JEREMY WALTNER - PUBLISHER A Main Street building that was home to The Kairos bookstore/gift shop for 30 years and most recently served as Delicious Flavor — a bakery owned and operated by Brenda Blue and her daughter, Harley — is back open for business under new ownership and management.

JEREMY WALTNER  -  PUBLISHER Families living in the Freeman area who want a more extensive selection of traditional Spanish foods no longer have to make a trip to one of the larger cities in the area to find it. A new store on the southeast corner of town, in the back room of a building that has long been a restaurant, is now open with the growing Hispanic population in mind.

JEREMY WALTNER  -  PUBLISHER Maurice Waltner, a deputy with the Hutchinson County Sheriff’s Office, has been involved in the pursuit of suspects before, but never has he been the target of a direct attack. Not until last week, anyway. Waltner was an active part of the search and attempted apprehension of suspects who have since been either taken into custody or are cooperating with law enforcement for a series of alleged crimes spanning multiple counties across the region in recent weeks.

JEREMY WALTNER  -  PUBLISHER Owen Andersen says that ever since he was a little kid he has liked to draw. But it wasn’t until he discovered and read Dog Man, the graphic novel series by cartoonist Dav Pilkey, who also authored the popular Captain Underpants books, that he decided to take his drawings to a new level. “I was like, Hmm, comics,” says Owen, a sixth grader at Freeman Public. “I should write some of those.” And so he did.

JEREMY WALTNER  -  PUBLISHER   Dennis Schrock, a former teacher and coach at Freeman Academy and a monthly humor columnist for the Freeman Courier for the past 17½ years, died in a two-vehicle accident north of Hurley Sunday night, Aug. 30. A memorial service will be held Saturday, Sept. 5 at 10:30 a.m. in Pioneer Hall.

JEREMY WALTNER  -  PUBLISHER Students at Menno Public School are no longer required to wear a mask, even if a teacher asks them to, per a resolution unanimously passed by the Menno School Board of Education in special session Monday night, Aug. 24. The resolution reads as follows: “The Menno School Board of Education strongly encourages anyone who wants to wear a mask, that they wear a mask, but it is the Menno board’s policy that it is not mandatory by anyone to wear a mask for students and staff.”

JEREMY WALTNER  - PUBLISHER When Freeman Academy hosts its traditional opening convocation Sunday night, Aug. 23, it will look and feel much different thanks to efforts to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. The 6 p.m. service will be open only to students and their families and, weather permitting, will be held on the lawn south of Sterling Hall.

JEREMY WALTNER - PUBLISHER Those who wanted to get their fill of ribs and brisket needed to get to the Freeman Volunteer Fire Department’s Firehouse Rib Cook-Off early, or at least relatively close to the 5 p.m. serving hour, because food ended up being in short supply. By 7 p.m., it was gone.

JEREMY WALTNER  - PUBLISHER “The same but different” is a phrase that could be used to describe any number of events taking place this summer in spite of the coronavirus pandemic that has now run five months strong in the United States. Those words are certainly appropriate for what will be the seventh annual Firehouse Rib Cook-Off, which returns to the Freeman Swimming Pool Park this Saturday afternoon and evening, Aug. 15, and exactly how founder and organizer Chad Soulek sums up the 2020 event.

JEREMY WALTNER  - PUBLISHER Students heading back to school in Menno next week are being “strongly encouraged” to wear masks in-between classes and when dealing with others in close proximity. That’s according to Tom Rice, who is in his first year as superintendent in Menno. “We don’t do it for ourselves, we do it for others,” he said. “My first priority is my kids and a very close second is my teachers. Seven of them are over the age of 60 and I don’t need them being compromised.”