Good Old Days 10-17-14

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

Oct. 19, 1964

'Power line thru Sidney is proposed'

The Nebraska Power Review Board is examining a joint application by two public power districts to construct $8.1 million in transmission lines between North Platte and the Western Nebraska border.

Consumers Public Power District and the Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association filed the joint application to build the 243 miles of line.

Board hearing examiner Delbert Dirrim said the board will attempt to decide on the matter as soon as possible since the districts indicated they would like to begin construction in September of next year.

He said it is possible all districts involved will sign waivers on the application and only a brief, uncontested hearing will be necessary. He said some waivers already have been received.

In the application filed Friday, the two districts told the board they are seeking waivers from the Loup River Public Power District, the Nebraska Electric Generation and Transmission Cooperative and the Platte Valley Public Power and Irrigation District.

Involved is construction of 193 miles of 230-kilovolt line from Stegall through Sidney to North Platte and 50 miles of 115 kilovolt line from Ogallala to North Platte.

The larger line would connect the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation facilities at Stegall with the application said, thus providing the state with a westend bureau of reclamation tie.

CPPD Would construct 11 miles of 230-KV line, and Tri-State would build 75 miles of the 230-KV line and 24 miles of the smaller line.

The districts hoped to complete the work by June 1966.

25 YEARS AGO

Oct. 17, 1989

'Leyton Schools to celebrate year of automation, growth'

The media centers of Leyton Public School are celebrating their year of automation and expansion and "The Year of the Young Reader" during October.

To meet the needs of the "Information Age", computerized circulation, online research (Dialog), SERC (a satellite downlink demonstration project), and new furnishings have been brought to Leyton through the combined efforts of administration, school board, media personnel, teachers and community support.

The "Year of the Young Reader" is the theme chosen for the 1989 Leyton Elementary Junior High Book Fair, Oct. 23-Nov. 1 at Gurley. All students will be participating in contests to promote the book fair. Grades K-3 will have coloring contests, 4-6 will create posters and 7-8 will organize and produce a television commercial promoting "The Year of the Young Reader," First place winners will be awarded books. An open house will be held at the Gurley site to coincide with the Parent-Teacher conferences on Nov. 1. All are invited to see the new facilities and visit the book fair.

The high school library at Dalton will host an open-house Oct. 25, the afternoon and evening of the Harrisburg-Leyton volleyball and football games. The public is invited to see the new location and facilities of the library and the expanded curriculum offered by the business and industrial technology departments through the usage of IBM computers. Demonstrations of the CAD-key (computer assisted drafting) will also be available.

10 YEARS AGO

Oct. 16, 2004

'Cheyenne County's wages fourth-highest in the state'

Cheyenne County employees are among the highest paid in Nebraska.

A report on employment and wages for the fourth quarter of 2003 indicated that Cheyenne County wages were the fourth-highest of Nebraska's 93 counties.

The report said the average weekly wages for private employment averaged $648 a week.

That figure trailed only Stanton, Douglas and Sarpy Counties, all in eastern Nebraska.

The report comes as no surprise to Gary Person, who heads the Sidney/Cheyenne County Economic Development Office.

"This is a good thing. It's even better than what I anticipated," Person said. "The figures I saw that were based on the mid-1990s, the last figures, I believe we were about 15th in the state at that time."

The report is included in the latest edition of "Economic Trends," a monthly review of labor market information published by the Workforce and Development, Labor Market Information Center in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics.

"There are a lot of opportunities here," Person said. "In fact, we have more jobs per capita than any community in the State of Nebraska, if not the United States. I've never seen any other figures to lead me to believe otherwise. They did a target industry study in 2003 that bears that out in Sidney's case and in Cheyenne County's case.

"It definitely shows that our economic development efforts are working," he said. "We have the presence of some outstanding private sector companies that are taking care of their employees."

The report indicated that the average wage in Stanton County was $879. The average in Douglas County was $698 and the Sarpy County average was $661.

McPherson County had the state's lowest average at $194. Keya Paha County wages averaged $241, Loup County averaged $275 and Hooker County was $318. Rounding out the bottom five counties was Garfield with a weekly average of $325.

"Those dollars, on the average, turn over in our economy several times," Person said.

"That also helps. It helps the overall economic conditions of the community that allows us to keep up with the infrastructure demands ... and it makes us very attractive for recruiting new employees and new companies.

"You have some jobs in the community that are going to skew that fact a little bit, but you look at places like Box Butte County (Alliance) and Lincoln County (North Platte) with high union labor railroad employees who make very good wages. We're significantly above that," Person said.

"I think the low and median income worker needs to realize there is such a labor demand here, that the same type of jobs they have here probably pay better than they would any other place in the State of Nebraska so they're fortunate too," Person said.

Second high wage average in the Panhandle was Scotts Bluff County at $494. Box Butte County was $456; Sioux County, $452; Banner County, $448; Garden County, $429; Morrill County, $423; Deuel County, $409; Kimball County, $403; Dawes County, $344, and Sheridan County, $329.

"As with life, everybody has an opportunity to continue to better themselves and there are more opportunities here to do that than there are in many other places in the country. It's a huge, positive aspect of what we can do to market the community. It's very encouraging to know our companies are taking care of their people," Person said.

5 YEARS AGO

Oct. 20, 2009

'Commissioners approve fairgrounds as new Winterfest location –

Annual free festival outgrows Shelter House'

David Fritz of the Sidney Jaycees and Merrillene Wood, sponsor of Western Nebraska Community College's Phi Theta Kappa, asked the board to approve the use of the exhibit building at the Cheyenne County Fairgrounds on Dec. 12 for Winterfest 2009 at a regular meeting of the Cheyenne County Commissioners on Monday morning.

"The problem that we ran into is electrical," Fritz said of having the family-oriented celebration at Sidney's Shelter House.

More than 300 people attended last year's festivities and were "shoved in there like sardines," according to Fritz.

"The fairgrounds facility is a much more open area," Fritz said. Winterfest begins with a downtown parade of lights. Businesses make floats and are judged on creativity and number of lights. The winner receives chamber bucks purchased by the two organizations.

Last year there were 13 entries in the parade.

"Following the parade are free chili and rolls for the public," Fritz said.

A chili cook-off also takes place as well as a hayrack ride, pictures with Santa Claus, storytime with Mrs. Claus and crafts.

This year the Winterfest will include a craft fair.

"Needless to say we have a lot going on and we need a larger facility to do it," he said. "We're looking for some way to set it up for a larger scale event. It is completely free to the public."

He said he wants to make Sidney a central location for a holiday event.

The board was concerned about the clean-up and Fritz assured them a crew will be designated for that purpose to clean up that night following the event.

Last year, Fritz said there was an issue with blown breakers at the Shelter House because it didn't have the necessary outlets for the chili feed and cook-off.

Commissioner Ken McMillen asked Fritz if he thought this should be paid for by taxpayers to which Fritz responded that "it was a taxpayer event" and "donations are down."

"This is essentially something that we are putting on for the community at Christmas time," Wood said.

Fritz said "we can't be draining the community" of funding, which is why Winterfest is free to the public.

The board approved the use of the fairgrounds for the Winterfest festivities along with a $200 security deposit.

"Let's try it once," McMillen said.