Stories from Friday, July 22, 2005

A public meeting next week will be held to discuss the replacement of skate park equipment in Kelley Park. All interested parties are encouraged to attend and bring with them any suggestions or recommendations that they have for replacement of the equipment, which was removed after being damaged...

Producers who suffered crop losses from damaging weather in 2003 or 2004 have until Sept. 9, 2005 to sign up for benefits under the Farm Service Agency's Crop Disaster Program. FSA County Executive Director Kenneth Carriker said, "We are pleased to be able to provide these benefits to producers as quickly as possible. Drought and floods are unpredictable weather events that put farmers and ranchers at risk in producing a dependable and affordable national food supply."...

NORTH PLATTE -- The Mid-Plains Community College 2005 Fall Course Schedule is currently being mailed out to all households, box holders and rural mailboxes in the 18-county MPCC area and boarding communities in Kansas. The schedules are also available at the North Platte Community College's North and South Campuses and McCook Community College, as well as the MPCC extended campuses at Broken Bow, Imperial, Ogallala and Valentine. ...

CURTIS -- The first year of ground water allocations is under way and irrigators have been approaching staff at the Middle Republican NRD with specific questions. Here are some reminders about allocations and irrigation, which apply to ground water irrigators in Hayes, Hitchcock, Red Willow, most of Frontier and part of Lincoln counties:...

MID-PLAINS COMMUNITY COLLEGE BOARD OF GOVERNORS MEETING   Wednesday, July 27, 2005, 6:30 P.M. McMillen Hall, McCook Community College McCook, NE 1. CALL TO ORDER/ROLL CALL: Mr. Glenn Colson-Chair/Secretary 2. OPEN FORUM: Comments from Faculty, Staff, Audience and Board...

LEXINGTON -- As temperatures were well over 100 degrees on Thursday, the McCook National Bank American Legion Seniors were red hot during the beginning of the game with Holdrege. When the sun went down, and temperatures cooled off, MNB followed the same pattern...

May 28, 1921-July 19, 2005 Lester R. Ketterl, 84, died Tuesday (July 19, 2005), at the Willow Ridge Retirement Community in McCook. He was born May 28, 1921, to Louis and Katherine Ketterl. He spent his childhood near Herndon where he attended a country grade school. He graduated from Herndon High School in 1939...

By TYLER BIECK McCook Daily Gazette The McCook City Council wrapped up its 2005-06 budget with another late-night session Thursday and a plea for public input on new water and sewer rates. The council received a water and sewer rate adjustment from Senior Management Consultant Jon Burm-eister of Public Financial Management in Des Moines, Iowa...

The Saudi Arabia of Biorenewables? It shouldn't be too hard to convince Southwest Nebraskans that we may have something in common with the middle eastern kingdom. But it's a new type of energy, not just an important oil industry and the scorching weather that could put our region in parallel with the Saudis...

A birthday came and went for me recently. If I don't change my ways soon, that 40th birthday will be right around the corner and I will have missed the next seven years -- all because I spent my time looking. I'm not looking for the meaning of life. I'm not looking for a great lasagna recipe. I'm not even looking for a good laundry detergent. I spent all my time looking for things...

**Dear Editor, I live in Portland, Oregon now. I was born in Omaha in 1942. My father, Bob Klindworth, "the cat" was a sports reporter at the Gazette, before moving to the World Herald prior to my birth. I was adopted after he was shot down and died from wounds in World War II, hence the name Perrill. My mother, Dorothy Clark, grew up in McCook; my father in Alliance, both attending high school in the 1930s...

G Movers of Farnam put wheels under St. Mark's Lutheran Church in Norcatur at 9 a.m., Wednesday, and pulled it 17 miles along Highway 36 and over county roads to the east edge of Oberlin by 2 p.m. The church's steeple followed behind on a flatbed trailer. The church rolled onto its new site, at the Decatur County Museum compound, Thursday...

By TYLER BIECK McCook Daily Gazette When Jeff Gross arrived at McCook High School in 1998 as the head football coach, one of his main goals was to upgrade the weight room facility at the school. In 2005, after winning two state championship and runner-up trophies, Gross has modernized the MHS weight room...

This column began several years ago in this newspaper, basically about relationships, following my Mike At Night radio show about the same on KICX and later the PRAIRIE, and a stint as a columnist with The Weekend, an alternative newspaper in McCook...

March 24, 1928-July 21, 2005 OBERLIN -- Donald E. Roe, 77, died Thursday (July 21, 2005), at the Decatur County Hospital in Oberlin. He was born March 24, 1928, to Earl and Elsie (Hesseltine) Roe, at Cedar Bluffs, Kan. He was raised in Decatur County and graduated from Decatur Community High School in 1946...

Dec. 17, 1925-July 20, 2005 CAMBRIDGE -- John Donald Kelly, 79, died Wednesday (July 20, 2005), at the Cambridge Manor in Cambridge. He was born Dec. 17, 1925, in Cambridge to Dean and Sadie (Wonderlick) Kelly. HE was drafted into the U.S. Army prior to graduation and served his country from 1946 to 1949 in the European theatre and in Germany...

ATWOOD -- Raphael J. Sabatka Sr., 83, died Thursday (July 21, 2005), at the Rawlins County Health Center in Atwood. Mass of Christian burial will be Monday, 10 a.m., at ST. John Nepomucene Church in rural Atwood with the Rev. Damian Richards officiating. Interment will be at St. John's Cemetery...

Oct. 17, 1924-July 20, 2005 Harlan D. Grafel was born Oct. 17, 1924, in Hitchcock County, Neb., to August P. and Mary (Wolfram) Grafel. He died July 20, 2005, from injuries suffered in a car accident. Harlan graduated from Herndon High School in 1942. ...