Reliable, Trustworthy Reporting, Capturing The Heartbeat Of Our Community
Reliable, Trustworthy Reporting, Capturing The Heartbeat Of Our Community
Sorted by date Results 401 - 425 of 462
The Nebraska Legislature remains adjourned until further notice. However, just over a week ago, we reconvened for three days to approve an emergency request from the governor to help fund the state response to COVID-19. The bill appropriates $83 million toward medical needs, protective measures, equipment,and programs related to the virus. It passed unanimously. That’s a statement I can rarely make, especially in these polarized times. I am proud to say legislators from across the aisle came t...
North Central District Health Department reported Monday they were made aware of a positive COVID-19 case in Antelope County. The individual and family are in quarantine. According to a press release from NCDHD, public health officials have initiated contact investigations and have been assessing potential exposure. All identified close contacts will self-quarantine, at home, and be actively monitored twice daily by public health officials for fever and respiratory symptoms. Community exposure...
Chubby Checker's 1959 classic "The Twist" blasted from cars, pickups, SUVs and the occasional minivan traveling the main drag in area towns Saturday night. Unlike a scene from the 1950s or early '60s, carloads of teenagers didn't unload and fill a local malt shop, sharing cheeseburgers and sipping chocolate shakes from separate straws. In the age of COVID-19, participants of the Coronavirus Cruise Night, sponsored by KBRX, in O'Neill, remained in their vehicles, took a few whips along Main...
Six Holt County supervisors listened as nearly 50 citizens presented testimony last Friday afternoon. A public hearing regarding TC Energy's application for a pipeline construction permit was held in the district courtroom at the Holt County courthouse. Pipeline opponents, from elementary students to 90-year-old grandparents, packed the courtroom, filling approximately 100 seats, and spilled out to the second-floor hallway. Speakers were called in order of sign-up, which had begun in the morning...
Joey Crooker, 37, of Ainsworth, formerly of Page, was sentenced by the Honorable Mark Johnson in the Antelope County district courtroom last Wednesday, Feb. 26. Crooker, who pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of sexual assault pursuant to a plea agreement reached in December, has a previous sexual assault conviction, in 2002. He was questioned by the judge prior to passing sentence regarding his understanding of his previous sentence. "I understood," Crooker replied. "I just lost my head."...
You could always tell when I had attended a faculty meeting. The margin of my legal pad was outlined with daisies of all sizes and colors, a result of sitting through the bi-monthly after-school requirement. As soon as the principal uttered his last words, I’d slip across the hallway, toss the paper on my desk and start speech practice. Those doodles were the closest thing to art I could create. Don’t get me wrong. I can visualize how something should look, see how texture and color add dim...
The Holt County supervisors spent nearly two hours at a meeting last week, reviewing a road-haul agreement brought to the table by TC Energy representatives last October, paragraph by paragraph, despite having a new agreement drafted by Dave Domina in hand. The scrutiny came after Holt County attorney Brent Kelly presented a preliminary agreement drafted by the Omaha attorney who was hired by the county officials on a 4-2 vote Oct. 31, 2019, to negotiate a road-haul agreement with TC Energy. At Kelly’s suggestion, the supervisors held an execut...
Ewing voters will determine if a one-half cent sales tax increase earmarked for economic development will be approved. During Monday's board meeting, village trustees approved Resolution 399 and 400, which will place the issue on the ballot. Per Resolution 399, the purpose of the increase is to create an LB 840 fund for economic development. According to Chairman James Ramold, passage of the resolution will "create an economic development plan that will create jobs, generate employment opportuni...
American playwright Arthur Miller wrote, “A good newspaper, I suppose, is a nation talking to itself.” What happens when a newspaper quits talking? One community in Nebraska is discovering the effect of no longer having a local newspaper. When Coleridge residents received the Jan. 1 edition of the Coleridge Blade, a bold hammer headline stretched across the top of the page: Final edition. The paper, published for 131 years, was part of the Northeast Nebraska News Company, which owns new...
The Honorable Kale Burdick, in Holt County court last week, sentenced Joshua A. Boettcher, 28, to serve 30 days in the Holt County Jail for a Class 2 misdemeanor count of theft, less than $500. The complaint, filed in June 2019, stated Boettcher took movable property of another between Jan. 9, 2018, and Jan. 9, 2019. Boettcher will serve a 45-day sentence at the same time on a conviction of second-degree forgery, a Class 2 misdemeanor committed Oct. 27, 2018, included in the same complaint. As part of a plea agreement entered in October 2019,...
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...
Last year, I introduced and prioritized LB 243, which created the Healthy Soils Task Force. Since the bill’s passage last April, the governor has appointed 14 members to the task force, representing production agriculture, agribusiness, natural resource districts, environmental organizations and academic experts in the fields of agriculture and natural resources. In addition, the director of the department of agriculture serves on the task force, along with representatives of the Agriculture C...
On Jan. 23, Governor Pete Ricketts announced recent appointments he has made to fill Nebraska’s boards and commissions. Donald L. Linquist, Jr., of Page, was appointed to the Geographic Information System Council. He joines Bailey D. Gibson, Grand Island, and Matthew R. Tinkham, Fort Calhoun. Appointees are unpaid and are not subject to Legislative confirmation....
Summerland grapplers ended third in duals competition at the Niobrara Valley Conference meet, Jan. 24, in Niobrara. In opening rounds, Summerland downed St. Mary's, 66-0. Neligh-Oakdale defeated Elgin Public/Pope John, 78-6. North Central claimed a 36-30 win over Niobrara/Verdigre, while Elkhorn Valley claimed a 42-24 win over West Holt. During the first round in the winner's bracket, N-O hung on for a 42-33 win over EV. Summerland picked up a 39-30 win over North Central. Double forfeits were r...
Area students have received scholastic honors for the fall 2019 semester. Wayne State College Wayne State College included more than 1,000 students on the dean’s list for exemplary academic achievement during the past semester. Students listed are full-time undergraduate students who have achieved a 3.5 grade-point average or above on a 4.0 scale. An asterisk denotes a 4.0 GPA for the term. Area students on the list include Travis Rudloff * and Taylor Sanne, Clearwater; Skylar Reynolds, Jaidyn Schindler, Brad Thoendel, Alex Thramer and Derek T...
Three Holt County supervisors agreed, when the leaders met at the courthouse in O’Neill last Thursday, to serve on a committee to look for ways to improve efficiency within the road department. Road superintendent Gary Connot described several recent issues he attributed to lack of training, oversight and accountability. “I personally think we have got to get more oversight, more practical training and more instructions to our motorgrader operators,” he said. “We had a guy this last summer – we had the best set of roads in the county – in a per...
An old problem returned to the Antelope County commissioners’ table when the leaders gathered for the first 2020 meeting at the courthouse in Neligh last week. Judy Wilcox, accompanied by her husband, Dave Wilcox, was there to discuss wind turbine “ice sling policy.” County zoning administrator Liz Doerr also addressed the leaders regarding a Christmas Day icing event. Doerr described procedures followed, after she received notice from Commission chair Dean Smith and Wilcox. She referenced a text message from Smith, indicating numerous turbi...
Jade T. Buss, 19, of Atkinson was fined by the Honorable Kale Burdick in the Holt County court last week, after changing his pleas to no contest on two counts amended pursuant to a plea agreement reached with Holt County prosecutor Brent Kelly. Burdick judged Buss guilty of the July 2 offenses and sentenced him to pay a $175 fine on Count I, failure to report a property damage accident, a Class 2 misdemeanor; and $175 on Count III, reckless driving, a Class 3 misdemeanor; and $60 cost of prosecution. Kelly reduced Count I from a Class 3A...
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,"...
On Dec. 20, President Donald Trump signed a $1.4 trillion spending package that increasing the includes federal minimum age to purchase cigarettes and other tobacco products, including e-vapor products, from 18 to 21. The announcement, posted on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration website, noted, "It is now illegal for a retailer to sell any tobacco product - including cigarettes, cigars and e-cigarettes - to anyone under 21." The FDA regulates all tobacco products. While the FDA has 180 days...
Mr. and Mrs. Richard Soper, of Page, welcomed a daughter, Rebekah Jean, Aug. 5. She weighed 6 pounds, one-half ounce and measured 19 inches. Grandparents are Scott and LuAnn Schindler, of Clearwater and Earl and Bev Soper of Norfolk. Great-grandparents include Lamont Larson, of Battle Creek, and Ruby Hambleton, Newport News, Virginia....
The Summerland Lady Bobcats move to 6-1 on the season with a solid 60-54 win over the Class D2 top-rated and previously undefeated Humphrey St. Francis team and their star point guard, D-1 recuit and UNL commit Allison Weidner. The Lady Bobcats started slow, down 16-3 after one quarter of play, but turned it up in the second quarter, outscoring HSF 18-10, to get back in the game at halftime only trailing 26-21. In the third quarter, the Lady Bobcats outscored HSF 17-13 to make it a one-point...
Randall "Randy" Lee Rader, 62, of Denver, Colorado, formerly of Royal, died Dec. 11, at his home, following a lengthy illness. Randy, son of Bob and Patty (Rodgers) Rader, was born May 28, 1957, at Plainview. He was a 1975 graduate of Orchard High School and furthered his education at Kearney State College. He worked in Omaha for a number of years before moving to Denver 20 years ago to work at Tagawa's Greenhouse, and for the past nine years, at a Walmart store there. Randy took great joy in caring for his many plants and flowers and family...
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...
The Antelope County Road Department is responsible for providing snow removal for approximately 1,300 miles of gravel and asphalt county roads. The department attempts to maintain adequate traction for vehicles properly equipped for winter driving conditions. Planning for a winter storm is difficult. The differences in rate of snowfall, moisture content, temperature, time of day and wind velocity make each storm unique. However, it is the intent of this program to establish general policies and...
