June 9

MEETING: PARSE Meeting, Tues., June 9th at Noon, Elk Lake Veteran Club. For more info call (570) 265-8812

June 11

MEETING: New Milford Cemetery Assoc. Meeting, Thurs. June 11th, at 7 PM, New Milford Boro Building.

MEETING: Ararat Cemetery Annual Meeting, Thurs., June 11th, at 7 PM, at the Town Hall at the cemetery in Ararat. 

Mon., June 8: chicken verona, herbed potatoes, italian vegetable medley, ww roll, chocolate coconut pudding.

Tues., June 9: Centers Closed Staff In Service.

Wed., June 10: hot open face pork sandwich, oven roasted potatoes, chicken vegetable soup, ww bread, peach bread pudding.

Thurs., June 11: rosemary roast turkey, sweet potatoes, green beans, fruit shortcake.

Fri., June 12: meatloaf, mashed potatoes, green & wax beans, melba toast, sugar cookie.

Local television personality Mike Stevens will be the featured speaker at Claverack Rural Electric Cooperative’s 2015 Annual Meeting, slated for Thursday, July 23, on the campus of the Elk Lake School District in Dimock.

Stevens, a reporter with WNEP-TV, channel 16, has hosted and produced the station’s popular “On the Pennsylvania Road” segment for over 30 years.

The “Pennsylvania Road” assignments take Stevens to the back roads and country lanes of northeastern and central Pennsylvania in search of interesting people doing interesting things.

The veteran journalist will be sharing experiences and anecdotes from his travels during the business portion of the annual meeting, which begins at 7 p.m. in the Elk Lake High School Auditorium.

The annual meeting is being hosted in Susquehanna County for the first time in many years. Known as the “Claverack Picnic,” the co-op’s annual gathering has traditionally been held on the grounds of the Wysox Volunteer Fire Department, in Bradford County on the third Saturday in July.

The decision to change the venue, as well as the day of the event, came about after Claverack conducted a survey of co-op members that revealed an overwhelming majority found the weekend meeting time and location to be obstacles to attendance.

“We want to give as many members as possible the ability to attend their annual meeting,” said Claverack President & CEO Bobbi Kilmer. “By relocating to Dimock, which is in the geographic center of our service territory, and by holding the event on a week night, when folks aren’t so busy with work and family obligations, we hope to see a lot of new faces at this year’s meeting.”

Doors open for the meeting at 5 p.m., and students with the Susquehanna County Career & Technology Center will be serving a light dinner from 5:30 p.m. to 6:45 p.m. Musical entertainment will be provided by Them Boys, an acoustic country band based in Tunkhannock.

The Rail-Trail Council of NE PA would like to remind trail users that the D&H Rail-Trail from Simpson to the New York border above Lanesboro is closed to all motorized vehicles including ATV and dirt bike use.  The O&W Rail-Trail from Simpson to Stillwater also prohibits all motorized use.  The only area that allows ATV use is from Stillwater (across from parking lot) to Orson.  This section of trail is overseen by the Northern Wayne Outdoor Recreation Club (get information on trail passes at www.nworc.org).

State conservation officers and private patrols are enforcing these rules and tickets will be written to offenders.  Fines may be in the hundreds of dollars per each violation, with additional court cost fees.

Trail users are asked to call the rail-trail office with information about reoccurring motorized use.  The Rail-Trail Council will issue trespass complaints through the local magistrates and district attorney. Call (570) 679-9300.

Please keep off the trails with any motorized vehicles. Parents, please remind your children that ATVs and dirt bikes are not allowed on the rail-trails.  

A walk with naturalist Nancy Wottrich in pursuit of wildflowers is no mere cataloguing of plant species (though identifying and naming plants is an essential part of the experience). This nature walk is an adventure of discovery.

The 400-acred Florence Shelly Wetlands Preserve is recognized as an ecological niche of uncommon diversity, and during Wottrich’s walk on Saturday, June 6, at 2:00 PM, participants will discover both rare and common wildflowers hidden among leaves, clustered along streambeds, nestled against rocky outcroppings, and even feeding on insects in a glacial pond.

Wottrich will describe why wildflowers flourish in some places and not in others and explain what challenges various species face from insects, invasive plants, pollution, and development of woodland and wetland areas. She also teaches shortcuts to identifying flowers by leaves, stalks, etc., so you don’t have to flip through a guidebook to find out the identity of the interesting plant before you.

Nancy Wottrich has been in the field of environmental education and interpretive natural history since 1980. She has a Masters Degree in Environmental Studies and has worked with all age groups, teaching about natural history by using the whole-ecology approach that considers species in the context of their surroundings. She has been actively involved with Salt Springs State Park and does biological surveys in the fields of land protection and land trust. Since 2001 she has worked as environmental consultant in Susquehanna County.

Whether you’re an expert on wildflowers or your skills don’t extend much beyond knowing violets from dandelions, you’ll have fun learning under Nancy’s tutelage as you discover the range of beautiful and sometimes rare plants in the preserve.

The walk will begin at the Stack Road parking lot on Route 171, a mile north of Thompson. The walk is scheduled to last two hours. An optional extra hour of wildflower viewing is possible (but you are free to leave when you wish). The walk is free of charge and we’ll go if it rains, so bring rain gear if necessary. Even if the sun is out, it’s a good idea to wear waterproof shoes, since we’ll be walking in a wetland. The trail is flat, but very uneven in places. No reservations are required. A sign marks the entrance. For more information call Gary Hartley at 908-403-8255.