By Kathy Thomson The former Shekinah office building, located catty-corner to the post office and near the Depot, is being re-purposed into a long-awaited senior citizens center, but funding is still needed to complete the transformation.

By Kathy Thomson The Shackelford County Youth and Livestock Association met last Tuesday, Dec. 10, to finalize plans for this year’s stock show, and with a large number of entries expected, the annual fundraising drive has begun.

By Melinda L. Lucas A new board member was sworn in during a very brief meeting of the Shackelford County Hospital District directors on Monday, Dec. 16.

By Kathy Thomson The annual Albany Chest campaign is nearing the Dec. 31 deadline, and although donations slowed to a crawl in early December, after a recent surge, the drive is now within $7,000 of reaching the goal of $42,000 set by directors for the 2019 campaign.

By Kathy Thomson The Albany Volunteer Fire Department honored member Casey Kimbrough with the 2019 Firefighter of the Year merit award at the annual Christmas party and meeting on Monday, Dec. 16.

By Melinda L. Lucas A large crowd attended a book signing of Heavy Date Over Germany: The Life and Times of B-17 Tail Gunner Ray Perry on Tuesday, Dec. 17 at the Shackelford County Library, including the subject’s son, former Texas governor Rick Perry, who wrote the foreword.

The Albany Chamber of Commerce will meet as usual this week on Dec. 20 at the Icehouse. The weekly luncheon has been cancelled for the holidays on Dec. 27. On Friday, Jan. 3, the 12:00 noon meetings move to the Beehive for the first two months of 2020.

By Donnie A. Lucas The varsity Lady Lions won two out of three games at the Breckenridge Tournament last weekend, beating both Dublin and TLCA before falling to the hosting Lady Bucs in the third round. Albany hosted Guthie on Tuesday, picking up a 43-37 win to improve to 11-4 for the season.

By Donnie A. Lucas Last week was very busy for boys basketball, with the varsity playing in the Hico tournament and the two JV teams entered in the Jacksboro tournament. All three high school boys teams will travel to Comanche on Friday for games starting 4:00 p.m.

By Donnie A. Lucas The two Lion JV teams played a combined total of nine games last week, hosting a pair of bouts on Tuesday and playing in the Jacksboro Tournament. The JV teams will travel to Comanche on Friday for games starting at 4:00 p.m. before the holiday break begins.