Where’d it go?

Challenges and triumphs highlight summer of 2022

The calendar hasn’t flipped to September yet, but Labor Day is certainly in sight. That only means one thing: The summer of 2022 is experiencing its final flickers of sunlight.

What a summer it was. The season began with waves of anticipation here in Hartley as locals geared up for the opening of the community’s new pool. Unfortunately, smiling faces soon turned to frowns when it was announced the facility could not open thanks to failed safety inspections. The issue remains unresolved, and Hartley and nearby patrons are waiting with baited breath. Hopefully the City With a Heart has a functioning swimming pool a year from now.

News didn’t get better a few weeks later. A derecho once again slammed northwest Iowa, ripping through Hartley with wind speeds of 79 mph and causing severe damage to trees and property. Royal was also slammed and suffered a significant number of downed trees and branches. There’s light in darkness, however, and community spirit shined through during the cleanup effort. Volunteers, firemen and city employees poured out to help their neighbors manage the mess and get things back to normal as soon as possible.

Speaking of normal, local towns experienced their second-straight year of hosting community celebrations following a pandemic break in 2020. These events have many moving parts and take a lot to put on, so organizers deserve their fair share of applause for getting everything together. Things like Hartley Summer Celebration, Royal Fun Days and Everly Community Days make things around here a lot better.

The Clay County Fair will mark the official bookend to the summer of 2022. Though it may not have provided everything we had hoped, we just had to make most of what we got.

Buzzing on back to school

Parents rejoice: School starts at H-M-S, CC/E next week

The end of the state fair typically marks the proverbial close to summer for most Iowans. Ball diamonds are quiet, traffic at local pools has slowed and days are getting shorter and shorter. These seasonal changes can mean only one thing despite the wishful thinking of area kids: A new school year has snuck up on us yet again.

Mid-August is always an exciting time for students, school faculty and parents. Classrooms are humming with that special back-to-school buzz, and parents no longer have the chore of keeping their kids busy during the day – homework will soon fill that void. Put simply, the new school year is a fresh start for everyone involved no matter how much gripe the kids put up.

Challenges both old and new greet students and educators this year. Keeping up with modern technology is no easy task, and it’s unlikely any of us would recognize today’s highly digitized classrooms from the low-tech ones we grew up in. Things like 1:1 laptops have replaced notebooks and Smart Boards have replaced chalkboards. Most assignments are of the electronic variety, making it all but impossible for a dog to eat its owner’s homework anymore.

Locally, the 2022-23 school year marks the first time since 2019 that Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn isn’t cutting the ribbon on a new building. With the sweeping improvement projects finished at the elementary, middle and high schools wrapped up, students should be well adjusted to their new digs once the school bell sounds for the first time this week. These facilities are shining beacons of progress in the community, and no doubt something to be proud of.

Of course, homework and classroom lectures are only a small part of the new school year. Fall sports are here, and the optimism of a new season is electrifying. Be it football, cross country, volleyball or even marching band, our local students put a lot of effort into their respective activities to give us their best product. We anticipate the new season and look forward to watching the students’ hard work pay off.

As always, please be careful on local roads once the school year starts next week. We wish all area students and teachers the best of luck in 2022-23, and we know they have all the tools to make it a success.

Keep up the good work, and have a great year!