Rooks County continues to see a decrease in new COVID-19 cases throughout the county. This week the absenteeism rate is at 0.0% above the baseline from 2019-2020. The positive testing rate is at 6.2% this week. Rooks County continues to receive weekly allocations of the COVID-19 vaccine. If you are interested in getting on the list to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, please call the Rooks County Health Department or your primary care physician.

The Stockton eighth-grade Scholars Bowl Team finished a busy season as the league’s top team. During the 2021 junior high Scholars Bowl season, the Stockton students attended regular meets at TMP, Osborne, Ellis, Hill City, Phillipsburg, as well as hosted one in Stockton.

CHANDLER BRASS lends a helping hand to his daughter, Brooklyn, during the annual Sigma Phi ESA Easter Hunt held this past Saturday, April 3rd, on the lawn at Solomon Valley Manor..

The stilling basin at Webster Reservoir near Stockton will be closed to all activities beginning April 19, 2021. This popular fishing location will be closed for approximately 3 years to allow completion of a large construction project.

For those of you who did not read the entire article in our April 1st issue about the Sentinel closing for a week so the staff could go on vacations, April Fools twice over! We loved dreaming up our wonderful vacations and playing an April Fool’s joke on our readers! We had a lot of fun with comments we received about the article; but alas, we are here and working diligently to get this week’s paper out as always.

A Kansas woman was injured in an accident just after 9:30 a.m. Thursday, March 25th, in Phillips County.

This spring, the Kansas Honor Scholars Program, which marks its 50th anniversary as a tradition of the University of Kansas Alumni Association and KU Endowment, honored more than 3,600 high school seniors throughout Kansas for their academic excellence and achievement.

(Due to a large part of this story being omitted in last week’s issue, we are rerunning this article in its entirety. We apologize for this oversight.) During the regular meeting of the Stockton City Commission held on Tuesday, March 15th, the Stockton City Commission approved an ordinance to establish a six-month temporary rate adjustment on utility bills to assist with the incurred unexpected expenses for electricity used during the month of February during the sub-zero cold front.

At the regular meeting of the Rooks County Commission held on Tuesday, March 23rd, the commissioners opened the two furnace bids they had received for the Water Resources building that the County owns. The commissioners accepted the low bid from Tracy’s Plumbing for two new Payne furnaces to be installed at the site for the total amount of $5,810.00.

The Sentinel is only required by the Kansas Press Association to publish 50 weeks a year. In the 32+ years of the Sentinel’s existence, the staff has never taken a week off from publishing a paper— that is until now. The staff will be taking next week off to enjoy some rest and relaxation. Therefore no Sentinel will be published Thursday, April 8th. The next issue will be dated Thursday, April 15th.