Taking the forecast with a grain of salt

Kingfield voters back three projects

KINGFIELD — Residents agreed Thursday night to get information on banning plastic bags at stores, continue plans for a riverside park and consider rebuilding Tufts Pond Road. Kingfield Elementary School students asked selectmen at an earlier meeting to consider banning plastic bags, prompting selectmen to seek residents’ input. “I think it’s quite interesting that the […]

Mexico voters OK streetlight contract with CMP

MEXICO — Residents voted 6-0 Tuesday night to enter into a 15-year contract with Central Maine Power to switch hundreds of streetlights to LED fixtures. The work is expected to be completed by summer, allowing the town to save money on 317 energy-efficient lights it rents from the utility company. CMP will pay for the […]

Storm preparation in Livermore Falls

Oxford board approves cable TV contract

OXFORD — The Board of Selectmen unanimously agreed Thursday night to a contract with Charter Communications for cable television services. The previous agreement signed in 2001 expired in 2016. The 15-year contract requires Charter Communications, which operates under the brand of Spectrum, to extend cable service to areas with at least 20 residences per mile. […]

Budget talks to begin in Jay

JAY — Selectpersons have scheduled a workshop for next week to discuss a draft of the $5.36 million municipal budget for 2019-20. The workshop is set for 5 p.m. Tuesday at the Town Office. Once selectpersons finalize the proposed budget, residents are scheduled to vote on it April 23 at the annual town meeting at the Community […]

Former Freeport teacher expected to enter pleas on sex charges

AUBURN — A former Freeport teacher is expected to enter pleas later this month to charges he had a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old female student. Derek Michael Boyce, 37, was charged last year with 26 counts related to his alleged sexual assault of a student at Pine Tree Academy, a Seventh-day Adventist school in Freeport. […]

Earthquake recorded in Franklin County

PHILLIPS — Maine’s first big snowstorm of the year is still on the way, but the first earthquake of 2019 is in the books. The U.S. Geological Survey reported that an area in northern Franklin County experienced a magnitude 2.3 quake Wednesday afternoon. That’s tiny by earthquake standards — experts say quakes of that magnitude are […]

Maine DEA introduces phone app to leave anonymous drug tips

The Maine Drug Enforcement agency on Thursday introduced a phone app it says will make it easier for people to report suspected drug activity. The app, created by developer tip411, will also allow MDEA agents to interact with those posting tips. “The new Maine DEA app enables the public to share an anonymous tip with […]

Author Paul Doiron makes his Maine stories ‘authentic’

LEWISTON — Author Paul Doiron likes to think of his crime novels as entertainment, first and foremost. They are fiction, after all. But at a deeper level, he told a Lewiston audience Thursday, his books attempt to lay out an “authentic” Maine, with uniquely Maine settings and problems. The opioid crisis, economic inequality and the […]