Six Albany basketball players have been named to positions on the All-Big Country Basketball teams for Class 2A, along with a local coach being recognized as Coach of the Year.

Seniors Cameron Dacus and Ryan Hill both received first team selections for Class 2A, while senior Josh Dyer and juniors Ben West and Coby Knight were named to the second team.

On the girls side, junior Jaleigh Morales was given a place on the Class 2A first team, and third-year girls coach Tate Thompson was named Coach of the Year.

The newest employee at the Shackelford County sheriff’s office is only two years old, but the energetic youngster comes highly trained and is a specialist at narcotics detection.

Joey was brought on board to replace Spyngo, the recently retired 11 year-old narcotic detection canine.

Joey works and lives with chief deputy sheriff Johnny Freeman.

Resignations were accepted, contracts renewed, and a teacher hired at Monday’s AISD board meeting.

Longtime local band director John Stockdale, who has been in Albany 20 years and in  music education for close to 60, submitted his resignation, and along with second grade teacher Lindsey Edgar’s resignation, it was accepted with regrets.

Also after the closed session came renewal of current term and probationary faculty contracts, along with approval of letters of assurance for the support staff.

New Teacher

Around 100 classic cars and trucks are anticipated to be in the downtown area this Saturday, April 20 for the 13th annual Albany Classic Car Show, and spectators are encouraged to walk among the entrees, visit the auto museum, eat a meal or two from vendors, and see if their picks are also selected by the judges.

The local car show, hosted by members of Albany’s Shifters Car Club, is free for all spectators, and as of press time, the forecast called for mostly sunny skies with temperatures ranging from the low 50s to the upper 80s. 

Albany High School junior Addison Asher will advance in three events to the University Interscholastic League state academic meet to be held at the University of Texas Campus in Austin on Friday, May 3.

Asher and senior Caroline Masters were the only Albany High School students who placed at the regional level competition held in Odessa last weekend.

The state qualifier earned a first place in headline writing, and was third in both news writing and feature writing.

The Albany Chamber of Commerce sponsored Wild West Day is expected to start with a bang at 12:00 noon on Saturday, April 27, according to Chamber director Lisa Barton.

“Folks need to try and be there right at the start,” said Barton. “The bank robbery will only happen once!”

Wild West Day will begin at 12:00 noon and continue all day until 10:30 p.m.

Early voting for the May 4 local elections will begin next Monday, April 22 and run through Tuesday, April 30, with two Albany city council positions and two Albany ISD seats to be decided by voters. A third AISD seat is uncontested, along with the Albany mayor’s post.

The early voting location for both elections is Albany’s City Hall at 425 S. 2nd Street.

Regular hours are 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon and 1:00 to 5:00 p.m. on weekdays, although the site will be open for required extended hours on the first and last days of the early voting period.

After waiting 20 minutes for a quorum, three members of the Shackelford County Hospital District’s board of directors called a traveling board member on the phone in order to pay bills.

Vice president Janna Ledbetter called the district portion of the meeting to order at 6:19 p.m. on Monday, April 15, with Leslie Belcher and Mike Bean also present. Board president John Ayers, who was on his way home from a business trip, was on speaker.

The directors passed a motion to pay the district bills, then in a separate session, also paid the clinic bills.

After a year-long delay, the 2016-2017 Shackelford County audit was presented and approved at Monday’s commissioners meeting, and work will begin soon on the 2017-2018 audit to get the books back on schedule, according to county treasurer Tammy Brown. 

She explained that the previous company, with new ownership, gave notice more than a year ago that they would no long perform the county’s audits. It had taken some time, she said, to find a new accounting firm and then get all the information sorted out.

Texas Tech University graduate and Lubbock educator John Gallagher was approved as the new principal for the Nancy Smith Elementary School campus during an early morning special session of the Albany ISD board of trustees on Thursday, April 4.

Gallagher was one of 26 candidates for the position, with seven selected by a seven-member committee made up mostly of elementary staff members.

According to AISD superintendent Jonathan Scott, the committee recommended three applicants, including Gallagher, for second interviews conducted by Scott.