NCH Cares for Communities Around the World

Employees of the Nemaha County Hospital have raised and will donate $1,466.88 to first aid relief for Haiti.
The hospital held a free will donation breakfast feed, sold Connie’s cookies and sponsored a casual Friday in which the employees paid $2 to wear jeans during work hours. All proceeds will be going to the American Red Cross relief for Haiti. NCH believes in their mission statement “Quality Care, Every Time.” The staff believes everyone around the world deserves the best care possible and helping people in need is a passion for the staff members and caring for others is something they strive to do every day.

City of Auburn Attains Recertification As A Nebraska Economic Development Certified Community

The City of Auburn recently attained recertification from the State of Nebraska as an Economic Development Certified Community. The designation was first achieved in 2006 and must be renewed every three years. The recertification was completed in December 2009. The following is a quote from Governor Dave Heineman regarding the importance of being a Certified Community:

"The Nebraska Economic Development Certified Communities certification signals a community's dedication, leadership, and vision for growing and attracting new jobs and people. This certification also better positions a community for economic development opportunities, shows a community is economic development ready, and it shows that a community is capable of marketing itself for business and industry development."
-Dave Heineman, Governor of Nebraska

While this certification takes many hours of research and preparation to complete, the benefits it returns are very well worth the work involved. This designation positions Auburn for economic growth and stability.

Awards Presented at NADAA Banquet

Written by Nemaha County Herald

Nemaha Against Drug & Alcohol Abuse (NADAA) Coalition held its fourth annual Winter Banquet January 9 at the 4-H Building in Auburn.

NADAA Director Laura Osborne welcomed attendees noting that coalition members are together in the battle against substance abuse, and for that reason, the committee worked with a battleship theme for this year’s banquet.Banquet decor included displays focusing on the coalition’s areas of work, referred to for the evening as “battle stations”, and included art from World War II posters. Flags, anchors and other patriotic decor were used to highlight the evening’s theme. This year, NADAA’s Executive Board voted to purchase perpetual plaques for the coalition’s awards which will be displayed at the Nemaha County Courthouse. These plaques will have award descriptions at the top and name plates listing the award winners for each year.

This Year’s Awards RecipientsThe year’s awards were presented as follows:

Youth Leadership in School District 29 — Brandon Petet. Brandon logged over 185 hours of volunteer time with NADAA in 2009, an amount higher than any other youth in the coalition. He is currently the President of Auburn High School chapter of NADAA’s Youth Against Drugs and Alcohol (YADA) Task Force.

Youth Leadership in School District 23 — Chelsey Mowen. Chelsey has shown growth in her leadership skills in battling substance abuse amongst her peers and is currently serving as the President of the Johnson-Brock High School chapter of NADAA’s YADA Task Force.

Partner in Prevention — Dale and Maxine Schatz. Mr. and Mrs. Schatz have volunteered their time, talent and food service equipment to the coalition’s events and activities on a number of occasions helping to further the goals of NADAA Coalition through volunteer efforts.

President’s Award — Region V Systems. Region V Systems staff members Sandy Morrissey and Amy Reynoldson have provided technical assistance to NADAA Coalition literally since its beginning. They have assisted the coalition’s volunteers and staff whenever requested with materials, technical assistance and information, making them a key component to the success the coalition has achieved to date.

Meritorious Service — Auburn Optimists Club. The Optimists have been extremely supportive of the coalition, especially the YADA Task Force. They have helped staff a youth dance and the Red Ribbon Family Festival, and they helped NADAA purchase equipment for their work with youth. They worked with NADAA to create a new partnership which allowed YADA members to work in the annual Optimists’ fireworks stand to earn funds for their projects. This partnership allowed youth an opportunity to learn skills such as counting money and salesmanship, while working alongside adults who made it clear by their actions that they truly care about the youth of Nemaha County.

Honorable Mention Certificates Johnson-Brock student Scott Riley as well as Auburn High School students Laura Teten and Brent Comstock were all recognized with Honorable Mention certificates having been nominated for the youth awards. The youth awards were presented by Kayleigh Baker, NADAA’s Youth Coordinator.

Fulton Keynote Speaker

The keynote address was given by State Senator Tony Fulton. Fulton is an Auburn High School graduate who currently lives and works in Lincoln, where he is serving in the Nebraska Unicameral. Fulton spoke about legislation that he recently championed to require ignition interlock use by convicted DUI [Driving Under the Influence] offenders. He described how the ignition interlock system works in a vehicle to prevent someone whose been convicted of DUI from being able to start their vehicle if they have too high of an alcohol concentration level in their breath.Fulton related the story of a little girl and her father, Kaniyah and Joseph Richardson, who were walking to a McDonald’s restaurant in Chicago near their home on a warm spring evening in 2008. During their walk, a convicted repeat drunk driver whose license had been suspended was once again driving under the influence, lost control of the vehicle, and crashed into the little girl’s father killing him. Fulton said that as the father of a little girl himself, he was compelled by this story to take action to prevent convicted DUI offenders from continuing to re-offend. Fulton also noted that ignition interlock legislation came into the spotlight when Nebraskans Larry and Rita Bellar and Edward and Alice Ramaekers were killed by a repeat offender drunk driver in New Mexico. The vehicle in which those Nebraska couples were travelling that day was displayed by NADAA at the 2009 Nemaha County Fair parades. Fulton explained that the ignition interlock system is one more weapon available for use in the battle against substance abuse.

Others Recognized at NADAA’s Winter Banquet were volunteers who have contributed over 100 hours to NADAA in 2009 including Mary-Jo Parker, Susan Kruse, Josh Osborne and Brandon Petet.The coalition also took time to recognize two individuals who have completed terms of service on the NADAA Executive Board. Jackie Kelsay and Kay Oestmann received certificates of appreciation for their dedicated service.

These current Executive Board members were introduced: Monty Lovelace—chairman, Bob Cole, Brent Lottman, Susan Kruse, Carie Allen, Paul Lillenas and Holly Riley.The meal, prepared by Jackie Gfeller and Maxine Schatz, was supported by Pelican’s Meat Processing, Sun Mart, Glenn’s Corner Market and Sonic. The banquet included a slide show of 2009 coalition activities and events in photos. Banquet planning was conducted by Jackie Gfeller, Carie Allen, Laura Teten, Kayleigh Baker, Laura Osborne and Ashleigh Boeve — NADAA’s Office Clerk.

Next Meeting on Jan. 19

Osborne concluded the evening by reminding everyone that the next coalition meeting was set for Tuesday, January 19th, 4 pm at Auburn High School. More information about NADAA can be found by clicking www.nadaaonline.org.

Snow Removal Task Strains Personnel, Resources of Auburn and Nemaha County

Written by Nemaha County Herald

While the song “White Christmas” is meant to help people get into the holiday spirit, a large portion of the nation has had its fill of snow after two heavy snowfalls were recorded during December.

The most recent storm struck Nebraska on Christmas Eve day and continued with scattered snowfall through Sunday, although accumulation was much lighter on the last day. Snow Removal in AuburnAuburn City Street Commissioner Harry Bridgmon said the Christmas weekend snow again taxed his crew and equipment after having dealt with nearly a foot of snow just two weeks earlier. The latest snowfall estimate was approximately 14 inches in Nemaha County, although blowing snow from accompanying strong winds left drifts several feet high, especially out in rural Nemaha County. The highest measured wind gusts in this area were about 46 miles per hour. Bridgmon said his crew of four full-time and three part-time personnel logged long hours over recent days. He said 12- to 14-hour workdays weren’t uncommon and snow removal typically began between 4 and 6 in the morning.

Bridgmon told the newspaper Monday that city snow clean-up efforts were still focused on parking along streets, and would next emphasize seeing to it that all city streets had received at least two passes through so there would be room to push any additional snow if the area was to receive a light snowfall predicted for Tuesday evening and possibly into Wednesday. After that stage has been completed, crews will return to clearing snow around intersections where the vision of drivers has been compromised due to the height of the snow piled on the curbs. “Everyone needs to be especially careful driving with so much snow remaining near the intersections and with the potential for icy roadways. We want everyone to be extra cautious until we are able to get our work done. We have been and continue to work long hours, but there is just so much we can get done. We get tired too and need to get some rest,” Bridgmon said. When asked about what effect the long hours would have on the City Street Department’s budget, Bridgmon said, “I’ll leave that up to the City’s Budget/Finance committee and the rest of the Council. It’s not going to be cheap with all of the overtime added to the fact that it takes about $100 a day in fuel for each dump truck and the loader can use about $70 of fuel per day. We’ll just do what needs to be done and the city will need to determine where the funding will come from.” County’s PerspectiveMonty Lovelace, District 2 Nemaha County Commissioner and Board Chairman, updated the newspaper on the status of the county roads crews work as of Monday evening. Nemaha County has 15 roads employees in three districts.Lovelace said, “A majority of the county roads that have residences along them had been opened as of Dec. 28. Roads being opened referred to at least one pass through the middle having been made. However, a return trip will be needed to push the snow further into the grader ditches in case this area receives more snow. Lovelace said roads crews would likely be busy the next couple of days continuing the process of further opening the county’s roads.” Lovelace said roads crews worked all day Saturday, Sunday and Monday trying to get it to a point where people would have access to roads away from their rural homes. The most recent snowstorm differed from the one earlier in the month as it was accompanied by strong winds which led to some cleared roads becoming drifted again and much higher drifts to break through this time. The chairman said, “I believe our roads crews did an outstanding job. We realize people need to get back on the roads when the weather improves and I believe our crews accomplished that.”Lovelace has heard from local residents that this was the first time in quite a while that the road graders used the “V” plows to tackle the large drifts. Some drifts encountered were about seven to eight foot high and took considerable time to clear a path through. When asked what impact the snow removal might have on the county’s budget, the chairman responded, “It’s a little early to tell. While our expenses for fuel will be more than expected at this point for snow removal and our hours worked above average, we utilize compensatory time off for our employees instead of paying overtime. What might be a problem later on is the condition of our roads when spring arrives as they will require a considerable amount of attention and rock to return the road surfaces to the condition which is desired.”Light snow fell again Tuesday night into Wednesday, but wasn’t expected to create many additional problems.

If you could get close enough to read the sign on the door, you would see that Auburn State Bank was closed for the Christmas holiday. The snowstorm’s occurring over a holiday weekend proved to be fortunate timing and gave people extra time to remove the approximately 14 inches of snow and considerably higher drifts.