Good Old Days 03-20-15

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

'10-Man Delegation Pleads For Trade School Proposal'

March 22, 1965

A 10-man delegation was in Lincoln this afternoon to register a plea for the establishment of a trade school on the Sioux Army Depot grounds.

Appearing before the Unicameral Education Committee were G.F. Bush, spokesman for the group; Supt. Russell Pedersen; Waldo Dearing; administrative assistant to the commanding officer at Sioux; Chamber of Commerce Manager Jack Laimer; City Manager Tom Coffey; Robert Clark; Bob Decker; Lynn Russell; Butch Carr and Bob Bilby.

The trade school issue is in the legislative spotlight his week. Nine bills on the subject will be heard today and tomorrow before the educational committee.

An Associated Press release states that the pending bills call for establishment of such schools as Sidney, O'Neill, North Platte, Norfolk, Ogallala and Broken Bow, plus establishment of a vocational education division at Chadron State College.

An interim study committee headed by Sen. Fern Hubbard Orme of Lincoln brought in the bill proposing a North Platte School, contending it should be a first priority location.

Also to be heard is LB482, which came out of the same interim study group and which proposes a system of state-operated trade schools without specifying where each shall be located.

Similarly on schedule is a related bill with a different approach, Aurora Sen. Maurice Kremer's LB581. It would permit two or more cou8nties to join together to establish an area trade school and levy a tax of up to two mills for financing purposes.

The group must decide, in addition to possible locations, such basic questions as whether additional schools should be state-financed or locally financed, state controlled or locally controlled, and whether junior colleges fit into the picture, Rasmussen said.

The senator said he expects the committee to attempt some overall blueprint as opposed to a piecemeal approach.

In its only major trade school decision to dare, the Legislature this week passed and sent to the governor a bill directing the state's only present trade school, at Milford, to operate all year-round.

The trade school bills are among 65 to be aired before standing committees of the Unicameral during the week.

25 YEARS AGO

'Sidney Airport one of first to get automated weather system'

March 20, 1990

The Nebraska Department of Aeronautics has installed a Pan Am satellite weather system at the Sidney Municipal Airport.

John Wick of that agency was in Sidney and demonstrated for members of the Sidney Airport Authority what the system can do. Wick said aviation weather is essential "because most of the aircraft accidents that occur are weather-related." The system provides written data for terminal forecasts, present weather conditions areal forecasts and satellite maps.

A pilot can access the system and have it print out all the information he needs to plan a flight. Then it is capable of, at the press of a button, to telephone the FFA and actually file his flight plan with that agency. The pilot just tells the computer information including where he wants to take off and where he is going, his alternate airport, the altitude he wants to fly and how much fuel his airplane burns per hour.

The system will make a flight plan telling the pilot the best route to go to avoid bad weather and will even tell him if he will have fuel left in the tanks when he arrives at his destination.

Wick said this is the fifteenth Pan Am weather system to be installed in Nebraska and only four other states have them so far.

10 YEARS AGO

'Oil collection, reuse facility getting good use here'

March 22, 2005

A used oil collection site is being put to quick use here. The Used Oil Collection and Reuse System Oil Collection system, installed at the Sidney Landfill last summer, has already been filled and emptied once, said Kent Haupt, landfill supervisor, and is well on its way to being filled again.

Haupt said the reuse system was obtained through a grant from the Waste Reduction and Recycling Incentive grant of the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality.

The system went into use here on August 1, 2004.

Haupt said the facility is used by mechanics who dump used oil collection during routine oil changes to local auto owners who change their own oil to area farmers who maintain their machinery. A considerable amount of oil is taken from City of Sidney vehicles. Haupt have seen people pour used oil into the facility in containers ranging from gallon milk jugs to 65-gallon barrels.

There is no charge to discharge of used oil at the facility. Haupt said the system is equipped with a hose that sucks oil from barrels and tanks and transfers it into the reuse system's holding tank.

The reuse system installed at the landfill is part of the Nebraska Used Oil Collection Program nearing the completion of the final phase its statewide expansion, expected to be completed early this summer.

5 YEARS AGO

'Nelson calls for transportation summit'

March 19, 2010

Is Sidney's economic strength working against the community's ability to seek financial assistance for its streets project? City officials say that's exactly what's going, and is why the city has yet to decide if it will attend a state transportation summit called for by Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson.

"Because of the way that the state of Nebraska and League of Municipalities highway sub-committee prioritized stimulus highway funds for projects, Sidney did not qualify because of the economic strength of our community," City Manager Gary Person told The Sidney Sun-Telegraph. "Just another example how the state penalizes communities that are progressive."

Nelson has called for the transportation summit to be held March 30 in Lincoln. Representatives from local, state and federal organizations and agencies are slated to discuss transportation projects with the goal of determining ways to finish them more efficiently.

Person said recent changes to federal transportation project requirements are impediments to efficient construction.

"Even if we could find a way to become eligible, some of the other federal stimulus requirements they have make it virtually impossible for us to pursue any projects," Person said. "Because some of the issues surrounding all federal funding projects now require two sets of engineers, one to design and a different one to construct, that adds layers of bureaucracy, costs and time delays."

It has not yet been confirmed that the issue will be discussed at the summit. Nelson's primary concern seems to be employment and getting what funds are available to projects throughout the state.