News

When the historic flood and blizzard hit Nebraska, leaving behind hundreds of miles of devastation, first responders and volunteers stepped up to help out.

Departments in Clay County wanted to help out also, prompting a meeting between the fire chiefs, assistant chiefs, and EMS captains from Clay Center, Edgar, Fairfield, Glenvil, Harvard, and Sutton, to find a way they could help their fellow first responders.

With each department donating money toward the cause, phone calls were made and eventually the departments found Lynch, a town of 296 people nestled in north central Nebraska.

Haley Roemmich, with the Clay Center Fire and Rescue Department, said they were told by neighboring departments that Lynch was hit hard by flood waters, but had little help.

After discussion with Lynch’s fire chief and his wife, it was determined that Lynch’s Department was in desperate need of chest waders and waterproof gloves.

The Clay County Board of Supervisors voted to force the resignation of Loren Uden as the current Clay County Emergency Manager during its regular meeting on March 26.

The termination goes into effect on April 1, and an advertisement to fill the position will commence shortly.

Uden began serving as the county’s emergency manager in March 2011, after serving in a consulting role near the end of the late Bob Rose’s contract as emergency manager.

The board’s decision is the culmination of evaluations of Uden’s job performance and working relationships with local volunteer fire and rescue departments dating back to 2017, reported Board Member L. Wayne Johnson of Clay Center, who spoke on behalf of the board committee appointed to look into the matter. The evaluation was originally spearheaded by former Board Member Todd Nuss of Sutton.

State speech proved successful for several students, as all six of Sutton’s state qualifiers went home with a medal and placed fifth overall, with 60 points.

March 21, Sutton competed in Class C1, with the following students earning a medal: OID consisting of Nate Andres, Megan Fehr, Ben Andres, Victoria Hofmann, and Jared Switzer, earned second; Karis Andres and Fehr, third, Duet; Karis, fourth, Entertainment Speaking; and Ben, fifth, Informative Speaking.

Overall, the team placed fifth behind Bishop Newman (62 pts), fourth; Aquinas Catholic (74 pts), third; David City (118 pts), second; and Omaha Brown Talbot (128 pts), first.

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The Sutton Volunteer Fire Department hosted their annual awards banquet Saturday, March 16 at the Sutton Community Center.

Former Sutton Fire Chief Pat Merrick devoted a few moments of time to those attending, as the departments guest speaker.

Merrick spoke from his perspective as a Nebraska State Fire Marshal and shared with department members the expressed need for safety, sharing that “in the past several weeks we’ve seen several accidents involving emergency equipment, with people hitting fire rigs and ambulances.”

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The Sandy Creek Preschool is full to bursting, but there’s still room to growand the school board voted Monday night to let it do just that.

The South Central Unified #5 School District Board of Education heard a report about the Sandy Creek Preschool during its regular meeting on March 19, at Lawrence-Nelson High School in Nelson.

“I’ve never been to a school that offered full-day pre-K, and I give you kudos for that,” SCUD Superintendent Julie Otero dsif. “I just think it’s the best thing for our kids.”

She and Sandy Creek Elementary Principal Julie Studnicka addressed the burgeoning preschool enrollment during the meeting.

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The family of Leota Griess, who passed away Feb. 11, 2019, including her husband Ron and daughter Sophie Carlson, made a special donation in memory of Leota to the Sutton Community Home Foundation Friday, March 15.

The donation from the Griess family totalled $25,000, and according to Ron, “Leota and I talked about this long before she passed away. She really wants a new home to be built for this community and area, and she requested that we kick off more fundraising efforts for a new facility with a challenge donation,” Ron said.

“Our family hopes that with Leota’s wishes, others in Sutton and the surrounding area will help to match or exceed our donation of $25,000.”

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Members of the Sutton City Council cruised through a reasonably light agenda Monday night in the Sutton Council chambers at City Hall.

Leading off the key points of the meeting, council members, at the suggestion of the Sutton Planning and Zoning Board, approved a change in zoning for Aspegren Repair, located at 1004 East Maple Street in east Sutton.

The property had been labeled as an industrial zoned property over the course of the history of the property, but Planning and Zoning members, along with council members, heard from owner Jarrod Aspegren and his request to change the zoning to commercial, allowing Aspegren and his staff to upgrade the property and expand for future growth when deemed necessary by he and his staff.

Aspegren shared with both boards that Clay County deems the property as commercial, thus he asked to have the City of Sutton also place the property to run his auto repair and towing business into a commercially zoned property.