Stories from Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Charlie Gull captured the 2009 Heritage Hills Golf Course Men's Club Championship Saturday and Sunday in McCook. Gull claimed the title with a 36-hole gross score of 150. Chris Nix was second in the championship flight with a 156 score. Tim Wallen was the first flight title with a net score of 143. Rich Schlager won the second flight title with a net score of 143...

The children of Lloyd Frandsen are hosting an open house Sunday, July 19, 1-3 p.m., at the Congregational Church in Cambridge, in honor of his 80th birthday. Cards of congratulation will reach him at 71701 DR 412 Cambridge, NE 69022.

A suggestion by a McCook City Councilman to pay down water debt, using a portion of city sales tax revenue committed to a reserve account for a future city municipality building met with resistance by the rest of the council and was not adopted. But the council did agree to request city sales tax dollars from the 2009-10 budget for water and street improvements, and Councilman Aaron Kircher asked for funds to revamp the city's Web site and for a program that markets McCook...

MARION -- Two cracked floor beams have closed a bridge northeast of Marion, and have put a crimp in a nearby farmer's summer field work plans. Red Willow County commissioners told Don Lafferty Monday morning that Nebraska's Department of Roads closed the bridge -- "It wasn't our choice," said Commission Chairman Earl McNutt. ...

As McCook City Council members made its second foray into the proposed 2009-10 budget Monday night, they were approached by two citizens who requested the use of city funds for projects in the community. Jim O'Dea of the McCook Optimists "respectfully requested" that the council look at using some city money to help fund the firework display the Optimists organize each year. O'Dea told the council that this year they raised $5,800 but it cost $6,800 for the firework show...

By CONNIE JO DISCOE Regional Editor McCook Public Schools' new superintendent, Grant Norgaard, presided over his first board of education meeting Monday evening, overseeing the board as it hired an interim special education director and approved the school district's new anti-bullying policy...

Now that all the hype about green energy is subsiding, reality is beginning to settle in. The economic crisis and lower gasoline prices have put pressure on the ethanol industry, an idled plant in Cambridge among its victims. T. Boone Pickens, despite his $58 million marketing campaign, has given up on his plan to build a $10 billion, 4,000-megawatt wind farm in Texas. ...

Having grown up in Culbertson, attending McCook Junior College and coaching my first baseball team in McCook in 1970, it was a great pleasure to have the Dinsdale Auto Legion team from Lincoln, coached by my son, Jeff, play against McCook's Senior Legion team in two recent tournaments. Your players, coaches and fans are to be commended for the character that they showed...

As a retired police detective, allow me to inform your readers that whatever else legalizing marijuana would do, public safety would certainly improve. My colleagues spend literally millions of hours chasing pot smokers which means less time for the deadly DUI, child molesters etc...

Cleared for takeoff on 01Left. "Roger, Arrow 2077T cleared for takeoff," was the reply. I released brakes, lined up on the runway in my Piper Arrow and applied full power. RPM 2700, Manifold 27.5 inches Hg just like it should be. Nose up at 70 MPH, landing gear retracted and the airspeed increased to 105 MPH, for best rate of climb. ...

A McCook man wants to bring "The Newsboy" back to McCook. Gene E. Morris proposed to the board of directors of the High Plains Historical Society Thursday morning that the Curtiss Robin C-1 airplane that the McCook Daily Gazette used in 1929 and 1930 to deliver newspapers -- writing aviation and journalism history -- be returned to McCook...