Serving proudly since 1873 as the beautiful Nebraska Panhandle's first newspaper
Serving proudly since 1873 as the beautiful Nebraska Panhandle's first newspaper
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The Sidney High School football team opens the 2014 season today at Weymouth Field, hosting Chadron at 7 p.m. The Red Raiders will be looking to return to the state playoffs for the second consecutive year under head coach Todd Ekart. Prior to tonight's game, there will be a free-will tailgate BBQ at 6 p.m. with proceeds benefitting the local Sidney Teammates chapter. See game preview and starting lineups on page 11A.... Full story
The flow of marijuana out of Colorado and into Nebraska is putting a strain on law enforcement and county attorneys in bordering communities. There were more than 60 marijuana-related arrests in Cheyenne County in 2013. Officials say this number has at least doubled already in 2014. As of May, there had already been 37 arrests related to possession of marijuana in Deuel County. Felony marijuana cases have tripled in Deuel County this year, said Deputy Cheyenne County and Deuel County Attorney Jonathon Stellar. “The financial strain is s...
Sidney was forced to make some tough decisions regarding the 2014-2015 proposed budget once staff learned of major increases in health care costs for the coming year. “We did have some unexpected challenges with health insurance costs,” said City Manager Gary Person at Tuesday’s city council meeting. Person attributed cost increases to the Affordable Care Act as well as some of the claim history the city experienced over the past year. The city was not prepared for such major increases. “As a result, we had to go back to the drawing board,...
The city will move forward with plans to demolish the old Elwell building in downtown Sidney, with extra precautions for asbestos removal. The city council approved a bid Tuesday night of approximately $17,000 from Darin Vannatter to tear down the building located at 9th Avenue and Hickory Street. “The reason we need to tear this down is, it is a dangerous building and it’s listing in several places and it’s got several fractures in the walls,” said Sidney’s Chief Building Official Brad Rowan. In May, the city entered into an agreement...
Pürevolution will bring a city feel to Sidney, said owner Arik Lafler. The full-service salon, located at 1745 Illinois St., will hold its grand opening on Monday. Although Lafler has worked for other salons in Sidney and opened the local chain, Paperdolls salons as a partnership, this is his first time venturing into business on his own. "I like having my own little studio, my own little home away from home," he said. Pürevolution is a one-seat studio manned by Lafler himself and decked with an...
Construction in underway at the site of the Cabela's corporate campus expansion, west of the company's current location on Old Post Road. The work is part of phase one of the redevelopment planned for the 27-acre location. It includes land grading, construction of roads for various access points, storm water management processes and construction of the new 160,000-square-foot office building. Construction workers began concrete work by pouring a counterfort retaining wall at the building site on...
Sidney High School students planning to flip a house learned about building requirements last week from Sidney's Chief Building Official, Brad Rowan. Students from the school's design and construction classes will work together this year to give a makeover to an area home and raise scholarship money in the process. The house, located at 1833 Maple St., was donated to the school for the project. After redesigning and fixing up the home, the schools plans to sell the house. It will use the...
As work continues on the new Sidney Regional Medical Center building, workers placed second floor support beams for the structure on Thursday.... Full story
Even with 100 percent of its students taking the ACT, Sidney High School students still scored higher on the test than the national average. Sidney’s graduating class of 2014 achieved a composite score of 21.5, while the national composite score was 21. The highest possible score on the test is 36. Nationally, only 57 percent of high school students take the test, which serves as the college entrance exam for most schools in the midwest. Although Sidney scored slightly below the state of Nebraska’s composite score of 21.7, only 86 percent of...
A local teen is accused of texting while driving before he was involved in a head-on collision that killed a 19-year-old Chappell girl last month. Hayden Graham, 16 of Sidney, was traveling west on Highway 30 about five miles east of Sidney when he allegedly crossed the center line and hit Karman Reichman on July 31, according to the sheriff’s office. When law enforcement arrived on scene, Graham had exited the Jeep Liberty he was driving. Reichman was pinned inside her four-door sedan. Both vehicles sustained front-end damage. Graham was t...
There are a lot of things I’ll miss about Sidney and quite a few that I won’t. As I prepare to leave for a new job at the beginning of September and look back on my year here, I’ve learned a ton and met many people who I’ll never forget. When I arrived here, I was skeptical that I could make any friends and thought that everyone would probably hate me. But I’d like to thank the people of Sidney for (mostly) welcoming me and making me feel at home in what was once a strange and foreign place. I’ll miss working with all the local officials w...
Dr. Curtiss Davis is an evangelist first and a pastor second. Davis, who began preaching at Sidney's First Christian Church at the beginning of August hopes to draw more people to his congregation. "Many times people wonder why nobody's coming to the church and you ask them who have you invited and they haven't invited anyone," Davis said. "I would invite everyone to come and check it out and see what is so exciting at First Christian Church." He reaches out to all the people he meets. "I talk...
It’s no secret that finding and retaining employees in Sidney is a problem for many types of businesses. Fast-food restaurants struggle to keep employees with so many job opening available. Businesses who require skilled workers have a hard time finding qualified individuals who live in the Sidney area. Most must recruit from outside areas. Glenna Phelps-Aurich, director of the Cheyenne County Chamber of Commerce, believes that finding employees is the biggest challenge facing Sidney businesses. Sid Johnston, the general manager at Floyd’s Aut...
Although the Cheyenne County fair board lost nearly $20,000 during this year's festivities, fair board representative Kip Miller still feels positively about the event. "It's up and coming," Miller said. "I think, you know, it's starting to turn around." The Cheyenne County fair took place between July 27 and Aug. 2. The Monday night rodeo, which was sponsored by Cabela's, drew between 1,500 and 1,700 attendees. Rodeo fees were waived that night because of a donation of $5,000 from Cabela's. Tha...
The city planning commission voted Monday to rescind a $1,000 per month road fee to Croell Redi Mix that was meant to pay for road maintenance near its operation. Robert England, a member of the planning commission and manager of Croell’s local operation, excused himself from the commission to speak on behalf of the company. Sidney recently billed Croell $3,000 for road maintenance fees for its first three months of operations. The company runs a gravel pit and hot mix plant southeast of County Road 117. The road fee was the city’s attempt to...
The availability of drugs in the Sidney area and the problems that accompany drug use are the most pressing issues facing local law enforcement, according to Cheyenne County Sheriff John Jenson and Sidney's Chief of Police BJ Wilkinson. Both agree that marijuana is more available here than it was before the legalization of it in Colorado. Beginning this year, anyone older than 21 can legally purchase recreational marijuana there. During the first five months of 2014, local law enforcement made t...
A terminal building scheduled for construction in the spring at the Sidney Airport will be a place for flight crews to rest. The Sidney Airport Authority opened bids for the 2,500 square foot terminal building last month, but only received one bid. The cost estimate for the building was roughly $750,000, but the bid came in at about $200,000 above that price. Per recommendations from the Nebraska Department of Aeronautics and the project engineer, officials at the airport rejected the bid. They...
Many of the 19 area employers and 11 local organizations that took part in The Happening, the Cheyenne County Chamber of Commerce's first career fair, counted the event a success. The Happening took place at the Legion Park shelter house and drew many potential employees from outside Sidney, said Chamber Director Glenna Phelps-Aurich. "Some ran out of applications," she said. Many of the employers said they received several applications and felt positively about the event. The chamber plans to...
Conversation at Tuesday's Cheyenne County Historical Association board meeting broke into an angry debate over the board's decision to replace the historic windows in a local land mark with modern ones. "They replaced 147-year-old windows with modern-era vinyl clad wooden windows, because these were beyond repair in their estimation," said Tamara Nelsen at a Historic Preservation Board meeting earlier that day. The CCHA's decision to replace these windows, in 2011, was motivated by what it saw a...
Please stop taking selfies. For those of you who don’t know, a selfie is a photo one takes of oneself, usually on a cellphone. These photos are generally close-up face shots of people going about their daily business and trying to convince Facebook friends that their lives are much more exciting than they are in reality. If you don’t take selfies discourage your kids, your grandkids, your co-workers and your neighbors to stop. If you see someone holding up his or her phone at a jaunty angle, making a pouty-face and trying to get the per...
Smoke billowed out the back of 1714 Maple St. on Tuesday as volunteer firefighters worked to put out a blaze trapped between the kitchen ceiling and the attic floor. There was no one home when neighbors, who noticed the smoke, reported the fire on Tuesday afternoon. A team of 17 volunteer firefighters utilizing four trucks were on scene for almost four hours dealing with the fire and its aftermath. Sidney Fire Chief Keith Stone estimated that the fire burned for around an hour. The home... Full story
Firefighters work on the roof at 1714 Maple street.... Full story
For the second year in a row Nebraska State Accountability or NeSA writing test scores for eighth and 11th graders will not count toward state rankings. Although the scores weren’t counted in rankings last year, this year, the scores won’t even be released. The state says that due to computer glitches, the scores may not be representative of many of the students’ abilities. “The tests are going to remain embargoed, they will not count this year,” said Sidney’s High School Principal Chris Arent at Monday’s school board meeting. “That’s very...
Several citizens have been contacted by individuals claiming the be the Sidney Power Department or Wheatbelt Public Power. These individuals inform the residents that their power bill is delinquent and that it will be turned off if they don’t pay. “These calls are a scam,” said Sidney Chief of Police BJ Wilkinson in an email. “If you were to make a payment, as they direct, it would not go towards your utility bills at all.” Those who are behind on a bill probably know it, he said. Providers give out written notices with the amount owed and...
When school starts on Aug. 18 drivers need to keep a watchful eye for pedestrians big and small. “We’re going to have all kinds of kids out, we’ve got new drivers coming out,” said Cheyenne County Sheriff John Jenson. Both Jenson and Sidney’s Chief of Police BJ Wilkinson advised that drivers slow down and pay extra attention in school zones. “With school coming up, they really need to get their head wrapped around, it doesn’t matter how late they are, they need to leave earlier and allow more time,” Jenson said. Motorists need to remember tha...
