News from Neighbors
Rapid testing could allow more extracurricular opportunities
STERLING JOURNAL-ADVOCATE, Dec. 12 — Now that RE-1 Valley School District has the ability to conduct rapid COVID-19 tests, the district is working on a plan to allow more opportunities for students to be in different cohorts, which would give them the ability to return to being able to do more activities. Superintendent Shila Adolf spoke about the testing at a school board meeting Thursday.
“We have access to 140 (tests) right now, but we can have up to as many as we want, so I did ask our school nurse, Alicia Bacon, to get more of those,” Adolf told the board, pointing out that the data from these tests won’t help or hurt Logan County’s case count.
The test is a quick swab that students can do themselves with results coming back in about 15 minutes. Adolf did acknowledge that the rapid tests do give a lot of false negative results but said by testing people multiple times that’s where the validity comes in.
RE-1 will be testing athletes, band, choir and drama students, etc.
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Lake McConaughy boating access improvement to begin
CHAPPELL REGISTER, Dec. 10 — The Martin Bay boat ramp at Lake McConaughy State Recreation Area will temporarily close to public access Dec. 3. The closure comes just ahead of a one-year, $3 million capital improvement project for the Martin Bay and Cedar View areas of the reservoir in Nebraska, slated to begin the week of Dec. 7.
The project will improve boating accessibility and create one of Nebrska’s first motorized water trail systems at the state’s largest reservoir. A motorized water trail is a marked route on navigable waters for recreational use.
Improved boating access sites, once completed at opposite ends of the reservoir, will help promote the western Nebraska recreation area and reservoir as a prime travel destination for boaters from around the Midwest.
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8 departments respond to Dundy County grass fire
IMPERIAL REPUBLICAN, Dec. 10 — Approximately 1,200 acres burned in a Dundy County, Nebraska, grass fire Monday afternoon, but two farmsteads that were threatened avoided any damage.
The fire started on Ambrosek grassland close to Road 726. Imperial, Nebraska, Fire Chief Doug Mitchell said, at this time, it looks like a catalytic converter on a pickup may have started the fire while the driver was out checking cows.
Located in Dundy County, but in the Imperial Volunteer Fire Department district, the first call went out at 12:45 p.m. and a second call followed an hour or two later, seeking more IVFD help.
The fire moved south and slightly east, also burning some circles of irrigated grass, before being put out 6 miles later along Road 720.
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