Good Old Days 04-24-15

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

'Major Oil Field May Develop North Of Potter'

Published on

April 28, 1965

The development of an important new Nebraska oil field just northwest of the Potter townsite in Cheyenne County appears to be in the making.

Petroleum Inc., one of the most active drillers in the Denver-Julesburg Basin, reported this morning that 1,900 feet of oil was recovered in a drill stem test at the No. 1 McKinney in the Filon Field. The location is about two miles northwest of Potter. There are four wells producing in the field now.

Petroleum Inc. has another location to drill just north of the McKinney. It is the No. 2 Anderson-D. Oil recovery at the McKinney makes the Anderson-D prospects much brighter and could expand the field to six wells.

Two other oil wells probably will be added in western Nebraska this week, according to today's oil reports – one in Banner County and another in Scottsbluff

In Deuel County, an attempt to find oil in the Big Springs Gas Field area has ended in failure. The Nebraska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission approved the plugging of the well early this morning (Wednesday) after drillers had gone to approximately six thousand feet.

Deuel County has been a substantial producer of natural gas for more than 13 years, but has yet to enter the oil producing column. Humble Oil and Refining Co. recently took leases on approximately 30 thousand acres in Deuel County, but has not announced its intentions for exploration of that regions. Humble has been active has been active in seismic and surface examinations in norhtern Nebraska and southern South Dakota burt has not been a major participant in the Denver-Julesburg Basin area yet.

In Banner County, Stuarco Oil Co. and W. C. Poole III have recovered 253 and 204 24 hour pump tests at the No. 1 State, Darnall field, according to Petroleum information, an industry publication.

25 YEARS AGO

'City May Reject County 911 Plan'

Published on

April 24, 1990

Sidney City Manager Roger Anthony and Police Chief Dick Willis have recommended to City Council that Sidney reject an Enhanced 911 emergency telephone system. Council is to discuss the matter at its regular meeting tonight. Anthony wrote to council April 20, "We have never had a need to know the E-911 information because all our callers have been able to communicate with the dispatcher."

With Enhanced 911 service, the caller's name and address is automatically displayed on a central dispatcher's computer terminal in case the person making the emergency call can't speak or can't stay on the line long enough to give necessary information to the dispatcher. The service also provides instantly the ambulance and fire department that serves the caller's area.

Other recommendations made to Council by Anthony and Wills are, "Don't combine communications for the E-911 technology and equipment to more fully develop. Seek alternative system equipment and service to look at lower cost alternatives. Don't add a surcharge to the Sidney customer telephones to fund the 911 Service until a final decisions is made on E-911 Service."

The Cheyenne County Commissioners are inquiring as to the interest of the city to join with the Sheriff's Office in establishing an E-911 communications office to receive all E-911 calls within the county.

The Nebraska Legislature recently passed a bill permitting local governments to add a surcharge of up to fifty cents a month on the billing of each telephone line to help pay for E-911 service.

Installation cots of a countywide E-911 system are estimated at $22,950 and equipment costs per communications center answering point are estimated at between $30,000 and $45,000.

10 YEARS AGO

'Second wind farm going up near Peetz'

Published on

April 26, 2005

Construction is scheduled to begin this summer on a second wind farm electrical generation facility near near Peetz, Colo.

Invenergy, LLC, a Chicago-based independent power production company, plans to invest from $70 million to $80 million to erect a 6 million watt wind farm east of Peetz.

"We have entered into power-purchase agreement with Public Service Co. (Extel) of Colorado,"

said Douglas Carter, director of business development for Invenergy LLC. "We are thrilled to be building near Peetz."

Plans call for the erection of 40 wind-powered generators with each producing 1.5 megawatts, "which is a way of saying 1,500 kilowatts per turbine," Carter said.

The location of the wind towers will stretch from about three miles east of Peetz to eight miles east.

The proposed Invenergy project has no connection with the Peetz Table Wind Power Plant constructed by Enxco about three years ago. That wind farm has 33 towers spread over about four square miles with each turbine producing 900 kilowatts per hour.

5 YEARS AGO

'East Meets West, Governor Attends Meeting With Community Leaders'

Published on

April 28, 2010

Sidney community leaders, including city council members, chamber executives, school officials and the county commission, met Tuesday for an hour with Gov. Dave Heineman and District 47 Sen. Ken Schilz. Heineman attended the morning meeting at Security First Bank to gain insight into Sidney's challenges.

"One of the things that's most valuable to me is to have meetings like this," Heineman said. "Sidney's challenges are going to be different than Scottsbluff, let alone Kearney, Grand Island,and the rest of the state."

Schilz spoke of a potential $679 million shortfall in the state's biennium budget. The senator said legislative committees will be looking into making agencies and programs more efficient.

"I don't think you're going to see simple across-the-board cuts anymore," Schilz said. "It's starting to get to the point where some of those cuts are digging pretty deep into some agencies that if you cut any more, they just won't be functional anymore."

Heineman addressed some of the budget shortfall, saying that the state is in much better shape than other states in the county.

"As big as our challenge is, I wouldn't trade our position for anyone else in the country," the governor said.