AUGUSTA - More people have applied for heating assistance in the Kennebec Valley already this winter than any previous entire winter, with many weeks of cold potentially still to come.

Kelly LaChance, assistant energy director for Kennebec Valley Community Action Program, said the agency has already taken more than 11,000 applications this winter. The most applications KVCAP has processed in an entire winter previously was around 9,500.

LaChance anticipates by the time KVCAP stops taking new applications on April 30 it will have taken around 14,000 applications, thousands more than ever before.