NORTH PLATTE, NEBRASKA – October 14, 2014 – Eagle Communications, Inc. of North Platte is pleased to announce the hiring of Lewys Carlini as General Manager.

Carlini succeeds Jerome Gilg, who is being promoted to a new position with Eagle, after serving four-and-one-half years as station manager.

Carlini is a lifelong North Platte resident. He knows and understands the media market well after working as General Manager at KNOP-TV since 1998.

“This is a great opportunity with a really good company,” said Carlini. “Eagle is a much more broad-based company than I originally thought. I’m excited to take this next step in my career.”

“We are very pleased to bring Lewys on our team in North Platte,” said Gary Shorman, President/CEO of Eagle Communications.

“As an employee owned company, our success is determined by our people. Lewys brings excellent market knowledge and understands our mission of being connected to each of our communities.” Shorman added. “With Jerome (Gilg) playing a bigger role, Eagle now has the ability to continue to grow and expand our operations throughout west-central Nebraska.”

Carlini is actively involved in the North Platte area. He serves as a board member of the Great Plains Health Foundation. He has also served on various other committees in the North Platte area. He and his spouse, Holly, have four children.

Eagle Communications, Inc. owns the following North Platte, Nebraska radio stations: KELN-FM, KNPQ-FM and KOOQ-AM. Eagle is a comprehensive employee-owned communications company headquartered in Hays, Kansas.

The corporation’s holdings include Radio, Cable TV Systems, Electronic Billboards and Digital news and entertainment platforms, such as North Platte Post.com.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say a 22-year-old college student who was fatally struck while walking along Interstate 80 on the west side of Lincoln had been a passenger on a party bus.

The Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office says Maury Lorence, of Doniphan, was hit repeatedly around 12:15 a.m. Sunday by eastbound vehicles. Investigators are still looking for the first truck that struck Lorence, who was a football player at Nebraska Wesleyan University in Lincoln.

Investigators say the party bus had been rented by a friend of Lorence and had halted at a truck stop at Northwest 48th and West O streets, just south of the interstate in Lincoln. Lorence got left behind when the bus departed.

Two men have died in separate accidents along highways in western Nebraska.

The Nebraska State Patrol says a 63-year-old Gordon man died Monday morning after his eastbound pickup rolled on U.S. Highway 20 about six miles east of Gordon. The patrol says driver Thomas Wiles overcorrected after his truck crossed the center line. It went off the road and rolled several times, ejecting Wiles.

The second accident occurred a little before 8 p.m. Monday along Nebraska Highway 62A, about a mile west of U.S. Highway 385 in Morrill County. The patrol says an eastbound pickup went out of control and rolled, ending up in a roadside ditch and ejecting its driver. The driver was identified as 43-year-old Leonard Garcia, of Scottsbluff.

SCOTTSBLUFF, Neb. (AP) — Authorities in the Nebraska Panhandle are investigating the death of a man found after a home fire.

County Coroner Mark Berton says the body of 63-year-old Dennis Schilling was found on Monday. The Scottsbluff Rural Fire Department extinguished the flames at the home north of Scottsbluff on Monday.

Berton says an autopsy has been ordered to determine the cause of death.

The Nebraska State Fire Marshal’s Office is assisting in the investigation.

• Today: Sunny, with a high near 68. North northwest wind 5 to 7 mph.
• Tonight: Mostly clear, with a low around 35. South wind 3 to 5 mph.
• Wednesday: Sunny, with a high near 76. South wind 6 to 11 mph increasing to 12 to 17 mph in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 25 mph.
• Wednesday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 41. South southeast wind 6 to 11 mph becoming southwest after midnight.
• Thursday: Sunny, with a high near 71. Breezy, with a north northwest wind 9 to 14 mph increasing to 17 to 22 mph in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 31 mph.
• Thursday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 38.
• Friday: Sunny, with a high near 66.
• Friday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 36.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska Public Power District plans to begin public hearings next month in each county along the route of its recently approved 345,000-vote transmission line through the Nebraska Sandhills.

District spokesman Mark Becker said Monday that at the hearings, district officials will explain the need for the transmission line and gather more information on routing. The district wants to finish the work in 2018. The Nebraska Power Review Board on Friday approved the $328 million project.

The district says the project is needed to increase reliability of the transmission network, relieve congestion and provide more capacity to carry electricity from wind turbines in remote parts of the state.

Ranchers and others spoke in opposition Friday, saying the 220-mile line posed a threat to the Sandhills’ fragile ecosystem of grasses and dunes.

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — An infectious disease consultant for a regional health system says the infection of a Dallas nurse caring for an Ebola patient was a wake-up call for hospitals to be more prepared.

Dr. Wendall Hoffman says Sanford Health has improved its ability to respond to the virus over the past couple of weeks by asking questions about patient travel and educating staff on personal protective equipment. Training drills are also in the works.

He says if an infected person were to be identified, they would be transferred to a hospital with a higher level of care. But Hoffman says Sanford is gearing up to be able to treat people through the extent of their illness.

Sanford operates clinics and hospitals in South Dakota, North Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa and Nebraska.

EDISON, Neb. (AP) — A 51-year-old woman has been fatally injured in a southern Nebraska crash.

Furnas County authorities say the accident occurred a little after 9 p.m. Saturday, on the east side of Edison on U.S. Highway 136. Officers say a vehicle driven by Heather Van Hooser, of Arapahoe, left the roadway and hit a tree.

She was pronounced dead later at a hospital in Cambridge.

She was alone in her vehicle. The crash is being investigated.

By Rodney Brown, NPPD Public Information Officer

The North Platte Police Department would like to remind drivers to pay attention to pedestrians, especially children waiting to cross streets before and after school.  The Police continue to receive complaints of motorist failing to yield to the right of way of pedestrians waiting to cross.  All drivers need to recognize the special safety needs of pedestrians, especially those younger children, who are the least predictable and hardest to see.

Generally, pedestrians have the right-of-way at all intersections; however, regardless of the rules of the road or right-of-way, you as a driver are obligated to exercise care and caution and STOP.  It is at crosswalks that drivers need to be particularly attentive whether or not it is crosswalk with controlled lights, painted lines or simply a corner to corner.  Crosswalks are defined as follows:

(1) That part of a roadway at an intersection included within the connections of the lateral lines of the sidewalks on opposite sides of such roadway measured from the curbs or, in the absence of curbs, from the edge of the roadway; or  

(2) Any portion of a roadway at an intersection or elsewhere distinctly designated by competent authority and marked for pedestrian crossing by lines, signs, or other devices.  

 

• Drivers should not block the crosswalk when stopped at a red light or waiting to make a turn. Do not stop with a portion of your vehicle over the crosswalk.  Blocking the crosswalk forces pedestrians to go around your vehicle and puts them in a dangerous situation.
• Always stop when directed to do so by a school patrol sign, school patrol officer or designated crossing guard.
• Come to a complete stop prior to the crosswalk.
• This is at any crossing not just those near or around schools.

Safety is also a responsibility of parents and guardians.  Children imitate their parents and model their behavior so you need to tell them and show them how to be safe pedestrians.

• Always cross at marked crosswalks and try avoiding running across the roadway.
• Obey any pedestrian signals and look left right left. By doing this you insure that the road is clear in both directions before crossing.
• If a vehicle approaches, attempt to make eye contact with the driver to be sure they see you before you cross.
• Look before walking past stopped vehicles. Do not cross just because a driver waves you on. Be sure all lanes are clear first.

• Choose the safest route and walk it with your children. Look for the most direct route with the fewest street crossings. Try to choose routes where school safety patrols will be present. Children under age 10 should walk with an adult or older child every day because they do not have the necessary skills to judge the speed or distance of oncoming traffic. Also, their peripheral (side) vision is 1/3 less than that of adults.

Be Safe.

• Casey Joe Werkmeister, 34, North Platte and Ashley Kay Virchow, 23, North Platte

 

• Aaron Christopher Race, 25, North Platte and Colleen Lynn Smith, 27, North Platte

 

• William Lake Schultz, 36, North Platte and Jessica Joyce Taylor, 26, North Platte

 

• Jonathan Mark Most, 49, Brady NE and Bonny Hajj, 44, Brady NE

 

• Daryle Roy Ordway, 55, North Platte and Laura Marie Brenner, 59, North Platte

 

• Joseph Brian Kleewein, 51, North Platte and Sheila Marie VanderVeen, 50, Wakefield NE