(AP) — A house built by students at North Platte Community College will be auctioned off next month.
The 1,784 square-foot, three-bedroom ranch-style house was built by construction and electrical technology students.
The house also has two baths, a living room, mudroom and kitchen with all the amenities. Instructor Jack Daniels says the students sought to incorporate the newest technologies in green construction.
Bids are being accepted on the house through Feb. 7.
(AP) — The Nebraska Education Department is seeking sponsors for its Summer Food Service Program.
The program provides meals and snacks to children at schools, churches, playgrounds and parks during school breaks.
It was created to ensure children in low-income areas can get meals when they don’t have access to school lunches or breakfasts.
Eligible sponsors include public or nonprofit private schools, residential camps, and local, municipal, county or state government sites. Also, private, nonprofit sponsors and sites are eligible. Program sponsors may apply for up to $15,000 a year for non-recurring expenses.
Grant application may be downloaded from the Nebraska Department of Education Nutrition Services’ web page at: https://www.education.ne.gov/ns/SFSP/news.html. To request a grant application packet or to verify eligibility, call Nutrition Services at 1-800-731-2233 or email sue.gilleland@nebraska.gov.
A North Platte man has been charged with two felonies after he allegedly stole property from two vehicles at a North Platte residence.
North Platte Police Department Investigator John Deal says officers responded to a reported theft from a vehicle in the 1400 block of East F Street at around 5:00 a.m. on Friday.
The resident advised officers that they had gone outside and started their vehicle which was parked in the driveway, and then went back inside the residence . When they returned to the vehicle to leave, they noticed a GPS and some other property was missing.
They reported that they then checked another vehicle parked in the driveway and discovered that items had been stolen from that vehicle as well.
Deal said officers began searching the area and, a short time later, an officer saw a male subject dressed in black and carrying a black bag run across an alleyway near the intersection of Philip and Poplar.
Officers soon located the suspect hiding in a backyard and identified him as 18-year-old Matthew Taylor.
A search was conducted on the bag Taylor was carrying and officers located the GPS which belonged to the victim.
According to Deal, Taylor has two prior convictions for theft. As a result, the charges of possession of stolen property and theft by unlawful taking are both enhanced to felonies.
Taylor was jailed at the Lincoln County Detention Center.
The NPPD continues to investigate.
A power outage on Friday afternoon affected about 1,000 Municipal Light and Water Customers in North Platte.
ML&W spokeswoman, Cindy Huntsman, said a primary cable fault occurred between 3:10 p.m. and 3:30 pm. She likened this to a breaker being tripped in your home. According to Huntsman, when a piece of equipment malfunctions or the system is overloaded, it causes the fault and requires a reset.
The outage impacted an area from Oak Street to Buffalo Bill Avenue and Philip Avenue to 4th Street.
Huntsman said that all of the customers affected had power restored by 4:00 p.m.
NORTH PLATTE, Neb. (AP) — It’s been a record building year in North Platte, with construction valued at more than $95 million in 2013.
The $95.1 million in construction tops the previous record of $72.8 million in construction in 2002.
The construction costs come from estimates by the city of North Platte’s Department of Development.
A giant portion of the construction spending came from the $80 million addition to the Great Plains Regional Medical Center.
Other big projects include work at First National Bank and Mid-Plains Community College.
(AP) — The Nebraska Supreme Court says a man convicted of attempting to commit a violent crime is barred from obtaining a permit to carry a concealed gun.
The high court’s decision Friday came in the case of Tony Underwood, who protested the Nebraska State Patrol’s denial in 2011 of his application to carry a concealed handgun because he was convicted in 2008 of misdemeanor attempted sexual assault of a child.
Underwood argued that no act of violence took place and that the misdemeanor should not have been considered a violent crime.
But the high court said the intent of the law is to gauge the future behavior of a permit holder, and that one who has attempted to commit a violent crime can be barred from carrying a concealed weapon.
(AP) — A bill that would let civilian crime-prevention groups patrol the streets with flashing amber lights on their vehicles has won first-round approval from Nebraska lawmakers.
The measure advanced on a 25-20 vote Friday after more than eight hours of debate.
The bill was inspired by citizen groups in Omaha that patrol neighborhoods in an effort to deter crime. The groups are taught by police to observe and report crimes, but they aren’t supposed to confront the perpetrators.
Sen. Scott Lautenbaugh of Omaha says he introduced the measure so group members could use the caution lights to alert people of their presence.
Sen. Ernie Chambers of Omaha mounted a filibuster against the bill, arguing that citizens shouldn’t act as law enforcement officers.
A North Platte woman is facing a felony charge after she allegedly smacked her boyfriend with a pool cue during an argument.
According to Investigator John Deal, North Platte police met with a male subject at around 6:40 p.m. on Thursday. He told officers that his live-in girlfriend, Sophia Boe, had been arguing at their residence in the 400 block of East 12th Street because Boe had learned that he was going to file for a protection order against her.
The victim alleged that, at one point, Boe had struck him in the back with a pool cue. Deal says a witness corroborated the victim’s account.
Boe was contacted at the residence and placed under arrest.
She was jailed at the Lincoln County Detention Center on a charge of 2nd degree domestic assault, a Class III felony.
(AP) — A Nebraska lawmaker is proposing a state tax credit to offset the penalty for residents who refuse to buy health insurance as required by the federal health care law.
Sen. Charlie Janssen of Fremont said Thursday that his measure would make it easier to opt out of the Affordable Care Act, a signature achievement of President Barack Obama’s first term. Janssen, a Republican, is running for governor in a six-man primary.
The bill would offer a tax credit equal to any federal penalty for failing to purchase insurance. Janssen says his bill would take effect in 2015, and the credit would apply to the same tax year that the penalty is imposed.
Two Republican lawmakers in Colorado announced plans for a similar proposal in December.
