Local FFA and 4-H exhibitors are expected to weigh in a total of 261 chickens, rabbits, goats, lambs, and pigs at the Shackelford County Youth Livestock Show barn Thursday afternoon (today), and the first class in the 2019 county livestock show will enter the arena at 7:00 p.m. tonight, Jan. 31.

Cattle exhibitors will check in 14 head of cattle on Friday, Feb. 1, to bring final registration numbers in this year’s show to 275, down 43 entries from last year.

Exhibitor numbers are also down from 2018, with 137 youth showing animals this year, 38 fewer than last year.

Clint Chapman and Stephen Kayga threw their hats into the ring for Place 7 on the Albany school board this week, joining Dinty Bowman and Jerry (Mike) Bean who both filed for the Place 7 trustee spot last week.  

The seat, currently held by retiring school board president Betsy Parsons, was the only contested race on the ballot as of press time on Tuesday.

Candidates must file by 5:00 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 15 to have their names listed on the ballot for one of the local offices up for election on May 4. There is no filing fee.

Albany City Council

Shackelford County commissioners got an update on the county’s new official website and discussed a possible contract with the Walker-Sayle Unit in Breckenridge during a regular meeting on Monday morning, Jan. 28.

The session was conducted by senior commissioner Steve Riley, as new county judge Bob Skelton was attending a judges’ school this week.

New Precinct 2 commissioner Ace Reames was present for his first meeting as a county official.

County Website

Time is running out to purchase special gifts and/or handmade Oreo© truffles from Project Graduation’s Valentine’s Day fundraiser.

“Orders for Valentine gifts need to be turned in by Thursday, Jan. 31, so we can get everything here before Valentine’s Day,” organizer Tisha Wilkins said. “Truffles need to be ordered by Feb. 5, so we can have them ready for students to dip those on Feb. 9.”

Flyers were sent to both Albany schools. The various Valentine gift items vary in price from $1 up to $8, while the hand-dipped truffles are $3 for six or $6 for a dozen.

Three of the local girls and boys fifth and sixth grade basketball teams will play games this Saturday, Feb. 2, in Clyde, but the boys sixth grade team will not play this weekend because of scheduling conflicts.

“We only have six players, even when everyone is healthy,” said coach Campbell Terry. “Four of our boys are in the stock show, so there is no way we can play this Saturday.”

The season ends the following weekend, on Feb. 9, with games in Clyde and Eula. 

This past Saturday, local teams played games in Merkel and Jim Ned.

Delivery of The Albany News through the mail and at news racks is returning to Thursday mornings this week after printing presses at the Abilene Reporter-News are now back up and running.

A major fire at the Abilene newspaper in November forced the News to switch to printing the weekly paper in Lubbock until the Abilene press was operational.

Newspapers should be on local news racks by 6:30 a.m. on Thursdays, and local mail subscribers will also find the newspaper posted on Thursday morning like it was prior to the fire.

Albany High School students selected eight class members as royalty for the 2019 Winter Formal, including this year’s Mr. and Miss AHS. 

The Winter Formal is organized each year by the AHS student council, and was held Saturday, Jan. 19 at the Whitney Theatre.

Three boys and three girls from each of the four classes were nominated by their peers in class meetings held earlier this month, with the winners selected last week.

Honorees were announced and presented toward the end of the Saturday night event.

In conjunction with Sanctity of Human Life Sunday, which was observed on Jan. 20, several local church congregations are participating in the annual Baby Bottle Boomerang to help raise funds for The Open Door Ministry based in Cisco and servicing area communities including Albany.

Special empty baby bottles were distributed during Sunday services and after being filled with donations, should be returned to the participating churches.

Albany Sports Center sent two cheer teams and one individual performer to compete at the American Spirit Championship 2019 West Texas Express Nationals at the Lubbock Memorial Civic Center on Sunday, Jan. 13, and brought back the championship banner in the youth level two division for the second year in a row.

The youth team, the ASC Lions, is made up of second through sixth grade girls. Seventeen local children, one student from Wylie, and three from Breckenridge are on the team this year. 

Open registration for the next series of General Education Development (GED) classes in Albany will take place on Monday, Jan. 21, according to local instructor Kenzie Fairchild.

“New applicants will be accepted starting next week,” said Fairchild. “Participants should be at least 17 years of age (with parent’s consent) or older and must have an ID to register.”

There are exceptions for 16-year-olds, listed at the end of this article.