Secretary of Housing and Urban Development to Joseph Jason Stober, 1.500 acres in Tymochtee Township.

Dear editor, If you have driven on the main street of Sycamore lately, perhaps you have noticed Mohawk Community Library’s new outdoor electronic message sign.

“Oh, my goodness! Look at the lights!” Shirley Terrell said as she rode into Harrison Smith Park on Thursday evening to view Upper’s Winter Fantasy of Lights. Terrell was part of a group chauffeured through the light extravaganza in a Wyandot County Council on Aging van.

SYCAMORE — Mohawk junior high and high school winter athletes spent the first day of winter break sorting and hauling food donations and otherwise assisting the Sycamore United Church of Christ Food Pantry. As part of a community service project involving Mohawk’s wrestlers and girls and boys basketball players, local youth got out of practice Wednesday morning and headed to the high school cafeteria, where they sorted through hundreds of items collected in a contest between younger and older students that began just after Thanksgiving, Mohawk High School Athletic Director Chip Dietrich said.

The Wyandot County Health Board reviewed its budget for 2017 during its monthly meeting at Wyandot Memorial Hospital on Wednesday. A new tax levy that passed on the November ballot further increased the difference between 2017 appropriations and expected revenue compared to the previous year.

On the upcoming New Year’s weekend, the Bureau of Motor Vehicles will release the new automated title processing system to the county clerks of courts in the state of Ohio. In preparation for the upgrade, the current system will be unavailable to title offices Dec. 30 and 31.

SYCAMORE — Mohawk Animal Hospital, a new veterinary operation owned by Sally Chevalier, recently opened at 414 W. Seventh Street, Sycamore, after a building renovation project was finished in about six months.

SYCAMORE — The First National Bank of Sycamore is announcing expanded hours effective Jan. 3, according to a news release. At the Sycamore and New Riegel locations, the lobby will be open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday and 9 a.m. to noon Saturday. Drive-thrus at the locations will be open until 5 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 6 p.m. Friday.

COLUMBUS — The Buckeye Institute recently released its latest economic freedom report in partnership with the Canadian Fraser Institute. According to the Economic Freedom of North America 2016 report, Ohio ranks 38th in the United States in economic freedom.

Forty-eight attendees of a customer service seminar at the Upper Sandusky Community Library on Tuesday were treated to a free lesson on maintaining good working relationships. The seminar was sponsored by the Upper Sandusky Area Chamber of Commerce, Mental Health and Recovery Services Board of Sandusky, Seneca and Wyandot Counties and Wyandot County Home Health.