News

Demolition work on the north side of the Clay County Courthouse square was nearly complete late last week, as buildings owned by Joe Cooney came down over the course of the past three to four weeks. The building that once stood just east of the USDA Service Center office, shown here at the left in this photo, leaving just two buildings on that side of the square in Clay Center. The easternmost building collapsed in the late afternoon hours of Saturday, Oct. 14. Broken Arrow Excavating of Pleasant Dale razed the buildings, and cleared out the debris, changing the downtown landscape in Clay Center. The collapse put the Clay County Emergency Management office, along with the Clay Center Fire Department, with assistance from other area fire departments, as well as linemen from the South Central Public Power District, as well as Black Hills Energy to help secure the area following the collapse.

During a recent meeting with the Sutton Community Home board and administration with Jeff Ahl, the architect, and construction manager, as well as the construction firm, Hampton Construction, the layout of the required spaces was approved so development of the details can proceed.

The design currently accounts for 27 new private rooms, four of which can be used as shared rooms resulting in beds for up to 31 people. The current project includes two additions.

The primary addition will include a new entrance, room for the administrative offices, a new family room, conference room, and restrooms.

The second addition will be dedicated to a new therapy space with provisions for physical and occupational therapy as well as an additional ADA-compliant restroom.

Members of the Rainwater Basin Chapter of Pheasants Forever will gather this Saturday night at the Sutton Community Center for their 34th annual banquet, and fundraising efforts.

The evening begins with a social hour, beginning at 5:30 p.m., with dinner for those attending set to begin at 7 p.m.

During the evening, numerous silent auction items will be visible to bid on, along with nearly 40 live auction items, including a 2024 Chevrolet vehicle donated by Friesen Chevrolet of Sutton.

Additional highlight items will include a choice of a vacation destination, between four different destinations, including an All-Inclusive Jamaican trip, a trip to Tuscany, a trip to Sedona, AZ, or a Kentucky Bourbon tour.

An estimated 25 handguns, rifles, and shotguns will also be up for bid during both auctions.

You will not want to miss this Saturday, Feb. 24, in Fairfield, for the annual Fairfield Volunteer Fire and Rescue pancake feed. Those going, can go in the morning for breakfast and check out our lineup of impressive silent auction items, live auction items, and our raffles that the department has this year.

Patrons, in the afternoon, can return for the department’s annual pork supper and live auction and meet former, and current Husker players, get autographs, and take pictures with them, and have a question and answer with a couple of the players.

This years lineup of players are outstanding with a couple Husker football legends. The first being a three-time national champion, two-time big eight champion, one big twelve champion, and firstround draft pick in the 1998 NFL draft, defensive lineman Jason Peter.

About two miles west of Inland, on the county line, are the fields where Hoagland Homestead grows the vegetables that the family will sell at area farmers markets this summer. This market garden is an important part of Adam and Amy Hoagland’s diversified farm.

On the other side of the county, south of Edgar, is where Harvard’s Ken Lockling contracts with local landowners to place his honey bee colonies in pastures during his business’s off-season from pollinating West Coast blueberries.

While registering their farms and bee foraging sites on the online FieldWatch map is no guarantee of protection from pesticide drift from neighboring commercial crop fields, it is a good start.

Monday nights February council meeting at the Sutton City Hall presented more discussions and decisions related to the developing Schwab Ground housing development, going on in southeast Sutton, adacent to the Fox Hollow Golf Course.

The project development phase, estimated at a cost of just over $4 million to construct and install infrastructure to the housing development continued covenant discussions, mostly related to loosening the requirements of what future home construction requirements will have to go through, and related to the time-frame in which a potential home owner will face while building a home on the new site.

The biggest concern, register by councilman Jeff Schelkopf included his suggestion to remove certain front facade requirements that a home must have, which in the eyes of Schelkopf only adds to the cost of building a home.

When discussion first began about Harvard’s City Hall moving out of the library basement, the initial option was to build a new community room onto the new fire hall.

After fundraising efforts began, the city realized there wasn’t enough money to do that, so the city started looking for new options.

Cornerstone Bank originally reached out to the city to see if they’d want to purchase the former Cornerstone Insurance building, as that office was being moved into the bank’s location down the street.

Years later, and after some extra discussions, the city eventually purchased the former insurance building and began making plans to move.

Harvard’s maintenance department did all of the remodeling of the building, and the city staff was excited to move in when they finished.

“I am excited to have a new building that doesn’t have stairs, so all of the residents have access to the clerk’s office,” Cherri Walker, Harvard’s City Clerk, said.

Although one measure that Clay County News is following has advanced out of committee to the floor of the Nebraska Unicameral Legislature, most proposed law changes introduced this session—which began in early January—are sitting in committees, awaiting hearings or post-hearing decisions.

All introduced legislation is sorted into a committee where the bills have their first hearings. Public comments, whether in person or submitted in writing, weigh especially heavy in the committee hearings where listening senators are deciding which measures should advance in the lawmaking process.

There is an easy online process to submit comments: Go to https://nebraskalegislature. gov/bills/ and search for the bill of interest by number in the top righthand corner of the webpage, which will bring up the specific bill’s informational page; click on the “Submit Comments Online” button positioned under the bill’s history.

Every year, Nebraska 4-H month brings thousands of young people, parents, volunteers, and alumni together to celebrate all the ways in which 4-H helps youth find a place where they belong.

Across the state, Nebraska 4-H invites community members to celebrate the state’s largest youth organization.

Empowering nearly 140,000 youth across the state with the skills to lead for a lifetime.

With the support of 12,000 volunteers, Nebraska 4-H helps youth develop and practice life skills through clubs, camps, school enrichment, afterschool, and special interest programs.

4-H is a community of young people, ages 5-19 across America who are learning leadership, citizenship, and life skills.

4-H empowers youth to reach their full potential by working and learning in partnership with caring adults. 4-H is education for life that uses a learn-by-doing approach.