The Oconto Volunteer Fire Department is one of six volunteer fire departments in Nebraska who were selected for a $10,000 grant through the State Farm Good Neighbor Firefighter Safety Program. The Oconto department is among only 150 recipients nationwide for the grant.

Damon Murray, son of Mr. and Mrs. Roger Murray of rural Callaway, was struck by a rattlesnake as he was playing in the family yard. Damon and his brother Jeff were playing around an old chicken coop when both decided to investigate the funny noise. Damon got too close and was bitten while his brother ran to tell his mother. Mrs. Murray promptly called the rescue unit, put a tourniquet on the boy, and lanced the wound. She then began to suck the poison from the bite. He was transferred to the hospital in Kearney and will be released soon.

Okay, I’m old. I know it, and people who see me know it. The 40s may be the new 30s, but the 70s are still the 70s! That’s young compared to Harriet, a captive Galapagos tortoise who is 175 years old, or a female Greenland shark believed to be 392 years old, give or take a few years. That’s even young compared to a bristlecone pine tree in California that is over 4,800 years old, or to the rings of Saturn.

American Legion Auxiliary Unit 59 gathered on Aug. 10 to hear presentations by two local girls who attended the Girls State Citizenship Training Program.

Let me start this month’s superintendent corner with a great big welcome back for our kids, parents, and community members for the 2026-27 school year. The beginning of every school year is exciting. The floors are polished, the new paint has dried, and the classrooms are coming together. We have done a lot of work in the building this summer and I think the kids are going to love the changes.

This week, my husband Jody and I made another trip around the sun. We have what I consider a unique distinction of being a husband and wife who happen to share a birth date! And I have no problem admitting I am the older one, by six years.

Today, Aug. 20, is the first day of classes for students at Callaway Public School. As a new year gets underway in the classroom, extracurricular activities are also kicking off this week. This evening the South Loup Lady Bobcats volleyball team will host Burwell beginning at 6 p.m. On Friday, Aug.

50 YEARS AGO: The Callaway men’s softball team won the Callaway Chamber of Commerce men’s softball tournament Aug. 13-15, by defeating Pleasanton 12-6.