An inspirational air race

Talk about inspirational!

I watched the ladies from the Air Race Classic come through McCook last Tuesday.

All were professional, courteous and in a big hurry. Two groups stood out in my mind.

It was the young ones, the 18- to somewhere around 25-year olds who have an unlimited future in aviation, possibly a future astronaut among them.

Those I really envied. The couple who inspired me the most, however, were the two ladies who learned to fly in 1943, one in the military, the WASPS, and the other as a civilian, and both are still flying.

Spry, sharp and still doing what they love at 86 years old, (she told me) maybe there is another good decade and a half left for me too!

The race ended Friday so one has to go to http://airraceclassic.com/ to find out how our favorites finished. 

Kudos to Griff and his crew at Red Willow Aviation for a quick turn around for the racers.

The Chamber and the City provided a quick lunch, bottled water and a welcoming packet for each lady. I heard many times that "McCook was a great stop," especially from the three teams that spent Tuesday night here in McCook waiting for even better weather.

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Great fun at the Council meeting last Monday. Fun to me, that is from not being in the hot seat but definitely not fun for the city manager, the council members or other participants present.

Some time in the recent past Daniel and Lizann Miller purchased a property south of McCook just across the road from the city's new gold-plated water treatment plant.

The Millers are evidently in the process of getting licensed as a "dog breeding kennel" at that location or to us cynics a "puppy mill." We are talking 30 or so small-breed adult dogs and up to 60 puppies at a time.

Well the neighbors don't think the plan is such a great idea; something about the constant sound of barking dogs has changed the neighborhood.

The location being within the two-mile zoning enforcement jurisdiction of McCook's city limits, the council has the right to say yea or nay to the establishment of the business no matter the concerns of the neighbors. Ah but it is tough to vote your heart and kill the dreams of a person wanting to start a new business, but if you say yes, the neighbors will feel that you let them down, so you can't win either way.

City manager Kurt looked uncomfortable and no way wanted to be put in the position of inspecting the premises of a puppy mill.

Lonnie, retired-cop, expressed his opinion that none of the current police wanted the job of inspecting the location to assure compliance with all the current federal and state regulations and no one else from the Council stepped forth to volunteer, either.

During the whole discussion I never heard one comment about Charlie's puppy mill that already exists just outside city limits below Wal-Mart.

Kurt later, in jest I hope, told me that he was considering appointing me the "kennel inspector." I fear being a little prejudiced because I have a dim view of the whole puppy mill industry from past experience.

In part, that opinion was gained from having spent several years helping euthanize the excess animals at the local Humane Society. Many of the animals we had to put down were old females, identifiable by tattoos, which had become too old to produce in nearby kennels.

We felt the owners didn't have the heart to kill the animals themselves, were too cheap to hire a veterinary to do the unsavory job, so they just dumped the animals on us volunteers to do the job for free. It kind of left a bad taste!

Dan Miller, CPA, has been a long-time good corporate citizen of McCook. Possible the Millers will run a dog breeding facility that will meet all the required regulations and be an operation that will be acceptable to a reasonable person.

Possibly the concerns of the neighbors will be met, the neighborhood will return to its peaceful pre-kennel status, and everybody will be happy.

The Council could assure just that result by simply saying NO but then they might be accused of being unfriendly to local business. Oh the joy of being an elected official.