Tabitha Schoenwald, who is the marketing and foundation director at Freeman Regional Health Services, assists auctioneer Ken Wintersteen during the live auction at Saturday night's FRHS Foundation Gala — a major fundraiser for the organization that provides financial support to the local health care service. Saturday's formal event also included a meal, silent auction and keynote address from inspirational speaker V.J. Smith, who spoke of the importance of gratitude and appreciation.

Freeman sophomore Sawyer Wipf battles Menno senior Cody Munkvold in Cornbelt Conference basketball action in Freeman Friday night, Jan. 20. It was part of a doubleheader with the girls that the Flyers swept; the varsity boys won 60-34 to pick up their second win of the season (2-8) while the varsity girls won 62-36 to move above .500 (6-5). There's more basketball action today locally; the Freeman boys will host Kimball-White Lake with the JV game to start at 1 p.m., while the Freeman girls travel to Irene to face Freeman Academy/Marion in the Irene-Wakonda Classic.

It was a late start, but school is back in session following an off-day yesterday due to the latest round of winter weather. And Freeman Public will be the location for a basketball doubleheader tonight between the Flyers and Menno; the boys C game will begin at 4 p.m. followed by both junior varsity games, the girls varsity at 6:15 p.m. and then the boys varsity after that. 

Allen Mehlhaf clears snow from his driveway Thursday morning following another round of winter — this time a 6 1/2 inch snowfall locally that came overnight. With more than a foot of snow already blanketing the community, the latest even only adds to the challenge of snow storage, visibility at intersections and scheduling. The Freeman Public Library and Heritage Hall Museum & Archives are both closed, there's no school and tonight's boys basketball game between Freeman and Menno in Menno has been moved to tomorrow in Freeman as a doubleheader with the girls.

JEREMY WALTNER  - EDITOR & PUBLISHER The Freeman Public School Board learned early this week that an advisory committee tasked with looking at an athletic partnership is continuing to meet and is exploring whether to expand the Phoenix cooperative with Marion and Freeman Academy into other sports.

JEREMY WALTNER - PUBLISHER Those seeking election or re-election to a local governing body may take out a nominating petition beginning Friday, Jan. 27. The deadline to collect signatures and file those petitions is 5 p.m. Friday, Feb. 24. The 2023 city/school election is Tuesday, April 11. The following vacancies in the tri-city area are as follows:

JEREMY WALTNER - PUBLISHER The coldest of the four seasons officially began just three weeks ago, but already it feels like the area has received an entire winter’s worth of weather.

This week's issue of The Courier includes our annual In Memoriam, which features a list of those who passed away in 2022 and whose obituaries we published. It will be available online early Wednesday afternoon and in print on Thursday.

The first meeting of the year for the Freeman City Council looks to be a short one, with a relatively light agenda. The meeting will begin at 6:30 p.m. and can be live-streamed by using this link.

The superintendent/PreK-12 principal from the Rutland School District will be coming to Marion. Meeting in regular session Monday night, Jan. 9, the Marion School Board voted to offer the position of superintendent to Brian Brosnahan. The action came on a 6-0 vote and Brosnahan has accepted the offer.