In September the Category 5 Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico. The recovery effort is continuing five months later and Piscataquis Community Elementary School grade 5-6 teacher Grace McGeehan will be spending a portion of her February vacation helping a school on the island in the Caribbean Sea.

Selectmen reviewed the the first draft of the 2018-19 municipal budget during a Feb. 12 meeting, with the amount to be raised up by $126,040 or 4.66 percent from the current figure of just under $2,718,000, which is part of the total $5,074,820 approved by residents at the town meeting referendum last June.

Month by month outstanding pupils in grades 5-8 at Piscataquis Community Elementary School are honored by being named Students of the Month. On the third Friday of the month the honorees are presented with certificates in front of their peers during the morning meeting.

At a Feb. 6 select meeting of the Milo selectmen, PCEDC Executive Director Chris Winstead said a year prior he met with the county commissioners and then the dozen-plus selectboards. “We worked our way to each of the communities asking if you would like to be part of a broadband initiative,” he said.

Last month Gov. Paul LePage’s administration unveiled a restructuring proposal to hand oversight of the state’s 15 county jails to a new state commission and potentially close five jails -- including Piscataquis County’s -- while regionalizing the system.

A month after passing a 60-day emergency moratorium ordinance regarding retail recreational marijuana, the town council passed another ordinance on the issue during the Feb. 8 meeting. The moratorium ordinance will be in effect for 180 days through Sept. 6 -- residents can still use recreational and medicinal marijuana within the law -- as the document covers all retail recreational marijuana activity and the location, operation or licensing of all such retail marijuana establishments and retail marijuana social clubs.

Over a dozen students in the younger grades at Piscataquis Community Elementary School are now HEROs for their outstanding conduct during the month of the January. The HERO honorees were recognized with certificates during the school-wide morning meeting on Feb. 2.

Fifth- and sixth-graders at Piscataquis Community Elementary School have been having science, technology, engineering, art and math lessons incorporated into the classroom, utilizing their newly-gained knowledge in a recent ecology unit.

Chocolate lovers will be able to satisfy their sweet tooths once again at the 14th annual Moosehead Lake Chocolate Festival from 1-4 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 18 at the Greenville Consolidated School on Pritham Avenue.

Since dropping the first two games of the season -- both dates happened to be away contests -- the Greenville High School boys basketball team has been on a roll with 12 straight wins. The Lakers increased the streak to a lucky 13 with a week left in the regular season after defeating Penquis Valley High School on the road 63-30 in an interclass matchup on Jan. 31.