If you are living alone as a person 60-plus years of age or as an adult with a disability, you may feel vulnerable or frightened from time to time. Family members, whether they are siblings or adult children, are increasingly busy as they scramble to make a living and raise their children. Adult children move far away for new, life opportunities, leaving parents and siblings behind by themselves. Individuals are often completely alone.

After 24 years in Sangerville’s Town Office, Town Clerk Alvina Church will retire at the end of October. To recognize Church’s many years of service and dedication Town Manager Lois Jones announced plans for a drop-in retirement party for Church at the Sangerville Fire Station from 4-7 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 25.

A Baileyville man was sentenced Monday, Sept. 24 at the Piscataquis Judicial Center in Dover-Foxcroft to seven years in prison with all but three suspended on a series of charges stemming from a January domestic violence assault.

An activity that began in high school has now grown into a large component of a business owned by 23-year-old Courtney Nichole Gay with her Courtney Nichole Salon & Photo Studio at the Millworks complex in the renovated woolen mill building in downtown Dexter.

Trisha Moulton's grade 8 science classes at Piscataquis Community Middle School hiked to the Piscataquis River on Sept. 12 to complete a water quality bioassessment to study whether the river was healthy or not.

The good people of Greenville have always banded together for a community cause and as September comes to a close the activities downtown have picked up in the spirit of cooperation for the common good. You may have noticed a lot of people down on the boardwalk near the Steamship Katahdin hammering and sawing away as they replace boards in the walkway.

Although crossbows have never held a lot of appeal for me, I have hunted with a borrowed crossbow in the deer-rich state of Maryland. For me it just seems awkward to carry while still hunting, and it doesn’t have the visual appeal of conventional longbows, recurves or compound bows. As a hunting device it is accurate and lethal and, in the eyes of the law and the hardcore bowhunters, neither fish nor fowl. The Maine Warden Service considers the crossbow not to be a firearm. The Maine Bowhunters Association (MBA) could never warm up to the medieval contraption, deeming it not a true bow.

Ernie Fitch and Arnold Nash grew up together. They met in grade school in Ellsworth and became friends. Many times during their early years, Nash would have dinner or stay overnight with the Fitch family, Fitch said.

The Coast Guard Foundation, a non-profit organization committed to the education and welfare of all Coast Guard members and their families, announced that it has awarded a record-breaking 177 new scholarships in 2018 for a combined $500,000 in support. Among the award recipients is Clayton Carroll, son of Senior Chief Petty Officer Daniel Carroll, of Sebec. The younger Carroll is a student at Maine Maritime Academy and he is a Foxcroft Academy graduate.

Partners for Peace, the domestic violence resource center serving Piscataquis and Penobscot counties, will be observing Domestic Violence Awareness Month with three End Domestic Violence Days across the two county region in October, including from 2-6 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 2 in Dover-Foxcroft.

Earlier in the month the Piscataquis County Commissioners asked County Manager Tom Lizotte to collect proposals to fund an upgrade to the radio system for the Piscataquis County Sheriff’s to replace antiquated dispatch equipment with components dating to the 1980s. During a Sept. 18 meeting the commissioners approved a lease purchase proposal from Gorham Savings Bank for a total of a little more than $127,000 to be paid over five years.

Arnold Nash, a convicted murderer who escaped from Mountain View Correctional Facility in Charleston last week, has been captured.

A 52-year-old East Millinocket woman was found safe several hours after she was reported missing. On the afternoon of Monday, Sept. 17 Maine game wardens located Nancy Michaud with her 2012 Nissan Sentra stuck along a remote dirt road near Hurd Pond approximately 40 miles northwest of Baxter State Park in northern Piscataquis County.

In partnership with the United Way of Northeastern Maine, Helping Hands with Heart (HHH) has received one of six Early Childhood Community Planning Grants in the amount of $25,000 from The Maine Community Foundation. These funds will support a rigorous study of the region’s age 0-5 population, map community resources, identify barriers to early childhood education and develop local solutions intended to help communities ensure their youngest children are ready to learn and thrive when they begin school.

Betty Van Dyke of Guilford was recently notified that a soon to be released book is dedicated to her. Walter Boomsma, program director of Valley Grange in Guilford and the Maine State Grange communications director, has authored the book, "Exploring Traditions--Celebrating the Grange Way of Life." He dedicated the book to Van Dyke, calling her a "Granger Extraordinaire" and explaining the great influence she had during his "formative years" as a Grange member.

As you drive north to Greenville, not long before you get to Indian Hill, you may have noticed a place on your right, with tidy freshly painted brown buildings and wood stacked in a style reminiscent of the artist Monet’s impressionist haystack paintings. This is The Farm at Moosehead, and as their Facebook page states, they are “a working homestead farm with naturally grown produce, eggs and pastured poultry sold in their Farm Store.”

Most big game hunters are mindful of the fact that there is an ethic associated with the kind of shots taken in the harvesting of wild animals.

The town council passed an emergency moratorium ordinance regarding medical retail marijuana during a Sept. 13 meeting. The moratorium ordinance will be in effect for 60 days through Nov. 12 -- residents can still use medicinal and recreational marijuana within the law -- as the document covers the location, operation, permitting, approval or licensing of any medical marijuana retail stores, registered dispensaries, testing facilities and manufacturing facilities in Dexter.