biddeford High School. They partnered with MDI High School and Hampden Academy to win this years; competition. The all-day event saw middle and high schools from all over the state converge on southern Maine.

The new church, which has been under construction for nearly a year, was blessed and dedicated by Bishop Robert Deeley during a Mass celebrated on Sunday, March 4.

You should know at the outset that any new book that bills itself as a “fly-fishing novel” will get my attention. The River King, by Robert Romano Jr., is just such a book.

New technology (computers, internet) adds some amazing, convenient customer options for businesses and government agencies. The same technology, however, also adds to the most inconvenient, antagonistic business practices. I keep a mental list of my favorite and least-favorite business customer practices.

Five finalists, from a pool of 50 submissions, have been selected in a contest inviting Foxcroft Academy and SeDoMoCha Middle School to design a new patch for the Dover-Foxcroft Police Department. Each of the five students gave a short presentation on their design to the selectmen during the Feb. 26 meeting.

Towns have the ability to opt out of the retail aspect of recreational marijuana -- residents can still use recreational and medicinal marijuana within the law -- but questions pertaining to unorganized territories remain.

Dover-Foxcroft Deputy Fire Chief Patrick “Rick” Pembroke, left, was presented with a plaque by Dover-Foxcroft Town Manager Jack Clukey of behalf of the community during a Feb. 26 selectmen’s meeting in recognition of Pembroke’s half century served as a firefighter.

Learning is a family affair for students in the pre-kindergarten morning and afternoon sessions at Piscataquis Community Elementary School. After the end of each of the half dozen units across the school year, parents/guardians are invited in to the classroom for a “Family Wrap Up.”

“There is a lot of talk recently about guns and mental illness. I don't know much about guns.., but I know…about mental illness.” So begins a 2/19/18 Facebook post by Randy Seaver, posted after a shooter killed high school students in Florida. Randy’s first Facebook about mental illness last year was autobiographical.

At its roots, pemmican is simply a ball of dried meat , powdered and mixed with fat. The word “pemmican” comes from the Cree Indian word “pimikan,” which translates to “manufactured grease.”

“The list was published late yesterday, there were three finalists and we were the third-ranked finalist,” SAD 46/AOS 94 Superintendent Kevin Jordan said on Feb. 15.

Students across the region will have opportunities to take part in new emergency medical technician (EMT) and multimedia videography programs at the Tri-County Technical Center (TCT) next year, with the programs being funded with state monies.

In September the Category 5 Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico. The recovery effort is continuing five months later and Piscataquis Community Elementary School grade 5-6 teacher Grace McGeehan will be spending a portion of her February vacation helping a school on the island in the Caribbean Sea.