REGIONAL – Area seniors are gearing up for commencement this weekend.    Harlan Community High School will host graduation ceremonies Sunday, May 20 at 2 p.m. at the HCHS gymnasium.  There will be a band concert prior to the event beginning at 1:25 p.m.  See the Tuesday, May 15 Harlan Tribune for full details of HCHS’s graduation.

        HARLAN -- Five Harlan Community High School seniors recently were recognized academically.    Kara Rueschenberg, Tyler Buman, Alana Monson, Chad Schechinger and Alexis Irlbeck (L to R) were nominated for honors with the Omaha World-Herald 2018 All-Western Iowa Academic Team as one of the top scholars in western Iowa.

    REGIONAL -- Eleven students will graduate this week with the highest distinction at Harlan Community High School, ranked as the top senior students at HCHS based on grade point average.      The students will be recognized during commencement ceremonies to be held Sunday, May 20 at 2 p.m.

    COUNCIL BLUFFS -- Students from Harlan Community and AHSTW High Schools competed well in the annual Anti-Gravity Games April 28 at Kanesville Arena on the Iowa Western Community College Campus.

    REGIONAL – Iowa’s top academic students were honored Sunday, April 29 at the 16th Annual Governor’s Scholar Recognition Ceremony held at Hy-Vee Hall in Des Moines.    Among those recognized were area students, including Kara Rueschenberg from Harlan Community, Jaclyn Ahern from AHSTW, Grace Greving from Exira/EH-K, Hannah Fisher from IKM-Manning and Jakob Orel from Tri-Center (Neola).    The Governor’s Office, the Iowa High School Athletic

    REGIONAL – The Rev.

OKLAHOMA CITY, OK -- The Harlan FFA Soil Judging team recently competed well in the National Land and Range Judging Contest in Oklahoma City, OK, on May 3.    The team, comprised of Miguel Mena, McKenna Boardman, Allyssa Obrecht and Andrew Schechinger, qualified for the national competition after receiving 4th place at the Iowa State FFA Soils Contest held in October, 2017.    At the national competition, the Harlan team placed 12th out of a t

    HARLAN – The City of Harlan has approved financing for $1.5 million in general obligation capital loan notes with United Bank of Iowa at a true interest rate of 2.477 percent and total interest costs over 10 years amounting to $180,579.78.    United Bank of Iowa was the lowest of three local bidders, the others being Midstates Bank and Shelby County State Bank.  Midstates Bank had a true interest cost bid of 2.611 percent and total interes

    COUNTY -- The Shelby County Community Foundation awarded $117,594 in grants to county non-profit agencies on Thursday, April 19.    Twenty agencies shared in the grants after submitting applications by the February 1 deadline.

    HARLAN -- Caitlin Yamada, Harlan, recently joined the Harlan Newspapers as its summer intern.    Yamada is a sophomore at Iowa State University in Ames majoring in journalism and mass communication with a dual minor in sociology and women’s and gender studies.    “When I went to college, I had no idea what I wanted to do,” Yamada said.    Yamada bounced around and considered majors like education and sociology.

    HARLAN -- Twenty-two Harlan Community FFA members traveled to Iowa State University in Ames on April 22-24 to compete and participate in various State FFA Convention activities, and earned top honors at the event.    More than 6,000 FFA members across Iowa gathered for the 90th Iowa FFA Leadership Conference. This year showed record breaking attendance.    “I Can.

    HARLAN -- Terry Holdren, head pressman for the Harlan Newspapers, retired Monday, April 30 after 51 years at the newspaper office.    A retirement lunch was held at the Harlan Golf and Country Club Tuesday, May 1 in his honor.    Holdren started with the Harlan Newspapers in 1966 following graduation from Harlan High School.  He oversaw the evolution of the Harlan Newspapers from letterpress to offset printing (one of the first four such p

    HARLAN -- Dr.

    HARLAN -- Myrtue Medical Center Board of Trustees has given the go ahead to MMC administration to begin the process of interviewing and selecting architect and engineering firms for the next steps in completing the master facility plan.    In the next couple of months administration is expected to bring back to the board conceptual drawings/renderings with costs estimates and phasing of the project as well as design/bidding.Planning on mas

    WALNUT -- Strong winds and heavy rain rolled through much of western Iowa and Shelby County Tuesday evening, May 1, dumping as much as three inches of rain, some small hail, and damaging winds in some areas.    Emergency Management Coordinator Bob Seivert and Operations Officer Jason Wickizer responded to the area and verified nobody was injured or displaced.  Contact was made with the National Weather Service, and a preliminary damage rep