Julie Daigle

SAD 27/Wallagrass - During the recent school board meeting at the Wallagrass Elementary School, the school board discussed the need for moving sixth graders from outlying schools into Valley Rivers Middle School. In Eagle Lake, five students will be in sixth grade next year, and 13 students will be in sixth grade in Wallagrass.

School board chair Barry Ouellette said, "It's hard to justify one teacher for five kids."

FORT KENT - After twenty-four years of mushing, and as the very first musher in the Can-Am Crown International Sled Dog Race, John Kaleta is hanging up his traces. The 20th anniversary of the Can-Am will be his last.

FORT KENT –The annual Ride for All event at 10th Mountain has been renamed Pat’s Ride for All in memory of Jim and Bob Marquis' brother Patrick Marquis, who passed away in May 2011. Organizers will hold the event on Feb. 23 and March 10, and this year, funds from Pat’s estate will sponsor the lunches, drinks, and snacks.

FORT KENT - After the budget committee meeting at the town office in Fort Kent on Tuesday, Feb. 14, the fiscal outlook for Fort Kent appears bleak and includes some tax increases, in spite of budget cuts in most departments, due primarily to a loss in state and federal revenue. Even with the tax increases, residents will also see a reduction in town services.

FORT KENT - Driving at certain times of the day can potentially be hazardous, as Lloyd Paradis of Fort Kent discovered when the 80-year-old man was blinded by the sun pulling out of the church parking lot on East Main Street on the morning of Feb. 13.

A combined total of approximately $4000 of damage resulted when Paradis collided with another vehicle on Main Street.

FORT KENT - This year is the 20th anniversary of the Can Am Crown International Sled Dog Race, marking the 20th year that hundreds of volunteers assemble to help make the races a success.

"We work with whatever Mother Nature gives us to deal with," said Andre Landry, chief of the race start.

FORT KENT - Eighteen Months is the title of the new photography exhibition at the Blake Gallery in the University of Maine at Fort Kent library, by Fiddlehead Focus publisher Andrew Birden, and it refers to the length of time during which the photos were taken.

FORT KENT -Erik Rupert thinks he made the right choice in training with the Maine Winter Sports Center this winter for several reasons, including the fact that Fort Kent is the only place in the U.S. that has received a significant amount of snow this winter.

Rupert praised the venue and the MWSC coaching, saying the paved roller-ski loop at 10th Mountain Ski Center is an excellent summertime training aid.