Stories from Wednesday, January 17, 2007

TRENTON -- In a cross-state battle of ranked teams Tuesday night at Trenton, Hitchcock County survived against Brewster 53-49. Hitchcock County, ranked 10th in Nebraska Class D-1, improved to 11-2. Brewster, No. 3 in Kansas Class 1A, dropped to 9-2...

OBERLIN -- Decatur Community girls and boys basketball team kicked off the 38th annual Oberlin invitational Tuesday. The Red Devils hosted teams from Oakley, Hoxie, Rawlins County, St. Francis, Quinter, Cambridge and Jefferson Academy. First round action began on Tuesday with six teams taking the floor. Oberlin and Jefferson Academy will square off on Thursday night...

June 12, 1921 - Jan. 15, 2007 OBERLIN -- Hilda B. McGee, 85, died Monday (Jan. 15, 2007) at Decatur County Good Samaritan Center. She was born June 12, 1921, near Clayton in Norton County, Kan., to Franklin and Gernia (Mitchen) Madden. She grew up on a farm in rural Clayton and attended Mount Sunshine County Schools. She graduated from Lenora High School...

Aug. 28, 1916 - Dec. 18, 2006 ATWOOD?--?Lucille Theresa (Marintzer) Solko was the sixth child born to Joseph and Mary (Huss) Marintzer on Aug. 28, 1916.  She passed away at the Good Samaritan Center in Atwood on Monday morning, Dec. 18, 2006, at the age of 90 years...

Dec. 12, 1949 - Jan. 14, 2007 WAKEENEY, Kan. -- Ronald Schreiner, 57, died Sunday (Jan. 14, 2007) at Trego Lemke Memorial Hospital in WaKeeney, Kan. He was born Dec. 14, 1949, in Hays, Kan., to Michael Raymond and Eula Maxine (Jamison) Schreiner. He graduated from Trego Community High School in 1967...

Winter weather frustrates so many, but it brings out the best in many others. Jim Ulrich, president and CEO of Community Hospital of McCook, told his board of directors at their meeting this morning about incidents during the past couple weeks that made him proud of hospital staff and thankful for the help from the community...

The fifth annual "Opening the Doors to New Rural Opportunities" will be held Saturday, Feb. 3, 2007. "Opening Doors" gives aspiring entrepreneurs the opportunity to learn the steps needed to develop new opportunities in rural Nebraska. The conference will be in Curtis at the Nebraska College of Technical Agriculture in the VT Building. Registration begins at 8:30 a.m....

Kirk Wilson mans a snowblower in Memorial Park Cemetery on Tuesday, as City of McCook crews continue to clean up from the recent snowstorms. More snow is possible this weekend, but temperatures are expected to be in the 30s.

This space recently carried an admonition against talking on cell phones while navigating McCook's snowpacked and icy streets. Still, we're hesitant to advocate outlawing cell-phoning while driving altogether. While it's definitely a hazardous activity in the midst of rush hour traffic on Interstate 680 in Omaha, we see no harm in a carefully-placed cell phone call while traversing unoccupied miles of highway in Southwest Nebraska. ...

I learned some new things while I was on vacation. Not all of them pleasant. For instance, with no set agenda, no alarm clock to answer or desk to report to, I discovered that I can be pretty self-indulgent. Actually, I guess I've always known this about myself, it's one of the reasons I keep myself on a prescribed schedule. No schedule, no discipline. No discipline, no productivity. No productivity, no satisfaction. I was glad to return to the grind of 7-5...

MOOREFIELD -- The Medicine Valley Economic Development Corp. announced in the Frontier County Enterprise newspaper Jan. 18 that Wolverine Ethanol LLC of Troy, Mich., plans to build an ethanol plant at Moorefield. The plant, named "Hi-Line Ethanol," will be located on 200 acres of land on Highway 23 at Moorefield. It will consume more than 35 million bushels of corn and produce 100 million gallons of ethanol annually. It will employ 35 to 35 people...