Stories from Tuesday, October 19, 2004

The McCook tennis team wrapped up its season with a seventh place finish at state. Brandon Crick finished third at state in number two singles, and ended the season with a 30-2 record. "I have said all along that nobody will beat Brandon but himself, and that's what happened, he played not to lose and stopped playing aggressively. He was beaten by the eventual state champion, so there is nothing to hang his head about," said McCook coach Matt Wiemers...

The Nebraska Cornhuskers got just what the doctors ordered on Saturday, a nice dose of a powder puff Baylor Bear college football program. To be honest, when Baylor put up an early field goal to grab the lead, I was wondering if this Nebraska team was going to succumb to a Baylor team that has only won against five Big 12 teams since the conception of the conference...

Red Willow County Treasurer Marleen Garcia asked county commissioners Monday morning to consider allowing the use of credit cards to pay taxes and services in county offices. Garcia said there have been times when taxpayers have become very upset that they cannot use credit cards to pay, particularly, their taxes...

Red Willow County commissioners decided Monday morning to foreclose on a loan that the county made to the coffee shop owner who has not made a loan payment since January. Rex Nelson, director of the McCook Economic Development Corp., which oversees the revolving loan program for the county, told commissioners he has had no response from Amy Jones, despite phones calls, phone messages and written requests for information re-garding her delinquent loan payments...

Red Willow County commissioner Leigh Hoyt told fellow board members Monday morning that he is "100 percent in favor" of a cooperative fuel purchase arrangement with the city of McCook and McCook Public Schools. Commissioners tabled board approval of the ar-rangement until the paperwork is completed, but Hoyt said he is in favor of the arrangement in which the three entities will jointly purchase up to 100,000 gallons of fuel annually and obtain a bulk-fuel price. ...

Despite orders from the state of Nebraska and the Environmental Protection Agency, one McCook City Council member continues to insist that the city look at different ways to address the problems with the city's waste water treatment facility. During Monday night's meeting, Councilman Jim Kenny told the council, the city should look at storing and selling treated water from the plant rather than discharging it into the Republican River...

A McCook woman whose 101-year-old mother lives at Hillcrest Nursing Home praised Red Willow county commissioners Monday mor-ning for the care given to her mother at the county-owned nursing facility. Shirley Nothnagel said her mother, Lillian Shaw, has lived at Hillcrest for the past year and a half, after she broke her leg living semi-independently at home...

Law enforcement officers and emergency medical responders search the canyons and road ditches south of McCook's Butler Hill, on Highway 83, this morning for what was thought to possibly be a second victim of an early-morning motorcycle accident. Nebraska State Patrol Sgt. ...

I went to my first hot air balloon rally 30 years ago, and I've never passed up a chance to attend one ever since. But that didn't make any difference Sunday. This time, it was me climbing into the basket. Thanks to scheduling conflicts and Saturday night's scrub, my wife, Candy, was able to join me for a Sunday morning flight as well...

**Dear Editor, I can appreciate Mike Hendricks' column of 10-16 A.D. 2004 because it is an almost perfect example of the secular humanist attempt to twist and distort the facts. 1. To even suggest that John Kerry is qualified to be president of the United States is an insult to every American...

Get ready to be entertained. An American classic, "Arsenic and Old Lace," is coming to the stage in Southwest Nebraska and Northwest Kansas. Following two months of rehearsals, the play will open Friday night at the Fox Theater in McCook. The shows in McCook will be at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday nights and at 2 p.m. Sunday afternoon...