Reliable, Trustworthy Reporting, Capturing The Heartbeat Of Our Community
Reliable, Trustworthy Reporting, Capturing The Heartbeat Of Our Community
Sorted by date Results 276 - 293 of 293
Holt County Supervisors will contemplate additions and changes to planning and zoning regulations during an Oct. 31 public hearing at the courthouse in O’Neill. Planning and zoning officer Mike Durre told supervisors, during the board’s Sept. 29 meeting, five regulations will be under consideration, including language about unregistered wells; setbacks; crude oil, tarsands, and affluents; carbon dioxide pipelines; solar farms and wind energy. Planning and zoning board member Mary Kaczor sai...
Two Antelope County residents have submitted applications to fill the seats of recently recalled county commissioners Allan Bentley and Tom Borer. As of press time Tuesday afternoon, Antelope County Clerk Lisa Payne had received two applications, one for each involved district. Applications may still be submitted for the positions. Candidates must be registered voters in, and residents of, their respective commissioner districts, either District 3 or District 5. District 3 includes the north half of Neligh Township, all of Blaine and Ellsworth...
Approximately 120 individuals attended an informal gathering at Summerland Golf Course, Oct. 6, to learn facts and figures associated with the Summerland school building project. Tobin Buchanan, a bond analyst with First National Capital Markets, said the Summerland project, when compared to others he has worked with, is unique. Most bond projects involve a rural community, often with a 100-year-old, three-tier building "that's outlived its usefulness." "(With that scenario) you're not...
A special mail-in election, underway in Antelope County, will close next Tuesday, Oct. 15. County Clerk Lisa Payne has hired a receiving/counting board to help process ballots that day. County voters in two of the county's five commissioner districts received ballots through the United States Postal Service last week. The ballots ask voters if elected officials, Allan Bentley and Tom Borer, should be removed from their positions as county commissioners. "When a ballot is returned, it is logged...
It's National Newspaper Week. Normally, I would write about the week's theme and how it relates to you, the reading public, and me, as a journalist. Think F1rst - the 2019 theme - resonates with us because it forms the backbone of our democratic society. The first amendment is important, maybe now more than ever, as we the people hold governmental entities accountable. Limits to the five freedoms - religion, speech, press, assembly and right to petition - exist. Harmful speech is not protected....
Why are the Clearwater, Ewing and Orchard school boards calling a special bond election November 12th? For several years, the three school boards have been working to find the best solution to address needs each district faces when it comes to operational efficiency, enrollment limitations, aging facilities and limited program offerings for students and families in their communities. Following a rigorous process of identifying the urgent needs, utilizing community engagement to determine an effe...
Antelope County commissioners, after hearing comments from several constituents and county officials at a pair of public hearings Sept. 17, adopted the budget for the 2019-2020 fiscal year. The $19,155,429 budget includes asking for $6,114,213 from taxpayers next year through a county levy of .246195. In order to balance all components of the budget, the levy computed by County Clerk Lisa Payne is about one-fourth cent more than the 2.5-cent increase proposed by commissioners in early...
Attendees at the Sept. 10 Antelope County Commissioners' meeting at Neligh's courthouse found new accommodations for hearing county business. A new sound system, including microphones in front of each commissioner, County Clerk Lisa Payne and at the witness table, had been installed. Commissioner Dean Smith acknowledged Invenergy officials for the donation. "I think it is much needed, I have always felt that it was. I appreciated you doing that for the county," he said. "I think it will be a...
County leaders spent about an hour mulling six “options” for managing Antelope County’s finances in the coming year, when they met last week at the courthouse in Neligh. Lisa Payne, county clerk, presented the commissioners with six scenarios for the annual budget, ranging from what she called the “golden egg” with its seven-cent levy increase, to one that called for no change in the county’s slice of a taxpayer’s pie. She cautioned that the figures were “very preliminary,” intended to give the commissioners a picture to work from. The high en...
A new PK-12 cornfield school came one step closer to reality Aug. 21, when Clearwater, Ewing and Orchard boards of education unanimously approved entering into a purchase agreement for approximately 40 acres of land near the intersection of 513 Avenue and 857 Road, contingent on passage of a bond issue in all three communities. According to Clearwater and Orchard Superintendent Dale Martin, the site "is about as centrally located as we could get," sitting six miles south of Orchard, seven miles...
The atmosphere in the supervisors’ room at the Antelope County courthouse in Neligh became a bit explosive for a while last Thursday morning. A special Aug. 22 meeting of the county commissioners had been set, exclusively, for budget discussion. However, an item for setting the date of a special recall election was added to the agenda by Lisa Payne, county clerk. As the meeting began, Tom Borer, commission chairman, asked for a motion to remove the item from the agenda. Dean Smith complied, offering the motion. “I think we should wait for the c...
Two residents of the Royal community faced the Antelope County commissioners at their Aug. 13 meeting, asking the county leaders to intercede in the case of a dog running at large. Marlowe Jensen and Justin Jensen came to the meeting armed with copies of state statutes dealing with dangerous dogs, claiming the documents required the county sheriff to bring charges against the dog’s owner. “I was harassed by a dog,” Marlowe Jensen said, adding “It chased a deputy into Justin’s house.” “It’s the only dog in town that’s running loose,” his son s...
Antelope County Attorney Joe Abler contacted local media outlets, Aug. 19, issuing the following statement about the upcoming recall election of Antelope County Commissioners Tom Borer and Allan Bentley. Abler sent the statement to the Summerland Advocate-Messenger, The Elgin Review and Antelope County News, at 2:21 p.m., asking that the statement is published in its entirety if publishers choose to print it. Dear Antelope County Residents and Registered Voters: As I am sure you have all heard...
The Antelope County commissioners approved preliminary levy allocation requests from political subdivisions, when they met at the courthouse in Neligh on Aug. 6. Regina Krebs addressed the commissioners regarding annual levy allocations for the subdivisions, including rural fire districts, the Antelope County Ag Society and the Antelope County Airport Authority. In past years, the board had sometimes denied the subdivision levy requests, in order to allow the county general budget to levy the...
Two Antelope County Commissioners will face a recall election after petition circulators submitted notarized forms to the Antelope County clerk Tuesday morning. Bethany Miller, of Elgin, and Jack Allemang, of Clearwater, presented petitions for the recall of district five commissioner Tom Borer, of rural Clearwater, and district three commissioner Allan Bentley, of Neligh, respectively. Petition circulators needed to collect 135 signatures to recall Bentley, while 203 needed to be gathered to...
Antelope County Attorney Joe Abler contacted local media outlets, Aug. 19, issuing the following statement about the upcoming recall election of Antelope County Commissioners Tom Borer and Allan Bentley. Abler sent the statement to the Summerland Advocate-Messenger, The Elgin Review and Antelope County News, at 2:21 p.m., asking that the statement is published in its entirety if publishers choose to print it. Dear Antelope County Residents and Registered Voters: As I am sure you have all heard...
Findings by a private law firm, engaged by the Antelope County commissioners to investigate one of their own, was made public recently, after the investigation itself became the focus in efforts to recall two commissioners. Woods & Aitken LLP, a firm with offices in Lincoln and Omaha, was hired to conduct an independent investigation of Eli Jacob, Antelope County commissioner and former road department worker, after he was accused of the theft of a heater and other items, according a memorandum...
From the governor's mansion to the White House, Clearwater native Alyssa Moser had a whirlwind summer. Moser, who represented the Clearwater American Legion Auxiliary at Cornhusker Girls State, in June, spent July 20 to 27 attending Girls Nation in Washington, D.C. In June, Moser was elected Girls State governor and selected to represent Nebraska at the nation-wide event. Girls Nation attendees are known as senators. Moser, along with Nebraska delegate Aanya Agarwal, of Lincoln, introduced a bil...
