News

Griffin Bergen smiles as he runs through a cloud of blue chalk during the Sutton Elementary Color Run Friday. 

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BY RITA BRHEL

It’s not hard to imagine how the latest stretch of wet weather has delayed Clay County’s farmers yet again. Combines sit stranded in fields abandoned midway through cutting, and the grain elevators have been eerily quiet for early October.

But the truth is, this fall’s biggest harvest troubles hasn’t been the rain. This past summer’s weather was setting up crops for challenges long before the fields dried down.

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BY ASHLEY D. SWANSON

At 2:30 in the morning, most people would not want to hear a band playing at top notch, nor would they want hordes of people cheering. For the 135 women attending the 12th annual Honor Flight, however, this noise hit their hearts and brought tears to their eyes as they boarded a plane for a once-ina- lifetime trip.

For 10 hours, these women veterans entered areas of Washington D.C. where intricate, heart-affecting memorials were designed in honor of many.

The Sept. 24 flight, hosted by Bill and Evonne Williams, featured veterans, pilots, crew, and media personnel, all strictly women.

The decision to host an all-women’s flight came just three days before Christmas, 2017—in less than a year, contacts were made and the flight became a reality for several women veterans across the U.S.

Medicaid causing struggles; use of agency, low census not factors

BY ASHLEY D. SWANSON

Harvard Rest Haven and Harvard House, the nursing home and assisted living in Harvard, are feeling the same struggles other homes across the nation are experiencing.

Of those struggles, Medicaid plays a huge factor in causing issues for homes.

“Most nursing homes rely on Medicaid; it’s what most residents pay with,” HRH Administrator Ruth Sands-Jerke said. “We know Medicaid doesn’t meet the cost of paying someone to care for another person…I think Medicaid affects everybody simply because it doesn’t pay all of the cost. If, say, it costs $150 a day to take care of someone and we only receive $125, then how long can you manage to do that and continue to lose money?”

BY RITA BRHEL

Since its inception more than a century ago, the goal of 4-H has always been to equip the next generation in becoming future leaders of their communities. For Clay County 4-H, this means constantly evolving the program to stay relevant with the times.

“4-H has changed so much over the years,” Holli Alley, 4-H program coordinator at the University of Nebraska- Lincoln Extension Service in Clay Center, said. “It’s not just the traditional county fair. That’s still a strong component, but there are so many resources that we want more children to be able to experience them.”

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Living on the edge of Fairfield, Rita Brhel has been writing professionally for more than 20 years. She grew up on a farm in the Pauline area and attended school in Blue Hill, where she began her newspaper career at the Blue Hill Leader as a sportswriter at age 16.

After graduating high school, greatly influenced by her activities in 4-H and FFA, Brhel majored in agricultural journalism at the University of Nebraska- Lincoln, where she competed with the collegiate Equestrian Team, Speech Team, and Agri-Marketing Team. She was also involved with the college yearbook and worked on staff for the school newspaper as a sportswriter and features writer.

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Ross speaks of troubled nursing home industry and the key components that are impacting the industry

BY TORY DUNCAN

Leaders within the nursing home industry will call on the Nebraska Legislature’s Appropriation Committee and Health and Human Services on Friday, Oct. 19, to begin discussions on exploring different ways in which to pay skilled and assisted nursing facilities, according to Ron Ross, president of Rural Health Development (RHD), based out of Cambridge and Lincoln.

During the Sept. 18 Clay Center Council meeting, Mayor L. Wayne Johnson gave a declaration marking Sept. 17 as the 231st anniversary of the drafting of the Constitution of the United States of America by the Constitutional Convention.

Also stated in the declaration: “Whereas it is the privilege and duty of the American people to commemorate the drafting of the Constitution of the United States of America with appropriate ceremonies and activities...therefore, I, L. Wayne Johnson, by virtue of the authority vested in me as the Mayor of the City of Clay Center in the State of Nebraska do hereby proclaim the week of Sept. 17 through 23 as Constitution Week, and ask our citizens to reaffirm the ideals of the Framers of the Constitution... by vigilantly protecting the freedoms guaranteed to use through this guardian of our liberties, remembering that lost rights my never be regained.”

BY ASHLEY D. SWANSON

Sutton Public Schools activated its new security system Tuesday.

SPS is now using a system that’ll have the doors locked throughout the day, giving security and safety to students and staff.

“We’re at the point in time where this is necessary...it’s a great thing for the kids,” Superintendent Dana Wiseman said.

The new system, installed by Integrated Security Solutions out of Hastings, was installed for the safety of the students, staff, and visitors of SPS.

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BY TORY DUNCAN

Nationally the nursing home business is struggling with two major impacts to a care facility’s bottom line—Medicaid reimbursement rates and a shortage of nursing candidates, both of which have an uncontrollable impact on the industry.

In Sutton, those two key factors, as it was announced during the Sutton Community Home’s annual meeting Monday, Sept. 10, have hit the local nursing facility hard.

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