Greenville is gearing up for one of its most popular winter events on Sunday, Feb. 16 -- the annual Chocolate Festival. This year the festival, which was created 16 years ago by former Moosehead Chamber Executive Director Bob Hamer and his wife Susan as a fundraiser for the chamber, tips its hat to Maine’s 200th anniversary. 

The public is cordially invited to a concert of classical music performed by The Highlands Classical Chamber Ensemble at 3 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 23 in the Greenville High School auditorium, located at 130 Pritham Avenue. Solos, duos and ensemble works for violin, cello, piano, saxophone, flute and bassoon, will be presented, including works by Haydn, Brahms, Kodaly, Gershwin and Kalliwoda.

Anglers looking for a day of fun on a beautiful Maine lake may want to head to the Milo/Brownville area this weekend, as the venerable Schoodic Lake Ice Fishing Derby returns for its 58th edition.

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the lake trout population and what it took to get it under control. Of course, the main goal of thinning the small lake trout down was to improve growth for all our gamefish. Lake trout, salmon, and to a lesser extent, brook trout all feed on smelt. The small lake trout were so abundant that they were eating us out of house and home and all the gamefish suffered.

The Piscataquis County Economic Development Council (PCEDC) Executive Committee is pleased to announce the hiring of a new executive director, John Shea.

The Maine ATV Task Force, created last fall by Gov. Janet Mills, recently finished its work and sent recommendations to the governor’s desk.

All of our trails have been groomed before and after our eight inches of snow on Friday. We will be out again tonight after the weekend traffic and will get out during the week. We finally had enough snow to groom the rough three miles of CCC Road.

Long months spent harvesting lumber in the Maine woods could make anyone start to see things. At least, that seems to be what happened to many lumberjacks in the 19th and early 20th century in Maine and beyond -- when you’re living in an isolated lumber camp, you’ve got to keep yourself entertained with tall tales and fantastic stories.

The Omicron Chapter of DKG Society International, a group for women educators, met Feb. 1 at the SeDoMoCha School in Dover-Foxcroft. The guest speaker was Emily Poland RN, school nurse Consultant for the Maine Department of Education. Poland spoke about Project AWARE - Advancing Wellness and Resilience in Education

Earlier this week, Maine’s conservation agencies -- the Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry and the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, issued some safety tips that deserve a second look.

Throughout Maine, there are pockets of wilderness where nature is given free rein. The trees grow old and tall. The moss grows thick. And rare plants and animals find safe haven.

University of Maine Cooperative Extension will offer monthly community plant clinics at several locations in Piscataquis County beginning 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 28 at the UMaine Extension office, 165 East Main St.

I didn’t grow up ice fishing. I loved to play outside in the snow, and we neighborhood kids spent plenty of time outdoors, sliding down hills on our sleds until the sun set and we’d waddle on home. But ice fish? Nope. Didn’t catch that bug until my late 20s, when I met a man who introduced me to the sport and its customs.

Laura Feaga, a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner and a Piscataquis County native, has opened a new psychiatric practice in Dover-Foxcroft. Healing Partners Psychiatric Services, LLC, located in The Mill, provides psychiatric diagnosis, consultation, medication management and supportive therapy for clients by appointment.

The local board will be holding a meeting to discuss the operations and funding at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 11 at the Peakes House located next to the Piscataquis County Courthouse. 

There will be a fundraising spaghetti dinner from 4:30-6 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 22 at the Dexter American Legion Hall on Church St. The dinner is by donation and all the money will benefit the Dexter Regional High School wrestling team.

In 2018 a committee formed to create a play area for the younger students at Penquis Valley Middle School. The group was later given approval by the SAD 41 school board to pursue fundraising opportunities and work with volunteers on prepping a parcel of land behind the school that was first cleared two and a half decades ago by the Army Corps of Engineers. During a Feb. 5 school board meeting at the Penquis Valley School, the directors authorized the committee to apply for a grant from the Libra Foundation as well as the Maine Community Foundation.

On Saturday, Feb. 1 the Dover-Foxcroft Republican Committee held its biennial caucus. During the caucus, new municipal officers were elected and delegates to the Maine Republican Convention were selected. At the caucus, the committee also voted to make every registered Republican a member of the committee and elections were held for the executive committee.