HARLAN -- Myrtue Medical Center CEO Barry Jacobsen knows there will be many decisions to be made in the next 30 days on how to resume normal operations at MMC as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to be a fluid situation.    Jacobsen is hopeful operations will be back to normal in the near future which includes bringing back furloughed employees starting as early as May 4 with the intention to have all employees back by the middle of May.    

    STATE -- On Monday, April 27, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds signed a new proclamation continuing the State Public Health Emergency Declaration until May 27, 2020.    The proclamation loosens social distancing measures in 77 Iowa counties effective today, Friday, May 1 and continues other restrictions until 11:50 p.m.

    REGIONAL -- Myrtue Medical Center announced Wednesday it is ready to meet post COVID-19 challenges, and is making patient safety a top priority.

    HARLAN -- Curbside service will open at the Harlan Community Library on Tuesday, May 5.  It will operate Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. until further notice.    Items can be reserved online at the library website www.harlanlibrary.org or use the app Librista. After reserving online, patrons will also need to call the library to schedule a time to pick items up.

    COUNTY -- From the Shelby County Treasurer’s Office:   •  Property tax payments paid on/before May 27 will not incur any penalty/interest.   • Delinquent notices, normally scheduled to be mailed out May 1, are indefinitely postponed.   • The annual tax sale, schedule for June 15th this year, has been indefinitely postponed.   • Please refer to the Iowa Department of Transportation website for updates on available online services.

    MANNING -- Irene E. Aikman, 100, Manning, died April 25 at Methodist Jennie Edmundson Hospital.    Private family funeral services were held Wednesday, April 29 at 10 a.m.

    HARLAN -- Carly Kienast and Justin Schechinger both of Harlan were married at Fresh Encounter Fellowship Church in Harlan on December 6, 2019. The 3:30 p.m. double ring ceremony was performed by Pastor Mike Martin.    Parents of the couple are Mike and Connie Kienast, Harlan; and Debra Schechinger, Harlan; and the late Don Schechinger.
 

HARLAN – Keith Bauer has seen this before, and remembers it well.    It wasn’t a pandemic, but the current effect of a major world and United States economic disruption due to COVID-19 gives him pause and a sense of Déjà vu.    “During World War II, shoes were rationed,” Bauer remembers.  He was a youngster at the time and his parents ran the Harlan shoe store.  His father, Albert Bauer, purchased Walter’s Shoe Store in August of 1926.  “Every

    HARLAN – A group of 69, most of them 9-10 month hourly employees and teachers, crowded in to last week’s Harlan Community Schools Board of Education electronic Zoom meeting to express discouragement with proposed compensation changes beginning next year.    Mindy Shaffer, a 6th grade classroom paraeducator, high school student council advisor and co-middle school show choir director, was the spokesperson for the group, and took the time to