SHELBY – Citizens of Shelby will head to the polls Tuesday, April 2 to cast ballots in a special election to fill a vacant city council seat.    Polls will be open from noon-8 p.m. at the Shelby Community Hall.  Absentee ballots also will be accepted, and absentee voting in person will take place from 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m.

    COUNTY – Shelby County Emergency Preparedness partners will participate in a county-wide tornado drill to be held on Wednesday, March 27 from 10-10:30 a.m.  Shelby County Emergency Management, Shelby County Public Health and Myrtue Medical Center encourage everyone to take this opportunity to prepare, plan, and protect their loved ones from the effects of severe spring weather.    This week is Severe Weather Awareness Week, March 25-29, as

    DES MOINES – A complaint filed with the Iowa Public Information Board (IPIB) by Harlan resident Larry Trickel, alleging violation of the Iowa Opens Meeting Law by the Harlan Independent School District, was dismissed by the IPIB Thursday, March 21.    A dismissal order prepared by IPIB Executive Director Margaret E. Johnson, J.D.

    The Iowa State Patrol Impaired and Distracted Driving course was held at the Teen Health & Resiliency Fair Saturday morning at HCHS. Participants could chose to wear the fatal vision googles or text while driving as they navigated the route.

    COUNTY – Shelby County officials have documented more than $1.15 million in flood-related damages from the event that occurred in Shelby County Wednesday, March 13 and thereafter.    Shelby County Emergency Management Coordinator Alex Londo and his staff have been working with local officials to determine the damage to public infrastructure.

    HARLAN – Harlan Community Schools Superintendent Justin Wagner on Monday, March 18 was offered the opportunity to sign a waiver allowing for the HCS Board of Education to release the results of an independent investigation and staff survey, but as of early Thursday morning, March 21, he had not responded to that e-mail request by the Harlan Newspapers.    The school board is prohibited by law from discussing or providing to the public cert

    HARLAN -- Caitlin Bissen, a senior at Harlan Community High School, has been nominated for the IHSSA All-State Speech Festival in two categories: acting and poetry interpretation.       She was nominated by at least two of the three judges who evaluated each of her performances at the state level speech competition.  There were only six students from the Southwest District who were nominated in two categories this year.    Bissen’s dramati

HARLAN – The Harlan Community Schools Board of Education held another closed session meeting with its legal counsel present Monday, March 18 to evaluate an individual, and after approximately 1 ½ hours of discussion, re-entered open session and took no action.    It’s the third closed session meeting the board has held in recent months, under Iowa Code Section 21.5(1)(i) “to evaluate the professional competency of an individual whose appointme

HARLAN -- Harlan’s Shopko store will be closing sometime before June.    It was announced  Monday, March 18 that Shopko would be closing all remaining stores and liquidate its assets by June, according to a document filed in bankruptcy court.    A press release stated that the company was unable to find a buyer for the retail business, and operations will begin winding down as early as this week.    “This is not the outcome we had hoped for wh

    COUNTY – Shelby County is asking for clarifications from the Iowa State Auditor’s Office regarding information released in a special investigation of the county’s Emergency Management Association office.    A special investigation by the Iowa State Auditor’s Office has identified $59,165.28 in improper disbursements and $1,597.32 of unsupported disbursements, with all but $2,080.36 related to the Shelby County Emergency Management Associat

School board statement made at every board meeting regarding citizen comments

HARLAN -- Snow melt, heavy rains and frozen ground contributed to historical March flooding in Shelby County and Harlan.  Roads were closed, Westridge Acres Mobile Home Court and homes along Exchange St.

    COUNTY -- The Shelby County Board of Supervisors has accepted its audit report for the 2017-18 fiscal year, as presented by Gronewold, Bell, Kyhnn & Co., CPAs.    Audit company representative Chris Nelson said the county’s finances, including total assets and liabilities, are very similar to the prior year, and said the audit was clean.    “The county’s in a good financial position,” Nelson said.    He also said there were no issues id

To the citizens of Shelby County,    Approximately 22 months ago, the State Auditor’s Office was contacted by Shelby County’s legal counsel, Michael Galloway, requesting a special investigation to review various payroll issues and policies governing various Shelby County departments.  Although the process took some time to complete, we believe the review was thorough and it demonstrated that the process of engaging an independent review was th

Improper paid leave, improper payroll and improper vacation buy-back payments identified