The Grand — a cornerstone of culture in Ellsworth and Hancock County, will be losing its executive director come July. Zoe Scott, who has achieved so much for the 75-year-old theater and its patrons, wants to try something else. Meanwhile, The Grand’s Board of Directors is looking to the future. Page 1.

State government giveth, state government taketh away. Ideally, the giveth and taketh come out eveneth. Not happening. School boards find they’re paying more and getting less support from Augusta. Page 1.

On a brighter note, about two dozen good souls got together Saturday morning at St. Andrew Lutheran Church in Hancock to pack nutritious, ready-to-boil meals for the needy of Hancock and Washington counties. It was quite the cool assembly line and we have the video to prove it. Page 1.

On a sorry note, Orland’s Victory Grange, nationally known as the little Grange that could, no longer can. The last few remaining members have voted to dissolve the 93-year-old organization. Page 1.

All this plus high school track, baseball and sailing; a brilliant feature story about foraging for food; a cute prom picture; annual town meeting reports from Hancock and Otis; cops and courts; and a story that asks the musical question: Is natural gas the answer for Ellsworth?

All in The American ... The Ellsworth American ... serving the community since 1851, the year the Dole Food Co. got started, more or less. Dole traces its origin to the 1851 establishment of Castle & Cooke by a pair of missionaries whose last names were, get ready, Castle and Cooke. Their company became one of the largest in Hawaii, investing in shipping, railroad construction, sugar production and seafood packing. The other half of Dole's corporate heritage, the Hawaiian Pineapple Co., was founded in 1901 by James Dole, who opened his first pineapple plantation on the Hawaiian island of Oahu. In 1932, Castle & Cooke purchased a 21 percent interest in the Hawaiian Pineapple Co. In the 1960s, Castle & Cooke acquired the remainder of the Hawaiian Pineapple Co. and the Standard Fruit Co. and renamed the company the Dole Food Co. in 1991. Castle & Cook also owned Bumble Bee Foods from 1961 until the 1980s.