With the first 2018-19 academic year budget meeting set for the end of the month, RSU 68 officials are awaiting financial figures from the Maine Department of Education.

Foxcroft Academy boys soccer and wrestling coach Luis Ayala, who teaches health and physical education at the secondary school, was recognized as the U.S. Cellular Most Valuable Coach on Jan. 4 during the 11th annual Under Armour All-American Game at Camping World Stadium in Orlando, Fla.

A missing Dover-Foxcroft man with dementia has been found safe, police said.

Sometimes my thought process runs like a pinball machine. A sight, a sound, a smell, triggers a thought. In an instant the thought takes off like a 1-1/16 inch, 2.8 ounce, case hardened carbon steel pinball, ricocheting around my brain, looking for stored information to help me make sense of that first thought.

The slate is clean as we start another year anew.

Santa Claus had some help this year from the staff at Piscataquis Community Elementary School in making sure about two dozen students received a needed item of winter clothing and had something fun for Christmas.

Does Maine's Legislature have a chronic glut of bills wasting time, money, and creativity, keeping elected officials from giving important issues the attention they deserve? Should Maine legislators reduce the number of bills they submit each legislative session?

Each year about this time, the Maine Warden Service urges us to use extreme caution before venturing out onto any ice that may be covering Maine’s waterways. This is timely advice. Two winters ago three night-time snowsledders all perished in one night on Rangeley Lake when they and their machines broke through thin ice.

Before athletes from around the world will be representing their countries in PyeongChang, South Korea for the 2018 Winter Olympics in February, students at Piscataquis Community Elementary School will be representing their county against schools from across Maine in the inaugural WinterKids Winter Games.

A month after meeting with representatives from RealTerm Energy -- which has contracted with about two dozen Maine communities and other towns across the U.S. and Canada -- the selectmen discussed having a proposed uniform plan for upgrading municipal street lights, during a Dec. 18 meeting.

In early February bids will be due for a pair of projects on the Piscataquis County campus. The first is for renovations to provide for more room at the district attorney’s office on the first floor of the courthouse and the second bid is for the construction of a roof enclosure over the exercise yard at the Piscataquis County Jail.

Winter days in Maine are sometimes black-and-white. My friend, Bill Kitchen, last week posted a photo view from his home porch of Bad Little Falls in Machias. You think you're seeing a black-and-white photo until you read Bill's photo caption. You are, in fact, looking at a full-color photo of the river moving almost without a ripple, between white, snow-covered banks and fir trees.

Moments before the Dec. 18 deadly Amtrak derailment, a Mainer on board noticed the train’s high speed. Cody Clark, a 28-year-old Dexter Regional High School graduate from Exeter, said he recalls thinking, “We’re going pretty fast. We’re going faster than all the cars on the highway.”

The tired old joke goes like this: “How can you tell the difference between a partridge and a grouse?” You know the answer, right? If it’s shot on the ground, it’s a partridge; if it is shot on the wing, it is a grouse.

The Forest Society of Maine Board of Directors named Karin Tilberg as the organization’s new executive director during the December board meeting. The Forest Society of Maine (FSM) is a land trust with a focus on conserving forest land throughout Maine’s North Woods.

On Dec. 2-3, as part of the annual Hometown Holidays Celebration, over two dozen decorated trees and accompanying goods were on display at the Mill Event Center. The trees served as more than decorations for the season, but a fundraiser hosted and sponsored by the SeDoMoCha Middle School Builders Club. Inspired by the Anah Temple Shriners’ Festival of Trees, Builders Club Adviser Heather Whitten said $10,490 was raised through the purchase of raffle tickets

At the November referendum, citizens narrowly approved a non-binding question asking “Are you in favor of of the town of Dexter opening public ways to the operation of All-Terrain Vehicles (ATVs)?” via a vote of 400 to 393. “I would like council to formulate a proposal at a future meeting to appoint a committee, really a task force,” Town Manager Jim Chandler said during a Dec. 14 meeting. He said the task force would be authorized by the council to conduct research and collect data to then bring back on what town roads may be opened up to ATVs to help community businesses and promote economic development.

The Moosehead Lake Region Economic Development Corp. (MLREDC) recently received three grant awards to assist efforts in leading the economic revitalization of the Moosehead Lake region.