By Donnie A. Lucas

Rehearsals for Albany high’s one-act play started this week in preparation for the district contest set for March 9.

Tryouts were held last week by Chanel Hayner, who is serving as the director after transferring as a teacher at the secondary campus. She also was in charge of the high school OAP five years ago while still teaching at Nancy Smith Elementary.

Hayner selected the play “Tracks” by Peter Tarsi for this year, a drama about a group of passengers who meet on a subway ride and are given reason to review their lives.

By Sam Waller

Albany High School seniors have one remaining Project Graduation workday to prepare Valentine’s gifts sold in January.

Seniors and their parents will meet at The Feed Store on Sunday, Feb. 13,to finalize gifts for delivery.

Seniors will meet at 7:00 a.m. Monday, Feb. 14, at The Feed Store to pack up gifts, with delivery to begin about 8:00 a.m., according to Project Graduation organizer Kenzie Fair­child. Seniors signed up to participate in delivering gifts will have an excused absence for the periods they miss, Fairchild said.

By Sam Waller

The Albany Chamber of Commerce will host its annual meeting Friday, Feb. 11, after postponing the event because of last week’s winter storm.

Chamber manager Mary Beth Jones said the Chamber faced a busy week because of weather delays. A board meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 8 got the week started.

Friday’s meeting is scheduled for noon at the Beehive Restaurant with two board positions to be elected. Jones said places currently held by Clayton Snyder and Ramby Anderson will be up for vote.

By Donnie A. Lucas

With just over a week remaining in the filing period for several local May 7 elections, only a few candidates have signed up for a term on one of the six boards or councils subject to election.

Board member posts and council positions are subject to election by the public for both Albany and Moran school boards and city councils, along with the Shackelford County Hospital District and the Fort Griffin SUD.

Candidates have until Friday, Feb. 18 to have their names placed on the ballots for any of the local elections.

By Donnie A. Lucas

The number of positive COVID-19 cases administered locally continued to drop last week as the spike earlier in the month seems to be subsiding.

The number of positive test results dropped to 22 positive cases based on tests administered at the three local testing sites. However, the testing period was limited to only three days with the testing sites closed on Thursday and Friday due to the weather.

A total of 45 tests were given for the week of Jan. 24-28, according to the weekly report issued by county judge Bob Skelton.

By Donnie A. Lucas

Resound Networks, the company that was awarded a substantial bid to provide expanded and improved internet services in Shackelford County, has begun offering plans to both residential and commercial customers.

The company, headquartered in Pampa, Texas has completed at least initial steps to provide internet services in an eight-mile radius of Albany.

No information was available from the company on when services might be expanded to more rural areas of the county.

By Donnie A. Lucas

In-person early voting for the March 1 primary elections starts Monday, Feb. 14 and continues until Friday, Feb. 25, with balloting taking place in the first floor lobby of the Shackelford County Courthouse.

Early voting hours are 8:30 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. each weekday including Fridays during the period. The Courthouse will be closed on Monday, Feb. 21 for Presidents Day.

“Voting will be available through the lunch hour this year,” election clerk Cheri Hawkins said.

By Sam Waller

Registration is winding down for the upcoming youth baseball season with information available at Nancy Smith Elementary School.

Albany Little League organizer Paul Hamilton said the program is shifting to online registration this year, but information on how to register is available through the school.

Registration deadline for Little League Majors and Minors, Intermediate, and Junior leagues is Feb. 11.

Competition is also offered in T-Ball and Coach Pitch age groups.

By Sam Waller

The Moran FFA meat judging team finished 36th last week at the Fort Worth stock show in its first competition of the year.

Moran superintendent Dr. John Denson said the six-person team placed solidly in the middle of the field of about 60 entries.

“For their first contest of the year, I feel good about it,” Denson said.

The team consists of Alayna Baker, Cotten Campbell, Allen Hebel, Ellis Hise, Johnnie Hise, and Hannah Rogers.

Max Balliew of Albany was named on Tarleton State University’s Scholastic Honors Dean’s List for the Fall 2021 semester.

Max, the son of Tim and Candy Balliew, is majoring in Biomedical Science and should graduate May of 2023. He plans to go to Physicians Assistant school after he gets his bachelor’s degree. Currently, he is a student instructor for the statistics program at Tarleton.