Stories from Tuesday, March 10, 2009

McCook High School senior Mike Grabowski signed a letter of intent Monday to play baseball at Doane College in Crete for the 2010 season. Grabowski, the son of Linda Grabowski and the grandson of Martha Grabowski of McCook, chose Doane College over McCook Community College and a school in Iowa.

Nov. 9, 1917 - March 2, 2009 SPOKANE, Wash. -- Raymond Lebsack "Spiny Ray," 91 years old, of Spokane, Wash., passed away Monday, March 2, 2009, at The Spokane Hospice House, where he had been surrounded by the love and support of his family. Raymond was born Nov. 9, 1917, in Brush, Colo., to Jacob and Elizabeth Lebsack who eventually moved to McCook where Ray grew up...

The family of Ernie Fischer, formerly of McCook, is requesting a card shower in honor of his 95th birthday on March 15, Cards will reach him at 10382 Arrow Lakes Court, Jacksonville, FL 32257.

The family of Nelma Pugh is requesting a card shower in honor of her 85th birthday March 12. She was born in Hamlet. Her children are Carol Phillips of Lakewood, Colo., and Lynda Tincher of Broken Bow. She has four grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren. Cards of congratulations will reach her at Box 321, Palisade, NE, 69040...

McCook Public Schools could get about $906,000 in "cool" federal cash under President Barack Obama's economic stimulus plan. The money would come with strings, board of education member Larry Shields told fellow board members at their monthly meeting Monday evening. It's on a "first come-first served" basis -- "the first one to the bucket is the first to get his hand in the pie," Shields said -- and it has to be spent within two years on a project(s) that puts money back into the economy...

Believing that people are not inherently bad, Red Willow County court personnel still know that the situations they handle in their office very often make people unhappy and unpredictable. The layout of the front office and judge and clerk magistrate's offices and the hours that the office is open create potential security hazards, County Judge Anne Paine told county commissioners at their weekly meeting Monday morning...

McCook Community College is hosting a ribbon cutting Open House Wednesday to unveil the new Center for Applied Science and Technology -- C.A.S.T. The event is set for 10 a.m. at the former Pepper Building at 112 E. Second Street in McCook. Through this partnership between MCC, McCook Public Schools, the Nebraska Department of Corrections Work Ethic Camp; Valmont Industries Inc., Phoenix Transitional Services, Nebraska Workforce Development, training in welding and machine shop skills are being offered to a variety of sources.. ...

OBERLIN, Kan. -- Construction work to overlay US-83 from the US-36 Junction north to the Nebraska State Line will begin on Monday, March 23 reports the Area Two Office of the Kansas Department of Transportation. Venture Corporation, of Great Bend, will serve as the primary contractor in charge of the 12-mile project. ...

Discussion of creating an elementary art program at McCook Public Schools started Monday evening when the president of the McCook Art Guild worried about moving the April school board meeting from the 13th to the 20th. Ray Walter, representing the art guild, told board members that he was afraid McCook would miss opportunities to sign a contract(s) with an art teacher(s) if the board met after April 15, a date by which teachers' contracts are generally signed and/or renewed...

Nebraska's attorneys have their work cut out for them. They're meeting with their counterparts from Kansas and Colorado in Denver for 10 days in an attempt to settle the ongoing Republican River dispute before it goes back to the U.S. Supreme Court...

Movie Review - Watchmen Starring Malin Akerman, Billy Crudup, Carla Gugino, Jackie Earle Haley, and Matthew Goode. Running Time of 2 hours 43 minutes and rated R for strong graphic violence, sexuality, nudity and language. While it is painfully obvious to some, to others it is not, and I shall do my best to not reveal any details of the plot that would spoil it for someone going to the flick without knowledge of the graphic novel. ...

I attended McCook City Council meeting last Monday. Went to watch the Council commit a large portion of the next ten years sales tax receipts to remodeling the Keystone. Hope that ten years from now we can look back and say it was a wise move. At the same meeting the City Manager complimented me on a couple recent columns about "non-city" topics. ...

Marisa Karplus (IP address 208.105.16.142) wrote the following comment in response to the story "New library equipment helps preserve oral history" (http://www.mccookgazette.com/story/1508461.html): Dear Editor, I am writing to you from to clarify that StoryCorps does not accept audio files from interviews that are not recorded on StoryCorps equipment ['New library equipment helps preserve oral history' http://www.mccookgazette.com/story/15084.... ...