Whether you are a Maine resident or a regular visitor, you know that you can count on one thing: Maine is a special place this time of the year. Once most of the bugs have gone by and the weather systems settle down, Maine really shines!

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.

A decision on the 2017 tax commitment was not finalized during a June 27 selectmen’s meeting, as instead the mill rate could be set during a potential meeting on Tuesday, July 18.

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.

The fourth annual event is set for Saturday, July 8 with a pre-hike ceremony for the “Miles for Memories Hike” and American Legion Post 116 barbecue, 50/50 raffle and door prizes to start around noon. For more information, please see the Wilderness Walk for Warriors Facebook page.

It's always a foreboding place, Maine State Prison (MSP) in Warren. Former MSP Warden Rod Bouffard described Maine's maximum security prison as home to 900 of Maine's most dangerous people. I suppose not much can be done to make this facility, surrounded by chain-link fence laced with razor wire, look more homey.

Maine Department of Labor (MDOL) is collaborating with the Maine Department of Education (DOE) for the 2017 Maine Hire-A-Vet campaign to offer free training for veterans interested in becoming a school bus driver.

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.

A Hex, or if your Latin is good, a Hexagenia limbata, is a bomber-size Mayfly that shows up on Maine trout ponds in mid-summer, usually early July. For a trout, they are a turkey dinner with all the fixin's - a chance to get the most amount of food for the least amount of effort.

DOVER-FOXCROFT -- After a change in contractors was made earlier in the month due to health reasons, prep and ditching work is being done to get a 1.8-mile stretch of the Elliottsville Road in the township of the same name ready for scheduled paving next month.

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.

The Maine Forest Service is cautioning towns and residents against using third-party, non-sanctioned online burn permit systems after at least two fires occurred this spring. The fires likely would not have resulted if the officially sanctioned state online burn permit system had been used instead of that of a third party.

Monday I was running errands, getting ready for a business trip to Hancock and Washington counties. I filled my car gas tank, deposited a check at the bank. The last item on my list? Haircut.

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.

On June 15 the Piscataquis County Soil and Water Conservation District (PCSWCD) presented Heather Doherty with its 2017 Outstanding Conservation Educator of the Year honor at a Piscataquis Community Secondary School awards ceremony.

This is the time of year when Maine’s whitetail deer population begins to recover from a long hard winter. After surviving on reserve fats, twigs and lichen, and whatever else they can find in their wintering areas, the spring “greenup” is the deer’s salvation.

DEXTER — Sixteen years after Dexter Shoe Co.