News from Neighbors
Vote sounds death knell for Bookmobile
STERLING JOURNAL-ADVOCATE, Feb. 17 — The venerable Northeast Colorado Bookmobile will end, in the words of poet T.S. Eliot, not with a bang but with a whimper.
In their business meeting Tuesday morning, the Logan County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously to end Logan County’s support for the Bookmobile, sounding the death knell for the 60-year-old program.
County commissioners in the six member counties see the program as obsolete in the digital age and are unwilling to continue funding it. Morgan County stopped funding the program several years ago, and Phillips and Sedgwick counties notified the Logan commissioners this year they couldn’t afford to appropriate money for the program either.
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Colorado’s redistricting plan upended by delayed Census results
DENVER POST, Feb. 12 — Critical U.S. Census data needed to redraw the lines of Colorado’s congressional and legislative districts is severely delayed — and state leaders aren’t sure what to do about it.
Colorado is constitutionally required to conduct the redistricting process in 2021. And the state’s citizen commissions tasked with the job must submit proposed maps by Sept. 1 (congressional) and Sept. 15 (legislative). Only, Census officials say the data won’t be available until Sept. 30.
It’s a result of pandemic-related delays and interference from the Trump administration, The New York Times reported.
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NJC enrollment down 12.5%
STERLING JOURNAL-ADVOCATE, Feb. 20 — Enrollment at Northeastern Junior College continues to be down, but NJC’s Advisory Council did get some good news regarding the budget at their meeting Thursday.
According to NJC President Jay Lee, enrollment is down about 12.5% compared to last year at this time.
“Which is concerning, obviously, we have continued on a downward slide with our enrollment, but it’s not surprising due to COVID,” Lee said. “We knew that many of our students the possibility, even just the possibility of having to go remote hung over the head of many of our students and many of our students just didn’t appreciate or didn’t feel they got the full benefit of an education by doing remote instruction, so many chose not to attend this spring semester.”
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