Stories from Monday, August 13, 2018

LINCOLN, Neb. – At approximately 7:05 p.m. Sunday, Aaron Schlieker (#87675) escaped from the Work Ethic Camp in McCook. The Nebraska State Patrol and local law enforcement have been notified. The facility has been secured and an emergency count conducted. All other inmates have been accounted for...

80th birthday The family of Valeda Pollmann Wagner of LaVernia, Texas, formerly of Culbertson, Neb., is requesting a card shower in honor of her 80th birthday on Tuesday, Aug. 14, 2018. She was born in 1938 in Culbertson. Her family includes children, Michael and Claudia Wagner, Monte and Gail Wagner, and Jodi and Charles Kee; grandchildren, Sara and Mitchell Hamilton, Caitlin Kee, Michael David Kee, Charles Wayne Kee, Christopher Kee, Alexander Kee and Sean Whitaker; and great-grandchildren,  Krayten and Braxtyn. ...

If you enjoy this column or the columns by Walt Sehnert and past ones by Linda Hein, then you have benefited from the efforts of one man, Harry D. Strunk, who made the saving of McCook newspapers from the past a priority. It doesn’t matter what the reasons were for his gift to us, what matters is that he made sure they were saved...

Note: Recently McCook lost a good friend, with the death of Dale Hofman. In 2012 it was my privilege to sit down with Dale as he recalled, with considerable relish, one of the big events in his life – the title game of the 1956 football season. Probably the greatest feeling a high school football player can have is to be a member of a championship team, undefeated, even unchallenged during the season. ...

McCOOK, Neb. — Two long-time supporters of the ag industry with deep roots in Southwest Nebraska were honored by the McCook Area Chamber of Commerce Friday night. “If you live long enough, I guess something good happens,” Ken Kircher quipped in accepting the award for Farm Family of the Year...

True summer activities bring McCookites to Barnett Park Sunday for the annual “Prairie Roots Festival” — games, food and music. The Grand Island Modelers flew their model airplanes over the soccer field, and FY5, above, and the OK Sisters entertained on a stage near the shelter house. Among those competing in corn hole tournaments was Molly Sharp, and on the ball field, pitcher Ian Brown tossed a whiffle ball toward first base, while Reese Gillespie ran toward second covered by Renee Brown...

Just when you thought it was safe to go in the water …. the Y shows “Jaws.” The YMCA and Youth Change Reaction sponsored a “Dive-In Movie,” inviting kids 11-19 to watch the 1975 summer movie thriller from their floaties in the deep end. Almost 100 kids braved the waves and the “threat” of a man-eating shark...