60% majority required to approve $6.5 million for building project  School leadership in Marion will know by this time next week whether they will be proceeding with the first two phases of a three-phase plan that would dramatically improve the aged and cobbled-together campus, part of which has bee...

Katie Junke taking over for Voss as elementary principal after this year With Freeman Elementary Principal Shane Voss retiring at the end of the 2023-24 school year and 7-12 Principal Katie Junke set to move to the other side of the building and take his place, the Freeman Public School District is ...

Last week The Courier carried the perspective of the Israeli-Hamas war through the eyes of Dr. Shakil Hafiz and his wife, Sadaf Cassim. This week offers a closer look at their thoughts on the U.S. response and how they have taken action in their own, small part of the world. Read Part 1 Here. “In th...

The Hamas-Israeli war has drawn big headlines and ongoing television coverage since it rekindled last October, but one Freeman couple is taking issue with how it is being potrayed. Or, rather, the story that is not being told. JEREMY WALTNER - EDITOR & PUBLISHER From the comfort of their warm Freema...

Assuming one is needed, and pending formal approval from the local boards, a joint city/school election will be held Tuesday, April 9. Those interested in seeking office may take out nominating petitions beginning Friday, Jan. 26 and have through the end of the day Friday, Feb. 23 to turn them in. A...

JEREMY WALTNER - EDITOR & PUBLISHER When it comes to holiday seasons that lend themselves to traditions, few deliver quite like Christmas. From singing carols to stuffing stockings to attending Christmas Eve programs at church, it feels like the Christian celebration of the birth of Jesus and all th...

Director Iwona Lewter has announced the cast of “Shrek the Musical,” which will be presented for Schmeckfest 2024. The show will be staged both nights of Schmeckfest — Friday and Saturday, March 15 and 16 — as well as Thursday night, March 14. Curtain will be at 7:30 p.m. all three nights. Tickets a...

Orders are now being accepted for the 63rd Schmeckfest — a community celebration that is regaining its footing following its Covid-19-related suspension in 2020, 2021 and 2022. The “festival of tasting” that honors the Germans-from-Russia heritage on which the area was founded nearly 150 years ago w...

A Hutchinson County judge early this week ordered that Gregory M. Farrar spend the next 180 days in county jail — with an additional 185 days suspended — for sexually assaulting a Freeman woman last summer. The ruling came from Circuit Court Judge Patrick Smith in the Olivet courtroom late Monday mo...

Freeman 17-year-old Megan Rollag was laid to rest this Friday, Dec. 8 — nearly a week after a single-vehicle accident 5 miles north and a mile east of town claimed the life of the Freeman High School senior. Megan’s funeral was held at the Freeman High School gym, with burial in the Salem MB Church ...