On April 5, 2020, Franklin County reported its first confirmed case of COVID-19. Exactly one year to the day later, all adult residents are now eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.
"Who would have thought we'd ever be this far," said Ashley Roberts, director of Franklin County Public Health. "It's crazy to think that it's been a whole year."

Franklin County veterans have a new local resource to help them manage their benefits.
As of the first of March, Adam Akers is the new Executive Director of Franklin County Veterans Affairs.
"Things are good," said Akers. "I feel like I am off to a good start as the new director here for Franklin County."

The HD-CAL Speech Team traveled to the State Individual Speech contest in Waverly on Saturday, March 13.
Twenty-six performers participated in 41 events at the speech contest between the varsity and freshman teams. Of them, 34 earned a Division 1 rating and seven earned a Division 2 rating.

The Franklin County Convention Center showed off its new renovations with an open house event on Saturday, March 20.
Four years ago, the Franklin County Fair Board announced their plans for a $1.2 million series of building improvements to the convention center. After years of fundraising and preparations, the renovation project finally got underway last November.

Franklin County's legislators, Senator Amanda Ragan and Representative Shannon Latham, participated in a virtual meeting on Friday, March 12 to speak with area residents.
Hosted by Newton Grotzinger of the Greater Franklin County Area Chamber of Commerce, the legislators virtually met with Franklin County residents for a post-funnel week rundown of their activities.

After four weeks of classes, Hampton-Dumont's new student-led mentor program has come to a close.
Over the last month, eight H-D high schoolers have been spending their Tuesday at the middle school to teach the younger students how to handle social pressures be more considerate about how their actions affect others through lectures, games, and other activities.

Iowa Representatives Shannon Latham and Pat Grassley and Iowa Senator Amanda Ragan met with Butler County constituents on Friday, March 5, for a virtual meeting about the latest happenings in the state legislature.
Unable to have their usual open forum at the Allison Library, Butler County REC and Farm Bureau worked with Grassley's staff to organize a virtual meeting over Zoom.

Franklin County Public heath is preparing to move on to the next phase of COVID-19 vaccinations as virus activity in the area continues to decline.

Due to an error in this weeks' Fareway ad, our Dole mini cut carrots, 2 lb. bag, should be priced at $1.99 each. We apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate your understanding. There is also a corrected ad attached below.

A group of eight Hampton-Dumont high schoolers have been spending time with their younger peers over the last month in a student-led program to curb bullying in the middle school.

The Hampton City Council held their regular meeting on Thursday, February 25.
At the meeting, the council discussed a lease renewal with Woolstock Mutual Telephone Association for use of space on the city's water tower. This is the third year of the lease and the city receives $950 per month for the space, which has been paid in full in advanced.

Franklin County Public heath is preparing to move on to the next phase of COVID-19 vaccinations as virus activity in the area continues to decline.

The Hampton-Dumont School District held a joint meeting with the CAL School Board on Monday, February 15.
The joint session was relatively short, with Superintendent Todd Lettow updating both boards on happenings in the different buildings and explaining a recent change in the per-pupil funding split.

COVID-19 activity in Franklin County has slowed to a crawl, making life a little easier on area healthcare providers as they work to distribute their week's allotments of vaccine.
In Franklin County, approximately 1,920 doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered to county residents, with 378 of them completing their series.

Governor Kim Reynolds explained the decision to not move forward with a centralized scheduling system for COVID-19 vaccines during last week's press conference.