Stories from Tuesday, January 9, 2007

GRAND ISLAND -- The Grand Island YMCA was the venue for a double dual swim meet between McCook, North Platte and Grand Island on Friday. The first meet back after Christmas break turned out to be a challenging contest with several close races. McCook's Whitney Korgan won the 50 free with a secondary qualifying time for state...

The Ed Thomas YMCA in McCook was the site of the first swim meet of the 2007-year for the McCook YMCA Devil Ray Swim Team. Participants in the meet were from Hastings, Grand Island, Kearney and McCook. Twenty-five swimmers swam for the Devil Rays at this event...

Following a strong fall semester, the McCook Community College women's basketball team opened the 2007 half of the schedule Sunday with a 68-47 loss on the road to Hastings JV. MCC begins the week with a 5-9 mark, having fallen short to some very strong teams during the pre-Christmas portion of the Indian schedule...

CAMBRIDGE -- The McCook High School freshman girls basketball team took third place in the Cambridge freshman-sophomore tournament Monday night.  The Bison girls opened the night against Cambridge and lost 47-15. "We came out flat and didn't play well," said McCook freshman girls coach Jon Graff. "After a bad first half, we played better in the second half, but not where we need to be."...

CAMBRIDGE -- McCook's freshman boys basketball team fell to Cambridge and Eustis-Farnam Monday at the Cambridge Tournament. The Bison lost to Cambridge 33-25 and Eustis-Farnam 38-28. Chad Stull led the Bison boys against Cambridge with 7 points. Tye Smith and Corey Paz followed with 6 points and Dustin Parde had 4...

ST. FRANCIS -- St. Francis High School football players Joel McAtee and Levi Weedin will play for the West team at the Kansas Shrine Bowl Classic. The game will be played July 28 at Lewis Field Stadium in Hays, Kan. Rosters for the Shrine Bowl include:...

SHARON SPRINGS -- The Cheylin High School boys and girls basketball teams will play first-round games of the Western Kansas Liberty League tonight at Sharon Springs. WKLL Tournament Schedule Boys Cheylin at Sharon Springs, 7 p.m. Golden Plains at Grinnell-Wheatland, 7 p.m...

Nov. 29, 1925 - Jan. 4, 2007 BENKELMAN --?Dale Lutz, 81, of Benkelman died with his family at his side on Thursday (Jan. 4, 2007) at Good Samaritan Hospital in Kearney. He was born to Martin and Ella (Penn) Lutz of rural northwest Dundy County on Nov. 29, 1925. He attended rural schools in the area. As a young boy he took an active role in the family farm where he continued to work until he realized the dream of owning his own. Farming would become his lifelong passion...

 March 13, 1906-Jan. 5, 2007 NORTH PLATTE -- Blanche Ethel Powell, 100, died Friday (Jan. 5, 2007), at Premier Estates in North Platte. She was born in a sod house March 13, 1906, near White, in eastern Hayes County.  She attended elementary school in the Greenfield District and graduated from Maywood High School in 1924...

The Gazette-area's "New Year's Baby" arrived three days after the first of the year, and she was 11 days earlier than expected. She was born at 12:46 p.m., but her daddy lost track of time, and he thought it was 1:16 p.m. The numbers may have been confusing to the adults around her, but Jazlin Irene Lundquist knew just what she was doing, and she arrived in time to become the Gazette's "New Year's Baby" of 2007...

Red Willow County's arena benefactor must be a real trusting soul. And the chairman of Red Willow County's board of commissioners must be really trustworthy. McCook-area rancher Tom Kiplinger, who gave the county $600,000 to build an enclosed horse arena four years ago, put both his name and county commissioner Earl McNutt's name on a new bank account from which Kiplinger will draw money to pay for a 50x100-foot expansion to the original 130x300-foot arena...

The attorney for former city councilman Jim Kenny, charged with a felony theft, is asking that the special prosecutor for the case be removed. But the special prosecutor sees it as another delay tactic. R. Kevin O'Donnell of Ogallala requested District Court Judge David Urbom on Monday for a motion hearing to present evidence to disqualify special prosecutor Pete S. Burger from the case...

Holdrege residents should have a new appreciation for what their parents told them in years gone by. Many of its residents are enjoying a modicum of comfort one again, with a limited amount of electricity flowing into private homes. They're much more conscious of what it takes to provide that power, however, with 10 truck-sized generators running at various points around town, including at least one borrowed from McCook...

Let me tell you how I see it. (Just me, as a citizen and a Gazette reader, not as any part of the city government.) Since there already exists a provision for city employees to receive pay increases based upon merit, Councilman Lonnie Anderson was almost certainly referring to the pay ceiling or cap which applies to every hourly city employee...

It is nice to know there are readers for this column, I know because several of them have asked my why, so far, I've skipped two important constellations: the Big and Little Dippers. Aside from a very short mention in an earlier column that the dippers are asterisms (a distinctive group of stars) and not official constellations I have sort of ignored them. ...

A McCook woman accused of embezzling money from her employer pleaded no contest in District Court Monday. Dorothy J. Kennedy, 67, of 1001 West K, represented by her attorney Maury Green, pleaded no contest to charges of theft by unlawful taking, a Class IV felony...

HASTINGS -- Nearly ten years after Comet Hale-Bopp put on a superb show, another bright comet is currently gracing the early evening sky, according to Dan Glomski, curator of astronomy at the Hastings Museum/J.M. McDonald Planetarium. Comet McNaught is currently visible very low in the western sky shortly after sunset. It sports a short tail, especially well seen in binoculars. On Monday, the comet was bright enough that observers could see it with the unaided eye just 10 minutes after sunset...