Stories from Tuesday, May 8, 2007

McCook Community College sophomore men's basketball players Trey Harris and Mark Versen and sophomore golfer Sean Sterkel have found new homes. Harris, a 6-foot guard from Colorado Springs-Mitchell High School, signed a letter intent Monday to play at NCAA Division I University of California-Irvine...

LEXINGTON -- McCook golfers competed in the Greater Nebraska Athletic Conference in Lexington at the Lakeside golf course Friday. McCook finished eighth with a team score of 341. Norfolk won the conference title, with North Platte following in second, Kearney taking third and Columbus in fourth...

Oct. 4, 1950 - May 6, 2007 Douglas D. Schlegel, 56, died Sunday (May 6, 2007) at McCook Community Hospital.  He was born in McCook on Oct. 4, 1950, to Darold and Marjorie (Covert) Schlegel. He graduated from McCook High School in 1969, and the University of Nebraska at Lincoln in 1973, with a degree in Agriculture. ...

Jan. 25, 1919 - May 6, 2007 Thomas F. Burns, 88, died Sunday (May 6, 2007) at Community Hospital in McCook.  He was born Jan. 25, 1919, to Thomas A. and Margaret (Free) Burns at Cheyenne, Wyo. He graduated from Holy Family High School in 1935, and Regis College in Denver, where he received all conference recognition in football...

Sept. 9, 1935 - May 5, 2007 CAMBRIDGE -- Eldon H. "Hank" Fiene, 71, died Saturday (May 5, 2007) at Cambridge Manor.  He was born on the family farm near Eustis in Frontier County on Sept. 9, 1935, to Ernest John and Clara (Oelkers) Fiene Sr.  He was baptized at a very young age on Sept. 23, 1935, at the Salem Lutheran Church in rural Elwood and was confirmed there on May 15, 1949. ...

Aug. 12, 1934 - May 6, 2007 Agnes Luealla Dack, 72, died Sunday (May 6, 2007) at Hillcrest Nursing Home. She was born Aug. 12, 1934, at Naper to Benjamin J. and Ruth (Pond) Sprinkle. She worked at S.W.A.T.S. She was baptized at Peace Lutheran Church. ...

Dec. 23, 1916 - April 29, 2007 ATWOOD -- June Stevens Reid. 90, died April 29, 2007, at Good Samaritan Nursing Home in Atwood. She was born Dec. 23, 1916, in Grand Rapids, Mich., to Henry Stevens and Helen Healy Stevens. The family moved to Lansing when she was two years old and moved back to Grand Rapids four years later. After her father died in 1925, she with her mother and sister, moved to Chicago,...

Mike Fickle of McCook and his nephew, 4-year-old Reed Steinbeck, ride Blue across the lush, green grass in Barnett Park. The park got a thorough watering with flash floods in April, but no more rain is expected for the next few days.

LINCOLN?-- Gov. Dave Heineman today announced his appointment of Anne Paine of Oxford to serve as a County Judge in the 11th Judicial District. "I'm pleased that Anne has agreed to fill this seat," Gov. Heineman said. "As a highly respected attorney, she will be very diligent and dedicated in her new role as judge."...

An abandoned house in McCook poses fire and safety hazards for the neighborhood, the McCook City Council heard Monday night. It was standing room only in Council Chambers when Jerry Reitz, a former City Councilman, spoke about concerns neighbors had about the home in the 800 block of West Fourth...

After lengthy discussion, the McCook City Council took no action on establishing a policy concerning alcohol on city property and decided instead to follow state law as it had in the past. City staff has requested a policy about serving alcohol on city property due to recent requests...

If you've been going through the bills lately, you may have noticed an increase in one area of the budget. No, it's not the water bill, although that's nothing to sneeze at. It's the gasoline bill, and it's bound to get worse as we head toward Memorial Day...

Late nights began this last week at the Nebraska Legislature with senators debating into the evening. In fact, debate ran just short of midnight last Thursday as senators discussed LB367 (the tax package) and LB305, a bill that would direct sales and use tax collected on leased motor vehicles to the highway funds instead of the General Fund...

Making points with an area farmer for free, I was filling in holes in an old prairie dog town so rattlers would have less of a place to live. It saves hundreds of dollars in livestock snake bites to drive out rattlers. As a shovel of dirt hit a hole, the dirt blew out of the hole, making my heart pump blood very quickly until I realized it was a rabbit...

Just back from visiting the McCook Cemeterys! What a horrible mess the small one, Riverview, is in. Weeds everywhere you look, the dandilions just covering everything; the weeds along the fences are getting so high they'll be a privacy fence in a few weeks...

The corpses of our brave soldiers who died in Iraq are being sent home in cheap, flimsy body-bags, according to many reports. I urge all readers to write your congressman to remedy the situation. Money should be of no object, as freedom has no price...

It is always good to get responses from readers of this column, for one thing it lets me know there are people out there who are reading my astronomical ramblings. Responses range from comments about how much they enjoy the column to questions about "What was that thing I saw last night," to "What do I look at."...

June 19, 1947 - May 7, 2007 ATWOOD -- Richard "Dick" Gene Mays, 69, died Monday (May 7, 2007) at his home in Tehachapi, Calif. He was born June 19, 1947, in Colby, Kan., to Richard Dean and Marita Faye Mays. He graduated from Atwood Community High School in 1965...