Canadian City Council members closed out 2020 with a review of the city’s guiding document, the comprehensive plan adopted in 2016. The plan is intended to define the city’s vision for its future growth and development and to establish goals—both long-range ones and incremental ones that guide daily decision-making—to measure its progress.

WAITING live in West Texas. Mostly, we wait for rain. We know it will rain someday, but rain doesn’t fall when we want or need it. And West Texas weather is so fickle that when it does rain, sometimes, it falls so fast and hard, we experience floods and soil erosion. Ranchers have to rescue livestock, and famers can’t plow muddy fields. Waiting for rain has forged us into patient skeptics. That rare quirk comes in handy these days. A patient skeptic is what one needs to be when it comes to getting a COVID vaccination.

Seventy-nine residents of Hemphill County tested positive for COVID-19 during the last 15 days, bringing the number of active cases to 78 on Jan. 6. In that same time frame, the Hemphill County Hospital laboratory also confirmed 47 new cases in out-ofcounty residents.

On December 24, 2020, Hemphill County Hospital District (HCHD) began immediately administering our limited supply of the Moderna COVID-19 Vaccines, following the CDC Guidelines for Vaccine Distribution.