News

Activities for the 2023 Sutton Parade of Lights holiday festival are starting to take shape for the upcoming event, set to take place Monday, Dec. 4.

Activities are slated to get underway at 4:30 p.m. with open house events, set to be hosted by Judy Barnes’ State Farm Insurance office, Cornerstone Bank’s downtown locoation, Brown’s Grocery Store, CPI, Sutton Pharmacy, and the Sutton Library.

Additionally, Quality Healthcare, Therapeutic Massage and Salon, as well as Farm Bureau Insurance will host open house events at the Sutton Community Center.

Throughout the evening, the Parade of Lights event, hosted by the Sutton Area Chamber of Commerce, will also feature the following activities at the Community Center:

• Draft horse sleigh rides;

• Santa’s Workshop photos will be taken by Grace Schmer photography;

• 101 Dalmatians by the Sutton FFA;

• Walking tacos will be served by the Sutton Federated Church youth group;

On Monday, Nov. 6, City of Sutton staff, Gary Nuss, Jaden Nuss and Brett Gibson, along with Sutton Police Chief, Tracey Landenberger opened up Saunders Ave., that had been closed since the July 29 EF-1 tornado blew through downtown Sutton, leaving a path of damage to each business along the north side of the downtown business district. The street is now opened halfway through the street for traffic to pass through. 

The Clay County Giving Tree, which started over 35 years ago in the basement of the former Christian Church in Clay Center by Ed and Judy Barnes began small, but little did the Barnes’ know at the time, but the annual event has grown leaps and bounds, as we fast forward to the 2023 Giving Tree wrapping event, slated to be Wednesday, Dec. 20, at the Clay County Fairgrounds Activities Building.

According to current organizers of the current Giving Tree event, the Barnes’ had a couple of families who were really “on their hearts” as the holiday season drew near and they wanted to help them in any way they could.

Along with a couple of other folks, they gathered together and made “care packages” to help brighten their spirits.

Each year, according to Tina Buckhalter, the daughter of the Barnes’, more and more families or individuals were “on their hearts”.

Veterans Day programs throughout Clay County will be Friday, Nov. 10, this year, with the annual program at Sandy Creek High School scheduled to begin at 8:30 a.m., while programs at Harvard and Sutton will both begin at 10 a.m.

SANDY CREEK-8:30 A.M.

Sandy Creek’s program will be highlighted by special speaker, Jesse Cunningham, a 2000 graduate of Sandy Creek High School. The presentation of the colors will be made by Cub Scout members in the fourth through 12th grades to open the ceremony at 8:30 a.m.

Musical performances will also be a part of the program, with the fourth and fifth grade choir singing “Because of You” by Teresa Jennings, while the high school and middle school combined choirs are set to sing “Rights of Our Nation,” by Joseph Compello.

Jeremy Borer and his Digital Media Class will have a special video presentation, with the middle school choir performing “Sacrifices Made” by Mike Wilson.

In 1954, President Eisenhower signed a bill proclaiming Nov. 11 as Veterans Day, calling on the nation to “solemnly remember the sacrifices of all those who fought so valiantly, on the seas, in the air, and on foreign shores, to preserve our heritage of freedom, and let us reconsecrate ourselves to the task of promoting and enduring peace so that their efforts shall not have been in vain.”

In the nearly seven decades since, millions more Americans, including residents of Clay County, have bravely taken up the call to protect and serve.

This Nov. 11, we will come together as a nation on Veterans Day to honor and celebrate these brave individuals who have served our country in uniform.

Now more than ever, our veterans and their families need our support. In a time when our country is divided on so many issues, we can all agree that these public servants who risked everything to protect our country and our way of life deserve our support and gratitude.

“A refreshed look” is what Doug George said he and his family, along with the employees of George Bros., and more specifically, George’s 66 Easy Stop convenience mart are going after when they “pull the trigger” on giving the store and fuel station a face lift.

“We’re not sure when this will all begin yet,” shared George.

“We’re still waiting on some bids, and a few things that we’re thinking about adding to the station, but one day soon, there will be changes made to the station.”

George noted that we’ll move the mens and womens bathrooms to where the old video center was, when we rented movies, and the current restrooms will be remodeled to hold a pop fountain station, and an oval dispensary for sandwiches and other snacks.

The future of the Sutton Community Home, and Hillcrest Assisted Living has once again returned the focus of the facility’s future back to it’s current location, at 1106 N. Saunders Ave.

The Sutton Community Home leadership team met with arCuretecture (architect) on Oct. 25.

Based on the results of several months of preliminary planning, design, budgeting, and conversations with the representatives from the city about potential areas of development, a decision was made to commit to complete an improvement project at the home’s current site.

The next step in this process includes development of project options to determine the most cost-effective way to complete a project that balances several critical needs, with necessary improvements to the conditions for those that live and work there now and will do so in the future.

Lynn Nejezchleb, a well known name in South Central Nebraska, and more directly, the community of Fairfield has taken himself into retirement from a legendary restaurant and brewery in his hometown, as after 15 “some odd years,” Nejezchleb handed over the keys to the new owner of the Fairfield Opera House Brewery and Grill.

The new owner, however is no stranger to the operation that Nejezchleb started back in 2006, as Scott Pell, who served as Nejezchleb’s head chef for around 12 years, as estimated by Pell, took over the reins of the South Central Nebraska hotspot in September.

PHONE BLOWS UP

Pell, came back to the operation, after departing for a different challenge in December, 2022, and when Nejezchleb put the Opera House up for sale, Pell’s phone, in his words, “blew up.”

“I had employees, food service providers, you name it, calling me and texting me that I had to come back, take over and keep the Opera House open,” Pell shared.

What started out as a normal, routine day for the Sutton Police force, officer Edgar Sandoval, and Chief of Police, Tracey Landenberger quickly had a change of course to their day. At 10:30 a.m., Wednesday, Oct. 18, officer Sandoval received orders from the Clay County Sheriff’s office that a protection order needed to be served on one Joseph P. Weaver, at his residence, located at 304 West Ash Street in Sutton.

That protection order, however, by late afternoon, turned into far more than just a protection order, to be served by Sandoval, it escalated into a bevy of charges that were filed against Weaver, out of Clay County alone.

At approximately 4:30 p.m., Sandoval and a host of officers from the Sutton Police Department, the Clay County Sheriff’s Department and the Fillmore County Sheriff’s Department converged on the home on West Ash Street to serve the protection order against Weaver.