Serving proudly since 1873 as the beautiful Nebraska Panhandle's first newspaper
Serving proudly since 1873 as the beautiful Nebraska Panhandle's first newspaper
Sorted by date Results 1518 - 1542 of 3064
A Mitchell man was arrested Wednesday following an operation of the Panhandle Region Team of the Nebraska Human Trafficking Task Force. James Raymond Hill, 52, was arrested for solicitation of prostitution after offering to pay for someone to perform a sexual act. According to an arrest affidavit filed by a Nebraska State Patrol investigator, an undercover officer with the Human Trafficking Task Force communicated with Hill via text and phone conversations referencing a Craiglist ad posted by...
Laws against drinking before driving are clearly stated. Drinking while carrying a CDL license is tighter yet, and the use of opioids was recently added to the mix. Sidney's Human Resources Director Jo Houser met with the Sidney City Council Tuesday regarding modifications to the City's Drug and Alcohol policies. Houser said in the council meeting one of the additions to the policy is testing for opioids. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the United States is in an...
Cheyenne County is updating the emergency alert system effective July 1. Emergency and weather alerts are presently sent to subscribers of the CodeRed system. The system relays messages to email addresses and phone numbers submitted by people within the coverage area. Beginning July 1, alerts will be sent by Panhandle Alert. The Panhandle Alert system serves counties Banner, Box Butte, Cheyenne, Dawes, Deuel, Garden, Grant, Kimball, Morrill, Scotts Bluff, Sheridan and Sioux. To sign up for...
While the Sidney and Cheyenne County community is experiencing changes, it is not without growth as well. Sidney City Manager Ed Sadler reported to the City Council Tuesday that the City has recorded “just under 580 new customers” in the last two years. New customers are new utility services, not transfers of service, he said. According to a report provided by Sadler, 318 of the new customers are from Nebraska, 145 are from Colorado, and 22 were from Wyoming. Eight new customers were from California, seven from Arizona, five from the sta...
Allegations of civil rights violations against Cheyenne County Sheriff John Jenson have been dismissed by a federal judge. Judge Richard G. Korf dismissed claims against Jenson and Kevin Spencer, the Scottsbluff police chief. The case originated with a complaint filed in Lancaster County District Court last October, where two Nebraska Crime Commission members, Lisa Stamm and Vanessa Humaran, sued Jenson, Spencer and Scottsbluff County Sheriff Mark Overman for harassment. Stamm and Humaran...
The City of Sidney is trying to avoid the awkwardness of meeting an individual or private enterprise who wants to support development in the community, but the City can’t accept it. The Sidney City Council met in a special session Monday morning to consider a program that would allow private contributions for economic development. Presently, LB840 limits where and how Sidney can receive funding. “We can only do what the plan says we can do, and get funds from where it says we can get them,” Economic Development Director Melissa Norgard said...
The warm and breezy day offered the perfect opportunity to display the many wheat varieties being tested in the Panhandle of Nebraska. The University of Nebraska-Lincoln held its High Plains Ag Lab Field Day Thursday north of Sidney. The Field Day included demonstrations of growing peas in the area, including the pros and cons of applying nitrogen to the plants. Speakers on pea production included UNL Alternative Crops Breeding Specialist Dipak Santra, UNL Soil and Nutrition Management...
Long standing jokes and folklore highlight the rivalry between police officers and firefighters. Memes, cartoons and even story lines on television embellish the differences between two sets of important public servants. Many of us have heard the jokes; "The reason they made [insert department] is so [insert department] could have heroes, too." But when community safety and well being is on the line, all respond where they are needed. Sidney's volunteer fire fighters and police officers will be...
Sidney’s City Council will hold a special meeting Monday morning to examine a potential revision to the city’s economic development plan. If okayed by council, the revised plan would be sent to voters for approval. The city is currently operating under the economic development plan that was overwhelmingly approved by voters in the November 2016 election. That gave the city authority to continue setting aside $300,000 of a previously approved special use tax, specifically to be used for eco...
There was a time mail carriers had more threats than an unrestrained dog or an angry customer. They had miles of wilderness and all of the dangers that come with it. The Pony Express earned a place in history, an Old West legend. It was the fastest mail service available to the western territories. Mail sent by stage coach could require a 25-day journey, and by ship would be a months-long adventure. The success of the riders depended on the availability of resources including relay stations,...
Sidney High School's track and football field facilities will be closed starting the first week of July for the Track Resurfacing Project. It will be closed a majority of the month of July until the project is completed. The will upgrade our facility for the community to continue to utilize throughout the year. The district will send out a notice when the project is completed and the facilities are open again. Sidney High School Athletic Director Mike Brockhaus says "We apologize for this...
He doesn't manage the office with a coat and tie. He has the relaxed look of someone who is more comfortable walking, or riding, the prairie than to spend too much time behind a desk. He has the appearance of a man who is most relaxed sharing stories and fireside coffee almost as strong as the characters in the stories, building relationships with dramatized stories of the West. There are those people in the world who don't slow down. They have an energy in everything they do that is almost...
The Cheyenne County Commissioners discussed approaches to controlling weeds in the county Monday. The issue is how to control specific weeds that may be added to the county’s noxious weed list while on a limited budget. Specifically, the commissioners talked with Weed Superintendent Cris Burks regarding the impact of Canadian thistle, dalmatian toadflax and bindweed. Common Mullein is a biennial plant with grayish white, woolly leaves. It is listed as a noxious weed in Colorado with the USDA l...
The State Highway Commission will hold its regular meeting June 22 at 10:00 a.m., at the Western Community College, 371 College Drive, in Sidney. The agenda for the meeting can also found on the NDOT website at http://dot.nebraska.gov/news-media/ by clicking on the “State Highway Commission Meeting” link. The State Highway Commission meetings are conducted in compliance with the Open Meetings Act, as cited in the Nebraska Revised Statutes. For details, call (402) 471-4567. The State Highway Commission will gather for dinner on Thursday, Jun...
A project to protect Sidney homes and businesses in the general area of Western Nebraska Community College and the Case dealership is soon going to be a reality. Galen Wittrock, assistant manager with the South Platte Natural Resources District, has announced that the Joint East Sidney Watershed Authority Project (JESWA) is expected to break ground this week after years of planning. Since 1999, SPNRD, City of Sidney and other officials have been working on the project after severe rains flooded...
The Sidney City Council approved an increase in landfill rates designed to cover costs of improvements and planning for future investments. City Manager Ed Sadler said the proposal changes the rate structure so that business and residential customers pay the same per-ton rate. In his memo to city council, Sadler said that rates have remained the same since 2013, “and rate revenue has stayed stable at $1,100,000 for that time frame.” He added that the City began paying on new debt from the con...
"We're strong, we're resilient, and we have a lot of positives." That was part of the message Sidney Mayor Joe Arterburn presented to a crowd of 120 Wednesday at the State of Sidney, presented by the Cheyenne County Chamber of Commerce in conjunction with the City of Sidney. Arterburn's message focused on the need for the positive in interactions with each other and with out of town visitors alike, as "you never know how that word will affect their impression." While Sidney was hard hit with...
The Sidney Council approved a subdivision request by the City’s Economic Development office subdividing a 4.03 acre tract in the Sidney Business Park Addition. The request was made on behalf of NexGen Outfitters, resulting in a total of 8.06 acres at the Sidney Industrial Park. Economic Development Director Melissa Norgard said the reason NexGen Outfitters chose that parcel is if they expand, they will have the potential of about 12 acres and nearing the Union Pacific railroad line. She said t...
According to the USDA Crop Progress Report for the week ending June 10, 2018, topsoil moisture supplies rated 2 percent very short, 21% short, 74% adequate and 3% surplus. Subsoil moisture supplies rated the same as last week with 4 percent very short, 21% short, 74% adequate and 1% surplus. Winter wheat conditions rated 2 percent very poor, 7% poor, 23% fair, 52% good and 16% excellent. Winter wheat headed was at 88 percent, which is behind last year’s 99 percent, but above the 85 percent five-year average. Producers in the northern P...
In April it was announced that Cheyenne County Chamber of Commerce President Denise Wilkinson was resigning for a similar position in a bigger market. Monday, her replacement and the newest Chamber director/president took the helm. Hope Feeney, a graduate of Sidney High School and Hastings College, recently returned to Sidney to take on the duties of Chamber president. "I grew up here, graduated high school here," she said Monday. After high school she attended Hastings College where she earned...
Students change. Education expectations change. Therefore, teachers need more “tools” at their disposal, and several teachers this summer are working on just that. At Monday’s Sidney school board meeting, Supt. Jay Ehlers updated the board of education on workshops teachers are participating in this summer. In a summary of the weekend training, Ehlers said “most of the focus is on the ‘Educator Effectiveness’ part of our ‘Strategic Plan.’” He said there are many teachers in the two-day works...
Sidney is one of two locations for Chautauqua celebrations this summer, celebrations that will entertain and educate with period-correct singers and actors, as well as scholars who know the material. This year's Chautauqua will take attendees back to World War I days, providing information from a number of resources about the "War to end all wars." Chautauqua begins Wednesday night with scholars taking part in a "Meet the Chautauquans" event. Other events will continue through the remainder of...
A late afternoon storm centered in the Lodgepole area built and gave the area some much needed rain, along with not-so-welcome hail in some areas of Cheyenne County. Officially, the storm produced only a half inch of rain at Sidney. At the storm’s center, Lodgepole, there were unconfirmed reports of as much as three inches of rain. The National Weather Service (NWS) in Cheyenne did not have an official estimates, although checks of the NeRAIN network showed reports of a half to three-quarters o...
The United States entered World War I, then a European conflict, as a result of aggression by Germany. Consequences of that decision are being felt 100 years later, according to Spencer Davis, guest speaker for the Chautauqua event held Thursday afternoon at the Cheyenne County Community Center. The program, entitled "Nebraskans and the Great War," was led by Peru State College history professor Spencer Davis. Peru State College is located in southeast Nebraska. "We live with the consequences...
The Cheyenne County Commissioners agreed to a three-year contract for GIS mapping services. The agreement came after lengthy discussion on options offered by the mapping company. The discussion item included renewal of the county assessor, clerk and treasurer subscriptions to the service. At issue is the requirement for a minimum number of tabs or offices served. County Clerk Beth Fiegenschuh said her office does not use the service. Treasurer Diane Scott said since the program became web-based...
