FORT KENT – The talk has started, committees have been meeting and banners are starting to wave in the winds along Main Street in preparation for the TD Banknorth Festival at Fort Kent where the final qualifying event for selection of the U.S. Biathlon Team for the 2006 Olympics will be held in late December and early January.

While the event won’t be as hyped as the World Cup and International Paralympic Committee celebrations of the last two years, the meet is expected to be intense for the country’s 40 best female and male biathletes who will be vying for selection to the team that will represent the United States at the 2006 Winter Olympics at Torino, Italy, in February.

“The competition is very important to the 40 athletes coming here for the four days of competition,” Nancy Thibodeau, the event director, said Thanksgiving morning. “These athletes are very focused, obviously all wanting to make the U.S. team.”

In addition to Jay Hakkinen who has already qualified for a spot on the men’s team, the U.S. Biathlon Association will select four men and five women.

U.S. biathletes earned an extra position during last year’s World Cup season. Until last year, the U.S. Team had four men and four women.

While the U.S. Team will have five of each sex on the team, only four men and four women will start in Torino.

Competitions will run between 10 a.m. and noon Thursday and Friday, Dec. 29 and 30, and Monday and Tuesday, Jan. 2 and 3, at the 10th Mountain Division Lodge and venue off Route 11, just a couple of miles south of the Fort Kent business district.

“While the race times make for pretty short days, it’s a great spectator kind of thing,” Thibodeau said. “It will be a great time for people to get out and enjoy the sun and snow.

“People are hyped up about it already,” she said. “The organizing committee is very involved, and I’m sure the athletes are excited about coming back to Fort Kent.

“I’m hoping people will come out and cheer these biathletes on,” she said.

The Greater Fort Kent Chamber of Commerce is working to develop ways to promote northern Maine.

“While there won’t be as many activities around town as when we had the World Cup … There will be displays of local traditional crafts and activities we enjoy during the winter months,” Thibodeau said.

Brochures are being envisioned about northern Maine activities such as snowshoeing – both the activity and the craft of making them – alpine skiing, cross-country skiing and snowmobiling.

Thibodeau said 100 to 150 volunteers will be needed for the competitions. The number is not as large as in past competitions, and the tasks they will perform have yet to be determined. The committee chiefs are working on those now.

Thibodeau believes former residents may see the Olympic competitions, which happen around the holidays, as a good opportunity to spend some time at home and enjoy this first in the history of northern Maine.

Downtown stores will keep Christmas lights on through the competitions, giving the town the same feel it had during the World Cup competitions in early 2004.

Many of the specifics about the competitions, the 10th Mountain Division Lodge and venue, and downtown activities will be made public at a community breakfast at the University of Maine Fort Kent on Friday, Dec. 2.

Tickets for the breakfast are on sale at UMFK’s Madawaska Alumni House. They can be purchased in person or by calling 834-7557.