Bye bye 2020 (and good riddance)

Well, 2020’s top story doesn’t take a Rhodes Scholar to figure out.

Right around Spring Break 2020, we all became familiar with the COVID pandemic which would rock the rest of the year in a bad way. It had effects on everything, including the economy, how we interacted with each other and brought some creative ways of doing both.

The pandemic also showed us different ways of going to school as students can now go virtually or in person. Most students still preferred to go to class personally instead of watching class virtually.

Teachers closed the 2019- 20 school year with a recap of the school year that had already happened but vowed it would be a different story once school resumed and it was as students continue to get through the first semester.

The ways we congregate were switched back and forth with some areas figuring to just stay away from each other. Churches were shut down for many weeks but eventually went to a streaming format, which many people do seem to like.

Churches did begin to open up but had those that wanted to come required to wear a mask and practice another two evil words “social distancing” or stay within six feet from each other.

Another two words we’re learning is “new normal” which leads us to believe this may be sticking around for awhile. I don’t know about you but I like the old normal. The development of a vaccine which is being distributed gives all of us a Sign of hope.

We will be breaking this into two sections: January-June and July-December which will run in the Jan. 6 edition. There were plenty of other interesting items in the paper throughout 2020.

Here goes just a smattering, in no particular order, from January-June.

JHS Cheer wins State.

After a pair of fourth-place finishes and some adjustment in the class schedule were all Jacksboro needed to win the Class 3A state Spirit title.

The squad had finished in the top five of 75 teams the previous three teams, including back-to-back fourth place finishes the previous two years. Coach Jaci Pippen talked about some of the changes that were made.

Having more practice time during the school day, instead of the twice a week after school workouts, was positive.

“In many cases, by the time the girls got together as a group twice a week, they were tired physically and mentally,” Pippen said. “Mistakes were made and they were magnified.”

The extra 45-minute period was found to be game changing.

“Having the class period provided a different, more positive atmosphere,” Pippen said. “The girls were able to push each other in a positive way. We were also able to include conditioning as part of the class period, which really helped in a lot of ways, including our jumping.”

Perrin closes school before COVID even hits Perrin had a high number of students get sick with the flu, forcing the school to shut down for a couple days in late January.

Perrin High School Principal Loren Sell said students havebeen battling the flu since Monday, Jan. 27.

“Starting on Monday, since we came back, we have had a large number of kids (…) out,” Sell said. “On the elementary campus, is really where it hit hard and some classes only had half the students in the class. We wanted gather a little more data and look Tuesday. Yesterday was very similar to Monday."

He said Wednesday experienced the worst attendance rate of the three days which helped lead to the decision to close the campuses Thursday and Friday.

“But, we also realized that if we turned out school on a Tuesday and Wednesday, that’s not enough time to really break this cycle in our opinion and we wanted to tie it into the weekend if we could,” Sell said.

The principal said the students were not the only ones effected from the illness.

“It’s affecting the staff, that’s actually what started it on Monday, we had six or eight staff members on the elementary campus that were out,” he said. “Several more have gotten have come down on the flu, many of them have tested positive already with the flu and several have the symptoms.”

Bryson robotics wins regional, qualify for State The Cowboy’s robot was no bigger than a foot in any dimension. Nic Hunter, Trey Budarf, Brice Foster and Ryan Kyzer worked on the robot which had to move checkers into different areas with certain colors allowed in certain areas.

The Bryson robot used a street sweeper mechanism to get the checkers where they needed to go.With two weeks before competition the robot, which had taken the entire first semester to build, was rebuilt. Much of that was done in an overnight session but the whole process of programming and practice as well with the new robot to ensure everything was perfect.

With plenty of issues at the regional meet, the squad had two months before the State Meet, which was before COVID. The meet was cancelled.

FCH files bankruptcy

Bankruptcy was filed Feb. 29 with no interruption of services or level of care for patients.

Becker Hospital Review stated the hospital owed Blue Cross Blue Shield more than $29 million.

“The FCHS Board of Directors is committed to providing high quality health care and services to our region, while operating in a cost-efficient manner,” the release stated.

Haynes has search warrant executed, eventually found innocent of all charges

Haynes was indicted for assault of a family member by impeding breath on his ex-wife in May 2019.

Pack retires after 11 years with EDC

After serving as the Jacksboro Economic Development Corporation first ever Executive Director for 11 years, Lynda Pack will be stepping down from her post on June 30.

During her time with the JEDC, Pack assisted or helped manage in the completion of projects like the Depot Building, the Eastburn Building, the community pool, the Lumar addition including businesses like Jacksboro National Bank, Subway and Faith Community hospital; the city ball park improvement plan, renovating the old fire hall and the future development of a business park.

“(My favorite project) for the community, probably the swimming pool because that made a huge difference in a lot of people’s lives,” Pack said. “That was a long-term project, it took us longer than we thought. But, we got it done and now the park looks beautiful. The little things that we do encourages people to do other things.”