News from neighbors
URNRD bumping tax request to build reserves for more acreage retirement
IMPERIAL REPUBLICAN, Sept. 21 — In 2020, more than 9,000 idled irrigation acres in the Upper Republican Natural Resources District will come out of the United States Department of Agriculture’s Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program retirement program.
Potentially, irrigation pumping could resume on those acres. That would force the district to find additional ways to offset any resumed pumping.
The district wants to provide enough financial incentive to entice landowners to permanently retire those acres.
Right now, the district has built up $7.8 million in reserves just for that purpose.
In 2006, the Nebraska Legislature authorized NRDs in fully and over-appropriated river basins to collect an additional 3-cent tax levy for water management activities. The levy authority expires after the 2017-18 budget year.
The full article is available in our e-Edition. Click here to subscribe.
Chappell emergency crews called to train/semi collision
CHAPPELL REGISTER, Sept. 21 — On Tuesday morning, Sept. 12, a Union Pacific Railroad train and a semitractor and trailer collided at the railroad crossing located east of Chappell, Nebraska.
The train, traveling east, hit the southbound truck after it failed to stop before entering the crossing.
The full article is available in our e-Edition. Click here to subscribe.
NJC enrollment down 2.5 percent
STERLING JOURNAL-ADVOCATE, Sept. 22 — Northeastern Junior College is seeing a small drop in enrollment this fall, according to a report presented to the Advisory Council at its regular meeting Thursday.
According to Steve Smith, vice president of student services, NJC’s full-time equivalent student count is down a little more than 2.5 percent this fall compared to last fall. As of Sept. 18, the full-time head count is 912 compared to 934 on Sept. 19, 2016.
He also noted that due to some policy changes in regards to teachers being able to teach concurrent enrollment courses in the public school system, concurrent enrollment at almost each high school in NJC’s service area has seen a decline compared to last fall.
Residence halls are 83 percent occupied, Herboldshiemer Hall has the highest occupancy rate at 99 percent, and Longberg has the second highest occupancy at 89 percent. One of the lowest occupied halls is Williams, but without students in all the rooms, it’s giving NJC an opportunity to do some much-needed renovation there.
The full article is available in our e-Edition. Click here to subscribe.
Skater pursues world record in Grant
GRANT TRIBUNE-SENTINEL, Sept. 20 — Route 61 Roller Dome had a special guest on Saturday, Sept. 16. Rasheed Shabazz of Baltimore was in Grant, Nebraska, to skate for a world record.
Skating since the age of 5, Shabazz has been working 15 years to get into the Guinness Book of World Records for skating in all 50 states.
The full article is available in our e-Edition. Click here to subscribe.