HARLAN – The Harlan Lions Club will be offering free child vision screening next week in area schools, a service it has provided for years teaming with Iowa KidSight, a community service project of the Lions Club of Iowa.    Harlan pre-school and kindergarten students will be screened on October 10-11 beginning at 8:30 a.m.  Time for Tots screening will be October 16-17 beginning at 9 a.m.  Kountry Kids’ screening will be October 19 from 9

    EXIRA -- Ellie Schultes and Cade Bruns were recognized during the Exira-Elk Horn-Kimballton football game Friday night as homecoming queen and king. 

    HARLAN -- Eight students from the Harlan FFA Chapter competed in the Southwest Iowa District FFA Soil Judging Competition on September 24. 

HARLAN -- Homecoming royalty was crowned Friday, Sept. 27 at Harlan Community High School.  

    HARLAN – Pioneer Park in Harlan soon will become the home of a StoryWalk® feature, where park-goers can read books through a series of signs spread out throughout the park.    StoryWalk® is a series of signs featuring sequential spreads from a children’s picture book, and those signs are spread throughout the park allowing readers to follow along with a posted story by walking.

    COUNTY -- Shelby County Public Health reminds all residents that it is time to prepare for the upcoming influenza season by getting vaccinated.    Influenza is a contagious disease that can lead to serious illness, including pneumonia. Even healthy people can get sick enough to miss work or school for a significant amount of time or even be hospitalized.

    HARLAN – Three Harlan Community High School students recently were honored in the Greater Omaha Council Bluffs Area Council on Youth Leadership Youth Salute as being outstanding leaders.    Justina Borgman, Lucy Borkowski and Bobbie Schechinger were recognized during an awards ceremony that was held September 15 at Bellevue University, complete with a leadership seminar presented the same day.

    REGIONAL -- Iowa’s pheasant hunters should expect to find a similar number of birds as last year, with the exception of south central and southeast Iowa, where the pheasant population decline was more significant.    In Shelby County, pheasant numbers are higher than a year ago, but quail, partridge and cottontail numbers have decreased.    Based on the August roadside survey, Iowa’s statewide average is 17 pheasants per 30 mile route, dow

    HARLAN -- There’s nothing quite like a Friday night at Merrill Field in Harlan.

    IRWIN -- Students from IKM-Manning had an educational time Friday, Sept. 20 at the annual youth day at Greenridge Antique Steam & Gas Show.     

    REGIONAL -- The greater Shelby County area saw rare late September severe weather Tuesday evening, Sept.

    COUNTY – Write-in votes will decide a number of municipal elections in the November general election as the deadline for filing nomination papers for mayor and city council came to an end Thursday, Sept. 19.    Harlan will see incumbents and one newcomer unopposed for office, while Shelby and Irwin will see contested races and Tennant, Westphalia, Defiance, Panama and Kirkman will see some or all offices filled by write-in vote. 

    COUNTY -- The Shelby County Area Solid Waste Agency is sponsoring its annual Free Cleanup Crew Event for residents wishing to dispose of household hazardous waste from their homes.      The event will be held on Saturday, Sept. 28 from 9-11 a.m.

    IOWA CITY -- Along with a telephone used by Alexander Graham Bell; a 1960 Greensboro, Alabama, lunch counter; Dorothy’s ruby slippers; and Muhammad Ali’s boxing gloves, visitors to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C., last spring also may have seen a Hawkeye.    University of Iowa senior Emily Lefeber spent the spring 2019 semester as a daily programming intern at the famed museum.

    HARLAN – The Harlan Community Schools Board of Education will feature one challenged race as Allyson Bendorf has filed nomination papers to challenge incumbent Joni  Larsen for the District 5 board position.    Nomination papers were due to the school board secretary by 5 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 19.