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 2486 - 2510 of 3067
May is High Blood Pressure Awareness Month. Community Health Nurse Tammy Meier has advice for everyone concerning high blood pressure. “High blood pressure is sometimes called the silent killer, with good reason, too,” she said. “It has few symptoms, but left untreated can dramatically increase the risk of heart attack or stroke.” Around 30 percent of the adult population suffers from high blood pressure - or hypertension- yet many do not even realize it. “It sounds obvious, but the only way of knowing if there’s a problem in the first place is...
Much to the dismay of city council member Joe Arterburn, Sidney’s public swimming pool will not open until the first week of June. Crews have been busy preparing the facility but, according to Public Services Director John Hehnke, weather—including the snow storms of April and May—played havoc with the schedule. Memorial Day is often considered the target date for community pool openings. Hehnke explained for paint to adhere and patchwork be completed, temperatures must reach a certain level...
John Hehnke, Sidney’s Public Services Director, informed the council members that repairs to the south sub power station will be made from May 29 through June 2. The south sub-station will be completely down for those days. During that time all Sidney residents will be asked to conserve electricity. The repairs must be completed before summer hits its stride or a transformer could be completely lost due to a gas build-up issue. The community cannot be supported by one sub-station through the heat of summer, so it is imperative that the r...
Sidney Chief Building Official Brad Rowen proposed a new fee schedule to the City Council at the May 14 meeting. The plan would mean increases for those affected. Rowen explained that the hike in fees will generate $75,000--a little less than half the department’s budget when figured at 100 houses and $200,000 value. He went on to say that with the new fee schedule his department would be self-sustaining within the first year. If so, they would not have to pull funds from the general budget. The new codes Rowen has proposed to the council w...
Ways to improve the 83 acre Hillside Golf Course were discussed at the city council meeting on May 14. Andy Staples of the Staples Group made a presentation about the golf irrigation project to the council members that showed various options to update the lake and pump system. The presentation included the irrigation system in four areas: The water delivery system, lake size and location, head layout/final acreage and master plan items. Staples said that the majority “of our work was spent tryin...
Construction of a new elementary school building was the featured topic at Sidney’s Public Schools Board of Education’s May meeting on Monday night. Superintendent Jay Ehler said that this has been discussed off and on throughout the year, as far as how they are going to do it, when they are going to do it, where is it going to be located. He went on to say that he thinks that “we are getting to the point now where we need to decide if we are going to have a special election or do we want to have it during the general election.” Ehler added t...
Last year’s drought conditions across Nebraska forced irrigators, municipalities, industry and other users to pump heavily from groundwater wells. Just how much water they used is beginning to show up in spring readings from observation wells that are maintained by natural resource districts. Don Ogle, Information and Education Coordinator at the Sidney Natural Resource District (NRD), explained that last year was not only severe with little or no rain, but also hot and dry for so long that farmers required significant amounts of pumped w...
After riders take off from Kimball on the morning of June 1, the first overnight stop for the participants in the Bicycle Ride Across Nebraska (BRAN) will be in Chappell. The Creek Valley Board of Education (BOE) approved the request by BRAN to use the high school stadium for the stop in Chappell during their March BOE meeting. As the big day and night approaches, coordinators in the community are finishing preparations. Co-chairman of Chappell events for the BRAN stop Connie Loos said that they have an “Awful lot going on. They will be on f...
Teresa Grant’s arms never stop moving. She assembles flowers, ties colorful ribbons, tucks and nudges blossoms into just the right place--all while answering constant calls for last second Mother’s Day bouquets. “It starts on Monday,” said the owner of Sidney Floral & Gift Shop, “and we go all week.” Although a survey by the National Retail Federation suggests that more moms will receive electronics for the big day this year, flowers--along with jewelry and dinner--still dominate the gift ma...
The Third Annual Law Enforcement Torch Run to benefit the Special Olympics of Nebraska will be on Saturday, May 18. The run will begin promptly at 9:30 a.m. at the area behind the Sidney McDonald’s. The run will take the usual route which is Old Post Road to 11th Avenue, then it will proceed to go west on Illinois Avenue and it will conclude at the Cheyenne County Fair Grounds. This is open to runners with all abilities; it is not a race and children are welcome to participate as well as bicycle riders. The run is a slow-paced jog that is d...
The Bicycle Ride across Nebraska (BRAN) will begin on June 2 and finish on June 8. The ride starts in Kimball and will end at the Strategic Air and Space Museum near Ashland, Nebraska for a total of 467 miles plus 15. Overnight stops will be made in Chappell, Paxton, Gothenburg, Kearney, Aurora and Brainard. According to Vickie Backman, one of the organizers of the event, the roadways are not closed during the ride. She added that the organization usually requests assistance from local authorities; they notify the people who handle the roads...
A citizen of Potter has the Village Board hastily reviewing their ordinances directed toward body shops, salvage yards and other businesses. Scott Worth told board members that he got a “nasty note” on his property saying that the fence was an eyesore. So he tore down the fence on that side of the building. At the Village Board meeting on May 6, the man brought in a copy of an ordinance he found that he claimed exempts him from the original ordinance about “vehicle nuisance.” The business owner reminded the board members he was under the imp...
Mike Palmer was named City of Sidney’s electrical superintendent effective Monday, May 6 following the retirement of Rod Fries. Fries retired Friday after 29 years of service to the City. Palmer will manage the nine man staff of the electric department and the power plant operations. He is a 15 year veteran of the Electric Department and has worked for the City of Sidney for 17 years. Palmer is a Sidney native and Sidney High graduate. He was the first city electrical department employee to c...
Each year Sidney Regional Medical Center (SRMC) celebrates the efforts that each SRMC area contributes to the continuum of care they provide during SRMC Week. A week full of special events planned for the members of the SRMC team. Kicking off the week, SRMC recognized the efforts of three nurses that were nominated for the Nebraska Nurses Association, District 5 “My Favorite Nurse” contest. Congratulations to Cheri Berry (SRMC Home Health and Hospice) and Rebecca Peters-Flohr (SRMC Acute Car...
Cheyenne County Commissioners approved of the Cheyenne County Highway Superintendent’s 2013 One and Six Year Road Improvement Plan during their meeting Monday morning. Tom Noel explained the completed construction and maintenance projects from the 2012 hearing, as well as his future proposed projects. “Last year we took a bridge out and made it a low water crossing on 97,” he told the commissioners. The bridge in question was said to be deteriorating on Road 97 south of Road 18, and was replaced with the low water crossing. “We did 81 miles o...
Lawyer Mike Bacon from Gothenburg presented draft number three of the redevelopment contract for the former Sioux Army Depot to the Potter village board on Monday night. Bacon insisted that the changes were modest; he didn’t understand that the city of Sidney provided water service to the site, so that was changed in the contract along with the addition that the village is not required to provide sewage, water or any of those services. Another aspect changed because there will be two bonds; one for the Dell Project and one for the rail. B...
Cabela’s donated $7,000 to the local TeamMates Mentoring Program during a presentation that was held on April 30. Sean Baker presented the check on behalf of Cabela’s. The 2nd Annual TeamMates Mentor/Mentee Fun Day will be at West Elementary on Wednesday, May 15 at 1:30 p.m. students and their mentors will get to run the new obstacle course and eat snacks while the enjoy time together. The TeamMates Mentoring Program is a school-based one-to-one mentoring program that began in 1991. Tom and Nanc...
Cheyenne County may soon be in the weeds. The board of commissioners and Weed Superintendent Brian Hiett discussed whether or not a new weed in the amaranth family should be put on the County’s Noxious Weed List at their meeting yesterday. Commissioner Harold Winkelman said that this weed was particularly a problem found in corn crops and soybeans, and that the “glorified pig weed” puts out thousands of seeds. “If you see one of those suckers growing out there you better go pull it because it became Roundup resistant and it also became T40 res...
