1.
Say Cheese! It was announced Friday that Great Lakes Cheese is coming our way, bringing more than 500 jobs and a local investment shy of $200 million with its packaging and distribution facility. Local leaders lined up to break the news, that actually came first virtually from Austin and Gov. Greg Abbott, with state Rep. Stan Lambert at his left and state Sen. Dawn Buckingham at his right. Hints of a big announcement started in the fall. As Abilene emerges from the economic challenges of the pandemic, this is great news in moving forward. One more thing - Abbott promised to attend the ribbon-cutting event and wear a cheesehead. With a governor s race coming in 2022, that will a great photo op.
Hardin-Simmons showtunes show, pitched away by pandemic, is back
Tony Barone missed out on a 2020 trip to Scotland with other Hardin-Simmons University students.
But on his calendar he has summer 2022, when HSU will take students, world health permitting, to New York City. It was sad and I was upset, he said of plans being dashed a year ago by COVID-19. But I understood.
A junior from Abilene who was home-schooled before college, he won t make it to Scotland, a trip now set for 2024. But a return to New York City would be great way to finish his senior year.
Barone is one of more than two dozen vocal performance and musical theater students who will sing in Saturday s Starlight Extravaganza, an event at Van Ellis Theatre that will raise funds for that New York trip next summer.