John O’Leary, left, event coordinator for Wreaths Across America, joins Jameson School Principal Mike Flaherty at the Old Orchard Beach school on Tuesday during an assembly and reception for the organization. (JEFF LAGASSE/Journal Tribune)

SHAPLEIGH — Roger K. Williams spent 30 years developing a park-like retreat on 350 acres in this community. He maintained meticulous fields, dug ponds and built a gravel trail system through the property. And now Williams, a Sanford native who lives in Florida, has given the land to the Town of Shapleigh. Townspeople voted earlier […]

SACO — It was a scene that would have thawed the stodgiest Scrooge’s heart. Dozens gathered before the Saco Museum on Friday night, waiting for the doors to open on the seventh annual Festival of Trees, a fundraiser for the museum and Dyer Library that moonlights as a showcase for Christmas-turned-art: Scores of trees and […]

Lila Musgrave looks up in awe at one of the many opulent Christmas trees on display at the Saco Museum, which held an opening reception Friday night to kick off the seventh annual Festival of Trees, continuing through the end of December. (Jeff Lagasse/Journal Tribune)

Aron Semle of Buxton looks through the scope of his rifle on his family’s hunting spot in Hollis on Monday. Semle, an avid outdoorsman, has been communicating with members of the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife’s Nonresident Hunter Task Force, which has been brainstorming ways to bring in more out-of-state hunters to Maine. […]

SACO — The state needs to have a regulatory framework for casinos, said State Rep. Linda Valentino, so she has proposed legislation that would create such a framework. Earlier this month, residents of Maine rejected a ballot question that would have allowed racinos in Biddeford and Washington County and another ballot question that would have […]

Aron Semle goes hunting for the memories. The Buxton resident, who hunts on his parents’ property in Hollis, recalls the beginning of this autumn’s hunting season, when one of his frequent forays into the untouched Maine wilderness provided him an almost Zen-like moment of tranquility: Perched high up in a tree, rifle in hand, Semle […]

SANFORD — There were about 800 feet of fence boards to install, but the enormity of the task didn’t seem to be a problem for members of Curtis Lake Christian Church. Under fair skies and warm temperatures Sunday, about a dozen or more church members carried the painted boards to the framework at Goodall Park […]

Alec Roy and Matt Leach of Curtis Lake Christian Church nail in a fence board at Goodall Park in Sanford on Sunday. Church members joined other volunteers in sprucing up the ballpark in preparation for its 100th anniversary in 2015. (TAMMY WELLS/Journal Tribune)

Maine Drug Enforcement agents and Sanford Police arrested Justin MacLean, left, and Jason Nolan, right, and allegedly seized about $15,000 worth of cocaine after a search of MacLean’s car Monday. The two Sanford men are being held at York County Jail. (SUBMITTED PHOTO)