Stories from Wednesday, March 12, 2003

Red Willow County commissioners voted 2-1 Tuesday afternoon to make a change in the agreement with the McCook-area rancher who is providing $600,000 to build the horse arena on the fairgrounds in McCook. Commissioners also discussed a study examining the county's need for a jail facility...

Dear Editor: Several months ago I decided to run a half marathon and raise money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society in memory of my cousin Bradley King. Thanks to the generosity of so many people in the McCook area I was able to raise $3,700 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, money that will be used for research to find a cure for blood cancers...

Never give up. Never, ever give up. That sports philosophy -- made famous by the late Jim Valvano -- could very well be the defining signature of the state tournament-bound McCook Bison basketball team of 2002-03. After getting off to a slow, sluggish start -- with losses in three of their first four games -- the Bison have battled back to post a 21 win, 5 loss for the season and to earn a trip to the Class B state tournament in Lincoln...

Tickets go on sale today for the Rodgers & Hammerstein musical State Fair, presented by the Southwest Nebraska Community Theatre Association. Tickets are available at Howard Kool Motors, 201 East B, and Hershberger Music Co., 202 W. First. Prices for the March 27-March 30 performances are $10 for adults and $7 for children age 12 and younger...

The McCook school board awarded the bid for roof repairs on the junior and senior high buildings Tuesday evening and OK'd expenditures to help renovate the high school locker rooms and refinish the junior high gym floor. Action on a possible bond issue and declaring a school building surplus were delayed pending results of a study...

Jon Reiners of McCook performs an original song as the opening act for The Mammals at The Bieroc Cafe, Tuesday. Reiners is part of the blues band Bogusville, who played at the Arnold Blues Festival in Arnold in 2002. The Mammals are an energetic stringband that play bluegrass, folk and traditional music and included the reappearance of Ruth Unger and Michael Merenda, who are a part of the Mason and Unger Family Band that performed at the 2002 Buffalo Commons Storytelling Festival in McCook. ...

March is the month for quilts at the Senator George Norris State Historical Site, 706 Norris Avenue in McCook. "These women that make the quilts should be classified as artists," Linda Hein, Director of the Norris site, said of the quilts on display...

The overwhelming sour stink that seeped from a vehicle stopped north of McCook Tuesday night was a dead give-away to the law enforcement officers that something illegal was brewing inside. Red Willow County sheriff's deputies arrested two males, yet to be arraigned in county court, and charged them with the manufacture of methamphetamine...

I guess it's alright to tell this story now. After all, the guilty party is beyond the reach of law enforcement and surely the statute of limitations expired decades ago on the infraction of which he was guilty. I speak about my husband's summer trips with his dad, Archie, as he transported households all across the United States...

SAN DIEGO, Calif. -- Captain Edward H. McDowell, 82, died Tuesday (March 11, 2003) in San Diego, Calif. He was born July 16, 1920, in Brush, Colo., to Elvy and Grace (Hayward) McDowell. At an early age, the family moved to McCook where he received his elementary education through the eighth grade. The family moved to Hayes County where he graduated from Hayes Center High School in 1939...