By Sidney Bartee The deadline to sign up for the Old Jail Art Center children’s summer workshops is tomorrow, July 9, in order  to have time for materials to be mailed. This year, workshops are being held virtually for students in first through sixth grade.

By Sidney Bartee Community Vacation Bible School will begin Sunday, July 25 and end on Wednesday, July 28. Volunteers from several local churches are helping with the event, which is sponsored by the Albany Ministerial Alliance and hosted this year by First Baptist Albany.

By Jillian Lucas The 3rd annual County Line Clear Fork Cook-off and Music Festival  is set to take place Aug. 6-7 in Woodson, with several local grillers already planning to participate. Proceeds of this event will benefit Shriners Children’s Hospital.

By Assistant Fire Chief Eric Johnson In preparation for storm season this year, the Albany Volunteer Fire Department, along with a few citizens, received storm spotter training a couple of months ago, and some have already utilized what they learned during recent spring and summer thunderstorms.

By Sidney Bartee New and ongoing recipients of the Albany ISD Education Foundation scholarships need to provide proof of enrollment in order to receive their awards for the fall 2021 semester.

By Sidney Bartee Albany band director William Vaughan has scheduled 2021-2022 summer band rehearsals for students starting July 19 for percussionists. The band camp is for all eighth through 12th grade band members.

By Sidney Bartee After cancellation due to COVID last year, Abilene’s Garageband Woodstock will be held this year, with an Albany native participating. The event will take place at on Saturday, July 24 at the Abilene Convention Center.

By Sandy Morris The Albany High School Class of 2020 has a surplus of money in last year’s  class activity fund that is being divided between the 42 seniors from the class. Class parent Susie Beard said the money can be picked up at the AHS office from 7:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m..

By Jillian Lucas Albany water customers should have received a “2020 Annual Drinking Water Quality Report” this past week showing that locally treated water meets or exceeds all federal drinking water requirements. “They were all good this go-around,” said Albany water superintendent David Bales.

By Donnie A. Lucas Statewide data for the spring 2021 STAAR testing was recently released by the Texas Education Agency, with local scores exceeding state averages in all but one grade level.