HARLAN — The Shelby County Mothers Group met Thursday at the Harlan Golf and Country Club for their annual luncheon and meeting. The event was organized by Kate Kohorst and Jan Goeser under the guidance of Prue Frederickson. The 2022 honorees were Nancy Boettger, Shelby County Mother of the Year and Jenna Hucka, Shelby County Young Mother of the Year.

HARLAN —Nearly 1,000 attended the 21st annual Harvest Fest on Saturday. Six hundred hot dogs were consumed in just over an hour. All 150 pumpkins in the pumpkin patch were decorated.    The movie “Surf’s Up” played on screens in the Harlan Theatre. Kids went on a candy walk around the square.    Hansen House Assisted Living and Memory Care Residence provided train rides for children.    There was also a costume contests for kids and pets.

Learning for Life held their Group Connection at the Harlan Community Library. There were 6 families that participated. It started out with a library tour, kids made a pumpkin craft, received color sheets and parent handouts. As they left each child got to pick a pumpkin donated by Harder Pumpkins from Avoca.

Senior wide receiver and future Hawkeye Aidan Hall was the star of the night for the HCHS varsity football team as he had three touchdowns en route to a 42-7 first round playoff victory over the 6-3 #9 ranked MOC-Floyd Valley Dutchmen to begin the challenge of a title defense.

AREA ­— Sunday was a busy day for members of the Shelby County Emergency Management team fighting field fires in the area of Panama and Portsmouth, as well as in Harrison County between Mondamin and Magnolia.Assistant Emergency Management Coordinator Jordon Sanders said there were 12 departments helping fight the field fire in Harrison County.“We need to be aware of temperature and winds and what the forecast is doing,” he said.

ELK HORN —  The Elk Horn Library became a haunted library this week.Students from Exira-EHK Elementary School had the opportunity to walk through the haunted library Wednesday.
 

Jeweler and metalsmith Katie DuVal Mihelich, of Harlan, is the featured artist for the Forgotten Art…The Artists program Nov. 5 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in downtown Harlan.
Mihelich lives in Ames with her husband.
“Most of my work will be jewelry or wearable art,” she said. “I like to include unique stones and do pieces that are unique but can be worn every day, not just for special occasions.”

The HCHS girls swim team competed Tuesday night at the Lewis Central Invite and multiple girls stood out, including Senior Elaina Vrchoticky who won the 200-yard freestyle beating out the 2021 champion Hannah Steinmets, whose time was 2:08.82.
Vrchoticky also finished second in the 100-yard freestyle event, right on the tail of Lewis Central’s Sydnie Collins. Due to her efforts, she managed to stand on the podium with a few medals.

Thomas Walter Potts, son of Kenneth and Naomi “Joanne” (Lykke) Potts, was born February 6, 1950, in Harlan, Iowa. He grew up on the farm west of Elk Horn and graduated with the Elk Horn-Kimballton High School class of 1968. He continued his education at Boone Junior College for two years. Tom then worked in bridge construction as a crane and heavy equipment operator for several years.