The Senior Center provides a vital service to our senior population by giving them one good hot meal a day and provides social opportunities each day. We serve approximately 40 meals in the dining room and 30 home delivered meals. For many of our seniors this is the one meal each day they can rely on. Many of them don’t drive and are physically not able to prepare their own meals. With the recent outbreak of the Coronavirus the board has made the difficult decision to temporarily close the dining room for meals and activities and suspend the transportation services. The center will continue to provide home delivered meals and give those who came to the center for their meal the opportunity for curbside pickup. We realize this will be a challenge for some but ask for your patience and understanding. These circumstances will also challenge the Senior Center financially. A large portion of our operations cost are covered by our Sunday dinners. One way the community could help out would be to order lunch to go picked up curbside. All ages are welcome. A suggested donation of $5.50 for seniors and $7 for those under 60, will get you a hot home cooked meal. Orders should be called in by 9:30 am each day. We thank you in advance for your support.

LINCOLN – Governor Pete Ricketts has called on Nebraskans to make appointments to donate blood. The American Red Cross is facing a severe blood shortage as many blood drives are being cancelled across the country due to coronavirus concerns.

Greetings District 36. Following CDC recommendations, the legislative session was suspended this week to limit gatherings of more than 10 people. Before the suspension, the Legislature had shifted its focus from property tax and economic development to a debate on the updated biennial budget. Senator John Stinner, Chairman of the Appropriations Committee, presented the budget for first round debate last Thursday. Before that, the budget had advanced from the Appropriations Committee on a unanimous vote. This is the first time in my six years in the body that the budget was advanced from Committee unanimously. I want to thank Senator Stinner and all the Appropriations Committee members for their hard work and commitment to focusing on the financial issues that face our state. Following a lengthy debate, I was extremely pleased the budget also advanced from the first round of debate before the session was suspended.

My Grandpa James (Jim) Beckendorf could smell the wonderful scent of fresh shrimp. ‘It must be a special occasion,’ he thought as he ran down the steps of their old house in the town of Wilbert, Minnesota (“It was really more of a village,” he told me later).