Stories from Tuesday, October 3, 2006

STOCKVILLE -- Travelers passing through Stockville on Highway 18 a recent afternoon probably had very disturbing thoughts run through their minds. Emergency responders in Frontier County sure did, as they arrived to find a school bus on its side in the ditch with a pickup and anhydrous tank nearby...

From 1926 to 1970 McCook Junior College fielded football teams, some with outstanding records. How-ever, the finest ever record was compiled by the 1965 team. The 1965 team actually finished the season ranked No. 1 Junior College in the Nation, a distinction which was a bit misleading, since the final poll was made after the regular season, but before the National Junior College (Juco) Bowl game was played...

It's a good problem to have. McCook's foremost high-tech company, 21st Century Systems Inc., is running out of room in Walsh Brady Hall on the McCook Community College campus, and may seek temporary quarters until it can make a permanent move downtown...

Will the real Gene Morris please stand up? That's an old line. I first used it in a column in the late 1960s when there were three Gene Morrises in McCook. One was a pilot for Myatt Volentine, another was the news editor of the Gazette and the third was a deputy sheriff...

A very religious, very pro-life Republican friend of mine is working for Democratic candidates this year. She told me she is tired of supporting "cookie-cutter conservative Christian candidates" who never seem to get any real moral good done in office...

My fellow Americans: As the war on terrorism progresses, I urge all taxpayers to send as much money as possible to the Iraq government. Why? They will be starting up new businesses. They will have the correct values. They will support education. They have democracy. They don't believe in violence. They don't like foreigners invading, bombing and occupying...

The McCook Community College volleyball team dropped a pair of Region IX matches at home Friday to Colorado schools Trinidad State and Lamar. MCC lost a five-set decision to Trinidad State 30-25, 27-30, 26-30, 30-19, 15-6 and a four-set match to Lamar 30-19, 30-27, 25-30, 30-28...

HASTINGS -- The McCook High School junior varsity football team improved to 5-0 with a 28-14 victory at Hastings Monday night. Hastings scored first on a 70-yard fumble return in the first quarter. McCook sophomore quarterback Matt Berry threw the first of three touchdown passes -- a 36-yard hookup with Dillon Goltl and McCook led 7-6 after one quarter...

The McCook Junior High School seventh grade volleyball A, B and C teams ended their season at home against Lexington Thursday (Sept. 28). The A team lost 25-15, 14-25, 15-12. Jackie Carfield served 9 unanswered points in the match for the Bison. The B team also lost in three games 12-25, 25-15, 15-8. Jasmine Fassler served 8 points and Moriah Sayler 6...

Although the McCook City Council approved on its first reading an ordinance to move the utility bill due date up to the 20th, it's not set in stone. Instead, between now and two remaining readings, the council wants to adjust the dates to make sure it won't be causing a hardship for McCook residents who receive Social Security or SSI checks...

District 44 Legislature candidates Mark Christensen and Frank Shoemaker went head-to-head at a debate Monday, differing sharply on water solutions, reforming Medicaid and the debate itself. Attended by about 50 people at the Heritage Senior Center in?McCook, the debate was moderated by Mark Intermill of AARP Nebraska...

BEAVER CITY -- The man who yanked his Korean War museum out of a building in Oxford in late November 2005, and was then charged with trespassing on the same property seven months later, will spend the next 87 days in jail. Kyle Kopitke, now of Nelson, was sentenced Monday by Furnas County Judge Cloyd Clark to 90 days in jail for sneaking into the former museum building in the early-morning hours of June 10. Kopitke was given credit for three days spent in jail following his arrest in June...

RE: Wayne Madsen, former NRD board member and member of the Nebraska Well Drillers Association, on the possibility that the state will take "authority to control groundwater from NRDs and give the authority to the state." ["NRD passes $1.6 million budget" (http://www .mccookgazette.com/story/1170372.html)]...

Nebraska isn't thought of as a mining state, but we need to change our thinking. Yes, we have oil and gas, which remove finite amounts of a valuable resource from the ground, and most people don't think of sand and gravel operations as "mining," but they are. And, quarries aren't unknown...

The Nebraska Depar-tment of Environmental Quality has awarded Red Willow County's household hazardous waste collection program an $80,000 grant for 2006-07. Red Willow County Commission Chairman Earl McNutt said, during the commissioners' weekly meeting Monday morning, that the grant will pay for collection events in 20 communities and for disposal of the materials that are collected...