Dr. Grenetta Thomassey Program Director at Tip of the Mitt Watershed Council, will discuss the impact of hydraulic fracturing on water resources at the Leelanau County Government Center-Community Meeting Room on Monday, Oct. 17 from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Sponsored by Leelanau Clean Water, the event is free and open to the public.

This fall, the curtain rises on a new dramatic venture at the Glen Arbor Art Association (GAAA). Actually, no curtain will rise, no sets constructed, no costumes created, no dialogue memorized — but the show will go on, so to speak, with the debut of “Readers’ Theater” auditions on Wednesday, Oct. 26 at 7 p.m. Two Sherlock Holmes stories (adapted into scripts), “The Adventure of the Tolling Bell,” and “The Musgrave Ritual,” will be performed on Nov. 30, with new productions taking place monthly as well.

The Empire Planning Commission will hold a public input meeting on Thursday from 7-8 p.m. at the Empire Township Hall to discuss biking in the village, as part of the coming Sleeping Bear Heritage Trail.

This summer, the National Park Service (NPS) unveiled its options for the Historic Landscape Management Plan of the Port Oneida Rural Historic District. Some four miles east of Glen Arbor, the shoreline settlement was founded as a logging community, with subsistence (family) farming and fishing, in the early 1860s by immigrant pioneers from Prussia and Hanover (now parts of modern Germany), and lived in continuously until the 1970s. It is defined as a “historic vernacular landscape … that has evolved through use by ordinary people” over a “period of significance of 1870-1945,” in the Plan’s Executive Summary, and it is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Some of the poorest children in Guatemala City will be the beneficiaries of a special event happening at The Children’s House in Traverse City on Friday, Oct. 14, when Great Lakes Friends of Safe Passage host their sixth annual Fiesta in support of Safe Passage. The local event celebrates our community’s commitment to bring hope and opportunity to more than 550 children of families living in unimaginable poverty at Guatemala City’s garbage dump.

It isn’t often that a winemaker from Italy travels to Leelanau County to interact with dinner guests, but on Sept. 26, Angela Maculan of Maculan Estate Winery will be at The Homestead to do just that. Guests at the resort north of Glen Arbor will experience exemplary Italian wines from Maculan paired with gourmet food prepared by The Homestead’s Executive Chef John Piombo of Nonna’s. The winemaker chose five distinct wines to serve at each of the five dinner courses including:

Ever since Wednesday, August 17, Northern Michiganders have both embraced and grappled with the news that the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore and surrounding region are considered the “most beautiful place in America” — at least according to 22 percent of 100,000 voters who participated in the ABC show Good Morning America’s online competition the second week of August.

The aroma of apples and fresh-cut wood. The taste of homemade maple candy and ice cream. The sounds of old-time music and old-fashioned hard work. Free activities, demonstrations and exhibits celebrating the area’s lifestyle of 100 years ago will fill the senses when Leelanau County’s southernmost museum hosts its 39th annual Heritage Day on Oct. 8.

Here are some reasons you may not want to come to Leelanau County: It’s out of your way. No matter where you are going, Leelanau County is not on the way unless you are in Leelanau County already, in which case you must either go back the way you came or get seriously wet. This has to do with the nature of peninsulas and there is nothing to be done about it.

The Glen Arbor Art Association announces a special fall workshop to by led by Sterling Edwards September 26-29, at The Homestead resort in Glen Arbor. This four-day program, “Exploring Watercolors from A to Z,” will focus on creative and expressive ways to paint a watercolor that is the artist’s personal interpretation.