County-wide law enforcement? We can only hope

County-wide law enforcement? We could only hope

An opportunity to save tax money that probably won’t happen. You may have noticed that our McCook Chief of Police is departing in the near future. It would be a wonderful opportunity to convert our entire police force to the Red Willow County Sheriff’s Department. The Sheriff Department is required by Nebraska Statutes but the Police Department is optional. That way all local law enforcement would be under one department with efficiencies to be gained through lack of duplication. Additionally, the Police Chief is Civil Service with its required board and complications from adherence to one size fits all requirements. The Sheriff is an elected official and if he/she is not preforming can be replaced by local voters. Therefor that person becomes more responsible to the local taxpayers which is always a better deal.

Will it happen probably not because all boards of directors, like the City Council, have a tendency to grow the organization for which they are responsible rather than look for the efficiencies that will save taxpayers money in required taxes. More personnel to pay and more equipment required, squad cars etc. all paid with our tax money. Note that our local Sheriff Darling has been operating as the sole law officer since he was elected some months ago and it looks like the Department is operating just fine. Also if you watch the budget process you will note that the Sheriff's Department pays the City for dispatching services and that payment is of course your tax money that wouldn’t have to be spent if all was combined into one department.

Now for happier thoughts. Grannie Annie and the old guy went for a Sunday afternoon ride just to enjoy our countryside. If you haven’t been out for awhile I recommend that your enjoy this wonderful place where we live.

Usually by August the countryside here looks a bit parched and dry. Not this year, thanks to our unusual amount of rain, the prevailing color is green. The road ditches are green with tall weeds and our pastures are maturing with cow belly high grass and they too are yet green. Something unusual is the huge amount of volunteer marijuana, oh sorry, it is more properly called hemp! It is everywhere, tall and growing good.

According to Google Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) is the active ingredient present in all parts of both the male and female marijuana plants, but it is most concentrated in the resin (cannabin) in the flowering tops of the female plant.

I understand that while technically marijuana our local variety only has a small of the hallucinogenic compound THC so it isn’t worth the effort to strip the leaves and flowers, dry it and smoke it. Personally, I’ve never tried it and never will!

Interestingly marijuana is an imported plant for this area. My understanding is that during WWI our Navy imported the plant for its ability to produce strong fiber that was extracted to make rope. For sailing ships rope has a thousand uses but now ships are made from steel and rope is not the critical component that it once was plus modern plastics make a stronger product. The hemp that was grown was abandoned but the plant liked our soil and climate so it went wild and this year dominates our fence rows and lots of our non-farmed ground. Cattle don’t seem to care for it so it is actually a pest and crowds out better forage plants in many areas.

The Nebraska State Fair is in progress and it is nice that our really hot weather seems to be behind us. Grannie Annie and I have elected to not attend this year even though that is always a fun trip. Not too handy for we older generation that find walking long stretches a chore but we hate to miss the interesting displays and seeing our youth with their show animals. Grannie noted that it was at our State Fair that she was introduced to fried pickles which became an instant hit to our taste buds. Fair food special in many ways but not particularly healthy when one is trying to lose weight.

I correspond with Darrell Meister who was raised in McCook but now makes Hawaii his home when he isn’t tending to his local Bison herd. He is not happy with the way his state is tending to the devastation wrought by the wildfires in nearby Maui. He mentioned the FEMA workers who are staying in $ 1000-a-night suites. Darrell also went to the Red Cross to volunteer to help where he could. A retired Marine so he has skills that could be used. He told me that 8000 people have volunteered and they haven’t worked through to his name yet. A 1000 people still missing—so sad.

That is way that I saw it.

Dick Trail