Stories from Wednesday, July 8, 2009

April 10, 1939 - July 6, 2009 SHELBY -- Janet G. (Crook) O'Brien, 70, of Shelby, died Monday (July 6, 2009) at Bryan LGH East Hospital in Lincoln. She was born April 10, 1939, to Basil and Bernice (Humphreys) Crook in Benkelman. The family lived in Benkelman and moved to McCook in 1951, where she graduated high school in 1957...

An ordinance to reduce the speed limit on a portion of East H Street from 35 to 25 mph hour was approved 3 to 1 by the McCook City Council Monday night, but hit a slight speed bump with Councilman Aaron Kircher voting against it. At the regular meeting Monday night, Council members Colleen Grant, Jack Rogers and Lonnie Anderson voted in favor of the lowered speed, with Mayor Dennis Berry absent...

Should heavier patients be charged more to be hauled to the hospital? While some rescue services are buying special ambulances for obese patients, and charging accordingly, that isn't the case in McCook -- yet. Transporting obese patients came into the discussion at the regular McCook City Council meeting Monday night, when Councilman Jack Rogers pulled from the consent agenda the item to raise rates for the ambulance service operated by the City Fire Department...

Chances are very good that the city may be awarded a fire station construction grant, the McCook City Council was told Monday night. McCook City Fire Chief Marc Harpham told the council at its regular meeting Monday night that thousands were expected to apply for $210 million worth of fire station grants, funded by economic stimulus funds, but by the time city submitted its application on Monday, only about 450 other applications had been submitted as well...

To scale down the late Sen. Everett Dirksen's lament, a million here, a million there, and pretty soon, it adds up to real money. That's the case in the City of McCook's budget, now undergoing consideration by the City Council. While the total proposed budget has increased 14.68 percent from last year, to $25.7 million, the general fund has been cut by 7.37 percent, and that's a good sign...

Winter was a long time leaving this year. It seemed we were stuck inside for most of it, often driven to the idiot box in the living room to stave off cabin fever. There are a couple of channels that never fail to amuse, if not educate. The History channel and the Discovery channel got a lot of viewing time as we snuggled under quilts to keep the thermostat low...

By LORRI SUGHROUE City Editor The property tax request for the city basically remains the same for next year but city sales tax revenue has flattened out, according to the proposed 2009-10 budget unveiled Monday night at the McCook City Council meeting...