Good Old Days 07-02-15

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

'200 More Missiles Triggered'

July 2, 1965

200 Minutemen missiles in the Wyoming-Nebraska-Colorado corner are in firing positions.

The latest wing of 200 is a support to Warren Air Force Base, Cheyenne, and is the largest in the nation. The nuclear-tipped missiles were turned over to the Strategic Air Command Wednesday, adding muscle and fiber to this country's defense structure.

It is believed that about three-fourths of the Minutemen in this wing are located in the southern Nebraska Panhandle, although the Air Force has never announced the exact disposition of the launch silos. Kimball, Cheyenne and Banner counties are sites of many launch sites and control centers and comprise the largest portion of the complex, which spills over into Logan and Weld counties in Colorado and into Wyoming counties along the eastern fringe of that state.

The Minuteman 1 missiles are first generation solid-fuel weapons capable of hurling a nuclear warhead with the explosive equivalent of one million tons of TNT at targets about 6,300 miles from their bases.

Under present plans 200 Minuteman 2 missiles, an improved model with a range of more then 9,000 miles, with twice the accuracy and 30 percent more of a warhead, will be installed at Grand Forks Air Froce Base in North Dakota and Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana.

25 YEARS AGO

'Does Fair Board Have $85 or $28,000 Available?'

July 3, 1990

Does the County Fair Board presently have $85 or $28,000 available for spending? Resolving this question became a time-consuming project at yesterday's Cheyenne County Commissioners meeting.

The answer on Fair Board funding was a complicated one, involving three sets of administrative bookkeeping procedures – the Commissioners' Books, the Board's books, and the County Treasurer's books. Each set of provided a different answer – and each set was correct. The different time periods and a number of other things that required a lot of complicated explanations had to do with compliance with various state and county statutes. All of the bookkeeping records were correct, it was a matter of determining which records applied to a particular situation.

The Fair Board has $28,000 in a reserve fund, but cannot spend it because, according to law, each year's expenditures must be budgeted a year ahead. And, because of the new 4 percent spending "lid" of LB 10589, the Fair Board will be unable to incorporate the reserve fund into its current budget.

Thus, the Fair Board has $28,000, but it doesn't have it. Understand?

The Fair Board reported that it has paid all its fiscal 1990 bills, including the entertainers for the forthcoming 1990 Fair this August. The Board reported $135,000 in total revenues for fiscal 1990, of which $65,000 was derived from the tax revenue and the remainder from admission fees and other revenue-generating projects.

10 YEARS AGO

'June Records 6.61 Inches of Rain'

July 5, 2005

Here's a switch.

Rather than a month being hot and dry, June was hot and wet.

The High Plains Ag Lab, located six miles northwest of Sidney, recorded 6.61 inches of rain last month. The Sidney Municipal Airport recorded 5.21 inches of rain in June.

It is the most precipitation for a month since August 2002 when 4.54 inches was recorded at the airport and 5.27 of precipitation was received at the HPAL.

The ag lab has received 11.87 inches of precipitation this year and the airport has recorded 10.61 inches.

It may not have ended the drought, but it surely brought some needed relief.

Median high temperature at the ag lab in June as 82.1 degrees. Median high at the airport was 79.4 degrees. The ag lab recorded maximum readings in the 90s six days with a high of 95 degrees four times paced by the month's high of 97 degrees on June 22. The coolest maximum reading was 53 degrees June 4 at the airport and 58 degrees twice at the ag lab, on June 4 and June 13.

5 YEARS AGO

'Wildlife Contract Approved'

July 7, 2010

After completing more than 520 hours of pest and predator control in Cheyenne County over the past year, the county's board of commissioners and the U.S. Department of Agriculture have agreed to extend the federal agency's wildlife contract through June 2011. The contract is a collaboration with four other Panhandle counties, Morrill, Scotts Bluff, Deuel and Banner counties.

Matt Anderson, a wildlife specialist who represented the USDA at Tuesday's commissioners' meeting, updated the board concerning the agency's activities over the past 12 months. Anderson estimated that the department conducted prairie dog control at between 15 and 20 towns, covering an estimated an estimated 1,000 acres in Cheyenne County.

Additionally, Anderson informed the board that the agency was able to kill 52 coyotes throughout the county in the last 12 months. The wildlife specialist noted that the agency also handled tissues with skunks, raccoons, red foxes, badgers and opossums over the last year.

The board of commissioners unanimously approved the contract renewal totaling $6,588. The new contract included a 2 percent increase in cost from the previous year.

In other business, the board of commissioners approved two resolutions selecting a contractor for highway projects. The first project, STPE 1132(1) is for the reconstruction of 5.5 miles of roadway and was awarded to the low bidder, Simon Construction, for $1,150,505. The second project, STPE 1135(2), encompasses approximately one-half mile of roadway and was awarded to the same contractor for $247,203.