Crime in Maine dropped for the seventh consecutive year in 2018, according to data from the Maine Department of Public Safety released Wednesday, but there were more assaults and homicides compared with 2017.

Ahead of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency’s National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day this Saturday, October 26, U.S. Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine and Angus King, I-Maine announced the locations of the Maine collection sites, the full list is at https://takebackday.dea.gov/. Area sites include the Dexter, Dover-Foxcroft, Greenville and Milo police departments and Piscataquis County sheriff’s office.

Maine Game Wardens rescued a group of capsized canoeists in high winds on Ripogenus Lake on Friday, October 18.

The man who was involved in a plane crash at Dexter Regional Airport on Wednesday died at Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center, according to hospital spokesman Bob Potts.

A small World War I-era replica plane crashed at the Dexter Municipal Airport late Wednesday morning after a breeze lifted the taxiing plane into the air with the pilot strapped inside.

A potential move of the patrol and investigation divisions of the Piscataquis County Sheriff’s Office from the former primary school building in Guilford across town to the C.H. Lightbody Medical Center on Park Street could be up in the air as the Piscataquis County Commissioners opted to table a decision on signing a lease with the town of Guilford during an Oct. 1 meeting. The commissioners were a bit unsure of signing a 3-year contract with another site in Guilford having recently come to their attention.

Thanks to Anheuser-Busch and the Maine-based Valley Beverage, the Milo Fire Department now has a pallet of emergency drinking water to support relief efforts and hydration. A pallet containing 98 cases of drinking water was dropped off at the station mid-morning on Thursday, Sept. 26.

With new legislation providing opportunities for municipal solar initiatives, such as federal tax credits and rebates, the Dover-Foxcroft selectmen approved the issuing of a request for qualifications for consulting services for such a project. During a Sept. 23 meeting the board opted to work with ReVision Energy to develop a solar plan.

Former Dover-Foxcroft Police Department Sgt. Todd Lyford, who now is chief deputy with the Piscataquis County Sheriff’s Office, has been awarded the Carnegie Medal from the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission in recognition of a July 2018 incident in which he risked his life to an extraordinary degree to save the life of another.

Maine’s highest peak in Baxter State Park is named for an Abenaki word meaning greatest or main mountain. The possibility of changing the official name of Mount Katahdin to Katahdin -- which would be made by the Maine Legislature -- was proposed by Baxter State Park Director Eben Sypitkowski to the Piscataquis County Commissioners. The commissioners made no formal motion, but expressed that they would not be in favor of such an adjustment during discussions as part of a Sept. 17 meeting.

A pair of extrication tools and a half dozen airbags for the Dover-Foxcroft Fire Department will expand the capabilities of firefighters responding to various accident calls, such as cutting through hard material and lifting heavy debris.

ixteen years ago, the last time a governor-initiated group attempted to better understand a growing ATV community in the state, the machines that riders were taking into the woods were small, light and mobile. That’s not the case anymore. And that’s why an ATV task force formed by Maine Gov. Janet Mills is tackling a new slate of ATV issues related to bigger, wider and heavier machines that have simply outgrown the existing ATV trail system.

Today, let’s take a deep breath, appreciate what we have, and reflect on how quickly everything could change. Perhaps we go out in the morning, walk into our back field for a bit of exercise, or to cut some wood, or to dig around for some gemstones that we know are waiting in that sandy pile of soil. And perhaps we never come back.

The Dover-Foxcroft Police Department is working with the Piscataquis County District Attorney’s Office to determine if charges will be filed in connection with the report of a man in a car pointing an assault rifle at a man Tuesday in the Dover-Foxcroft Shopping Plaza parking lot on West Main Street.

Last week the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife’s advisory council approved a rule that sounds ominous, but will actually change very little for the state’s anglers. Simply stated, in the state’s north zone, the general fishing law will ban the use of live fish as bait.

U.S. Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine and Angus King, I-Maine announced that the State of Maine, Penquis and Through These Doors received a total of $1,993,850 to help stop domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking and protect victims.

A Sangerville volunteer firefighter was killed when the trash truck he was driving went off Route 5 in the Oxford County town of Stoneham and struck a tree on the afternoon of Thursday, Aug. 22.

The Piscataquis County Commissioners authorized district attorney’s office staff to purchase a replacement vehicle for Investigator Scott Arno to use, during an Aug. 20 meeting.