With Piscataquis County government department heads making their initial requests for the 2018 budget -- the county fiscal year follows the calendar year -- the county commissioners are getting ready to put the budget advisory committee in place so the group can start its work in October.

Three girls will reign as Miss Maple in their respective age groups for the next year after being crowned during the third annual Miss Maple Pageant on the morning of Saturday, Aug. 26 at the 130th Piscataquis Valley Fair.

The Maine Highlands Senior Center, to be housed on the first floor of Central Hall on East Main Street, has received two grants.

Earlier in the summer the former Spruce Run-Womancare Alliance announced a name change to Partners for Peace. The organization, which provides support services to anyone affected by domestic abuse and violence in Piscataquis and Penobscot counties, celebrated its new identity with an open house and free barbecue at the 8 Mechanic Street resource center on Aug. 18

Throughout the year the Piscataquis County Democratic Committee is holding a series of non-partisan information forums on various issues facing the region. The most recent “Ensuring the Success of Our Youngest Mainers: A Conversation about Children and Families in Piscataquis County” during the afternoon of Aug. 2 at Mayo Regional Hospital examined related challenges such as poverty, food insecurity, and barriers in accessing care, and the discussion featured Maine Speaker of the House of Representatives Sara Gideon, D-Freeport.

The 2017 Dover-Foxcroft Shiretown Homecoming parade on Saturday, Aug. 5 celebrated the 95th anniversary of the union of the towns of Dover and Foxcroft and representing the municipal merger was engaged couple Kylie Sands and James Watson. The mid-morning procession was the first in town since 2014 and Homecoming organizers hope to now bring the parade back every five years.

With pre-kindergarten through grade 8 students at the SeDoMoCha School scheduled to have their first day of classes on Tuesday, Aug. 29, the RSU 68 board of directors had its last meeting of the summer on Aug. 1 to prepare for the 2017-18 academic year and learn more about the summer lunch program which is running through Friday, Aug. 18.

This year’s Dover-Foxcroft Shiretown Homecoming celebration on Saturday, Aug. 5 will mark 95 years since the communities of Dover and Foxcroft joined together to become one town. To recognize the 95th anniversary weekend theme, residents who have reached their 90th birthday are invited to watch the Homecoming parade from a special viewing area in front of Central Hall.

Shortly before 2 a.m. on Wednesday, July 19 the Dover-Foxcroft Police Department along with the Piscataquis County Sheriff’s Office were called to the scene of a rollover crash that occurred on the Bangor Road just north of the South Dover Cemetery. Officers arrived and found there was a crash that had struck a parked vehicle which careened into the front porch of a home at 1282 Bangor Road in Dover-Foxcroft.

The selectmen set the tax committment for the 2017-18 fiscal year during a July 10 meeting, with the mill rate rising 65 cents from the year before to a rate of $20.90 per $1,000 in assessed property.

The Libra Foundation recently purchased the former Brothers Chevrolet-Buick site on West Main Street in Dover-Foxcroft with plans to convert the building into an all-season indoor recreation facility with artificial turf. It will add an indoor ice rink and a connecting building that would include locker rooms and spectator space and serve as the primary entrance.

Fourth of July celebrated with Sebec Village Associates' annual day of events

How do you kick off your daughter's summer vacation? By taking them to visit our nation's capitol in Washington, D.C. Local Girl Scouts Troops 915 and 1503, each based in Dover-Foxcroft, had an amazing opportunity to travel to Washington D.C. from June 21-25.

With the previous five-year document having been in place since 2012, officials in RSU 68 are hoping to have a strategic plan for the next half decade enacted by September or October.

In recognition of being the eldest resident of Dover-Foxcroft, Martha Rollins -- who turned 98 a week before the ceremony -- was presented with the Boston Post Cane by the town and Dover-Foxcroft Historical Society on June 27 at the Morton Avenue Municipal Building.

The Center Theatre announced that over 7,000 people attended the 2017 Maine Whoopie Pie Festival on Saturday, June 24. The ninth annual festival brought bakers from around the state together with artists, crafters and vendors to celebrate the Whoopie Pie, Maine's Official State Treat.

A total of 118 jars, such as creamy and crunchy peanut butter and grape and strawberry jelly, were gathered in Dover-Foxcroft and these were given to several members of the Dover-Foxcroft Kiwanis Club on the morning of June 21.

A week after residents of the four RSU 68 communities approved a $10,817,189 budget for the 2017-18 academic year -- via a combined tally of 303 to 124 votes -- the school board took the next step and set the assessments for Charleston, Dover-Foxcroft, Monson and Sebec during a June 20 meeting at the SeDoMoCha School.