AVOCA -- The winter sports season officially has kicked off, and while it looks a little different as far as number of spectators, the athletes are still getting to play on the hardword and grappled on the wrestling mats. Also able to perform are the area dance teams.

    HARLAN – The Iowa Jazz Championships (IJC) Board of Directors announced last week the cancelation of the 2021 event scheduled for April 6, 2021.    The decision came from the IJC Board of Directors and Co-Chairs Tuesday, Dec. 15 after learning the Iowa Bandmasters Association (IBA) had removed the competitive aspect of the six district festivals in Iowa for 2021.
 

    HARLAN -- The Harlan Municipal Utilities Board of Trustees and employees represented by AFSCME (American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees) Iowa Council 61, Local 1014, have begun initial collective bargaining negotiations this month.    The board held an exempt session meeting Wednesday, Dec.

  HARLAN -- Derrick Yamada will be the new chief for the Harlan Police Department effective February, 2021, pending Harlan City Council approval.    Yamada joined the Harlan Police Department in January, 2011. He will replace retiring chief Frank Clark, who has been a long-time employee with the City of Harlan since 1977.    Watch the Harlan Newspapers for further information.

HARLAN -- Eighty-one needy families and individuals were helped out this Christmas season in the annual Holiday Adoption program.  Gifts were distributed Friday, Dec. 18.
 

    COUNTY – The Shelby County Trails Board’s “Get Your Feet on the Trail” fundraiser is in full swing this month, as the committee works to secure funding that will lead to the construction of the first phase of the project in western Shelby County.    One hundred percent of the donations from the fundraiser will be used to construct multi-use trails in Shelby County.    Bob Mortensen, president of the trails board, said the fundraiser is a c

    HARLAN – Five-year financial projections for the Harlan Community Schools show a need to cut expenditures each year in order to offset declining enrollment and limited allowable growth, but doing so could allow the district to reduce its property tax levy while keeping the solvency ratio and unspent authorized budget in check.    Those words come from the HCS Board of Education and its finance committee, which met on December 10 to review

    HARLAN -- Another home was brought into Harlan by flatbed trailer to be renovated and put in place in north Harlan to help address the housing needs in town.    Bruce Burger Construction is renovating the home after it’s set in place at 501 7th St.  Here, O’Neill Company helped maneuver the home through the city streets, turning the corner here at 5th and Broadway Sts.

    HARLAN -- Harlan Community High School music students Jack Klitgaard, Mitchell Rueschenberg, and Jackson Lotenschtein this week have put their talents together to record a Christmas video for the community.  The selection of holiday tunes will be provided to the local long term care facilities, and will be available on Harlan Municipal Utilities and Farmers Mutual Cooperative Telephone Company public access channels, as well as during lunc

    HARLAN – The Harlan Community Schools will come back after Christmas break with full, in-person learning, school officials announced this week.    The district originally was considering the possibility of hybrid learning, with middle and high school students engaged in remote learning partially during the week and elementary students full-time.    Further evaluation this week and reviewing health metrics related to the COVID-19 pandemic a

    HARLAN – For Harlan Community’s jazz program, the prospect of a second jazz season in a row being compromised because of the COVID-19 pandemic is nothing short of disheartening.    But like many top programs – and believe it when you hear that Harlan Community jazz is arguably among the best Iowa has to offer the past 40 years – the talented students and directors are embracing what opportunities they have been fortunate enough to have thu

    ELK HORN – Local residents looking for a unique holiday gift for that special someone or family member need search no further than the Design Store at the Museum of Danish America in Elk Horn.    For nearly 26 years the museum has been offering Danish, Danish-American, and Scandinavian gifts for the holidays at its store, and what began as a small, four-page tabloid showcasing gift opportunities in 2004 has now grown to a full catalog feat

    REGIONAL – Harlan Community Schools’ students are offering kindness and appreciation this month to the many health care workers in southwest Iowa and eastern Nebraska working to keep residents healthy and safe during the COVID-19 pandemic.    Ashley Nihsen, a nurse with Methodist Jennie Edmundson Hospital in Council Bluffs and parent to students in the district, recently reached out to the teachers and students seeing if they would be will

HARLAN – Shelby County residents may remember a Kansas man who challenged his ex-wife and her attorney, both of Harlan, earlier this year to a duel in hand-to-hand combat style with melee weapons, who says now he will seek public office in an effort to argue for judicial openness and the rights of individuals in similar custody disputes.    David Zachary Ostrom, Paola, KS, continues his family legal and custody matter in Shelby County District

    KIMBALLTON – Olympic dreams are a lofty goal for the top competitive athletes in the United States, but a Kimballton teenager is one step closer and can see those dreams within reach after solidifying herself last week as one of the finest youth weightlifters in the country.    Bella Muller, 13, a seventh-grader at Exira/Elk Horn-Kimballton, placed sixth in her division at the USA Weightlifting national championships Thursday, Dec.