Emily Hofer has taken on numerous endeavors since returning to her home community in 2005. In addition to her primary motivation for moving back — to become the CFO and third-generation executive at Merchants State Bank — she quickly became involved in other areas of service. Hofer has taken on lead...

Gregory M. Farrar, a Hurley man who in 1998 was convicted of harassing nearly a dozen women in southeastern South Dakota, pleaded guilty via power of attorney to sexual contact without consent before Hutchinson County Circuit Court Judge Patrick Smith Monday, Nov. 27. Farrar will be sentenced by Jud...

Director Iwona Lewter has released information about auditions for “Shrek The Musical,” which will be presented as part of the 2024 Schmeckfest March 14, 15 and 16. Auditions will be held in Music Hall on the campus of Freeman Academy Thursday and Friday, Dec. 14 and 15 from 5:30 to 7:15 p.m., and S...

A number of students from Freeman Academy, Freeman Public, Marion and Menno will be traveling to Harrisburg High School next week for the 2023 State Oral Interpretation Festival. The competition will take place over the course of two days Friday and Saturday, Dec. 1 and 2. From Freeman Academy, seni...

When Daniel Graber was looking at and listening to “A German Requiem,” the oratorio composed by Johannes Brahms between the years 1865 and 1868, he recognized immediately the difficulty of the sacred work. The parts demand the upper register of its singers, it shifts in rhythm and there are harmonic...

BY LYLE PREHEIM Five-year-old Shirley Preheim was just behind her father Felix when he opened the door and looked out toward the long driveway stretching down to the section line east of the farm. Lightning illuminated water covering the end of the driveway, and everything he could see to the north ...

The ask is official. Meeting in regular monthly session Monday night, Nov. 13, the Marion School Board voted unanimously to approve a $6.5 million general bond resolution that would be used to pay for more than half of Phases 1 and 2 of a proposed three-phase Master Plan that would renovate the scho...

Thank you for being brave. For letting us be free. Thank you for serving, And going to war for us. Thank you for going to the military, And putting your life on the line. Thank you for being selfless, And fighting for us and your family. Those words, written by fifth grader Andrew Nusz, were among s...

A force of Freeman Academy students in grades 3 through 6 energetically walked into the service area at C&B Operations Monday morning, Nov. 6 and then, after shredding their coats and getting acclimated to the lay of the land, took a seat on long tables pushed together. A short while later, sealed c...