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.

Piscataquis County Democrats gathered to prepare for the upcoming March 8 caucuses on Jan. 18 at party headquarters on North Street. April Thibodeau from the Maine Democratic Party provided training to conveners from virtually every town in the county.

Mayo Regional Hospital has announced a “Ski Day” for its employees and families in February. The first 100 employees to register are able to ski for free. Officials at the hospital say that this is to encourage employee wellness while calling attention to American Heart Month, which is recognized throughout February.

On Monday, Jan. 27, Brownville Elementary held a Winter Carnival as part of the last week of activities for the WinterKids Winter Games competition.

Shortly before noon on Saturday, Jan. 25 a snowmobile collided with a sled dog musher just north of Brownville Junction. The musher was taking part in a sled dog race that shared part of its route with snowmobile trail ITS 110.

Everybody, and everything, loves a smelt. The sleek, silver fish -- officially known as a “rainbow smelt” -- is prevalent in many lakes and ponds, and is the preferred food of landlocked salmon and other larger fish. In streams, they might be gobbled up by opportunistic mammals or birds. And humans? Well, if we’re not using them as bait to catch other fish, we eat ‘em, too.

The Maine Highlands Sled Dog Club will host a two-day sled dog race on Saturday, Jan. 25 and Sunday, Jan. 26 as part of Brownville’s annual 11th Dog Days of Winter celebration. Teams will leave Railroad Avenue in Brownville Junction at 10 a.m. both Saturday and Sunday, travel up to the KI Road along the converted rail bed and then return along the same trail.

State regulators have cleared the way for Mayo Regional Hospital in Dover-Foxcroft to join Northern Light Health, the Brewer-based health system that includes nine other hospitals stretching from Portland to Presque Isle.

Maine’s ATV task force, created by Gov. Janet Mills to address opportunities and issues associated with increasing ATV registrations, submitted a report and recommendations to the governor, which include limits on ATV sizes and weights and recognizes the importance of private landowners who allow public use of their land.

Gov. Janet Mills allowed the passage of Rep. Norman Higgins’, I-Dover Foxcroft bill to create a comprehensive career & technical education system to examine a comprehensive 4-year high school career & technical education program.

The Maine Department of Transportation released a three-year road and bridge funding plan on Tuesday, Jan. 14 that will use more money to fund fewer projects, a symptom of rising construction costs and chronic underfunding of the state system.

On Jan. 8 Penquis Valley High School junior Joslyn Black, 16, received an invitation in the mail from the education organization Envision. This group provides summer learning programs to students from elementary through high school. Black’s invitation is to the Stanford Law School outside of San Francisco, California to learn and engage in a 10-day intensive law and trial program.

Amid all the wild words and phrases that weather reporters bandy about during the winter -- polar vortex, bombogenesis -- there’s one panic-inducing term that dates back hundreds of years, predating modern-day snowmageddons: nor’easter.

Rep. Norman Higgins, I-Dover-Foxcroft announces his candidacy for a fourth term in the Maine Legislature.

I recently received two emails from readers looking for great places to snowshoe in Maine. They were looking for trail suggestions, and boy did I have a lot to say. Too much to say, really. So I decided to write a whole advice column on the topic.

The details, including where the necessary funding would come from, are still all to be determined but officials in SAD 41 are considering creating a resource officer position to work across the three district schools. The possibility was a topic of discussion during a Jan. 8 school board meeting at the Penquis Valley School.

Students from the Brownville Elementary School are participating in the WinterKids Winter Games in January. Students compete in a four-week series of outdoor physical activity and nutrition challenges designed to help them be active in the winter and learn healthy habits.  Each school is encouraged to involve volunteers, parents, healthy eating and active living organizations in their community and hold a winter carnival to close out the month’s events.

Doug Thomas of Ripley has announced he is a Republican candidate for the Maine Senate District 4. Thomas is a successful small business owner and entrepreneur with customers across Central Maine. Thomas believes that the government of Maine needs to put the welfare of Maine people first.  There are a lot of problems around the country and around the world and it is not up to the people of Maine, with their hard-earned money, to pay for those problems through their tax dollars. We need to help our own people first.