The coronavirus pandemic and the related suspension of school sports this spring allowed Luis Ayala a rare respite to consider his big picture. The longtime Foxcroft Academy wrestling and soccer coach typically spent his offseasons coaching both sports at the middle-school and youth levels.

In recognition of Arbor Week in Maine from May 17-23, the town of Dover-Foxcroft maintenance department planted a maple tree at Kiwanis Park. This is the first of five new trees that will go in at Kiwanis Park to replace over 10 trees that were lost there during the April snowstorm.

Scheduled for the final day of school, Wednesday June 10 and starting at 1 p.m., the parade of vehicles will travel through the SAD 4 campus with appropriate waving, balloons, decorated vehicles, horn-blowing and yelling. Teachers and staff will line the edges of the driveway in what Boomsma hopes becomes a “huge event” that marks the official end of the school year and the start of summer.

Increasingly, turkey hunters I know are telling me that they are hanging up their turkey hunting gear. The reason: ticks. What a sad thing when all they need to do, to be safe, is to spray their hunting duds well with Permethrin, and remain vigilant. 

Maine's top election official is encouraging people to vote via absentee ballot during the July primary election to limit the exposure voters and polling workers have to the coronavirus. The state will still hold in-person balloting July 14 with new social distancing protocols, but it's easier -- and safer -- to vote via absentee ballot, Secretary of State Matt Dunlap said this week.

The Piscataquis County Soil and Water Conservation District (PCSWCD) is very excited to announce that it will be collaborating with Widdershins Farm LLC this summer. Widdershins is a local farm in Dover-Foxcroft offering a wide variety of services and products and includes a creamery and farm store that is open seven days a week. The farm specializes in sustainable agriculture and caring for their livestock in the most natural way possible

The Center Theatre announced that its community theater group, the Slightly Off-Center Players, will be holding open auditions for their summer production of “Born in a Small Town,” a new play written and directed by Bobby Keniston. The auditions, which will take place on June 13-14 from 1-4 p.m. at the Center Theatre, 20 East Main Street.

For more than two months, the staff of Maine’s two largest hospital systems have been making decisions about COVID-19 testing in an environment of near-constant uncertainty. 

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the previously scheduled Relay For Life live events across Massachusetts, Maine and New Hampshire through June have suspended their live events, and many now are participating on Sunday, June 7 in a virtual online experience called Hope From Home. Participants should register for their local event at http://RelayForLife.org and then on June 7 join the activities at https://bit.ly/RelayHopeFromHome.

After two months of being unable to hold live support group meetings because of the COVID-19 distancing policies, NAMI Piscataquis County will reconvene via Zoom on the first Wednesday of each month at 1 p.m.

Memorial Day Weekend marks the beginning of the boating season in Maine for many, and the Maine Warden Service is urging all boaters to wear your life jacket, boat safely and maintain proper social distancing while out on the water.

Two prisoners with medical conditions that make them vulnerable to the coronavirus are suing Maine’s Department of Corrections for not granting them furlough or providing them with the means to protect themselves during the pandemic, actions they say violate their constitutional rights and federal disability laws.

Therefore, we found it fitting and proper to remember. On behalf of Post #29 Chadbourne-Merrill American Legion we would like to offer a few words of remembrance in honor of those who have loved so deeply as to give their all for the cause of freedom and everything it entails. At this important and solemn time, we remember the hard-earned liberty gained through the sacrifice of so many on our behalf, a grateful nation.

The state's wildlife biologists have proposed a 61.2 percent increase in the number of any-deer permits allotted this year. If the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife's advisory council approves the plan, 109,890 hunters will be allowed to shoot deer without antlers during the firearms hunting season.

Among the 2020 grantees is the Piscataquis Regional Food Center of Dover-Foxcroft to develop a strategic plan for acquiring specialized commercial food processing equipment as part of a program to incubate regional food product businesses

For years, the world’s two largest producers of medical testing swabs -- one based in rural Maine, the other in the foothills of the Italian Alps -- have waged a series of transatlantic legal battles. But for now, both companies seem to be temporarily laying down their arms so they can focus on a much greater challenge: scaling up their production to meet the new demands of the coronavirus pandemic. 

Renovations and recruiting have now begun for the Somerset County expansion of a Guilford company that makes the nasal swabs that are critically necessary to test patients for the coronavirus. Beginning in early July, Puritan Medical Products expects to start churning out the foam swabs from its new Pittsfield factory overlooking the Sebasticook River. 

In Piscataquis County, one of the poorest in Maine, food is flying off the shelves of the Dover-Foxcroft Area Food Cupboard. On a recent day, cars started arriving an hour ahead of the scheduled grocery pickup. By 10 a.m., the line stretched down a long driveway and onto the street.