Good Old Days 01-10-14

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.

100 YEARS AGO

'School Board Looking To Future Development'

January 10, 1914

Wednesday afternoon the school board held a meeting to discuss conditions as seemed to them existing. They have found the school building inadequate to care for the increased enrollment and have had to secure temporary quarters elsewhere for one grade, which only partially relieved the congestion. They think that the time is coming and soon, when a new school building will be needed.

The meeting Wednesday was to consider the feasibility of attempting to secure from Cicero Allen his recently required lots immediately north of the present school property. Mr. Allen was planning to build a nice residence there and the board considered it the wiser plan to purchase the lots, if possible, while unimproved, than in future years to have the improvements condemned should it be the vote of the people to build their school house there.

The location is considered by the board as the probable one to be selected by the people for several reasons. The town is small and for the economy it would seem wise to segregate the school buildings for easier heating, supervision, and general co-operation. On the other hand, should the people vote to place the schoolhouse elsewhere, or to extend the present one, the lots could be sold again without loss, for they are in a good location and a good investment. Mr. Allen is considering a premium offered by the board on his purchase price.

75 YEARS AGO

''Parents of 3 Children Victims Of Explosion'

January 10, 1938

Double funeral services were held here Sunday for Mr. and Mrs. Julius Becker, farmers near Gurley, who died early Friday morning of burns received in a kerosene explosion in the kitchen of their farm home Thursday night.

Authorities and neighbors pieced together fragmentary reports of the explosion to definitely determine the exact cause. Sheriff W. W. Schulz said it was apparent that Becker had poured kerosene into a stove containing hot coals, the explosion resulting.

Becker and his wife were burned by flames which showered them, burning the clothing completely from their bodies. Mrs. Becker was standing just behind her husband at the time.

Neighbors rushed to the Becker home and succeeded in putting out the blaze before it destroyed the entire house. The three Becker children crawled through a bedroom window after Melvin, 9, broke out the window light with his fist. He rode a bicycle to the neighboring home of Mr. and Mrs. Ross Handley to summon aid.

The three children were later brought to town by W. E. Gehrig. Melvin was treated for lacerations on his hand and arm, received when he broke the window light.

When the explosion was first reported, it was believed a gasoline lamp had exploded. However, Becker's own statement to Schulz proved this to be wrong.

50 YEARS AGO

'New Oil Pool Hit On Carlson Lease'

January 13, 1964

Cheyenne County may have Nebraska's second oil discovery of the new year at a wildcat drilling site nine miles north and one east of Potter.

Carl Houy, Denver-based Independent, ran production casing over the weekend at the No. 1 Carlson after reporting fluid recovery of 300 feet of oil cut mud and 30 feet of muddy oil. While the recovery figures are not too impressive, the operator apparently saw commercial production possibilities in the Carson or he would not have gone to the expense of running casing. The well was drilled by Exeter Drilling Co., and this driller has now moved the rig to another wildcat, the No. 1 Lieber located three miles south of Gurley.

Meanwhile, Kimbark Exploration Co., has run casing at the No. 1 Harris in the Kame field about six miles west of Dalton, after recovering oil in a test which showered the rig and the surrounding area.

This well is a confirmation of the field discovery, the No. 1 Wieble, and should give the Kame field its second producer. It also should result in additional development drilling in the field. Actually, the No. 1 Harris extended the previously defined limits of the field and these will have to be enlarged to fit the new production pattern.

The Nebraska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission office in Sidney said it did not receive any requests for permits to drill new wells in Cheyenne County over the weekend. Thus, the Lieber well is the only active drilling under way now.

25 YEARS AGO

'Huge Grass Fire Blackens 2,100 Acres'

January 11, 1989

It started when Brian Charles' axle fell off, about 1:30 p.m.

It ended four hours later with about 2,500 acres of land burnt black.

Across the middle laid a smoky band hundreds of feet high and miles long, visible for miles.

Monday afternoon as Charles drove back to Western Nebraska Community College along I-80about 5 miles east of Potter, the right rear axle of his '77 Buick broke loose and began dragging along the highway.

Sparks, struck by the axle as it bumped along the concrete Interstate, set the roadside afire. Flames from the burning grass, driven by stiff breezes along I-80, soon crossed the quarter-section where it started and began spreading beyond control.

At the Cheyenne County Sheriff's Office the Potter emergency telephone rang. When Capt. Mel Plummer, the on-duty deputy, answered, Marcheta Thurston asked "if we had a report of a fire between her field and someone else's – I didn't know where she meant, but I explained that we didn't have any report of a fire.

Then she said, 'here's my husband and a man, (later identified as Cliff Thurston) relayed that there was a grass fire on the south side of I-80 about five miles east of Potter."

The winds, which had been blowing briskly all day across the county, chose that time to begin a climb to 30 miles an hour, eventually gusting up to 44 miles an hour, according to Sidney Aviation at Sidney Airport and the National Weather Service in Scottsbluff.

Potter Fire Chief Bob Hilpert, responding to the fire page in the second pumper, arrived at the scene and almost immediately knew the blaze had been blown beyond immediate control.

In Sidney, City Police Dispatcher Lynda Vernon took the call from the sheriff's office at 1:50 p.m. and relayed Potter's need for help with the blaze to members of the Sidney Fire Department.

As Fire Chief Keith Stone headed toward the smoke, which by 2 p.m. towered into the sky, conspicuous from as far away as Sidney, Stone advised his firemen to choose I-80 over Highway 30 as the fastest route to the blaze.

Eventually, volunteer firemen from Peetz, CO, would also receive a call---at 2:41 p.m.---for mutual aid, from Stone after having discussed it with Hilpert. Peetz replied with five men and two trucks, a pumper and a tanker.

Through out the fire, the powerful westerly winds had driven dense clouds ahead of the flames-advancing a warning along its path.

The flames, pushed ahead through the limited cover by strong winds, crossed through at least eight individual sections of land, damaging pasture and fields owned by the Thurstons, Avis Herboldsheimer, Joe Policky, Rod and Randy Mathewson and McMillen. Hilpert, estimating, said he thought at least four full sections, 2,560 acres, had been burned.

As firemen from each of the three departments worked their way to the southeast they began to meet at the McMillen farm. It quickly became the operation's base.

Because the wind chill froze, then broke a water line on Sidney's 'attack pumper' four wheel pickup, firemen put McMillen's farm shop to use. They borrowed acetylene cutting and welding tanks, repairing the truck and getting it back on duty.

Cornered, the fire gave in. As light from the setting sun dimmed, flashing red lights could still be glimpsed across the draw, as firemen hunted down the last embers.

By 5:30 p.m. the battle had ended. The smoke was finally clearing and ten trucks were headed back home, loaded with 52 tired firemen.

10 YEARS AGO

'Board Gets First Look at $15.1M Cost To Remodel, Renovate'

January 14, 2004

Preliminary findings on the estimated cost to remodel, renovate and modernize Sidney High School and Sidney Middle School range from $14.172 million to 15.1 million.

The figures were presented in a proposed project budget given to the Sidney Board of Education Monday. A final report from the DLR Group, the Omaha-based architect, is due to the board at its February 16 meeting.

The figures will be explained in detail to the board by the architect at a special 7 a.m. meeting Monday. Another explanation will be presented to the school staff and faculty at 9:30 am. Monday during the school in-service meeting and a third presentation to local business leaders is consideration for noon Monday.

"All we are doing is bringing them up to speed on what our building needs are,' said Dr. John Hakonson, superintendent of schools, of the meetings with staff and community. "We want to look at plans and see what direction we want to take-remodel or build."

Local contractors have been meeting with the architect and assisted in preparing the preliminary cost estimate. "We need help in determining what to do," Hakonson told the board of education at its January meeting Monday.

Hakonson said whatever the board decides – remodel or build – money will have to be spent. "We do have some problems that are ominous," he said referring to plumbing, wiring and the roof over the middle school gymnasium . "If it drags out, it could end up costing hundreds of thousand of dollars whether we want to or not," he said of repairs.

We are not talking about slapping on a band-aid and limping through," Hakonson said. "We are talking about something that will last forty to fifty years and provide a good learning environment."

The figures given the board Monday showed a cost breakdown of $3,893,757 for the renovation and remodeling of the middle school, $5,526,794 for an addition to the high school to meet program requirements.

Because the extent of the projected work would take longer than one summer, the school would need at least 15 temporary classrooms at a cost of $525,000.

Other projected expenses include $927,338 for design and construction contingency; $1,480,599 for architect and engineer fees; and $155,525 for miscellaneous expenses such as survey and soil testing and reimbursable expenses.

Project subtotal excluding contingency is $14,172,662 or $15,100.000 including contingency.