n Mahanoy City: The Mahanoy City Lions Club will meet at 6:30 p.m. today at The Corner Pub, 239 E. Centre St. The club is holding a membership drive. To learn more or apply for membership, attend the meeting or call William Paul at 570-773-0508.
n Pine Grove: Pine Grove Area High School will hold parent/teacher conferences from 3 to 7:30 p.m. Nov. 20 and 7:30 to 10:30 a.m. Nov. 21. Parents must set up an appointment to attend. To arrange for appointments with students' teacher, contact the guidance office from 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Mondays through Fridays at 570-345-2731, ext. 216. Parents, guardians and students are welcome to attend.
n Pottsville: The Schuylkill County Farm Service Agency, 1104 Ag Center Drive, has a Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program that provides financial assistance to producers of noninsurable crops - those not covered by crop insurance - when low yields, loss of inventory or prevented planting occurs due to natural disasters. Producers are eligible for this program as landowners, tenants or sharecroppers who share in the risk of producing an eligible crop. The annual adjusted gross revenue of the eligible producer, and any individual or entity combined as one "person" with the eligible producer, cannot exceed $1 million, according to an agency press release. To be eligible for assistance, producers' crops must be noninsurable and agricultural commodities for which the catastrophic risk protection level of crop insurance is not available, and must be any of the following commercially produced crops: Crops grown for food; crops planted and grown for livestock consumption, including, but not limited to, grain and forage crops, including native forage; crops grown under a controlled environment, such as mushrooms and floriculture; specialty crops, such as honey and maple sap; value loss crops, such as aquaculture, Christmas trees, ginseng, ornamental nursery and turfgrass sod. An eligible natural disaster is any of the following: Damaging weather, such as drought, freeze, hail, excessive moisture, excessive wind or hurricanes; an adverse natural occurrence, such as earthquake or flood; a condition related to damaging weather or an adverse natural occurrence, such as excessive heat, disease or insect infestation. The natural disaster must have occurred before or during harvest and must directly affect the eligible crop. Eligible producers must apply for coverage by visiting the Schuylkill County FSA office and paying the applicable service fees. The application and service fees must be filed by the application closing date as established by the producer's FSA state committee. The service fee is the lesser of $250 per crop or $750 per producer per administrative county, not to exceed a total of $1,875 per producer with farming interests in multiple counties. Coverage compensates losses greater than 50 percent and the payment amount is based on 55 percent of the established market price. Application closing dates are as follows: Nov. 20 for fruit trees, grapes, all berry crops, chestnuts and walnuts; Dec. 1 for honey; Dec. 31 for horseradish; Jan. 1, 2013, for maple sap; March 15, 2013, for all other types of fruits and vegetables and sunflowers; May 31, 2013, for buckwheat; July 15, 2013, for fall harvested spinach. For more information on the program, contact the county FSA at 570-622-1555, ext. 2 or go to the FSA's website at www.fsa.usda.gov.
n Ringtown: The Ringtown Valley Community Chorus will present a "Songs of Christmas" holiday concert under the direction of Mark O'Hearn at 4 p.m. Nov. 25, at St. Paul's United Church of Christ, East Main Street. There will be a mix of sacred and secular music, according to a press release. Admission is free. Freewill offerings will be accepted during the program to assist with Ashley Frederick's medical expenses. A light social will follow. Everyone is welcome. For more information, call 570-985-3067.