The hot topic at the North Platte City Council meeting Tuesday evening was the potential consolidation of postal services in North Platte.

Citing the loss of nearly $5 billion last fiscal year, and a forecast of bigger losses, the United States Postal Service (USPS), is considering closing its downtown location at 300 East 3rd Street, and relocating all retail services to the postal facility at 1302 Industrial Road, the current mail processing center.  USPS Regional Spokesman, Brian Sperry, told The Post in an email that the Industrial Road location has excess space and could accommodate the relocation.  He added that, “business as usual is not an option.”

“It’s important to note that this is a proposal, and subject to public input, ” Sperry said.

Sperry said the USPS is encouraging the public to make comment and give input on the potential change.

According to Sperry, public input can be submitted for 15 days, from last night’s meeting, adding that the USPS will not make an initial decision for at least 15 days.

He said a final decision will be made no earlier than 30 days after the initial decision.

Because the building on Industrial Road doesn’t have a retail unit, Sperry said one would be built into the current building.  He said the move would allow the USPS to save money, and continue to serve the community.

“Our commitment to customer service remains a top priority,” Sperry said.  “We will continue to provide the dependable service our customers need.”

Public comments can be sent to:

Vice President of Facilities
C/O Implementation Team
7500 East 53rd Place, Room 1108
Denver, CO 80266

 

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — The U.S. Geological Survey says groundwater levels are declining in an aquifer that serves parts of Oklahoma and seven other states.

The USGS has released a report on changes in groundwater levels in the High Plains Aquifer, also known as the Ogallala Aquifer. USGS scientist Virginia McGuire says measurements between 2011 and 2013 represent a large decline in groundwater levels and are likely due to increased groundwater pumping.

In 2011, water in the aquifer totaled about 2.92 billion acre-feet, a decline of about 267 million acre-feet, or 8 percent, since 1950. Change in water levels from 2011 to 2013 was a decline of 36 million acre-feet in just two years.

The aquifer underlies about 175,000 square miles in Oklahoma, Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, South Dakota, Texas and Wyoming.

• TodayCloudy, with a high near 26. Southeast wind 7 to 9 mph.
• TonightA chance of snow showers, mainly before 10pm, then a chance for flurries. Cloudy, with a low around 16. Southeast wind 3 to 7 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%.
• ThursdayMostly cloudy, with a high near 33. South southwest wind 3 to 8 mph.
• Thursday NightMostly cloudy, with a low around 15. Light west southwest wind.
• FridayMostly sunny, with a high near 38. Light west southwest wind becoming west 5 to 9 mph in the morning.
• Friday NightMostly clear, with a low around 14.
• SaturdayMostly sunny, with a high near 40.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell says approving the Keystone XL pipeline will top the Senate agenda in January. The issue could set up an early 2015 veto confrontation with President Barack Obama.

Congressional Republicans have been pushing for approval of the pipeline for years. Obama has resisted because of environmental concerns.

The pipeline would carry oil from Canada into the United States and eventually to the Texas Gulf Coast.

The Republican-led House has repeatedly passed legislation approving the pipeline. But the bills have died in the Democratic-controlled Senate.

Republicans will take control of the Senate in January, and McConnell said approving the pipeline will be the first issue on the agenda.

McConnell said the pipeline would create jobs.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The ACLU of Nebraska is suing state prison officials on behalf of an inmate who says he was repeatedly attacked by fellow inmates, including a member of a white supremacist gang.

The lawsuit alleges that prison officials knowingly allowed Joshua Franklin to be assaulted several times at the Nebraska State Penitentiary in Lincoln.

Franklin, a biracial man serving time for nonviolent crimes, says he was first attacked by the gang member in the Sarpy County Jail. He says he was assaulted three more times after being moved to the state prison. Those assaults led to an orbital fracture, a detached retina, a head injury, memory loss and vision problems.

The lawsuit names corrections director Michael Kenney, three wardens and an assistant warden as defendants. Prison officials have not yet responded.

GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (AP) — Residents in Grand Island are raising a stink over a stinking pile of byproduct from a local meatpacking plant.

Hall County Supervisor Steve Schuppan said he’ll talk to the county board about the odor problem at its Tuesday board meeting..

A county board panel issued a special permit earlier this year to allow Chamness Technologies, a waste management service, to spread livestock waste from the JBS meatpacking plant on farm ground.

But Schuppan says Chamness hasn’t spread anything for a long time, allowing the waste to decay. The waste can serve as a fertilizer to cropland, but if it isn’t worked into the ground right away, it ferments.

An email seeking comment was sent Tuesday to Chamness Technology.

GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (AP) — Police say a man seen running down a Grand Island street wielding a two-by-four was chasing a home burglary suspect.

An officer stopped the 31-year-old man he saw running with the wooden board around 3 a.m. Sunday. The man said he was following someone he had found in his garage and who had broken a window in one of his vehicles.

Based on a description given by the man, police soon made a traffic stop and arrested the 17-year-old driver on suspicion of having a role in the break-in.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — One Nebraska bar owner is frustrated over cigar bars still allowing indoor smoking following a ruling by the Nebraska Supreme Court earlier this year saying the practice was unconstitutional.

The owners of Big John’s Billiards had filed a lawsuit challenging an exemption to the state’s 2009 smoking ban. The law had allowed people to smoke in cigar bars, but the state’s highest court found that it amounted to unconstitutional special legislation.

The pool hall’s attorney on Monday criticized the state’s failure to enforce the smoking ban in cigar bars.

While state officials declined to comment, they have indicated in recent months they’ll wait on a final filing from the court in the case before enforcing the ban.

SCOTTSBLUFF, Neb. (AP) — Residents in western Nebraska are still digging out after more than foot of snow fell in some places.

Steve Rubin, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Cheyenne, Wyoming, said 13 inches of snow fell late Sunday and early Monday on McGrew and 12 inches fell at Bayard. Rubin says Scottsbluff also saw a foot of snow.

Scottsbluff Police Capt. Tony Straub says many motorists have become stuck in drifts of snow and were still having a hard time traveling Monday and Tuesday.

The National Weather Service calls for only cloudy skies Tuesday and Wednesday, with temperatures topping out in the mid-30s both days.

An offer to trade marijuana for a gaming system, led to the arrest of a Hay Springs couple.

Christopher Ames, 30, and Casandra Agnes, 26, both of Hay Springs, were arrested on Sunday, Dec. 14, after they traded marijuana and psychedelic mushrooms for an Xbox gaming system and several video games.

During the week of Dec. 8, Ames answered an online ad offering an Xbox for sale in the Chadron area.  Ames, communicating via text with the seller, indicated he didn’t have any money, but would be willing to trade marijuana and psychedelic mushrooms for the gaming system. Unfortunately for Ames, the seller happened to be a trooper with the Nebraska State Patrol.

The Nebraska State Patrol, working in conjunction with the WING Drug Task Force and the Chadron Police Department, began an investigation and arranged for the trooper to meet the buyers in a parking lot in Chadron. During the meeting, the couple was taken into custody without incident after giving the trooper six grams of marijuana and two psychedelic mushrooms in exchange for the gaming system.

Three children, ages’ two, four and six, with the couple at the time of the deal, were placed in protective custody with the Department of Health and Human Services.

Ames was lodged in the Dawes County Jail on charges out of Box Butte, Dawes and Sheridan Counties to include Possession of Marijuana with Intent to Distribute, Manufacturing a Controlled Substance and Child Abuse.

Agnes was lodged in the Dawes County Jail on charges out of Dawes and Sheridan Counties to include Aiding and Abetting the Consummation of a Felony, Possession of Marijuana with Intent to Distribute, Manufacturing a Controlled Substance and Child Abuse.