Columns

If you are here now or are from here, you’ve probably heard that before. Someone who knows where you are from will ask if you know soand-so or are related to someone they know in that part of the state. If you haven’t heard it, at least you understand it.

The governor said it recently when he announced the launch of a $10 million national marketing campaign funded by federal CARES Act money to attract people to come to Nebraska for jobs and to enjoy “the good life” that the state can provide.

The Return to the Good Life campaign initially will be targeted to audiences in the Kansas City, Denver, Chicago and Minneapolis media markets. Those are major urban areas within 500 miles of Nebraska.

Governor Pete Ricketts said the state would also be testing the campaign in places like Silicon Valley and Austin, Texas.

Dear Editor,

In the past month there have been a few, “three to be exact,” letters to the editor basically criticizing or questioning the decisions made by city officials during city council meetings.

After being approached around town and at different events and explaining the situation to the individual or individuals, it seems to shed new light on the subjects. In fact, after explaining each situation to them they seemed to be more in tuned on why and what was going on.

The first letter was to do with an LB840 application for daycare. First, we need to probably explain the function and process of LB840.

LB840 was designed to be the upfront money for a business to either get started or expand. Banks like to see a personal investment when applying for a business loan.

I will admit that the number one billion boggles my mind. That’s 1,000 million, a one followed by nine zeros. It would take 10 million $100 bills to total $1 billion in cash.

That should help as we fathom the $1.25 billion in federal pandemic recovery assistance that is currently being doled out by the state. Including the $1.25 billion provided through the Coronavirus Relief Fund, Nebraska has received over $10 billion in federal coronavirus assistance.

These funds have gone toward public health initiatives, providing health care, small-business payroll protection, extra unemployment benefits, and education—among other uses. These funds also include the $1.6 billion Nebraskans have received in economic impact payments, the direct payments of up to $1,200 per individual tax filer and $500 per dependent.

Do you remember what it was like to not be able to get the answer to an elusive question as soon as you asked it? Like how long sea turtles live? Or how far away is the sun? Or the name of that actor from that one movie? Before the omni-present Google and smartphone, these answers were likely missing (or required a lot of work to find). So when these questions came up in the past, conversation would stop.

That’s because the language of America is our common understanding of the facts of the world. Knowledge is a type of social currency, allowing us to converse and tackle the problems we collectively face. Without it, no democratic system can continue to function.

These common understandings tie us together. They allow us to communicate effectively and work together. When they are absent or under stress, like they are at this moment in society, it may sometimes feel like we will never recover that common language.

Everyone always says word travels fast in a small town, but recently some of the community development opportunities that have been voted on by the Sutton City Council have seemingly moved quickly, without the knowledge of many community members.

My understanding is that there are sub-committees created to help advise the council members of requests related to things such as zoning and LB840; however, with two recent agenda items the council did not follow the sub-committee’s recommendations.

It is clear that more community members of Sutton need to join together and speak louder for their opinions to be heard about the future of Sutton and its development opportunities. Many community members have been unaware and uninvolved and others have been misled and unheard. Change takes work, but is essential for our community.

The rumor was if you parked your car on the old bridge north of town at midnight, she would appear.

Castner Bridge was built before the town was platted and it had a dark history. Everything from hangings to shootouts and accidents plagued the bridge, giving it the myth so many have passed through the ages.

It’s built over a now dried up river bed and is long enough to fit three cars lined up bumper to bumper. Although it’s not far off the ground, with the bottom of the river a mere 10 feet from the base of the bridge, it’s still unsettling to drive across at night.

During October, it was tradition for seniors to drive to the bridge and shut their cars off. As midnight neared on Oct. 22, Luther and his friends were just pulling onto the bridge, parking themselves in the center. Luther didn’t want to be there, but after the insistence of his friends and the tradition looming over him, he eventually folded.

Memorable moments have certainly been a big part of my newspaper career. Witnessing state championships, personal records, school records, and lifetime milestones in working careers, business reaching milestone moments in the life of a business.

Tuesday night’s classic battle between the Sutton Fillies and Thayer Central Titans volleyball teams, which produced a five-set win for the Fillies, is perhaps one of the biggest and most enjoyable regular season athletic events that I’ve witnessed in a number of years.

A few other big moments, while with the Clay County News, that may rival the Fillies-Titans battle in the Sutton Dome was the 2012 Sandy Creek-Sutton girls basketball game, played to an overflowing crowd in the Sutton Dome.

Both teams held No. 1 rankings and were unbeaten, Sandy Creek came in at 15-0 and Sutton at 14-0.

That night produced a 50-47 win for Sandy Creek in late January of 2011.

Newspapers have been in my blood from day one, back on Sept. 30, 1964. I was born into a newspaper family and in some way, shape or form, I’ve been that “little turd” that hung out at the office with my parents when they worked all night getting a paper out the door, to the position that I currently hold.

This week is National Newspaper Week and as I tap into my own personal hard drive of memories of the past 57 years of my association with this business, I catch myself reflecting on the business that has provided for me ever since that day my parents brought me into this world.

My first real recollection of this business was back in the late ‘60s of all the old linotype equipment that it took to put a paper out, an old press that took up about 50 percent of the office that my parents used to put out the Shelton Clipper each week.

Sammy grew up in 1980s Omaha in one of the many apartments built near downtown.

On one side of her street was a line of apartment and duplex buildings, with the other side hosting various houses with well-kept lawns.

Except one house—the one across the street from Sammy’s apartment.

The three-story house had chipped paint uncovering its aged wood, several broken windows and an unsettling aura to it.

During the summer, when their parents were at work, Sammy and her group of friends—Kara, Shelly—would giggle as they dared Sammy’s brother, Max, and his friends Tom and Theo to go up and knock on the haunted house’s door.

Of course, the boys always accepted the dare, and as usual, nothing ever happened when they slammed their fists on the door before running back to the safety of the street.

Aging, it seems, comes with at least one thing that I’m not so fond of, to be honest. The fact that the older I get the faster time goes kind of drives me nuts. Time needs to slow down a bit.

I had the luxury of a rare Monday afternoon and evening off from the office this week and went on a little adventure, which took me to Tabor, IA to watch some junior high football.

No, I didn’t just take a dart and throw it on a map and pick a place to watch junior high football, it just so happens that my nephew Rowen (Howe) was playing.

Rowen has been through some big changes in the past three to four months, good changes mind you. He, along with my sister Tara and my brother-in-law Milt recently moved from Lincoln to rural Thurman, IA.

Milt hails from that area, located just east of Nebraska City, along the bluffs that we all see to the east of Interstate 29.