The Harlan Community School District Board of Educators welcomed a new member to its board. In a meeting Monday, Angie Monson was sworn in as the new member taking over for Tammy Schwartz who had moved out of the district. Monson will represent district 4, which is up for re-election on September 10th along with three other seats on the Harlan Community School Board. Monson does plan on running on the ballot. In fact, aside from District 2, all other candidates are running unopposed. Included on the ballot on Tuesday, September 10th is the Revenue Purpose Statement. The School District is not making any changes to the revenue statement but only to renew it. Voters can get an absentee ballot from the Shelby County Auditor’s Office from now until Friday, September 6th. Towards the end of the meeting, Athletic Director Mitch Osborn gave a report on a new policy from the district charging adults and students to get into certain Middle School activities at Merrill Field. Osborn told the board nine of the twelve Hawkeye 10 Conference Schools are charging to get into Middle School sporting events. Osborn said this is something the district didn’t want to do,

Osborn1: “We have held off and held off and never wanted to. We are looking at football and track with one gate it makes it easy. We are looking at three dollars for adults and two dollars for students. If you have an activity student pass, you get in free. Another incentive, if you are a member of the booster club, show them your pass and you get in free also.”

The Harlan Community activity ticket for students is $25 and a booster club pass for a husband and wife is $50. The district will not charge admittance to the Middle school volleyball, basketball or wrestling events as Osborn said it will be much more difficult when using two gyms and needing more help taking tickets. He said the idea of charging for middle school events was not something he wanted to do,

Osborn2: “I’ve been against. I’ve had people tell me we need to. I put the pencil to the paper and last year we spent around $5,580 for officials at middle school events. That comes out of the high school gate receipts. We think by having 4 home 8th grade football games, 3 home 7th grade football games and 4 home track meets and by those events you will cover most of your officiating for the year.”

No action was necessary by the Harlan Community School Board and the middle school admittance fees will begin this year.

(Joel McCall KNOD)

During the late night of August 17th, Page County Deputies were dispatched to 2914 180th Street in Clarinda for a burglary that had occurred sometime in the previous two days. Deputies processed the scene.

During the investigation, fingerprints were recovered and turned over to the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI) for analysis. Deputies were informed that on Friday, August 16th, Sara Lawrence, a resident of the home, had discovered missing items from the porch but did not contact Police. Late night on the 17th, Lawrence said she became nervous about the stolen items, so she secured the residence, put the firearms in a gun cabinet and stayed with relatives.

When Lawrence and the other resident, William Humphrey, returned to the residence they noticed that a handgun, clothes, ammunition and other items were missing. They then notified Law Enforcement at approximately 9:45-p.m.

Deputies searched for anyone that might still be in the area but no person was found. The gun was entered as stolen nationwide through the Clarinda Police Dispatch at 7:00-a.m. on August 18th.

The Harlan Police Department has released incident and arrest reports for the past week. On August 13th, Phillip Matzen of Council Bluffs reported the theft of his 1994 Mercury Marquis from 2001 6th Street. The vehicle was later located and returned to Matzen. This case remains under investigation.

On August 15th, 27-year old Steven Riley was charged with two counts of possession of a controlled substance (enhanced due to prior convictions), possession of drug paraphernalia, and failure to wear a seat belt. All charges were in regards to a traffic stop on July 26th, 2012 and were filed with the clerk of court.

On August 16th, Officers were called to an altercation in the 400 block of Market in which an individual had a weapon. As a result of the investigation, 41-year old Anthony Thraen of Harlan was charged with assault. 41-year old Robert Kirk Loudy of Rogersville, TN, was charged with carrying weapons. Both subjects were transported to the Shelby County Jail.

On August 17th, Harlan Officers were called to a disturbance at the Shelby County Speedway. 22-year old Michael Erickson of Exira, 24-year old Tyler Schwager of Council Bluffs and 23-year old Zachary Schwager of Council Bluffs were all arrested and taken to the Shelby County Jail where they were charged with disorderly conduct.