Stories from Tuesday, October 14, 2003

GRAND ISLAND (AP) -- McCook High School junior Katherine Morell was tied for first place after Monday's first round at the Class B state girls golf tournament at Riverside Golf Club in Grand Island. Morell, who finished 11th last year, fired a first-round score of 79. She is tied with Omaha Duchesne's Megan Place...

ARAPAHOE -- Bertrand, Cambridge and Dundy County each opened with a win at the Republican Valley League volleyball tournament Monday night. In the first round match, Bertrand defeated Alma, 15-3, 10-5, 15-7. Cambridge defeated Southern Valley, 15-6, 15-5...

It's time to face facts. The powers that be must either make massive changes in the Nebraska State Fair, or drop the annual exposition altogether. The need for action is imminent because the State Fair is in a deep financial hole, created by plunging attendance and the year-around staffing and maintenance of the fairgrounds property in Lincoln...

Dear Editor, A year ago, last May in 2002, we were traveling from our home here in Green Valley, Ariz., to our former home and family in Bismarck, N.D. We usually stop overnight in your fair city. We arrived at the Best Western Motel around 6 p.m. I was unloading our car trunk, as my husband is disabled. I noticed a noise and discovered the antenna motor continued to run, even with the car turned off...

Don't burn out yet Dear Editor, Fall is a time when most people have given up on yard sales. Burned out they are, but for those die-hard few, fall is a great time, with many bargains. This last weekend, Culbertson had city-wide yard sales, plus an auction going on there. Makes for a full day, but turns $50 into over $300 worth of goodies...

Dear Editor, Have you ever wanted to be a little mouse sitting in the corner watching democracy in action? I had that privilege last night at an annexation hearing by the McCook Planning Committee. A long line of my friends and neighbors circulated through the "hot seat" speaking into the microphone publicly stating their opinion. ...

There seems to be an idea prevalent that everyone who has to live in a nursing home is mentally handicapped. This is not true. The writer is one of them. Why dump everyone into the same bucket? What has happened to individualism? Think it over.

Buy a few more rolls of film, or at least some new batteries for your digital camera; -- you're going to need them. Officials are expecting a dozen or so hot air balloons for the High Plains Freedom Flight 2003, set next weekend, Oct. 24-26 in McCook...

INDIANOLA -- Republican Twin Valley High School board of education members discussed a resolution, for the issuance of bonds to build a new middle and senior high school in Bartley, in closed session Monday evening. Superintendent Mark Norvell explained the district's attorney advised that a bond resolution be moved from open discussion to closed session with litigation...

The McCook school board plans a public a meeting Thursday, Nov. 6, at 7 p.m. in the junior high cafeteria, to discuss another option for updating, upgrading, remodeling and/or expanding McCook's elementary facilities. The latest option, presented at a board meeting Monday, remodels and expands North Ward to create a facility called "McCook Elementary," designed to serve all of the district's preschoolers and kindergartners through third graders...

Helen Inger Bergh Wells died Oct. 6, 2003, in Sun City, Ariz., at age 92. Preceding her in death was her husband, Stanley F. Wells; parents, Christian William August Bang Bergh and Ann Petersen Bergh; brothers, Axel, Melvin and Emory; and sister Agnes...

ARAPAHOE -- James D. "Jim" Mather, 85, died Sunday (Oct. 12, 2003) at his home in Arapahoe. He was born Feb. 7, 1918, to Delmer and Almeda (Runyan) Mather in Arapahoe. He attended Arapahoe Public Schools where he graduated with the class of 1936. After graduation, he attended the University of Nebraska from 1936-1937 and Peru State College from 1939-1941...