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 2469 - 2493 of 3067
Sidney's 2013-14 budget is so dense, the City Council had to first weigh when to discuss the matter before turning to the actual details. At the council's May 27 meeting City Manager Gary Person said that this budget is going to have “a lot of pretty major projects already incorporated into it. Some carry over from this year, then those major projects we have to plan for. In addition to that, if there are things you want to see accomplished that will affect the budget we should identify those early on before our staff put their respective p...
LINCOLN -- A legislative committee would be formed to study the tax system in Nebraska under a resolution advanced by lawmakers Thursday. LR155, introduced by Sen. Ernie Chambers of Omaha, would create the Tax Modernization Committee to examine the state’s tax structure and submit recommendations to the governor and the Executive Board of the Legislature by December of this year. Chambers said the committee would look at sales, income, property and other taxes and solicit input from the public to determine the best tax structure for the state....
By Christine Scalora and Joseph Moore, Nebraska News Service LINCOLN - Disabled veterans would get a preference on state contracts under a bill state senators advanced Thursday. Sen. Charlie Janssen of Fremont introduced the bill. As amended, it would give resident disabled veterans a preference for bids on state contracts, if all other factors were equal. Helping Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans establish their own businesses is one of the best ways to reduce the unacceptably high unemployment rate of that group, Janssen said. The 2011...
The Sidney Chief Building Official Brad Rowan appeared before the members of the city council on May 28 for the second reading of the proposal to adopt the 2012 edition building, plumbing and mechanical/international fuel and gas codes 1694, 1695 and 1696. Rowan said during the May 28 meeting that he has received only positive responses from people about raising the fees and some people even asked why it hadn’t been done before. He added that “everybody thinks that we ought to raise them, also thinking we didn’t raise them enough.” At the May...
During the week of May 29 through June 4 the Scottsbluff Troop E Officers of the Nebraska State Patrol will be conducting the following enforcement activities at the listed times and locations. The intent of this is that drivers will become more aware of their driving habits and surroundings thus reducing the incidents of traffic crashes. The intent of the enforcement is to increase voluntary compliance with the rules of the road, which in turn will make the highways safer for everyone. Impaired Driver Enforcement Highway 19 on June 1 from 10:0...
At the height of Tuesday night's thunderstorm, Sidney Public Service Director John Hehnke spotted very little in the way of damage. In fact, he spotted very little at all. "It was a wall of hail and water," he reported. "You couldn't see out of the windshield, even with the wipers at full blast." The storm front dumped almost an inch of precipitation on Sidney in just a few hours. The National Weather Service identified possible rotation in the clouds 10 miles south of town, spurring tornado...
The local sales tax increase voters approved in November becomes a pocketbook reality on July 1. State Tax Commissioner Doug Ewald issued the announcement on Tuesday, confirming that Sidney's local sales and use tax will increase to two percent, with funds going toward city infrastructure improvements. Sales tax receipts "are distributed to the communities where they were collected," Ewald explained in a prepared statement. Half of the funds collected from this tax will go toward street repair and construction projects. Sidney plans to extend T...
Annexation with Potter of the old Sioux Army Depot was the topic of conversation at Tuesday evening's City Council meeting—in between bouts of thunder and tornado warnings. Eventually the council approved an interlocal agreement between the communities. City Manager Gary Person explained that Potter was the only city in Cheyenne County that had completed a comprehensive plan, one of the items that must be in place in order to start the redevelopment project. He went on to say that as a result, there will be an area at the site that is d...
The Sidney Volunteer Fire Department held its annual awards banquet on Friday evening, with dozens applauding presentations to Firefighter of the Year Dave Sanders, longtime veteran Dean Starr and others. Award winners represented some 175 years of cumulative service to the city. Sanders, who works for D & D Roofing, earned the top honor following a vote by department members. "There is no better award to receive than to be honored by your peers," said Sidney City Manager Gary Person in his...
DILLER, Neb. (AP) — Officials began a damage and site survey on Tuesday to confirm whether tornadoes or straight-line winds battered houses and farm buildings and ripped up trees and road signs in south-central and southeast Nebraska. Funnel clouds were reported in rural areas 11 miles north of Kimball and a few miles north of Dix, apparently causing no damage. Clay County emergency manager Loren Uden said two minor injuries were reported after a storm that struck Edgar a little after 7:30 p.m. Monday, including a driver whose car was lifted o...
Sidney Telegraph: The missing pages of history M. Timothy Nolting In the spring of 1876, Texas cowboys, James M. Riley and his brother Joe took part in the roundup of 2,500 head of longhorn steers on the Nueces River. After the herd had been gathered and road-branded the brothers joined the drive that was headed for the Dakotas. It was the first large herd of Texas longhorns to cross the state of Nebraska for delivery to Sioux Indian Agencies on the Missouri River. Although Joe apparently made a good hand, James was a bit more restless and...
Due to an increased number of Equine Herpes Virus (EHV-1) cases across the nation, State Veterinarian Dr. Dennis Hughes is reminding horse owners as well as operators of horse shows/exhibitions to remain vigilant and exercise biosecurity measures at all events where horses are co-mingled. According to Hughes, California, Florida, Illinois, New Jersey, Tennessee and Utah currently are dealing with confirmed cases of EHV-1. “Nebraska does not have horses diagnosed with the disease at this time, and we’d prefer to keep it that way. I enc...
In a Cheyenne County District court appearance on May 20, defendant Justin J. Warren and his attorney Kelly S. Breen, made a motion to suppress evidence at a trial of the case against him “of any and all items of evidence taken from the defendant’s living quarters or any other place in which he had an expectation of privacy on or about March 22 of this year.” The records go on to state that the foregoing motion will be heard on June 12 in the District Court of Cheyenne County at 8:30 a.m. The search and seizure of items from Warren’s residen...
Local dentists are currently performing pre-screenings for the Panhandle Health District Dental Day, scheduled at area schools May 31 and June 1. All children who plan to attend the Dental Days must be pre-screened. Sandy Goble, of Summit Dental in Sidney, says that there is a waiting list, but interested parties should go ahead and call to be added at Summit Dental or any local dentist’s office. Goble said that the Dental Days event is for children who don’t have dental insurance and might otherwise not be able to have dental check-ups. Dr....
The Salvation Army Thrift Store on 10th Avenue was the target of cash-seeking thieves who broke in sometime after closing on Tuesday evening may 21. Sherry Torres said that when she arrived at the location to open the store on Wednesday morning, she noticed that “the door was ajar and thought this was unusual because we always lock everything up tightly.” Upon entering, she noticed that there was debris on bags in the backroom. After realizing that the door had been kicked in, she called the police. When Torres checked the rest of the sto...
Travelers on the Lincoln Highway--including several hundred cyclists taking part in the Bike Ride Across Nebraska--may encounter delays as they approach Sidney this summer. Construction on Highway 30 west of town, as well as N-19 to the Colorado state line, will begin on May 28, weather permitting. Work will cover the stretch of road from near the county fairgrounds to the Brownson intersection. The $2.8 million project on Highway 30 includes milling and widening the lanes then adding an asphalt overlay. During construction, the road will...
The Success for Learning program and teacher collaboration times were topics of discussion by Potter-Dix Board of Education members at their May meeting. President Claire Smith said that the SFL program “ties into the idea about the sort of improvement programs that maybe work better in a shorter time frame.” She went on to say that SFL “seems to be working some of the time for some of the kids not all of the time for all of the kids.” Smith pointed out that sometimes transportation issues prevent parents from getting children to the program. T...
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...
