FARMINGTON - Members of local organizations, business owners and residents met in Meetinghouse Park today, under threatening skies, as they looked toward the future of the greater Franklin County region.

FARMINGTON -The latest offering at Foster Technology Center is taking a cue from its subject material, and is starting with the seeds of a program.

FARMINGTON - More than seven months after a blaze closed much of the facility, displaced practices are set to reopen in the Franklin Health Medical Arts Center early next week.

JAY - A new plan to merge the Jay School Department and RSU 36 continues to develop, with planning committee members expecting to begin reviewing a first draft on Sept. 21.

A group of community members from the two districts have been working steadily for the past several months to develop a plan to create a single district to educate the children of Jay, Livermore and Livermore Falls. In addition to developing the core plan required by the state, subcommittees have been creating series of recommendations for the proposed Regional School Unit. Residents of all three towns will vote on the plan in January 2011 and, if approved, the new district would be officially created in July.

WILTON - Residents will be asked to allow the town to accept a $10,000 Community Development Block Grant grant at Tuesday’s special town meeting, for planning purposes in the downtown.

The special town meeting will be held on Sept. 7, at 7 p.m. at the the town office. The selectmen’s meeting will follow.

FARMINGTON - Good luck getting these students to turn it down.

The University of Maine at Farmington’s student station, WUMF, is getting a big hardware upgrade as it looks toward a future of increased interaction between station and students, using and competing against online markets and a rising number of listeners.

FARMINGTON - The Franklin County Sheriff’s Department celebrated 35 years of public service by one of the longest-standing members of the county’s law enforcement family.

Lt. Niles Yeaton was managing a store in Strong in the summer of 1976, when he and his wife decided to find something that would require a few less hours a week. Yeaton recalled considering a job with the county, just until something else “popped up.”

FARMINGTON - Mt. Blue Regional School District has named seven employees as its “Outstanding Employees” of the last school year, just as the 2010-2011 school year begins.

The employees are nominated by their peers, and awards are issued in seven categories; Outstanding District Employee, Classroom Teacher (K-6), Classroom Teacher (7-12), Outstanding Novice Award, MSAD 9 Service Award, Support Staff Member Award, and an award for Technology Integration.

FARMINGTON - Inside a school already marked by the signs of construction; mountains of earth, temporary parking lots, traffic cones and tape, the district thanked the donors that were making the ambitious project that much better.

FARMINGTON - Mary Batt has loved riding horses since she was 10 years old, and lived in Charlottesville, Virginia. Now she thinks they could help her reach out to her clients.

Batt is a licensed clinical social worker, who offers outpatient counseling services out of her Farmington office.