Stories from Wednesday, September 12, 2007

HASTINGS -- The McCook Bison varsity softball team came away with a 5-1 victory over a tough Hastings team Tuesday at Hastings night. Defense was the tale of the tape in the first two innings, as neither team scored. The Bison had the lone base hit from either team, as Amanda Einspahr led off with base hit in the first inning, stole second, but was called out en route to third base on an interference call...

LEXINGTON -- The McCook High School varsity tennis team claimed 8-of-9 matches and the junior varsity won 7-of-13 matches in a dual Tuesday at Lexington. The Bison return to Lexington Saturday for the Lexington Invitational. The tournament starts at 9 a.m...

HAYES CENTER -- Hayes Center's volleyball team hosted its first triangular of the season Tuesday with Dundy County and Wallace. The Cardinals fell to Wallace 25-14, 25-13 and to Dundy County 25-19, 25-19. Rebecca Gigax had 3 aces against Wallace and had 6 blocks with 1 ace block and 3 kills...

GOTHENBURG -- McCook High School senior Justine Hager notched the third-place medal at the Gothenburg Invitational Tuesday. Hager, Broken Bow's Allison Rowden and Valentine's Kelsey Dredge each shot 89s. Rowden won a playoff for second place, Hager was third and Dredge fourth...

The king is dead. Long live the king! Now all we have to do is find it. The "king" in question is the nation's largest cottonwood tree, which once stood near Seward. The Nebraska Forest Service didn't say how many summers the cottonwood had survived, but this was the last one...

Saturday marks the 10th anniversary of the day I walked through the doors at the McCook Daily Gazette as a bona fide employee. It was a long and winding road indeed that led me to this corner of the world that is sometimes too hot, sometimes too dry, sometimes too cold and sometimes too icy, but mostly is just right. Of course, I've just come in from looking at a September blue sky, so I might be romanticizing the climate today just a tad...

CAMBRIDGE -- On Friday Sharla Long, along with Thrivent Financial for Lutherans, plans a medical benefit hamburger feed for Lori Leibbrandt. The hamburger feed will be across the street from the press box at the Cambridge Football Stadium from 5 to 7 p.m. before the Cambridge vs. Franklin football game. The menu will consist of burgers, chips, dessert and drink for a free-will donation...

Although some board members expressed concern about increasing taxes, Middle Republican Natural Resources District directors voted Tuesday night to approve the 2007-08 budget 9-2, along with more than double the property tax rate, now 10.866 cents per $100 valuation...

Red Willow County commissioners would like the City of McCook to share the half-cent sales tax that the city will ask its taxpayers to approve Nov. 13. Commissioners said during their weekly meeting Monday morning that they would use one-fourth of the city's one-half cent sales tax to fund capital improvements in the county's roads...

The increased tax rate the Middle Republican Natural Resources District included in its 2007-08 budget is the price we pay for local control, said one McCook resident who spoke at the open budget hearing Tuesday night. All three who addressed the board at the hearing at Memorial Auditorium in McCook were in favor of the higher tax rate, including Mike Thomas of McCook...

Aug. 6, 1923 - Sept. 11, 2007 Lois M. Sines died Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2007 at Community Hospital in McCook.  She was 84 years old. Lois was born Aug. 6, 1923, in Indianola, to John and Alta (Helm) McNeill.  She graduated from Indianola High School in 1941 and attended McCook Jr. College...

Feb. 14, 1913 - Sept. 10, 2007 ATWOOD -- Orvil Robert Winslow, 94, died Monday (Sept. 10, 2007) at Rawlins County Health Center in Atwood. He was born Feb. 14, 1913, in Norton County, Kan., to Raymond and Hester J. (Goldsworth) Winslow. The family moved to Rawlins County three years later. He attended school in rural Rawlins County, mostly at Pleasant Valley in Clinton Township and spent his life farming with his father and then on his own. He was a 91-year-resident of Rawlins County...