In addition to her role as SAD 4 Superintendent, Kelly MacFadyen may be returning to the Greenville-based Union 60 but in a different capacity than before. SAD 4 officials are considering a potential service agreement between the district and Union 60 for superintendent services and other functions in the 2020-21 academic year.

But the RSU 68 superintendent of schools was more than willing to relive that experience along with the teachers and staff at the SeDoMoCha School, who toured the district Wednesday, June 10 morning to see their students in person for the first time in nearly three months due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The new waste plant in Hampden has had to temporarily close this month as it struggles to pay its expenses and faces a new lawsuit from a contractor that alleges it’s owed at least $1.2 million for staffing and running the facility. 

Upcoming events around the region.

Among the honorees is Ethan Chadwick of Abbot, who is studying precision machining technology at Northern Maine Community College in Presque Isle. Chadwick is a 2019 graduate of Piscataquis Community High School.

All genealogists want to share research with future descendants. Will your descendants celebrate you or will you be cursed as the genealogical equivalent of Cinderella’s stepmother? In other words, just how helpful are you being to future researchers? Here are some questions to ask yourself.

While Naisbitt was startled to find the fawn lying so close to a well-traveled trail, her experience wasn’t that unusual. In Maine, people often stumble upon baby wildlife, especially in the spring and early summer. As a result, the Maine Warden Service and state biologists field a multitude of phone calls about wild animals that people worry have been abandoned or orphaned this time of year. And their message is always the same: If you care, leave it there. 

Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, this year the Dover-Foxcroft annual town meeting process will consist solely of a vote at the polls on Tuesday, July 14. In years past decisions on the municipal budget have been made with an in-person town meeting in the gymnasium at the Morton Avenue Municipal Building, with items approved that day then moved to referendum for final approval.

An area Grange member who has been dedicated to the organization at the local and state levels, served the region in the Maine Legislature and in local government and has given back to the community in many other ways was honored by Piscataquis Pomona -- the local Grange district -- on June 4. Jim Annis of Dover-Foxcroft received the Piscataquis Pomona Award for Public Service as part of the monthly Piscataquis Pomona gathering held at the Valley Grange.

This astonishing time in Maine’s history, left out of textbooks for nearly 100 years, will be explored by author Mark Alan Leslie as part of the Thompson Free Library’s Maine Bicentennial Speaker Series at 6 p.m. Thursday, June 18, live via Zoom.

While restaurants, shops and lodging establishments are already feeling the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, another sector of the tourism economy in Maine is bracing for a rocky summer. Normally, communities located along the famous Appalachian Trail welcome thousands of long-distance hikers every summer, offering shelter and supplies to those endeavoring to complete the famous 2,190-mile trail. But this year, everything has changed.

On Wednesday, June 17 at 1 p.m., the director of peer services at NAMI Maine Nicole Foster, JD, will relate the story surrounding her diagnoses of PTSD, major depression, and generalized anxiety disorder. Her message of hope will include the professional treatments that helped her and the daily coping mechanisms and protocols that she uses for continued healing. Her PTSD lived experience centers on serious accident, domestic violence, sexual assault and child abuse scenarios. 

“We just don’t know yet what the fall will bring, we need to be ready for remote learning or some kind of in-person learning if at all possible,” Superintendent Michael Wright said during a June 3 meeting conducted via Zoom. The Maine Department of Education is planning to release protocols for Maine districts prior to the start of classes around the state at the end of the summer.

Tom Coon, a dyed-in-the-wool outdoorsman from Medway, reveled in canoeing, fishing, fiddleheading and the quarter century he spent as a ranger on the Allagash Wilderness Waterway. And when the 63-year-old died May 31 of complications from COVID-19 at Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor, it was in a hospital room with a view of the Penobscot River down below. 

President Donald Trump spent only a few hours in Maine on Friday, but the visit told us a lot about how he views it in the national political landscape and in light of the biggest issues facing his presidency.

The anticipation that built all week in this quiet manufacturing town quickly dissipated Friday afternoon, June 5 after President Donald Trump’s motorcade passed through downtown, where hundreds of supporters and protesters lined up throughout the day.

President Donald Trump addressed a friendly crowd of around 200 at a Guilford manufacturer on Friday applauding workers for their efforts in producing swabs used in coronavirus testing in an address that often veered into a campaign speech.

The Maine Department of Education is happy to announce that the McKinney-Vento Subgrants: COVID-19 Emergency Mini Grants have been selected. Twenty-four districts applied for the funds for the 2020-21 academic year and all 24 requests are conditionally awarded, including the Dexter-based AOS 94.