Before adjourning on Tuesday because of the coronavirus, the Maine Legislature passed a package of bills letting municipalities and schools operate on current budgets through January and giving Gov. Janet Mills wide authority over the June primaries.

Maine Gov. Janet Mills declared a civil emergency on Sunday as the state announced seven confirmed positive tests of the coronavirus with another five likely cases over four days, including a couple that lives in a Falmouth retirement community.

Four of the region’s five school districts will be closed for the next two weeks in response to the coronavirus. The Dexter-based SAD 46 will be closed on Monday, March 16 and that evening the school board is set to meet to decide whether the district should join others in making a similar decision on a prolonged closure.

The woods and waters of what is now Piscataquis and Aroostook counties were largely uncharted territory for the people of European descent in Maine in the years prior to statehood in 1820.

Roughly half or more of all Maine adults -- particularly older and rural people -- are at risk of developing serious illnesses if they contract the new coronavirus, making the state’s older population one of the most vulnerable in the U.S. to the virus.

With the pending retirement of a Waterville hospital executive and the recent addition of a new hospital, Northern Light Health is shuffling around the leadership of its hospitals in central Maine and Piscataquis County.

The plan for Legislative District 119 includes work in seven of the district’s towns: Abbot, Greenville, Monson, Parkman, Sangerville, Sebec and Shirley. It includes 12 projects over the next three years, totaling over $12.88 million. Highlights include reconstruction of Route 6 in Abbot ($8,680,000) and work on Route 23 in Sangerville ($2,660,000).

The Clarks agreed to a $10,000 sale price with Friends of Community Fitness covering the $2,300 closing costs, allowing Friends of Community Fitness to officially become building owners as of Nov. 22. The now permanent home was recognized with a “Keys to the Building Celebration” on the morning of Saturday, Feb. 29 with Piscataquis Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Denise Buzzelli presenting a symbolic oversized key.

Two organizations with a shared vision to meet the health care needs of the people of Piscataquis County have officially come together. Northern Light Health and Mayo Regional Hospital completed their merger agreement on Sunday, March 1. On Monday morning, Michelle Hood, president and CEO of Northern Light Health, joined with Marie Vienneau, president and CEO of the newly named Northern Light Mayo Hospital, for a press conference and celebration at  the hospital with employees.

When Maine achieved statehood in 1820, it was home to a number of wild creatures that are no longer seen in the region today. Wolves, caribou, panthers and rattlesnakes are among the animals found roaming the woods and waters of Maine 200 years ago. 

The U.S. Postal Service will celebrate Maine’s bicentennial with the issuance of a new Forever stamp and a dedication ceremony on the actual anniversary of Maine’s statehood, March 15.

Sen. Paul Davis, R-Sangerville and Rep. Paul Stearns, R-Guilford hosted Ben Beverly’s history class from Greenville High School at the Statehouse on Feb. 26.

A lawsuit seeking to block the merger of Mayo Regional Hospital with Northern Light Health is heading to court late next month after the Maine attorney general’s office and both health care organizations all filed motions seeking to dismiss the case.

An owner of the largest employer in Piscataquis County has sued his cousin and fellow co-owner over a deep disagreement about the direction of the manufacturing business that has been in their family for generations -- Hardwood Products Company LP of Guilford -- and that could be sold to a new owner depending on the outcome of the suit.

The Maine attorney general’s office has asked a federal judge to dismiss an ex-police officer’s lawsuit against the Penobscot County district attorney on the same grounds that an appeals court threw out a similar lawsuit in 1992 against the man who was then the county’s top prosecutor. 

On Nov. 22, something wonderful happened in Guilford. The former Guilford Primary School building, which had been on the market since the summer prior, was sold to its long-standing tenant Friends of Community Fitness (FoCF).

The typical snowmobilers were older than they used to be, but helped inject $606 million into Maine’s economy last winter, according to the first economic study of the state’s snowmobile industry in 22 years.

But it was an issue that continues to be central to the ongoing story of the United States -- the enslavement of kidnapped African people -- that is irrevocably tied to Maine’s independence, thanks to an 1820 federal agreement known as the Missouri Compromise.