A little more than a month after the first version of the 2017-18 SAD 41 budget was voted down -- by a combined total of 270 to 68 across the district communities of Atkinson, Brownville, Milo, and LaGrange -- a revised spending plan will be brought to voters at a district budget meeting on Wednesday, Aug. 2 at the Penquis Valley School.

Secretary of State Matt Dunlap says he’s refusing a second request by the Trump administration’s election fraud commission to turn over Maine voters’ personal information.

When I first met the slender, dark-haired nursing home resident I was the home's 19-year-old dishwasher. The nursing home owner was showing me around. We stepped into a room where, to my right, the slender woman, in her mid-fifties, confined to an adult high chair, was eating food from a tray. She and I looked at each other while the owner said we were in a part of the home for residents, like this woman, who can neither speak, nor write.

Question: What’s more exciting than winning a million dollars in Powerball? Answer: Winning a moose hunting permit in the Maine Moose Lottery.

Children in SAD 41 are able to eat breakfast and lunch every weekday when school is in session. In the summer months food insecurity can be more of an issue, but thanks to a collaborative effort between several organizations and volunteers anyone under age 18 can receive a free bag lunch five days a week from 11 to 11:30 a.m. through the summer meals program located at the Derby Community Center.

This year’s Dover-Foxcroft Shiretown Homecoming celebration on Saturday, Aug. 5 will mark 95 years since the communities of Dover and Foxcroft joined together to become one town. To recognize the 95th anniversary weekend theme, residents who have reached their 90th birthday are invited to watch the Homecoming parade from a special viewing area in front of Central Hall.

Acting on authorization from Congress, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) recently hired four private debt collection agencies to pursue overdue federal taxes. Unfortunately, this new activity has prompted some scammers to contact taxpayers, including Maine residents, pretending to be collectors working on behalf of the IRS, and demanding immediate payment.

After tabling a decision at their regular meeting on the first Tuesday evening of the month, the selectmen set the 2017 tax commitment during a July 18 session. The 2017 mill rate -- in Milo the town’s fiscal year follows the calendar year from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31 -- will be $31.25 per $1,000 in assessed property, a decrease of 25 cents from the 2016 rate of $31.50.

"Has anyone signed up for Informed Delivery?" I asked the postmaster in our small, rural post office. I read the U.S. Post Office Welcome to Informed Delivery brochure, but still couldn't figure out why I would want the post office to email me photocopies of the mail arriving in my mailbox each day. What's the advantage? My mail is delivered daily to my mail box anyway.

For Maine deer hunters who plan ahead, this is the time of year to submit your applications for the annual drawing of any-deer (doe) permits. Statewide this year, the Department of Fish and Wildlife will issue about 66,000 any-deer permits. This is 20,000 more doe permits than were issued in 2016 – a 45 percent increase.

Shortly before 2 a.m. on Wednesday, July 19 the Dover-Foxcroft Police Department along with the Piscataquis County Sheriff’s Office were called to the scene of a rollover crash that occurred on the Bangor Road just north of the South Dover Cemetery. Officers arrived and found there was a crash that had struck a parked vehicle which careened into the front porch of a home at 1282 Bangor Road in Dover-Foxcroft.

Residents and visitors to town had the opportunity to learn more about the project from Libra Foundation Chairman and CEO Craig Denekas, who spoke at the Monson Historical Society on July 15 during the annual Monson Summerfest.

As part of the newly-approved state budget SAD 41 will be receiving approximately $263,000 more in state subsidy for 2017-18 and during a July 12 meeting the school board made a motion to use all these funds to reduce the assessment for the four district towns in the next version of the spending plan to be brought forward later in the summer.

The town council gave its unanimous approval to a net municipal budget of $4,515,292 for the 2017-18 fiscal year during a July 13 meeting. This figure represents an increase of a little more than $129,000 from the previous year.

The selectmen set the tax committment for the 2017-18 fiscal year during a July 10 meeting, with the mill rate rising 65 cents from the year before to a rate of $20.90 per $1,000 in assessed property.

The Libra Foundation recently purchased the former Brothers Chevrolet-Buick site on West Main Street in Dover-Foxcroft with plans to convert the building into an all-season indoor recreation facility with artificial turf. It will add an indoor ice rink and a connecting building that would include locker rooms and spectator space and serve as the primary entrance.

Sometimes, not often enough, I remember to ask professional and semi-professional musicians why they play their respective musical instruments.

In 2009, the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, in conjunction with the Maine Professional Guides Association ( MPGA), did a wonderful thing. They created the Wiggie Robinson Legendary Guide Award. As was fitting, Robinson was the first (posthumous) recipient of his namesake award.