Stories from Thursday, September 1, 2016

Fresh off a big win to start the 2016 campaign, McCook gears up for its first road trip of the season...

Medicine Valley-Sutherland open Week 2 with a Thursday night matchup.

McCook Community College volleyball was swept by Central Community College by scores of 15-25, 22-25, 23-25 Wednesday in Columbus...

There is a saying that "there are two sides to every story." Recently I found "The Great Platte River Road" by Merrill J. Mattes and "Cheyenne Autumn" by Mari Sandoz (1901-1965) at the Trenton Public Library. Mari Sandoz writes in her book that in 1878 a band of 278 Northern Cheyenne fled from the Oklahoma reservation where the U.S. government had taken them. (They set out for their home in Montana, 1,500 miles away.) Their path was along the northwest corridor of the Great Plains...

So unless you are freakishly organized and stocked up for a nuclear war, when you're a busy mom, you have to go the store all the time. And I mean ALL the time! You can probably swing by once a week but darn tootin' there's something you're gonna forget or some strange item your child will need for their Science project that will require you to go back to the store multiple times in one week. ...

TRENTON, Neb. -- At a special meeting Wednesday morning, Hitchcock County commissioners set Tuesday, Nov. 8 for an election asking voters if they want to remove Marlene Bedore as their county assessor. On top of the local question, the Nebraska Department of Revenue plans a two-day hearing Oct. 18 and 19 to determine whether to put Bedore on a 1-year probation to give her the opportunity to comply with correctional measures from the state...

A fisheye camera lens attachment warps Chris Larson's menacing Nebraska Husker Blackshirts fence -- a work in progress, he says. A long stretch of stockade fence provided a blank canvas for the carpenter/artist, who lives near Felling Field in McCook. The Huskers' opening game is Sept. 3, at home against Fresno State...

Editors note: This is the last in a three-part series of teachers hired this year by the McCook School District. In this final section, we talk to four teachers hired for the high school: expectations and hopes of two in their first year of teaching and two veteran teachers...

McCOOK, Neb. -- City leaders are just a few days away from finalizing an increase to McCook's property tax levy and at least one former City Council member is disappointed with the proposition. Former Mayor Dennis Berry is the longest sitting Mayor in McCook history, serving from 2003 until 2014. McCook has not raised its property tax levy since 2002 and considering Berry's comments to the Gazette Wednesday, it unlikely those dates line up due to coincidence...

Sue "Suz" Shaner cuts the ribbon on her new "Train with Suz" facility in the restored Victorian house at 408 E. First near downtown McCook. Sue is surrounded by members of the McCook Chamber of Commerce and McCook Cordials and clients. Chamber executive director Jamie Mockry thanked Sue for her investment in McCook. ...

McCOOK, Neb. -- A McCook man was sentenced to probation recently on a felony drug charge in Red Willow County District Court. The man, 28-year-old Kalen C. Waddell of 712 E. Second Street, was sentenced to 30 months probation on a Class IV felony for possession of hashish. Waddell accepted a plea agreement in June dismissing a second Class IV felony alleging possession of methamphetamine, as well as infractions alleging possession of drug paraphernalia and first-degree criminal trespassing...

KEARNEY, Neb. -- Red Willow County assessor Sandra Kotschwar and deputy assessor Kristi Korell completed a workshop and professional appraisals practices class for county assessors Aug. 22-25 in Kearney. The workshop and the "Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practices" class, attended by approximately 170 county officials and employees, is part of a continuing education and leadership development series sponsored by the Nebraska Association of County Officials (NACO)...

Donald Vincent Felling July 22, 1928 - Aug. 18, 2016 BELLEVUE, Wash. -- Donald Vincent Felling passed away peacefully, surrounded by family and love on Aug. 18, 2016, at the age of 88. On July 22, 1928, Don was born and raised in McCook, Neb. He was the second son of Ralph 'Skip' and Elizabeth Felling. His parents preceded him in death as did his brother, Ralph Jr...

Kelley, Barnett, Norris, Weiland, Elks, Russell, Karrer, Jaycees. They're local parks and ballfields that bear the names of individuals and groups that could see beyond themselves to make things better for generations to come. They've provided settings for thousands of memories and life lessons that sports can provide...

McCOOK, Neb.--Community Hospital President & CEO, Jim Ulrich, announced recently he has accepted an offer to become CEO for York General Health Care Services in York, Nebraska, beginning Oct. 31. He plans to remain in his position at Community Hospital until mid-October...

Curtis, Neb. -- Fulltime student enrollment at the Nebraska College of Technical Agriculture in Curtis has increased this fall semester for a third consecutive year. NCTA Aggies who completed their first week of college after starting classes on August 22 tally 245 fulltime students, a slight increase from 239 who enrolled last fall...