Matthew Spooner has been hired as the director of operations for the soon to be completed Piscataquis County Ice Arena (PICA). He will start the new position July 1 as the arena is on target to open in September.

Ah … spring – that elusive season is finally here, a time when thoughts turn to playing outside on green grass. And there’s nothing like a good round of golf to have some fun and exercise with friends or family. The Squaw Mountain Village Golf Course on Route 15 just north of Greenville Junction is open for the season and under new management.

“Did the last bear referendum affect you in any way personally?” she asked. That question was unexpected. It caught me off guard. A good question, though. It took me back in time to the highly-charged bear referendum, when Maine voters decided the fate of recreational bear hunting as we know it.

The Center Coffee House held its fifth annual Jacked Up 5K on the morning of Saturday, June 1 along 3.1 miles of River and Essex streets and the Vaughn Road. through town.

Penquis Valley High School senior Cymeria Robshaw won the triple jump for the second year in a row and she came in second in both the 100-meter dash and long jump at the 2019 Class C Outdoor Track & Field Championship on June 1 at Mt. Blue High School.

Tennis teams from Dexter, Foxcroft and PCHS took part in the postseason.

Saturday, May 25 was the first day this year that the temperature exceeded 70 degrees at Chesuncook Lake. The lake was flat calm in the morning and there was just a whiff of a breeze in the afternoon. The sun was reflecting brightly off the cool glassy lake surface. If you weren’t paying attention, you ended up with a nice spring sunburn. The flying ants and other insects were stretching their wings and shrugging off Maine’s lethargic start to spring.

U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine recently attended the Maine Sports Hall of Fame VIP reception, where she met with this year’s recipients of the 2019 Maine Sports Hall of Fame Scholar-Athlete Awards. The six students were presented with $5,000 scholarships during the 44th annual awards ceremony on May 19 at Merrill Auditorium.

Golfing season is here. Gordon Contracting and Pine Tree Hospice bring you this year’s big fundraiser at Foxcroft Golf Club on Saturday, June 15. This fun event has been a huge success for years – it’s a favorite of so many people who look forward to it.

It was mid-November in the Big Deer Woods. A northeast wind was rocking the hemlock tops and pushing a cold, pelting rain that seemed to penetrate the slicker beneath my wool hunting shirt. The damp, raw day was in my pores. Noon or not, it was time to call it a day.

Three athletes from the area earned first-place honors at the 2019 Penobscot Valley Conference Outdoor Track & Field Frosh Championships on May 28 at Hampden Academy.

Penquis Valley High School senior Cymeria Robshaw won the 100-meter dash and triple jump and she finished as the long jump runner-up during the 2019 Penobscot Valley Conference Small School Outdoor Track & Field Championship on May 24 at Bucksport High School.

Piscataquis Community High School senior Eben Cooley and Foxcroft Academy junior Olivia Wesley took part in the 2019 MPA state tennis singles tourney, which began on May 24 at Apex Racket and Fitness. The pair earned bids to the tournament by winning qualifying matches, which put them in the top 48 boys and girls tennis players across all three classes of high school tennis.

Athletes from area high schools took part in the Penobscot Valley Conference junior varsity outdoor track and field championships on May 22 at the Brewer Community School.

Annie Raynes of SeDoMoCha Middle School won the grade 7-8 800. Raynes covered the two laps around the track in a time of 2 minutes, 42.25, narrowly edging the 2:42.66 for Isabelle Fox of the William S. Cohen School in Bangor.

Anglers who fish in Maine now have a new tool that makes it quick and easy to find out the fishing regulations on any of the state’s inland waters. The Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife has created Maine’s Fishing Laws Online Angling Tool (FLOAT), an online map-based tool that can be accessed from your computer or your smartphone, giving you access to fishing regulations for all your favorite fishing waters.

Baserunners were few and far between for John Bapst Memorial High School of Bangor during a May 21 Class B North softball game at Foxcroft Academy. The Ponies allowed just five players to get on base, with two coming on dropped third strikes and only two of the five getting into scoring position, in seven innings. Senior Makenzie Beaudry tossed a 1-hitter with zero walks and 15 strikeouts. The shutout is the team’s sixth in 13 games.

On Saturday, May 18 the Foxcroft boys placed fifth of six teams at Old Town High School with a score of 57 points.