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PAC, Museum of Nebraska Art present ‘MONA Goes West’

MONA Goes West 2019 is a cooperative venture between the two art organizations, is a day-long celebration of western Nebraska art and artists at the Prairie Arts Center in North Platte, 416 N. Jeffers St.

The event, includes a silent art auction, Brigitte Timmerman’s “Sandhills Cowboy” movie featuring Marty and Donna Blocker, Lloyd McCarter and the Honky Tonk Revival Band, a beer garden, demonstrations by Jackson Dinsdale Art Center mobile glass blowing van from Hastings College, Lauren Olson, and Kyle Rosfeld’s Art of Boot Making as well as food trucks and more. Admission from noon to 4:00 p.m. is $5 per person.

From 4:00- to 6:00 p.m., there is a patron reception with a live art auction, cowboy poetry by RP Smith, an accordion player, cocktails and appetizers; cost is $100 per person.

The Prairie Arts Center is a creative space, a place to gather, explore, learn and share.  This working art center, once a historic 1913 Post Office Building, now stands as the cornerstone of downtown North Platte.  At PAC, you can view the beautiful structure, take a class, experience monthly gallery exhibits, shop the gift shop, rent a space, get to know the local artists and help create a cultural legacy in Western Nebraska.

Located in the heart of the state, the Museum of Nebraska Art (MONA) is the home of the official state art collection, numbering over 5,000 works by artists of regional, and national, and international acclaim. MONA offers a friendly Museum experience, where the views are great and where the power of art captures the spirit of Nebraska.

To make reservations, or for more information, contact the Prairie Arts Center at (308) 534-5121 or the Museum of Nebraska Art at (308) 865-8559.

City of NP to hold ‘Community Cleanup Days’

The City of North Platte and Keep North Platte and Lincoln County Beautiful want to encourage a cleaner community by holding cleanup days for households in North Platte June 5-11.  Roll-off dumpsters will be placed throughout the City and items will be able to be disposed of in the dumpsters free of charge.

The purpose of the cleanup is to assist residents in maintaining their properties.  The dumpsters will be able to hold furniture, small appliances, and any other junk items citizens want to dispose of.  Items prohibited include commercial building supplies, tree limbs or grass clippings, hazardous materials, asbestos, tires, electronics or refrigerated appliances.  Each bin will be monitored and violators will be charged.  The City is asking that only households participate (no commercial business) and that people do not dump on the ground outside of the dumpsters.  They will be collecting them daily as needed.

You can find a dumpster near you at Centennial Park – southeast parking lot; Gary’s Super Foods on 4th Street – west of the parking lot; Parkade Plaza – west end of the old Alco Building; City of North Platte Public Service Building – 1402 North Jeffers – north end of the parking lot.

“We want to urge the residents to take full use of this program.  We can make a difference in keeping our community a cleaner, greener, more beautiful place to live, work and play,” said Mona Anderson, Executive Director of Keep North Platte and Lincoln County Beautiful.

This is the first year the program has been offered.  Layne Groseth, Public Service Director agreed, “We want this program to be successful so that it can continue to be offered in the future.  It discourages illegal dumping and promotes a beautiful community.”

The dumpsters will be in service beginning the morning of June 5th and will be picked up the afternoon of June 11th.  If the dumpster is not present, it is being dumped and will be returned as quickly as possible.

Residential tree limbs and other yard waste can be disposed of at the North Platte Transfer Station free of charge Monday – Saturday 7 AM – 4 PM.  Hazardous waste is accepted at the Hazardous Waste Facility located at 1308 North Sycamore the 2nd and 4th Thursdays of every month from 7 AM – 1 PM.  Electronics can be recycled at ABC Recycling for a per pound fee Monday- Friday from 8 AM – 5 PM.  Tires are accepted at the North Platte Transfer Station for a fee. There may be a free tire collection event at a later date.

New river flooding in Nebraska, Iowa forcing some out again

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Some residents are facing evacuations amid new flooding along the Nebraska-Iowa border just weeks after thousands of people in the region were forced from their homes because of flooding.

Rural and riverside residents along the Missouri River in Mills County, Iowa, were preparing this week to evacuate, the Omaha World-Herald reported Wednesday. In Nebraska, along the Platte River, residents around Hanson Lakes just south of Bellevue were sandbagging a levee that was already being overtopped by the river.

The Plattsmouth Emergency Medical Services Department warned that the Platte and Missouri Rivers were rapidly rising around Plattsmouth. The department tweeted: “If you are in an area which previously flooded a few months ago, get out NOW.”

The new flooding comes in the wake of recent heavy rains. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers stepped up releases from Gavins Point Dam upstream on the Missouri River.

In Hamburg, Iowa, residents and farmers were again scrambling to shore up a levee and add about 3 feet to its height to hold back water from the Missouri River. It’s a scramble that local residents have repeated over the years to try to protect the town of about 1,000 people near the Missouri state line.

About 30 people who gathered Tuesday to fill and stack sandbags to try to hold back rising water. Among them was Chip Frazier, president of Sanitary Improvement District 101, which oversees the Hanson’s Lakes area.

“We’re doing the best we can to fight off the Platte River,” Frazier said, noting the water overtopping the levee in spots.

“It’s like whack-a-mole,” he said. “As soon as we fill a low spot, we get more low spots, start getting boils in the dike.”

The area also flooded in March, leading to evacuations. Roughly one-third of the community’s residents were still displaced from their homes, Frazier said.

The historic March flooding caused an estimated $3 billion in damage in the Midwest.

Further east near the Des Moines River in Ottumwa, some residents in flood-prone areas near the river’s banks were forced out of their homes by floodwaters. The river crested Wednesday at about 1 inch below major flood stage, at 18.9 feet.

Others toiled to place sandbags around their homes to keep water out. A shelter was opened Wednesday for Ottumwa residents forced from their homes.

(Updated) Storm damage at Kearney airport cancels some flights 

Update 5/29/19 12:50 p.m.

FAA officials have reported that the Automated Weather Observation System (AWOS) is up
and running. United Express reports that today’s flight from Denver to Kearney is scheduled
to arrive in Kearney on time at 3:43 p.m. and subsequent flights are back on schedule.


KEARNEY, Neb. (AP) – The south-central Nebraska city of Kearney has announced that some flights have been cancelled in the wake of storm damage at the Kearney Regional Airport.

The Kearney Hub reports that the Federal Aviation Administration’ Automated Weather Observation System at the airport was damaged during Monday night’s hail storm. The system provides weather information to flight crews for aircraft landings and takeoffs.

The damage forced the cancellation of United Express flights to and from Denver until further notice.

MPCC releases Dean’s, President’s lists

The following students qualified for the President’s List at Mid-Plains Community College during the 2019 spring term. To make the list, each student had to complete 12 or more applicable credit hours in college-level courses and maintain a grade point average (GPA) of 3.9 or greater on a 4.0 scale.

Nebraska

Anselmo – Luke Christen

Beaver City – Daniel Dringman

Blair – Mark Starks

Brady – Madison Christophersen, Jessica Most, Kyle Mull

Broken Bow – Tristen Beck

Brule – Justin Candy

Culbertson – Courtney Searcey

Curtis – Colleen Mortensen

Eddyville – Zachery Jones

Gothenburg – Dillon Higgins, Dillon Wilkerson

Grant – Beau Wood

Imperial – Diana Benitez Aguilar, Taylin McNair, Kent Silvester

Indianola – Kayela Parker, Rhonda Tryon

Lewellen – Ramona Steward, Shaun Swoboda

Lexington – Katy Esquivel Cruz, Bianca Gomez

McCook – David Brewster, Easton Gillen, Mary Kain, Steven Keenportz, Mackenzie Larson, Brittanie Nolan, Trevor Oberg, James Slaten, Sydney Thompson, Ethan Wilcox

North Platte – Emily Bagley, Alyssa Bergeron, Drake Berry, Ty Brouillette, Terry Brown, Haley Burford, Ciera Carlson, Montannia Courtney, Jestynne Crankshaw, Taitiana Ditch, Isabelle Eisenrich, Hannah Fitzpatrick, Danny Fourtner, Colleen Griffin, Callie Haneborg, Allynne Hasenauer, Rachel Hatch, Matthew Haynes, Dawson Heinzen, Ashley Husemoller, Charles Kirk, Haiden Kreber, Zachary Kring, Tatum Lange, Rebecca Lindley, Kathleen McIntyre, Jayden Miles, Brian Mixer, Angel Murphy, Lindsi Orr, Jade Osborn, Kaitlyn Ostrander, Ashlynn Picquet, Dalton Prokop, Tanner Ruda, Tanis Sack, Kelsey Salazar-Allen, Ben Schanou, Tate Simonson, Shawn Simpson, Amanda Smith, Jonathan Spradlin, Savanna States, Patricia Tofilau, Zane Turner, Jade Vak, Daniel Wardyn, Gary White

Oconto – Marshall Still

Ogallala – Justine Gall, Ethan LeGrande, Jamie Rivas, Kama Svoboda

Ord – Ashley Carson

Scottsbluff – Payton Franklin

Stapleton – Kaylie Beierman

Sutherland – Angela Evans, Jocey Nelson

Valentine – Sheyenne Hammond

Wallace – Abbey Rohde

Walton – Austin Jensen

Wauneta – Zachary Thompson

Alaska

Nome – Stephanie Nielson

California

Vacaville – Justin Duchscher

Colorado

Colorado Springs – Makenna Bodette

Delta – KC Carlson

Fleming – Bailey Chintala, Shaylee Johnson

Granby – Kiera Barr

Wheat Ridge – Emily Anderson, Aurora Storrer

Yoder – Kylia Johnson

Florida

Hialeah – Ricardo Jimenez

New Port Richey – Katie Cox

Iowa

Hubbard – Ricks Polk

Oregon

Milton-Freewater – Chance McGirr

Utah

Ogden – Brooklyn Evans

Tremonton – Jerusha Miner

Wyoming

Laramie – Luke James

Australia

Maida Vale, Western Australia – Shae Muggridge

Willetton, Western Australia – Emma McLean

Canada

Brampton, Ontario – Samuel Lebel

Victoria, British Columbia – Emily Charchuk

Summerville, New Brunswick – Shaun Hickey

Spain

Badalona, Barcelona – Laura Mata Garcia

 

The following students qualified for the Dean’s List during the 2019 spring term at Mid-Plains Community College. To be eligible, they had to complete 12 or more applicable credit hours of college-level courses and maintain an overall grade point average (GPA) of 3.5 – 3.89 on a 4.0 scale.

Nebraska

Albion – Branden Roberg

Arcadia – Clay Bauer

Arthur – MacKenna Turner

Bartley – Kaleb Sughroue

Beaver City – Jordan Taylor

Brady – Colton Lovitt, Jerry Mull, Rebecca Stearns

Callaway – Jessie Parshley

Cambridge – Aubri Ross

Cozad – Adriana Buss, Kolton Heins, Triteny Werner

Culbertson – Beth Hoyt, Matthew Johnson, Derrek Mintling, Matthew Searcey, Adelina Wilcox, Grant Wilkinson

Curtis – Rylie Brown

Gering – Kaylee Bohnsack

Gothenburg – Amelia Petska

Grand Island – Chance Boersen

Grant – Logan Cunningham, Whitney Spencer

Hershey – Myesha Dickens, Amanda Reiber

Holdrege – Tatiana Young

Imperial – Clarissa Chaparro, Abigail Frias

Indianola – Jacy Ahlemeyer, Drew Hofman, Alec May, Wyatt McConville, Patrick Sughroue, Bethany Vogel, Genna Vogel, Jack Vogel

Lexington – Cesar Venegas-Villezcas

McCook – Kyle Geisler, Allison Johnson, Lindi Johnson, Julia Lytle, Nicholas Macfee, Alyson Marin, McKenzie Mason, Jaydenn Miller, Mary Osborne, Taylor Patterson, Chantel Sawyer, Danielle Slaby, Elise Stevens, Kaleb Taylor, Kyle Van Pelt, Monique Witt

North Platte – Brittanya Allen, Larry Allen, Trey Bahler, Britni Bandy, Lauren Brott, Kayla Bush, Nicholas Bussard, April Claussen, Jami Davis, Jamon Davis, Evan DeKok, Jed Dizmang, Morgan Fischer, Tyler Floro, Tiffany Gies, Amanda Hanson, Nicole Harris, Micaelia Hernandez, Elizabeth Honeywell, Megan Johnson, Abby Jones, Josie Keck, Maureen Kohn, Jamie Lauderdale, Alex Lawson, Nicholas Lemke, Tacie Lucas, Amber McClanahan, Hallei Morales, Megan Morash, Kendal Naranjo, Natasha Nutt, Stephanie Owino, Tanner Pantenburg, Jonathan Perkins, Breasia Reyes, Makenna Smith, Seth Smith, Nathan Snider, Lyndell St. Clair, Brandon Tolle, Eric Travis, Kade Wroot

Oconto – Seth Pearson

Ogallala – Kyle Podowski

Omaha – Connor McGonigal

Oxford – Jacinda Vollmer

Papillion – Emily Marsden

Paxton – Ashley Lugar, Justin Neilsen, Dalton Perlinger

Scotia – Colton Gydesen

Sidney – Trinity Langley

Stapleton – Aspen Sullivan

Sutherland – Alyssa Weber

Thedford – Ronda Haumann

Valentine – Michelle Witt Moore

Venango – Valerie Perez

California

Pleasant Hill – Liliana Belton

Colorado

Brighton – Makayla Harris

Broomfield – Megan Hernandez-Belew

Centennial – Jesse Bloom

Colorado Springs – Mallory Brown

Haxtun – Christopher Kelley

Lakewood – Angel Mojica

Littleton – Haley Jacobsen, Ashlynn Krueger

Severance – Kassidy Powers

Wray – Kedric Tufton

Florida

St. Petersburg – Emily Joseph

Hawaii

Makawao – Maysen Medeiros

Iowa

Glenwood – Madisen Liddell

Hamburg – Masen Nelson-Maher

Kansas

Effingham – Jade Hollands

Glade – Trenton Solida

Oberlin – Benjamin Glading

Topeka – Onyessah Rocha

South Carolina

Anderson – Yasnier Laureano

South Dakota

Aberdeen – Karley Martin

Utah

Salt Lake City – Mikayla Gibson

Washington – Sydney McArthur

Virginia

Fort Belvoir – Preston Parry

Australia

Boronia, Victoria – Nicola Cross

Italy

Rome – Tommaso Mostarda

Mozambique

Nelo Nducuia

Spain

Reus – Anna Sanjuan

Ukraine

Ilya Tyrtyshnik

After several quiet years, tornadoes erupt in United States

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — After several quiet years, tornadoes have erupted in the United States over the last two weeks as a volatile mix of warm, moist air from the Southeast and persistent cold from the Rockies clashed and stalled over the Midwest.

On Tuesday, the U.S. set a new record of 12 consecutive days with at least eight tornadoes, based on preliminary data from the National Weather Service. The previous record for consecutive days with that many tornadoes was an 11-day stretch that ended on June 7, 1980.

“We’re getting big counts on a lot of these days and that is certainly unusual,” said Patrick Marsh, warning coordination meteorologist for the federal Storm Prediction Center.

The National Weather Service received at least 27 more reports of tornadoes Tuesday, suggesting that the record for consecutive days would be broken once the official totals are counted.

The weather service has received 934 tornado reports so far this year, up from the yearly average of 743 observed tornadoes. More than 500 of those reports came in the last 30 days. The actual number is likely lower, however, because some of the reports probably come from different witnesses who spot the same twister.

The U.S. has experienced a lull in the number of tornadoes since 2012, with tornado counts tracking at or below average each year and meteorologists still working to figure out why. Marsh said this month’s uptick is rare, but the country saw similar increases in 2003, 2004, 2008 and 2011 that were highly unusual at the time.

He said his agency is trying to determine why the country is seeing another surge in tornadoes after the quiet spell but doesn’t have enough data to confirm whether climate change or other forces played a role. Scientists say climate change is responsible for more intense and more frequent extreme weather such as storms, droughts, floods and fires, but without extensive study they cannot directly link a single weather event to the changing climate.

“From our point of view, there’s nothing we can definitively say as to why we’re in this current pattern,” Marsh said. “I know people want to make the jump to climate change, but tornadoes are rare in the grand scheme of things, and you need a really, really long data set (to draw any conclusions).”

The recent surge in tornado activity over the past two weeks was driven by high pressure over the Southeast and an unusually cold trough over the Rockies that forced warm, moist air into the central U.S., sparking repeated severe thunderstorms and periodic tornadoes.

“Neither one of these large systems —the high over the Southeast or the trough over the Rockies— are showing signs of moving,” Marsh said. “It’s a little unusual for them to be so entrenched this late in the season.”

Those conditions are ripe for the kind of tornadoes that have swept across the Midwest in the last two weeks, said Cathy Zapotocny, a meteorologist for the weather service in Valley, Nebraska. Zapotocny said the unstable atmosphere helped fuel many of the severe winter storms and subsequent flooding that ravaged Nebraska, Iowa and Missouri earlier this year.

“We’ve been stuck in this pattern since February,” she said.

Zapotocny said the number of tornadoes this year was “basically normal” until the surge this week. May is typically the month with the highest incidence of tornadoes, usually in the Plains and Midwestern states collectively known as Tornado Alley, where most of this year’s twisters have hit.

Most of the confirmed tornadoes were rated as less-intense EF0, EF1 and EF2s on the Enhanced Fujita Scale. But 23 were classified as EF3 tornadoes, with wind speeds of 136-165 mph. The strongest confirmed tornado this year was the EF4 tornado that killed 23 people in Alabama in March.

So far this year, 38 people have died in 10 tornadoes in the United States, including a combined seven within the last week in Iowa, Missouri, Oklahoma and Ohio.

The relative quiet in recent years followed the massive tornado that killed 161 people and injured more than 1,100 in Joplin, Missouri, in 2011. The EF5 storm packed winds in excess of 200 mph and was on the ground for more than 22 miles.

Monday’s outbreak was unusual because it occurred over a particularly wide geographic area. Eight states were affected by two regional outbreaks, in the high Plains and the Ohio River Valley.

Tornadoes strafed the Kansas City metropolitan area straddling Kansas and Missouri Tuesday night, barely a week after a massive tornado ripped through the Missouri state capital of Jefferson City.

Strong storms rake Nebraska, western Iowa overnight

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Strong thunderstorms that raked eastern Nebraska and western Iowa dumped heavy rain and, in southwest Omaha, piles of hail that left some motorists temporarily stranded.

Western Nebraska was first to endure the storms Monday night, with hail larger than 2 inches in diameter reported west of Ogallala. The Omaha World-Herald reported dozens of cars pulled off Interstate 80 with broken windshields. North Platte also received reports of baseball-sized hail.

Early Tuesday morning, the storm moved into Lincoln and Omaha, dropping nearly 2 inches of rain in a little more than an hour. Southwest Omaha also saw large amounts of hail that piled up on streets that brought out at least one city snowplow to clear the mess. About 8,000 Omaha Public Power District customers lost power.

In Council Bluffs, Iowa, a number of streets flooded as more than 2 inches of rain fell there overnight. Flash flood warnings were issued there and for areas around Lincoln and Omaha.

Man shot by Kearney police to get $300K settlement

Jose Klich

KEARNEY, Neb. (AP) — A man shot by a Kearney police officer during a 2016 traffic stop will receive a $300,000 settlement from the city.

The Kearney Hub reports that 36-year-old Jose Klich will receive $290,000 from the city’s insurance carrier and $10,000 from the city of Kearney.

On June 5, 2016, Officer Derek Payton attempted to stop the vehicle Klich was driving and shot at Klich three times, hitting him once in the stomach as he tried to flee. Payton was later charged with felony assault, with prosecutors saying Payton was not in the path of the car when Klich began to drive off. A jury acquitted Payton in 2017.

Klich pleaded no contest to obstructing a police officer and driving under suspension in the case and was given a year of probation.

Charges pending against NP woman after crash that injured 4

Mandy Engler (File Image)

Authorities say charges are pending against a 41-year-old North Platte woman after a crash on Monday evening.

At around 5:00 p.m., on May 27, deputies with the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office responded to a two-vehicle crash at US Highway 30 and Front Road, just west of North Platte.

Deputies arrived and found a total of four people injured. All four were transported to Great Plains Health for treatment of their injuries.

Witnesses told deputies that one of the vehicles, a white pickup, was traveling north on Front Road and failed to yield the right of way to a sedan that was eastbound on Highway 30. They reported that the sedan could not stop in time and the two vehicles collided.

The driver of the pickup was identified as Mandy Engler and the drive of the sedan was identified as 70-year-old Dale Styles of North Platte.

Authorities say Engler was suspected of being under the influence of alcohol and a blood test was administered at the hospital. Charges against her are pending, according to the Sheriff’s Office, and all four were left in the care of Great Plains Health.

Teen inmate dies at Dawson County jail

LEXINGTON, Neb. (AP) – Authorities in south-central Nebraska are investigating the death of a teenage inmate at the Dawson County Jail in Lexington.

The 18-year-old was found unresponsive in his cell Friday night.

Officials say medical aid was rendered to the inmate and he was rushed to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead. An autopsy has been ordered.

Neither the Dawson County Sheriff’s Office nor the Dawson County Attorney had released the inmate’s name by midday Tuesday.

Under state law, a grand jury must be convened to investigate whenever a person dies in jail or in the custody of a law enforcement officer.

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