Cpl. Dana Gatcomb was honored as the Dexter Police Department Officer of the Year during a Jan. 9 town council meeting.

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

Peace, Love & Waffles, a new restaurant serving breakfast and lunch in the old bank building on East Main Street, was formally welcomed to the region with a Piscataquis Chamber of Commerce ribbon-cutting ceremony on Jan. 9.

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.

Through his research, Piscataquis County Manager Michael Williams cannot determine if the county has ever had an official shield and if so what the image may have looked like. While Williams is continuing his efforts, county officials are considering holding a design contest -- such as for high school students and/or artists living in the region -- to create an official shield in recognition of Maine’s Bicentennial in 2020.

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.

Good Shepherd Food Bank recently announced recipients of the annual School Pantry Capacity Building Grant program. Funded on a competitive basis to school pantry sites, the food bank’s awards range from $250 to $2,500. Among the 13 grantees across the state are the Ridge View Community School of Dexter and the SeDoMoCha School in Dover-Foxcroft.

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.

About halfway up the eastern shore of Chamberlain Lake, nestled behind a point of land once called Apmoojenegamook Point (now Hog Point) sits an old farmhouse. The building is all that is left of a thriving farm that once encompassed 600 acres of cleared land, several barns and storage buildings. Chamberlain Farm was the operations hub for the Pingree Coe timberlands that totaled over one million acres. 

As part of the Maine Department of Education’s ongoing efforts to highlight Maine’s outstanding teachers, nominations are now open for the 2020 County Teachers of the Year and 2021 Teacher of the Year. Members of the public are encouraged to nominate educators who demonstrate a commitment to excellence and nurturing the achievement of all students. Nominations can be made through the Maine Teacher of the Year website at mainetoy.org/nominate through 5 p.m. on Feb. 3.

The Three Rivers Milo-Brownville Kiwanis Club is pleased to give Book Awards in the amount of $500 to a pair of Penquis Valley High School graduates who apply for in the spring and complete their first semester of college.

Aroostook County guide and outfitter Nathan Theriault had a pretty good idea where Big Dodge liked to hang out, especially when the rut was on. The season before one of Nathan’s clients got a shot at the big bull, but failed to put him down.

Ticks have spread throughout Maine over the past few decades, carrying with them a cocktail of crippling diseases. In response, healthcare providers, researchers, educators, non-profit organizations and the government have been working to protect people from this dangerous pest.

CourageLIVES and the Penquis Sex Trafficking Action Response Team (START) will host four free and open to the public events as part of Human Trafficking Awareness and Prevention Month in January. All events will feature a film screenin of “Gridshock,” a documentary about human trafficking, followed by a panel discussion with local experts.

I’m not one of those guys who starts every new year with a list of resolutions that I’ll begin ignoring on Jan. 3. In general, I’m one of those guys who works more generically, and tries to screw up less than I did the year before. I keep a few goals in mind, I admit, but rarely do I resolve to achieve them. Instead, I hope to get better, then plod onward, doing the best I can.

University of Maine Cooperative Extension has named Emily Mott as the new 4-H community education assistant for Piscataquis and Penobscot counties.

On Jan. 6 students and staff at 32 elementary schools around the state will start participating in WinterKids’ third annual WinterKids Winter Games, including Brownville Elementary School and the Greenville Consolidated School. This outdoor physical activity and nutrition competition encourages young children to develop healthy habits over the course of the four-week program.