REGIONAL -- School districts in the greater Shelby County area have begun classes for the year, and local officials are urging motorists to be on the lookout for children as they make their way to and from school.    For the fourth school year in Harlan, motorists are reminded of the crosswalk/red light along the busy Chatburn Ave.

PORTSMOUTH -- Peg Petsche of Portsmouth may be retired, but she hasn’t slowed down.    These days, she is doing her original dream job and helping soon-to-be spouses put together flower arrangements for their ceremony at her church. 

HARLAN -- Beginning Friday, Aug. 25 for the home football game with Lewis Central traffic flow changes will be implemented to improve public safety during home varsity football games.      Starting at 4 p.m. until departure of buses after the game the travelled area between Vets Auditorium and Merrill Field will be closed to vehicle traffic (refer to yellow area of map).

PORTSMOUTH -- Wayne and Connie Juhl of Portsmouth will observe their 50th wedding anniversary on September 1. They celebrated by taking an Alaskan cruise (land and sea) in June. 

MILFORD -- Jeff and Penny Nelson of Harlan announce the engagement of their daughter, Shelby to Dylan Book both of Adel. Dylan is the son of Jim and Anne Book, Adel; and Karen Book, Adel.    The couple will exchange marriage vows on September 30 at a ceremony at Boji Bay in Milford. 

HARLAN -- Dennis and Sylvia Gaul of Harlan will mark 50 years of marriage on September 2. They will celebrate their anniversary with a family dinner. 

 HARLAN -- The Harlan Community baseball team’s sustained success over the last two and a half decades or so has officially reached juggernaut status. The 2017 Cyclones raised the bar another notch this summer, setting a single-season school record for wins (36-3) in qualifying for a seventh consecutive state tournament and reaching the 3-A championship game for the third year in a row. HCHS was unable to defend last season’s third state title

 HARLAN -- For a team that lost just three seniors off last year’s softball squad, the 2017 Harlan Community Cyclones found themselves in full-fledged rebuild mode this past summer. In addition to the graduation departures of Iowa State recruit Logan Schaben, Julia Sorfonden and Emily Juhl, several other full or part-time starters from a 13-23 campaign elected not to return for head coach Brooke Schaben’s second season at the helm. In their st

 DES MOINES -- The postseason honors have continued to pile up this month for Harlan Community senior shortstop Dillon Sears. The Western Illinois recruit played in the Iowa High School Baseball Coaches Association All-Star Series August 3-6 and was named the team MVP for Small Schools West.