Stories from Tuesday, June 6, 2006

GRANT -- The McCook YMCA Swim Team kicked off their summer season with a meet at Grant last Saturday. This was a dual meet which provided a good introduction for beginning swimmers. "This was a great chance for our first time swimmers to compete in a meet," said McCook YMCA swim coach Tracy Flaska...

MEDICINE CREEK DAYS 1 MILE RESULTS May 27, 2006 Girls 6 and Under Bria Tomlin 12:08 Boys 6 and Under Caleb tenBensel 11:14 Girls 7-9 Rachelle Carpenter 8:54 Marlana Kent 9:13 Lizzie Cope 11:58 Boys 7-9 Garrett Huxoll 13:47 Girls 10-12 Molly Sughroue 6:44...

Only a week after Memorial Day, Nebraska is running ahead of the yearly average for drownings. The latest came Sunday with the deaths of a 16-year-old boy who got in trouble while swimming in one of the Fremont State Lakes, and an 8-year-old boy who fell off a pontoon boat when it struck the shore in Harlan County Lake...

Attention Washington politicians: Want to stay in office because the economy is running at full speed? Just declare a few more holidays. I've noticed Halloween is well ensconced in the No. 2 spot behind Christmas, or is it Valentine's Day? St. Patrick's Day has joined New Years Eve as a time for serious partyers, and Thanksgiving and the Fourth of July have to be in the running for days with the largest average consumption of calories...

By LORRI SUGHROUE City Editor Phase II of the city walking trail got the go-ahead from the McCook City Council Monday, with the city committing to a 20 percent match to fund a portion of the trail that goes to Wal-Mart. Becky Kilpatrick ad-dressed the council and said Phase I of the trail, from East Fifth at Kelley Park to East H, is almost completed...

The $24,000 price tag for fencing and crushed rock around the east water tower seemed too high for the McCook City Council Monday night, so it approved the project only after the elimination of white rock brought the cost down to a more palatable $13,000...

MAYWOOD -- Don Kahler spelled his last name -- K-A-H-L-E-R -- and said that it's also spelled "T-I-R-E-D." Kahler, of Grand Island, had just pedaled 100 miles on the second day of the 26th annual BRAN -- Bicycle Ride Across Nebraska -- and was cooling off near the schools in Maywood Monday afternoon...

The owner of a trailer court in McCook approached the City Council during the Citizens Forum about sewer bills he received this winter. Claude Cappel spoke to the council about of the problem he has had with high sewer rates at the West Q trailer court, citing sewer bills 40 percent higher than his water during the winter months...

Red Willow County commissioners signed a one-year contract Monday morning with the U.S. Department of Agriculture for predator control in the county until June 30, 2007. Wildlife specialist Ryan Arrington of Hayes Center and his supervisor, Paul Kokes of Ogallala, explained the new contract, for which the county will pay $5,809, during the commissioners' regular weekly meeting...

Oct. 22, 1953 - June 3, 2006 Mark "Buff" Buffington of McCook, died Saturday (June 3, 2006) at Mercy Hospital in Sioux City, Iowa. He was 52 years old. He was born October 22, 1953, in McCook, to Harold Lee and Laura M. (Meury) Buffington. He grew up in McCook and graduated from McCook High School in 1972...

A McCook veteran and the Red Willow County veterans service officer recommended to county commissioners Monday morning that they investigate the possibility of consolidating veterans services with four neighboring counties. Dan Stramel of McCook, a Marine veteran, told commissioners that their county's VSO (veterans service officer) is helping veterans in Hayes, Hitchcock, Dundy and Frontier counties anyway...