News

Clay County’s contested races, including Harvard and Sutton School Boards and councils, resulted in some retained positions, as well as voting in new members.

HARVARD SCHOOL BOARD

Janet Hachtel retained her spot, earning 325 votes. Additionally, two new members will join the board, with Andrew Burbach garnering 289 votes and Michelle M. Callahan earning 258.

Those on the ballot but not voted in include Michael B. Nierman, 240 votes; Bonnie Roberts, 216 votes; and Cory Marshall, 214 votes.

To read more please log in or subscribe to the digital edition. http://etypeservices.com/Clay%20County%20NewsID530/

Monday it began raining, thundering and even lightning as a thunderstorm rolled over the county. Tuesday morning, thick ice coated everything. The heavy rain-thick ice mixture caused issues for trees and other plants in the county, breaking several branches off, onto roadways and, in a couple of cases, some vehicles. Here, City of Sutton crews work to remove remnants of a fallen branch from a street in the town Tuesday morning. Pictured is Gary Nuss, outside, and Jaden Nuss in the skid loader.

To read more please log in or subscribe to the digital edition. http://etypeservices.com/Clay%20County%20NewsID530/

Members of the Sutton City County needed just 30 minutes to get through agenda items on the November docket of discussion. Several items either had no action taken or were deferred to later meetings, pending further information requested on several items, including an ordinance to vacate a portion of Grand Ave in the Grandview Subdivision in northwest Sutton.

Council members approved the sale of right-of-way ground in the Schnieders Addition, near what is called the Ponderosa area of Sutton, just west of the CPI Elevator in Sutton, to Brandon Scheidemann at a cost of one dollar.

The leasing of a new commercial grade mower, and a sewer jet with camera, along with a trailer for the sewer jet were approved by city officials. The schedule of payments for the equipment with First Capital Equipment Leasing Corp., will see five payments of $32,312.07 made for the new equipment. Each payment will be due on Sept. 1 through 2025. The mower is a Toro 4000-D commercial mower.

On Nov. 1, South Heartland District Health Department (SHDHD) officials reported 85 new lab-confirmed COVID-19 cases in the past four days (Friday–Monday), bringing the cumulative number of cases in the four-county health district to 1,556.

The new confirmed cases for the four-day period include: 51 in Adams, 20 in Clay, eight in Nuckolls and six in Webster. By county, the new cumulative totals are: 1,031 cases in Adams, 234 cases in Clay, 154 cases in Nuckolls, and 137 cases in Webster.

This increase comes after the district previously reported 1,375 on Oct. 26; Clay was reporting 192 Oct. 26, an increase of 42 cases in a week. Adams increased by 106; Nuckolls is up 23; and Webster increased by 10.

To read more please log in or subscribe to the digital edition. http://etypeservices.com/Clay%20County%20NewsID530/

Sutton Community Home resident Walt Becker waves to elementary students from Sutton Public School as they walk by for the annual costume parade. Instead of walking in the main hall of the home, due to COVID-19 measures taken by SCH, students instead walked around the perimeter of SCH to show off their costumes to residents who waited by their windows. ASHLEY D. SWANSON | CLAY COUNTY NEWS

LEFT: Chris Pierce places his daughter, Collyns, who is dressed as Anna from the movie “Frozen,” on a slide during the Clay Center Halloween Party Saturday, Oct. 31. RIGHT: Dressed as Shrek and Fiona from the movie “Shrek,” Josh and Christina Dittmer, along with Snickers, “playing” Donkey (another character from the movie) await trick or treaters during Fairfield’s Trunk or Treat event Oct. 31. ASHLEY D. SWANSON | CLAY COUNTY NEWS MELISSA WHITEFOOT | CLAY COUNTY NEWS

Harvard City Council members approved a camera security system for the town during their Tuesday, Oct. 27 meeting.

Chad Carter, with Car-Tel Enterprises, presented a security camera system option, which featured 10, eight megapixel cameras.

Carter showed the council an example of what the cameras would project at night, having installed one at the library prior to Tuesday night’s council meeting.

The cameras take three frames per second and can go up to 15 frames per second, holding four terabytes of information.

To read more please log in or subscribe to the digital edition. http://etypeservices.com/Clay%20County%20NewsID530/

Clay County schools are still honoring and saluting veterans, but in a different way for this year’s Veterans Day programs.

HARVARD:

A video featuring tributes to all veterans will premiere on Nov. 11, on the schools website—www.harvardcardinals.org or on the school’s social media pages. The video will include student music performances and Boys and Girls State speakers.

To read more please log in or subscribe to the digital edition. http://etypeservices.com/Clay%20County%20NewsID530/

On June 2, Harvard Library’s front stoop filled with people, many of whom were dressed in black, to support not only the #blackouttuesday movement on social media, but also the Black Lives Matter Protest happening.

It was peaceful, emotional and select speakers—Harvard residents Jermaine Guinyard and David Reazola—shared passionate words with attendees.

“We’re here protesting equality, not just here, but across the nation...this is a huge issue in society... they don’t want to take the time to listen and hear what’s really being said to other people,” the two men shared during the protest.

This small gesture of support in small-town Nebraska didn’t go unnoticed, being picked up by several media outlets, and eventually a podcast in New York.

“Resistance,” a spotify-original podcast by Gimlet, focuses on people who refuse to accept things as they are and are doing so in surprising ways.

During a Monday morning press conference, information was given about a COVID-19 vaccine and the plans for when one is released to the public.

Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Incident Commander Angie Ling overviewed Nebraska’s plan to rapidly deploy a coronavirus vaccine once it arrives.

The state has worked closely with local health departments and other partners to develop an efficient distribution network. Nebraska will make use of the existing Vaccines for Children (VFC) provider network, which includes health care providers, local health departments, federally qualified health centers, community-based clinics, tribal health care centers, and hospitals.

To read more please log in or subscribe to the digital edition. http://etypeservices.com/Clay%20County%20NewsID530/

NEBRASKA NEWS SERVICE

Through the power of science and sparkles and after 26 hours of planning, Nebraska Extension’s 4-H Youth Development launched the first session of Living Room Learning on March 17 with a glitter bomb tutorial. Subsequently, thousands of kids have tuned in on Zoom for 4-H’s virtually-guided live experience initiative, making robot hands and rocket loads while gaining insight on Nebraska-based careers.

Living Room Learning and other virtual opportunities came together quickly because they needed to, according to Extension Educator for 4-H Youth Development Tracy Pracheil, who works at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

“(Two words) that we use in extension often are that we’re responsive and nimble,” Pracheil said. “This has been a great example of that. We’ve really tried to pull together our resources and deliver them in a way that benefited the youth of our state.”