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ThINK PINK

NOAH JOHNSON Fremont Tribune

Fremont City Council ap-proved a resolution to temporar-ily close a parking lot and street for a trick-or-treat event to be held in lieu of the recently can-celed Halloween Hysteria.

The resolution, which passed on a 5-1 vote with one absten-tion, allowed for the closure of the parking lot on the northeast corner of Fifth Street and Park Avenue on Oct. 24 from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. and for the closure of Fifth Street from Park Avenue to Main Street from 3-8 p.m. for the “Trunk & Treat” event.

Councilmember Glen Ellis, who abstained from voting, said Halloween Hysteria, which an-nually draws in thousands of people into the downtown Fre-mont area, would not be possible this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I think we all realized that Halloween Hysteria is truly hysteria downtown,” he said. “There’s over 2,000 kids in the downtown area.”

Ellis said the Fremont Down-town Development Group came up with a way to still give chil-dren an opportunity to dress up in their costumes and visit the downtown area to celebrate Halloween.

The event will take place in the closed parking lot with ve-hicles spaced out in every other parking spot. Children will then follow a path around the vehicles that Ellis said will be “controlled

TAMMY REAL-MCKEIGHANNews Editor

Editor’s note: In honor of October being National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, The Fremont Tribune is publishing a series, “Think Pink” that shares a story every week of community members who battled or are bat-tling breast cancer. The Tribune’s masthead is also pink on these days instead of its normal black to commemorate the month.

Good-natured Amy Hartman

has a little advice for breast can-cer patients:

If you’re losing your hair, don’t try to blow dry what’s left.

The Fremont woman learned from experience. She was under-going chemotherapy treatments and much of her already thinning hair came out in the shower one morning.

After her shower, Hartman followed a routine of turning upside down to blow dry her hair.

“When I stood back up, it was just a huge nest on top of my head and there was no way I was going to comb through it and — when I did — the whole thing came out in one, big last clump,” she said. “It was kind of funny.”

It was also an emotional day — but Hartman knows that faith, family, friends and a sense of humor can help a cancer patient enormously.

More than a year after her can-cer diagnosis, Hartman contin-ues to be a second-grade teacher at Linden Elementary School in Fremont. She has a full life with family, friends and students.

And she plans to live to be a very old woman.

Hartman’s journey began when she found a lump in her breast in September 2019.

She wasted no time calling her doctor. Mammograms, MRIs and biopsies followed, determining that the 5-centimeter mass was

cancerous.Hartman’s husband, Jeff, and

her mom, Nancy Hilgenkamp, accompanied her to the initial doctor’s appointments. Hartman said she trusts Nebraska Cancer Specialists and their advice for treatment.

The day Hartman learned she had cancer, she and her family were set to leave for a wedding in Washington, D.C. The Hart-mans hadn’t planned to tell their children, Evan, 15; Chase, 13, and Leah, 9, until after the trip.

But on the way home, they did.“I was so thankful, because

then we were stuck together for

Finding the strengthCOURTESY PHOTO

Evan, Chase, Amy, Jeff and Leah Hartman are shown in this family photo. Amy Hartman, a second grade teacher at Linden Elementary School, has been in a breast cancer battle. Faith, family, friends, coworkers and good sense of humor have helped.

City Council approves parking for ‘Trunk & Treat event’

COLLIN SPILINEKFremont Tribune

After five months of closure due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Fremont Theaters at the Fremont Mall opened its doors on Aug. 21.

Now, the movie theater, as well as the industry, is still facing un-certainties as major film studios have continued to push their blockbuster films to later dates.

“We’re just struggling just to stay open, just to bring people in, let people know we’re open,” owner Geof Rau said. “I still think there’s a majority of the public that still doesn’t think theaters are open yet.”

Rau became the owner of Fremont Theaters on Nov. 1, purchasing the Main Street 7 Theatre from Bill Barstow. The theater initially closed on March 17, around the same time other

theaters in the area did as well, Rau said.

“I think a few of them closed maybe a week earlier, and we tried to hold on and it just got to

the point where you just couldn’t do it anymore,” he said. “There was just nobody coming, no new

Fremont Theaters surviving in a post-COVID environment with reopening

cOLLIN sPILINeK, FREMONT TRIBUNE

Fremont Theaters, located at the Fremont Mall, reopened its doors after on Aug. 21 after closing in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

COLLIN SPILINEKFremont Tribune

As Election Day on Nov. 3 draws near, Vern Gibson and Paul Von Behren will be finish-ing their campaigns for Ward 1 of the Fremont City Council.

During the May primaries, Gibson took away 59.1% of the vote, with 1,138 votes from the total 1,925. Von Beh-ren took second place with 417 votes, beating third candidate Steven Ray.

Current Ward 1 City Coun-cilmember Linda McClain an-nounced last January that she would not run for re-election after holding the seat since No-vember 2017.

Gibson, an Army veteran, worked in airlines for 30 years before becoming a licensed fu-neral director in 2000. He works for Dugan Funeral Chapel and Cremation Services and is active

in Kiwanis Inter-national and the Fremont Cosmo-politan Club.

Having worked with the Fremont Area Chamber of Commerce for 20 years, Gibson said he’s always had an interest

in city government. He said he believes the city council needs more transparency and shorter meetings, which can be done by either having meetings prior or through sub-councils.

Gibson, Von Behren to face off for Ward 1 seat of Fremont City Council

Faith, humor, family, friends help woman on cancer journey

cITy cOuNcIL

Gibson Von behren

Please see caNcer, Page A4 Please see eVeNT, Page A5

Please see TheaTers, Page A5 Please see cITy cOuNcIL, Page A4

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