Stories from Wednesday, August 21, 2013

This information is gathered at the McCook Public Safety Center, the McCook office of the Nebraska State Patrol, the Red Willow County Courthouse, the Red Willow County Sheriff's Office and the McCook Humane Society. Police activity Activity log...

Air Force officer John D. Varilek was awarded the rank of Lieutenant Colonel on May 1, in a ceremony at Offut Air Force Base. Lt Col. Varilek entered the Air Force as a 2nd Lieutenant following his graduation from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln with a bachelor's degree in meteorology. ...

Members of Father Trayer Council 1126 Knights of Columbus of McCook, Nebraska, from left, Bob Burns and Ed Sughroue, and, right, John Anderson, present a check for $500 to Bob Hardy of the McCook Pantry. The check represents a donation from the Knights of Columbus Supreme Council of New Haven, Connecticut, to match the McCook Knights' donations of food and service to the Pantry. ...

McCOOK,Nebraska -- Community Hospital was featured in the Summer 2013 Nebraska Hospital Association (NHA) magazine with the article: "Community Hospital: Extra Steps for Extraordinary Care." The article focused on the hospital's work on quality initiatives as part of their Processed Based Management culture...

Walmart employees present a check for $5,000 to the McCook Pantry and the Feed the Flock Community Dinner organization Friday, Aug. 9. From left are Fran Allacher, Kim Williams, Dorothy Henton, Andy Hoffman, Marilyn Anderson, Mandy Latta, Nate Henning, Hillerie Engler, Marlin Siebrandt, Deb Tabor, Karen Miller, Jerry Brunswick and Paula Karas. The McCook Walmart participated in "Volunteerism Goes Viral" by serving at a Community Dinner and won. Courtesy photo...

NORFOLK, Virginia -- Sunya Decker and Margene Holtze, members of Alpha Omicron 3217 of Epsilon Sigma Alpha (ESA), participated in the St. Jude Challenge, For the Love of Chocolate, while attending the Epsilon Sigma Alpha International Convention in Norfolk, Virginia, in July...

McCOOK, Nebraska -- Red Willow County commissioners can now decide what to do with inventory from the kit helicopter manufacturing company that borrowed $300,000 from the county's revolving loan program in December 2004 and defaulted. County attorney Paul Wood informed commissioners at their meeting Monday morning that Ron Willocks, owner of Pawnee Aviation, has signed over tools and equipment to the county in return for releasing the county's security interest...

McCOOK, Nebraska -- A proposed City of McCook skate park took a critical step forward Monday evening when $30,000 was unanimously approved by the City Council to be budgeted for the project in the upcoming fiscal year. Councilors also authorized city staff to draft a formal letter to the McCook School Board requesting the donation of land at two proposed sites west of the high school and YMCA building...

We were amazed, recently, while going through some old documents for shredding, just how common it used to be to have one's Social Security number printed or displayed for anyone to see. Back in college -- more years ago than we'd like to admit -- it was common to list class grades next to Social Security numbers. No, the names weren't connected directly to the numbers, but even a C student might be able to link the number to the reaction on a classmate's face...

I certainly hope some of you had better success with viewing the Perseid Meteor shower than I did. On both of the peak nights--Monday, Aug. 12, and Tuesday, Aug. 13--it was clouded out here in Southwest Nebraska. But, as they say, that is an occupational hazard for astronomers...

Time was when the State Fair and/or Labor Day was the traditional time for announcing candidacy for statewide office in Nebraska. Said announcements were often "events" designed to get the most spin out of the announcement. With the popularity of social media, such news is now often spread in tweets whenever...

LORRI SUGHROUE McCook Gazette McCOOK, Nebraska -- In a world where things can change in a split second, it's nice to know some things stay the same. Enter Bill Donze, also known as "Mr. Bill" to the hundreds of kids he's sold candy to for almost 30 years...

Roxy Lang of Wilsonville, Nebraska, was grateful for the fog and dew so prevalent at the end of July into early August. She writes, "It's been so long since we have had dew on the grass/flowers. The fog the last several days has been a nice change, washing the dirt off everything and freshening up the air!!" She used these settings: f/14, 1/800, iso800, 60mm. ...

Christy Scott of McCook captured this panoramic shot of a rainbow in McCook on May 29. She writes, "Kinda looks like a moon in photo." The McCook Gazette would love to showcase your weather photos. Readers can contribute to our daily weather page, subject to space and color availability, by emailing photos to editor2@ocsmccook.com or bringing them into the Gazette offices at West First and E Streets. ...