With the new year come new resolutions! Southwest Nebraska Public Health Department (SWNPHD) invites everyone to join in committing to a healthier lifestyle in 2024. Maintaining a healthy lifestyle can improve your quality of life and help prevent lifethreatening or chronic conditions such as stroke, heart disease, diabetes, and others.

A petition to add a referendum to the November 2024 ballot to reppeal a law that provides incentives for taxpayers to donate to private schools has created a discussion among a state senator and petition organizers.

BEAVER CITY – The city council met for the first time in the new year on Tuesday, January 2. The only official action taken during the meeting that lasted just under one-half hour was approving a building permit for Dalton McCarter to place a trailer house on his property. The planning commission met immediately prior to the council meeting and recommended the permit be issued.

The Nebraska GOP meeting was held recently and discussion of abuse in the state child welfare system, misconduct reports being hidden in the Lincoln school system, and teachers educating parents how to go around their parents for birth control. All of these topics have been in the press the last month. A core ingredient in all these cases is a lack of transparency and efforts to keep the truth from the public eye.

Elementary Fan Day and poster signing for the Arapahoe girls basketball team was held recently at the Arapahoe High School. This is a great group of girls for young fans to look up to.

Todd Hartley and Darren Warner, directors of the Ag Valley Co-op, N/S headquartered in Edison, recently completed a four-phase educational program co-sponsored by the Nebraska Cooperative Council and CoBank. Each will receive a Certificate of Recognition acknowledging completion of the program.

Southwest Nebraska Public Health Department (SWNPHD) in partnership with Nebraska Department of Environment and Energy is offering free water lead testing to all public, parochial, and private schools, along with all childcare facilities that are licensed within the health district’s nine counties of Chase, Dundy, Frontier, Furnas, Hayes, Hitchcock, Keith, Perkins, and Red Willow.

Leslie Blank started her position as Treasurer for the Frontier County Treasurer’s Office on January 1. The Frontier County Commissioners appointed Blank following the retirement of former Frontier County Treasurer Carleen Crawford.

A little over one year since opening Local Roots Floral and Gifts LLC, the owner is reflecting on the process of starting her business and what it has done for her community. Located in Arapahoe, Local Roots is a combined flower and coffee shop that also sells handmade items from vendors in the area.

With blizzard warnings issued for the second time in a couple weeks, the region was again put at a stand-still with a snow storm that arrived Monday. While snow amounts were again modest - the highest reported amount locally was just over six inches near Eustis - blowing and drifting snow made travel difficult and area schools cancelled classes both Monday and Tuesday.