GIBBON, Neb. (AP) — The city maintenance building in Gibbon is a total loss after a fire started in a pickup and spread.

City Administrator Chris Rector in the city of 1,800 people says the building was reported in flames at 9:20 p.m. Tuesday. The fire was extinguished about four hours later.

Awire in the engine compartment in one of the city pickups is the suspected cause.

Rector says four pickups, a street sweeper, and the city’s front end loader was a total loss.

A road grader and a dump truck also have extensive damage and could also be totaled.

Rector said the building is also likely a total loss. He estimates damage from $400,000 to $500,000.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska Secretary of State John Gale has rejected a request that he remove a proposed constitutional amendment authorizing machine gambling on “historic horse races” from the Nov. 4 general election ballot.

The request by Omaha attorney Steve Grasz suggested that the proposal violates the state constitution by containing more than one subject.

Although the language of the amendment contains more than one subject, Gale says, it “connects its subjects together to be part of one general subject.”

Gale says his authority is limited to whether the alleged defect is patently unconstitutional. He says it’s possible his decision may be challenged in court.

The proposed constitutional amendment would allow machine gambling on “historic horse racing” only at licensed horse race parks.

Charges have been dropped against a Hershey man accused of sexually assaulting a female juvenile earlier this month.

According to the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office, a 1st degree sexual assault of a child charge against 19-year-old Casey Mitchell has been dropped.

On July 6, a female juvenile arrived at the Great Plains Health emergency room, reporting that she had been sexually assaulted.

The female claimed that she had been visiting Mitchell at a home on Oregon Trail Road, south of Hershey.

She alleged that Mitchell had indicated that he wanted to have sex with her throughout the evening, a request she said she denied.  At one point, she said Mitchell forced her to have sex with him.

Deputies executed a search warrant on the residence and collected several pieces of evidence.

Mitchell was arrested and charged later that day.

On Wednesday, officials with the LCSO announced that the charge was being dropped due to lack of evidence.