Reliable, Trustworthy Reporting, Capturing The Heartbeat Of Our Community
Reliable, Trustworthy Reporting, Capturing The Heartbeat Of Our Community
Sorted by date Results 1 - 25 of 30
Antelope County officials discovered how a salary study, comparing county employee wages, could be used when they met in regular session, Tuesday, June 4, in Neligh. Luke Bonkiewicz, research program analyst for the Nebraska Association of County Officials, told commissioners the study came about after several counties had reached out about the ability to compare wages with like-sized counterparts. Commissioner Casey Dittrich asked if the study is available to the public. According to...
Summerland Advocate-Messenger personnel brought home 23 awards from the 2023 Better Newspaper Contest for the Nebraska Press Association. Awards were presented Saturday evening, at the awards banquet held at the Cornhusker Marriot Hotel in Lincoln. SAM finished second in Class A, which includes weekly newspapers with a circulation up to 699 subscriptions. The Stanton Register won the division. In advertising categories, publisher LuAnn Schindler won seven awards. An ad featuring financial services at Brunswick State Bank, promoting FFA Week,...
With the short session of the Nebraska Legislature slightly more than half over, repeat after me: When it comes to taxation, it's all about whose ox is getting gored. The governor wants a 40% reduction in property taxes by the end of the year. I'm in! Cut me a check. Sorry. That's not how this works. The cuts will be made and somehow credited to your tax bill by the county, which will somehow find a way to use it up before you see it. Just watch. Even more sorry. The state must pay for the...
Dear fellow citizens of Holt County, For the past months, the Nebraska Association of County Officials has been an integral part of Gov. Pillen’s tax working group, along with many other entities, state senators, Pillen and his key staff, and other stakeholders such as the cities, Farm Bureau and the realtors.. We have had many meetings striving to craft Nebraska tax policy, to cut taxes, to more equitably define policy and to ensure we have the revenue necessary to provide essential services to our citizens. LB 1067, introduced by State S...
Summerland School officials have until Nov. 30 to declare if the Bobcat football team will play in the eight-man division during the next two-year cycle. During the Oct. 16 board of education meeting, activities director Zach Rosenboom said the current enrollment shows 63 male students in grades nine, ten and eleven. "The cutoff (for eight-man) is 47," he said. Rosenboom said a one-cycle waiver is available, which makes the Bobcats eligible for post-season play. Board member Nate Schwager asked...
Village of Clearwater officials spent part of the Oct. 9 meeting discussing the state of River Road and Nebraska Street. Kelly Kerkman gave an update from discussion about the two stretches of road with Antelope County Commissioners, including a clerical error on annexation of the Nebraska Street. “When they tore it up, it was still theirs,” Kerkman said. “I know both roads need to be done and we’ve got streets that need to be done, so I don’t know how to approach it.” Trustee Cody Kester said c...
One hundred sixty members of the Northeast Nebraska Telephone Company, representing all districts of the cooperative, attended the 66th annual meeting of members and directors on Thursday, Sept. 21, at NNTC facilities in Jackson. The membership re-elected Dave Armstrong of Newcastle as president (District #1), Tom Stranik of Morse Bluff as second vice president (District #4) and John Knievel of rural Antelope County as secretary (District #3). NNTC General Manager Pat McElroy told the crowd of...
A Nebraska family has plowed more than $1.6 million into the Lincoln mayor's race, an unprecedented sum and latest burst in a multi-year deluge that, at the federal level, rivals the political spending by a famed Las Vegas casino magnate and a Silicon Valley titan. It's not the Nebraska family you think. It's the Peed family and its business, Sandhills Global – not the Ricketts family – that have eclipsed all other donors while trying to help former State Sen. Suzanne Geist, a Republican, ous...
SUBMITTED ARTICLE Northeast Nebraska Telephone Company recognized the Village of Clearwater, in Antelope County, as a Smart Rural Community, Friday, June 24, as part of US92's Clearwater Rodeo broadcast. The designation comes from the Rural Broadband Association in conjunction with NNTC. This recognition is presented to those broadband-enabled communities that see an importance of broadband internet as a way to connect and grow through the capabilities of expanded online education, remote work,...
ADDIE COSTELLO Flatwater Free Press Mary Terry, the longtime village clerk in Cedar Creek, shook her head no whenever Steve Sharp told her she deserved a raise. "Her answer was always the same. It was always, 'You can't afford to give me a raise,'" said Sharp, elected chairperson of the village board in 2010. What Sharp didn't know: Terry, the clerk and treasurer, was giving herself unauthorized raises. She padded her paycheck with more than $75,000 in stolen village funds over six years while...
On Thursday, Jan. 13, Governor Ricketts presented his final State of the State Address to the Nebraska Legislature. The governor emphasized his message over the past eight years has been to Grow Nebraska. He reported this has happened, despite floods, fires and a global pandemic. He touched on his priorities for this year, which include tax relief, strengthening public safety and investing in natural resources. He endorsed legislative proposals to accelerate the phaseout of taxing Social...
Antelope County commissioners voted unanimously, Tuesday, to amend the salary for the county sheriff. Commissioner Dean Smith was absent from the meeting. Commissioner Carolyn Pedersen told fellow officials she had presented incorrect figures for the position during the board's Dec. 21 meeting and offered corrected salaries at the Jan. 4 meeting. Pedersen said she compared current sheriff salaries in neighboring counties, with base salaries ranging from $63,000 to $74,423, based on data provied...
In early December, the former chair of the executive board, along with chairs of standing committees, sent an email to senators suggesting they limit the number of bills introduced. This would assist with safety measures being developed for senators and the public, in preparation for the legislative session during a pandemic. However, 684 bills were still introduced during 10 days of bill introduction. Although this number was less than the 739 bills in 2019, it was more than the 667 bills...
Approximately 35 Holt County residents crowded the supervisor’s meeting room and adjoining hallway, Monday, to listen to discussion about whether the county should dissolve townships and move to a seven-member board of commissioners. A motion to the effect, made by Steve Boshart, would have placed the item on the November ballot, giving the people of Holt County the ultimate decision. Prior to the motion being made, supervisors spent more than 90 minutes hashing over the item, which was added t...
The Holt County supervisors finalized seating of a board of adjustment when they met at the courthouse in O’Neill last Tuesday, June 30. Vice chair Steve Boshart presided, due to the potential for board of adjustment action related to TC Energy matters, with which chairman Bill Tielke has a declared conflict of interest. Clayton Goeke of Atkinson was selected, by written ballot from a pool of three interested citizens, to serve as the alternate board member. Goeke garnered three votes, Cheri Frisch of Atkinson, two, and Tom Schaaf of Lynch, non...
An approximate 220-mile, 345,000 volt transmission line, known as the R-Project was unplugged last week. Wednesday's ruling by U.S. District Judge William J. Martinez, of Denver, overturns a 2019 "incidental take permit" issued to Nebraska Public Power District, regarding the project's potential impact on the environment. The route will begin at NPPD's Gerald Gentleman Station, near Sutherland, and run northeast to Thedford. There, it will connect to an expanded substation, before swerving east...
The Antelope County commissioners are considering a bond to finance extensive road repairs. “I think a big topic at this meeting will be what we will do with our oil roads, after our discussion last week,” commissioner Dean Smith said during the commissioners’ May 11 meeting at the courthouse in Neligh. He had contacted Tobin Buchanan with First National Capital Markets, who had previously worked with the county, to inquire about bond terms to finance potential major repair costs, “to look at options on how we are going to go forward with th...
A Holt County supervisor recently traveled to Washington, D.C., to participate in the National Association of Counties Legislative Conference. Bill Tielke, chairman of the county supervisor board, was notified in January that he had been appointed to the association's Environment, Energy and Land Use Policy Steering Committee. The committee is responsible for matters pertaining to air, water, energy and land use – including such things as water resources/management; stormwater; pesticides; a...
After seeking advice from county attorney Joe Abler, the Antelope County commissioners approved issuing a COVID-19 pandemic disaster declaration for Antelope County, beginning Jan. 31, and continuing, per recommendation of the Nebraska Association of County Officials. The attorney was called after county clerk, Lisa Payne, suggested the declaration be backdated to January. After further discussion and Abler's input, the declaration was approved unanimously and dated April 14, but covered...
Aaron Boggs of Creighton, who has served as foreman of Antelope County's road department for about a year, was hired to head the department when the county commissioners met at the courthouse in Neligh on March 10. The commissioners entered closed session to consider applications, after an announcement by chairman Charlie Henery just before 11 a.m. "I have to leave by noon or so," he said. "So, we need to go into executive session to talk about personal employee stuff. We need a motion to do...
Organizations and institutions across Nebraska are taking precautionary measures amidst concerns about COVID-19. While no cases have been reported in Antelope, Holt or Wheeler counties, the North Central District Health Department has identified a presumptive positive case in Knox County. NCDHD received notification a Cherry County individual tested negative for the disease. Here is a list of cancellations, as of Friday, March 13: Fish fries On Thursday, the Archdiocese of Omaha requested its...
Holt County citizens filled the county supervisors’ meeting room in the courthouse last Friday morning as the county leaders took care of business. Bryan Steskal of Steskal read a letter penned by his wife, Diana Steskal, who was unable to attend the meeting. In the letter, Steskal wrote the Holt County zoning board members denied TransCanada’s conditional use permit until two conditions are met, including one that requires obtaining easements. Many, she said will most likely be appealed. She also cited three federal court cases filed aga...
The Holt County supervisors addressed cyber security at their final 2019 meeting. The leaders met Dec. 31 at the courthouse in O'Neill. Steve Anson with Anson Insurance Services was invited, by chairman Bill Tielke, to present information about insuring the county against "hacking" of county computers. Tielke indicated cyber security concerns were raised at a recent convention he had attended. "I don't think it's a matter that we can keep beating around the bush and not doing something about,"...
The Holt County supervisors met Monday, Dec. 16, in front of a crowd of concerned citizens. Agenda items regarding a TC Energy road-haul agreement and some township road concerns drew the visitors. The supervisors heard an update on a bronze statue planned for the courthouse lawn by the “Finian Women.” They are a group headed by daughters of longtime Holt County resident, Doc Cook, who referred to himself as a Finian, according to county clerk Cathy Pavel. Natalie Cook Butterfield addressed the leaders regarding fundraising and planned placemen...
Antelope County Commissioners adopted a new snow removal policy when they met last Tuesday at the courthouse in Neligh. Casey Dittrich, road superintendent, presented the policy that he and road foreman Aaron Boggs have been drafting over the past few weeks, with input from Tim Baxter from the Nebraska Intergovernmental Risk Management Agency, the county’s liability-insurance carrier. Input also came from road crew members and, according to Dittrich, has the “blessing” of county attorney Joe Abler. The policy establishes protocol for the order...
