Good Old Days 03-13-15

Compiled By The Sidney Sun-Telegraph Staff

These stories from the past first appeared in The Sidney Telegraph. Original writing is preserved, though some stories were shortened for space reasons.

50 YEARS AGO

'1965 stars show is set for this Sunday'

March 12, 1965

Rehearsal for the annual "Stars of Tomorrow" show, which is sponsored by the Sidney Kiwanis Club, will be held tonight at 7:30 in the Sidney Junior High School Auditorium.

About 36 young people from Cheyenne County and a dozen or so Kiwanians will be busy polishing the rough edges of the show in order to make the performance run as smoothly as possible for spectators and judges.

The finalists will be presented to the public this Sunday, March 14 at 2 p.m. on the stage of the Junior High School auditorium.

Admission is $1 for adults and fifty cents for students.

The acts are, in the order of their appearance:

Julie McRoberts, piano solo; Deborah Brady, dance routine; Leon and the Four Strings, instrumental group; Kathy Fleming and Marlaine Walker, piano duet;

Carol Hahler, dance routine; Jeannie Olsen, Connie Adams, Regina Janssen, Jane Oliverius and Jim Ellison, saxophone group; Ruth Spencer, piano solo; John Buecker, Les Beeken, Rose Hochman, Sharon Stately, vocal folk song; Regina Janssen, Pam Jessen, June Zwickl, dance routine; Stan Mahlman, dance routine; Karen Jones, accordion solo; Susan Lenzen, baton routine; Craig Nieminski, Rich Henkel, Nancy von Forell, cornet trio; Nancy Meier, organ solo; Julie Kallhoff, dance routine;

Betty Weed, vocal solo; Eddie Ott, Henry Loebe, Larry Gorman, cornet trio; Marsha Heizer, piano solo.

Chairman of the show this year were T.R. Tillotson, Dr. John Platz and Vernon Shoopman.

25 YEARS AGO

'Council gives West-Net funds to reduce deficit'

March 14, 1990

Sidney City Council voted the non-profit educational corporation West-Net $7,368 at its meeting Tuesday to partially erase a $9,175 deficit that West-Net has accrued, mostly from its expenses of sponsoring last October's Space Fair for area students.

John Egging and Fr. Charles Scott, backers of the educational organization attended the meeting and asked Council for the full $9,175, saying that getting out of debt would enable them to seek private funds such as grants from foundations and gifts from individuals.

Mayor Bruce Hauge pointed out that there was only $57,368 left in available Economic/Community Development funds which come from the city's half-cent sales tax that was passed for that purpose and $50,000 was committed as contingency funds.

Some of the deficit includes money owed to Fr. Scott for his out-of-pocket expenses including travel on behalf of West-Net, Egging told Council.

In describing the history of the space-oriented organization that evolved into West-Net, Egging told Council of the donations totaling more than $50,000 received from "two local individuals," whom he declined to identify.

Egging told in detail the ambitious hopes for the future of West-Net which he said would make Sidney nationally known eventually as a major technology center where space-age technologies would be taught and where NASA technology would be spun off to local industries.

Much of the deficit West-Tech accumulated derived from the expenditure of $6,830 for a chartered jet plane to bring astronaut Charles Duke and moon rock to Sidney for the Space Fair. Egging explained that Duke was asked to come on short notice and accepted, but only on the condition that a chartered airplane bring him.

10 YEARS AGO

'Wheat fields holding on through incessant winds'

March 12, 2005

Cheyenne County's 2005 wheat crop has been taking a buffeting from the high winds, but apparently is hanging on.

"Yes, there is wheat left," said Karen DeBoer, Cheyenne County Extension Educator.

"Some of the wheat that was planted early last fall has some pretty good growth on it, which will help," she said. "Some of the later planted wheat might not have as much growth, it might kill off a few leaves, but it should be OK, especially if we get some moisture here pretty soon."

DeBoer said the understands there is plenty of subsoil moisture available. "Right now, it is the surface that is dry."

"The moisture we had last fall really did help get if off to a pretty good start."

She said she had not heard of any major problems affecting the crop. "Some of the wheat we need to look at because it's a little yellow. I've seen that in fields where there isn't a lot of growth. We also probably have a lot of dead leaves, but we do that this time of the year. When it's starting to green up, there are a lot of dead leaves from over the winter."

She said wheat can take quite a beating from the weather and still produce a harvest. "Wheat is a pretty tough crop" she said.

5 YEARS AGO

'County Jobless Rates Climbs'

March 13, 2010

Cheyenne County's unemployment spiked in January to 4.9 percent, equating to a total of 252 unemployed individuals. If it seems like it's all bad news, guess again, says Nebraska Workforce Development coordinating Marla Hixon.

In fact, she has been seeing some positive trending in the country.

"I am feeling very encouraged," Hixon told the Sidney Sun-Telegraph. "I'm seeing the strongest signs I've seen in a year for positive economic development coming spring/summer this year."

During the telephone interview, Hixon referred several new businesses coming to town, including Emagine Concepts and Industrial Structures Inc., two manufacturing companies setting up in the Adams Industrial Park northwest of Sidney.