Good Old Days 04-03-15

Compiled By Delaney Uhrig

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

'Senators to inspect Sioux Depot on Saturday'

April 2, 1965

Twelve state senators will arrive here tomorrow to inspect facilities at the Sioux Army Depot.

Arrangements for their trip here were made by Senator George Fleming who said, "All of these senators are interested in vocational training schools and have expressed great interest in the facilities available at Sidney. Originally we started out to bring only the members of the Unicameral's Education Committee but so many other senators expressed a desire to see the Sioux Army Depot facilities that we now have twelve coming."

Expected to arrive at the Sidney airport at 9:30 a.m. tomorrow are Senators Calista Hughes of the Humboldt, Pat Moulton of Omaha, W. H. Hasebroock of West Point, Elmer Wallway of Emerson, Jerome Warner of Waverly, herb Nore at Genoa, Peter Claussen of Leigh, George Fleming of Sidney, H.C. Crandall of Curtis, Rudy Cokes of Ord, Lester Harsh or Bartley and George Gerdes of Alliance.

They will be met at the airport by representatives of the Sidney Chamber of Commerce and taken to the Fort Sidney Motel for a brief coffee hour at which they will meet Sidney businessmen. "This will be an excellent opportunity to meet and talk with the sate senators whose decisions ton vocational training school locations can mean a great deal to Sidney, I am hoping we have these senators feel welcome," said Chamber of Commerce President Lew Mehling.

Following the coffee hour, the group will be taken by bus to the depot. A thorough briefing on the myriad facilities at the depot will be given by Col. Cyrill Williams who will then take the group on a guided tour of the millions of dollars worth of equipment that the federal government would turn over to nebraska if a state vocational training school was to be located here.

The Sidney Chamber will host a noon luncheon for the senators at the Officers club at Sioux Army Depot. Following the luncheon the group will return to the airport and to Lincoln.

25 years ago

'Rally to protest toxic waste incinerator planned by opponents'

April 3, 1990

The Concerned Citizens of Kimball County met Monday night to discuss the environmental impact of the proposed Waste-Tech toxic waste incinerator currently under construction in Kimball County. The group watched a video tape entitled "Calvert City, One of Kentucky's Best Kept Secrets." Calvert City is a city that compares in population to Kimball and has a toxic waste incinerator site.

Calvert City started with one incinerator operated by a company called Liquid Waste Disposal. LWD then added two more. The Concerned Citizens comment on this was "You're dreaming if you don't think they won't do that here."

Calvert City, located on the Tennessee River, has extreme air and water pollution and is designated a US Government Superfund site due to toxic waste contamination.

The videotape noted that Calvert City area experienced cancer at a rate four times the national average according to statistics compiled in a report by the Tennessee Valley Authority.

After showing the videotape the group discussed their feelings on the possibility of the same thing happening to Kimball with the presence of Waste-Tech

Many Cheyenne County residents attended the meeting.

The group scheduled its next meeting for Monday, April 9 in the Dix fire hall with a plan for a rally against Waste-Tech to be considered for the meeting.

The rally is currently scheduled to be held on Sunday, April 22 – the 20th anniversary of "Earth Day."

10 years ago

'City, county boards to meet with ambulance providers'

April 7, 2005

City and county governing boards will meet again as they work towards not only a new joint contract to provide a subsidy for ambulance service, but to consolidate city-county agreements.

The Sidney City Council and Cheyenne County Commissioners met in a joint special session Tuesday to discuss the proposed subsidy for ambulance service.

Under the current contract,the county provides $99,000 and the city $59,000 to Regional West Medical Center, Scottsbluff, which in turn provides ambulance service for the county.

A three year contract extension was proposed with an escalator clause.

Sidney City Manager said the city and county want to meet with representatives from regional West, Memorial Health Center of Sidney and Emergency Response provider, to work out details, clarify wording in the contract and "be sure we are all on the same page" when budget preparations begin.

Person said the city and the council will also work towards preparing a single contract to handle the various interlocal agreements between city and county.

Those include the ambulance service, library, communications center, planning and zoning and economic development.

5 years ago

'Appraisal, tax records going online'

April 7, 2010

Accessing appraisal or tax records in Cheyenne County is about to become much easier. The board of commissioners unanimously approved a request during its Monday meeting from the county's treasurer and assessor to begin listing the information from the two offices online through a third party software and hosting company.

The geographic information system (GIS) program, known as GIS Workshop, allows open record real estate tax and land parcel information to be searched via the Internet. Links to access the program will likely be posted on the county's Web site. Several counties throughout the state utilize the same or similar programs.

"Next year when people do their income taxes they can go online instead of calling my office" said County Treasurer Diane Scott.

The treasurer added that the program will ease the burden both on county employees as well as the individuals or organization seeking information.

"It will be an excellent tool for them," Scott said.

The program will draw information from the county's TerraScan software program currently used by the assessor's and treasurer's offices to compile and process tax and property records. After the initial setup, the records can be updated by the hosting company on a daily basis. There is no additional hardware needed by the county. The program will serve solely as a search engine for the information, individuals will not be able to make tax payments online through the program.

County Commissioner Ken McMillen said he feels the additional online access has the potential to be beneficial to both businesses and residents alike.

"I think that it's a service that not just the taxpayers, but anyone involved in the business world would really appreciate," McMillen said.

The software company has agreed to waive the initial setup fee for both offices. The annual cost for the program is $2,500 for the assessor's office and $1,000 for the treasurer's office. The free for the first year was waived for the treasurer's office, but not the assessor's office.