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.