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.

Thirteen-year-old Nathaniel, left, and Brody -- who celebrated his ninth birthday on Sunday, Feb. 18 -- Lovejoy from Williamsburg each had two successful days of fishing during the 56th annual Schoodic Lake Ice Fishing Derby on Saturday and Sunday.

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.

But on Sunday, March 4, the parish community will gather together on the same patch of land on Pritham Avenue. This time, tears of sadness will be replaced with joy as parishioners walk into the new Holy Family Church for a 10 a.m. Mass of Dedication, celebrated by Bishop Robert P. Deeley. All are welcome to attend.

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.

The Piscataquis Regional Food Center (PRFC) wishes to thank the Bangor Savings Bank Foundation for its generous support of PRFC’s warehouse renovation project. The Bangor Savings Bank Foundation recently awarded the organization a $,5000 grant

A Sangerville man died Feb. 9 as a result of a snowmobile crash in Corinna. Jeffrey Wiley Jr., 44, was travelling south along the rail-bed snowmobile trail when he struck a tree.

Under the new law, a second-time offence of hunting deer over bait during hunting season will result in a permanent ineligibility for that hunter to obtain a hunting license in Maine. Davis would like to lessen the penalty to a two-year ineligibility period.

Rep. Norman Higgins, I-Dover-Foxcroft has announced that he will be an independent candidate for reelection in 2018. Higgins represents District 120 comprised of Atkinson, Brownville, Dover-Foxcroft, Medford, Milo, Lakeview Plantation and the Unorganized Township of Orneville.

When the doctor tells you to open up and say, “Ahhh,” pretty much anywhere in the world, there’s a chance that the wooden stick pressing on your tongue was made in Maine. And the wooden stick in that Creamsicle? Probably also from Maine. Hardwood Products Co. in Guilford has something of a split personality. The company is divided into two operations, one right across the road from the other.

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.

Sen. Paul Davis, R-Sangerville has announced local transportation projects included in the Maine Department of Transportation (MDOT) work plan for the 2018, 2019 and 2020 calendar years.

Eighth-grader Nathanael Brown emerged as the last speller standing during the eighth annual SeDoMoCha Middle School District Spelling Bee on the evening of Jan. 9.