HARLAN -- Jacey Goetzman, Muscatine, recently joined the Harlan Newspapers as its summer intern.    Goetzman is a freshman studying journalism and mass communications as well as French at Iowa State University in Ames.    Goetzman said she has no specific plans after graduation, but that she does want to continue writing in the field of journalism.    While Goetzman didn’t begin exploring journalism until college, she quickly fell in love with

ELK HORN -- World champion Matt Stonie will compete with other top competitive eaters at the first-ever Annual Tivoli Fest World Æbleskiver Eating Championship sanctioned by Major League Eating on May 27 at 2 p.m. at Tivoli Fest, held in downtown Elk Horn.    Æbleskiver are a type of round pancake cooked in a special stove-top pan with half-spherical molds. The center is soft and fluffy and the crust is crisp and browned.

HARLAN -- A new restaurant will be the anchor of a new business development along Highway 59 south of the Settle Inn in Harlan.    The Harlan City Council has approved the sale of an approximately two-acre parcel of re-platted land along the highway in the Harlan Plaza Subdivision.    The land is being sold for the construction of The Buck Snort restaurant.    “This property would be right south of where the Settle Inn is,” said Harlan Mayor K

COUNCIL BLUFFS -- Fourteen Harlan Community High School students participated in Google’s 5th Annual Anti-Gravity Games competition April 29, sweeping the competition and taking the grand prize and 1st runner-up for the second year in a row at Kanesville Arena on the Iowa Western Community College campus.      This year the Anti-Gravity Games brought 20 area high school teams together for a day of discovery and excitement.

AVOCA -- AHSTW hosted commencement exercises for its graduates this past weekend, with ceremonies held at the AHSTW High School gymnasium starting at 1 p.m.

HARLAN -- In honor of National Travel and Tourism Week, the Iowa Tourism Office recognized Shelby County Historical Museum recently for contributing to the state’s $8.06 billion tourism industry.    National Travel and Tourism Week (May 7-13), now in its 34th year, unites communities across the country to celebrate what travel means to employment, economic growth and personal well-being.

HARLAN – Clearance and safety for emergency vehicles are the main reasons behind a proposal by the Harlan City Council to create parking on only one side of the street across roughly 140 city blocks in the community.    The council voted 6-0 last week approving the first reading of an ordinance amending the city code by adding a regulation to 69.08 of the code, in specific no parking zones.    The targeted date is to have the city blocks equip

COUNTY – The Shelby County Community Foundation (SCCF) announced this week that grants totaling $114,562.81 have been awarded to Shelby County nonprofit agencies. 

DES MOINES -- Last Monday, the sixth annual World Food Prize Iowa Youth Institute brought together 299 students from 131 high schools at Iowa State University to explore critical issues related to global food security and discover academic and career paths in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM).    The Iowa Youth Institute has now reached over 64 percent of all Iowa high schools since its inauguration in 2011, and h

AVOCA -- Steven Sauvain has been named the new secondary principal at AHSTW School District effective July 1, pending final board approval.    Sauvain replaces Cynthia Phillips who is leaving AHSTW after four years as secondary principal for a similar position in central Iowa.    Sauvain currently is PK-6 Principal and Curriculum Coordinator in the River Valley Community School District located at Correctionville in northwest Iowa.

HARLAN – The City of Harlan and Harlan Community Schools have entered into an agreement to share an operations director for the next year.    Beginning July 1, 2017 through June 30, 2018, city employee Tim Miller will spend the equivalent of 20 percent of his time working with the school district.  The remaining time will be spent with the city.  Hours may be altered as directed by the city and school district.    HCS will pay the city $15,000

AVOCA -- Firefighters, law enforcement and emergency services personnel gathered along the bridge at the Avoca exit along Interstate 80 Tuesday, May 2 to pay their respects to a deputy from Pottawattamie County who was killed in the line of duty.  The body of Mark Burbridge was on its way back to Council Bluffs from the state medical examiner’s office in Ankeny Tuesday via a motorcade, and it was a similar scene like the one above along nearly

HARLAN – The Harlan City Council has pushed back action to its Tuesday, May 16 council meeting on a proposed amended ordinance regarding time and age requirements for alcohol establishments, following lengthy discussion at its Tuesday, May 2 meeting this week.    Persons under the age of 21 won’t be allowed in a Harlan business that primarily serves alcohol for consumption on-site after 10 p.m.

HARLAN -- Myrtue Medical Center Board of Trustees approved at the end of April the updated MMC Perioperative Department capital request of an additional $60,000 for the purchase of a washer-disinfector.    In March, the MMC Board approved $190,785.25 for perioperative capital spending with $145,000 in equipment purchased.

COUNTY -- The Shelby County Plant Iowa Committee handed out trees to fifth-graders in Shelby County’s schools last week.  Here, Bev Burmeister, Plant Iowa Committee member,  and HCHS FFA members Andrew Schechinger and Miguel Mena presented the trees to HCS elementary students Friday afternoon, April 28.    The committee said they are handing out hundreds of trees this year to the students.  The project has been ongoing for the past 34 years. <