Stories from Wednesday, April 7, 2004

Representatives of Sampson Construction Co., McCook Public Schools' construction manager, will present a progress report on the renovation and addition concept plan for the North Ward Elementary site, which will be before the voters on Tuesday, May 11...

The McCook High School boys golf team narrowly sneaked by North Platte in dual action Tuesday. The dual was played on the front nine holes at Heritage Hills golf course and the top four scores out of five were counted to the overall team score. McCook No. 1 player, Tyler Lawson, posted the low score of the day with a 35 to lead McCook to a 152-154 margin of victory...

BENKELMAN -- With a second and fourth-place finishes, Cambridge took the team title at the Dundy County golf invitational Tuesday in Benkelman. Cambridge finished with a team score of 332. Wauneta-Palisade was the runner-up at 348, followed by Culbertson in third with 353...

BENKELMAN -- Led by four first place-finishes by Kyle Custer, the Cambridge boys took the team title at the Dundy County Invitational on Tuesday in Benkelman. Dundy County finished in the runner-up position. Host-team Dundy County won the girls team title, outdistancing Southwest and Wauneta-Palisade, which tied for second...

HOLDREGE -- The McCook High School girls tennis team lost 7-of-9 varsity matches Tuesday at Holdrege. Both matches were won in doubles competition. McCook's No. 1 doubles team of Kim Serbousek and Tausha Escher defeated Holdrege's Emily Kraus and Kinsey Brendel 8-3...

You want green grass and a lush lawn. Oh, but the water bill ... You want colorful flowers and blossoms spring-to-fall. Oh, more water ... and bigger water bills ... Not necessarily so. Yard and garden enthusiasts learned -- during a low-water landscaping workshop March 20 at McCook Community College -- that not all grasses suck up water like dry sponges and that some pretty flowers will actually rot -- overnight, even -- if they get too much water...

Jan. 30, 1911-April 1, 2004 LINCOLN -- Julia Sis (Austin) Vandiver, 93, died Thursday (April 1, 2004) at Monarch Hospice Facility in Lincoln. She was born Jan. 30, 1911, in a sod house in Beardsley, Kan., in Rawlins County, to Frank and Appolonia Sis...

March 8, 1923-April 5, 2004 OBERLIN -- Walter R. Anderson, 81, died Monday (April 5, 2004) at Marysville, Kan. He was born March 8, 1923, at Fort Collins, Colo., to J. Fred and Amy H. Anderson. He was raised in Meeker, Colo., where he completed his primary education. He then attended Colorado State University in Fort Collins...

Feb. 15, 1978-April 4, 2004 WALLACE -- Jeremy Lee Hamit, 26, of Wallace, died on April 4, 2004, west of Curtis. He was born Feb. 15, 1978 to Carl E. and Linda R. Hall Hamit at North Platte. He graduated from Wallace High School in 1997 and attended the Western Nebr. ...

Red Willow County commissioners signed the final grant paperwork for 21st Century Systems Inc. and discussed financing options for a jail during their regular meeting Monday morning. "This amounts to some pretty good technical jobs for McCook," said Rex Nelson, director of the McCook Economic Development Corp., as commission chairman Earl McNutt signed paperwork that will provide 21st Century with $175,000 for operating expenses. The grant also includes $5,000 to administer the funds...

Not having a jail means Red Willow County is sending more than a third of a million dollars to counties that do, and leaving it at the mercy of those counties, a county commissioner said. Commissioner Earl McNutt said that Red Willow County has not had a jail in 20 years and is spending about $300,000 a year (plus transportation and manpower) to house its prisoners in out-of-county jails...

Located as it is on the northern edge of the residential district, it's easy to overlook the major impact of the McCook Field Office of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. But -- while few people pass by the field office on a daily basis -- the Bureau's contributions to McCook and the Tri-State Region have been tremendous. It started way back in 1947 when the Bureau of Reclamation first set up operations at the former Prisoner of War Camp near Indianola...

It scarcely seems possible that spring is here, again. And not only spring, but Spring 2004. The new century is hardly new anymore, and to think I used to believe it would never arrive, it seemed so distant. I've been warned that the older I got the faster time would pass, but I'm beginning to think this is just a tad ridiculous. I think someone has put the world on fast forward and purposely misplaced the remote...