The ears of the leaders of the St. Paul school district were ringing last week, and it wasn’t because the bells in the school were going off.

A Class 1 feeding operation located near the intersection of Highway 281 and 22nd Avenue in northern Howard County received permission to increase the scale of its operation from 950 to 2,500 animal units and increase its feeding area, pending the approval of the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and the Nebraska Department of Environment and Energy (NDEE), following a unanimous vote from members of the Howard County Board of Commissioners last Tuesday.

Teams from Burwell, Loup City, Ord, and St. Paul have qualified to compete in the state Envirothon. Between February 1st and March 7th, Nebraska high school students competed around the state during regional Envirothon competitions. In the contests, students demonstrate natural resources knowledge by identifying trees, keystone species, and animal tracks; by calculating rangeland carrying capacity; by demonstrating a knowledge of fish anatomy; and by determining soil structure. Eighty-six teams competed in regional qualifying events.

Dave and Barbara Tuma enjoyed dinner in Kearney Tuesday with Robert and Sandy Rucilez of Kearney. Barbara Tuma visited Adeline Jonak of St.

On Tuesday afternoon, Julie Spilinek attended the Presbyterian Women’s monthly meeting at the Presbyterian church in St. Paul. Joyce Ward was the hostess, and Julie led the Bible Study of the “Sabbath”.

Nebraska USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) is reminding agricultural producers of the availability of two financial assistance programs designed to address revenue losses associated with natural disasters and the pandemic. The Emergency Relief Program (ERP) Phase 2 and the Pandemic Assistance Revenue Program (PARP) currently are both open for application at FSA offices across the state.

National Severe Weather Awareness Week is March 27th through March 31st, with the Statewide tornado drill scheduled for Wednesday. Sirens will be tested on Wednesday, March 29th, between 10:00 a.m., and 10:30 a.m. in many of the Region 26 towns. This is a time to review your tornado plan for taking shelter, either at work or at home. Region 26 will also be testing their CodeRED emergency alerting system in each county next week. Residents and businesses in Region 26 will receive a test call if they have registered with CodeRed. The recording might ask for residents to press any key to listen to the message. The test call-out will come from (308) 942 - 3462 and text from No. 76993. Weather alerts would come from 1(800) 566 - 9780. If you are not signed up to receive the CodeRED alerts, you may do so by calling the Region 26 office at (308) 942 3461 if you live in Thomas, Blaine, Loup, Garfield, Wheeler, Greeley, Valley, or Sherman counties. You do not need to register again if you have signed up before. If you have a prerecorded message on your phone, CodeRED alerts will not come through.

A couple years ago, while thumbing through the pages of the Lincoln Journal-Star, I stumbled upon a story that caught my eye. A Lincoln couple, who had spent a decade living in Istanbul, Turkey, had collected over one-hundred chandeliers during their time living abroad and during their travels to neighboring countries.