News

The future of the Sutton Community Home, and Hillcrest Assisted Living has once again returned the focus of the facility’s future back to it’s current location, at 1106 N. Saunders Ave.

The Sutton Community Home leadership team met with arCuretecture (architect) on Oct. 25.

Based on the results of several months of preliminary planning, design, budgeting, and conversations with the representatives from the city about potential areas of development, a decision was made to commit to complete an improvement project at the home’s current site.

The next step in this process includes development of project options to determine the most cost-effective way to complete a project that balances several critical needs, with necessary improvements to the conditions for those that live and work there now and will do so in the future.

Lynn Nejezchleb, a well known name in South Central Nebraska, and more directly, the community of Fairfield has taken himself into retirement from a legendary restaurant and brewery in his hometown, as after 15 “some odd years,” Nejezchleb handed over the keys to the new owner of the Fairfield Opera House Brewery and Grill.

The new owner, however is no stranger to the operation that Nejezchleb started back in 2006, as Scott Pell, who served as Nejezchleb’s head chef for around 12 years, as estimated by Pell, took over the reins of the South Central Nebraska hotspot in September.

PHONE BLOWS UP

Pell, came back to the operation, after departing for a different challenge in December, 2022, and when Nejezchleb put the Opera House up for sale, Pell’s phone, in his words, “blew up.”

“I had employees, food service providers, you name it, calling me and texting me that I had to come back, take over and keep the Opera House open,” Pell shared.

What started out as a normal, routine day for the Sutton Police force, officer Edgar Sandoval, and Chief of Police, Tracey Landenberger quickly had a change of course to their day. At 10:30 a.m., Wednesday, Oct. 18, officer Sandoval received orders from the Clay County Sheriff’s office that a protection order needed to be served on one Joseph P. Weaver, at his residence, located at 304 West Ash Street in Sutton.

That protection order, however, by late afternoon, turned into far more than just a protection order, to be served by Sandoval, it escalated into a bevy of charges that were filed against Weaver, out of Clay County alone.

At approximately 4:30 p.m., Sandoval and a host of officers from the Sutton Police Department, the Clay County Sheriff’s Department and the Fillmore County Sheriff’s Department converged on the home on West Ash Street to serve the protection order against Weaver.

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs National Cemetery Administration (NCA) has awarded the Nebraska Department of Veterans’ Affairs (NDVA) nearly $8.4 million for the establishment of the Nebraska Veterans Cemetery at Grand Island. The cemetery will be built next to the Soldiers & Sailors Cemetery, which was part of the Grand Island Veterans Home and will be incorporated into the new state veterans cemetery. Design work is being completed by CMBA Architects and construction will be done by Sampson Construction.

“It’s extremely important for the state of Nebraska to serve our veterans and their families, including providing a sacred resting place for them,” Governor Jim Pillen said. “I want to congratulate the team at NDVA as well as the people of central Nebraska for moving this project forward to ensure there are options for every community in the state to honor and remember our fallen heroes.”

Sutton Council members, during its Monday, Oct. 9 meeting, heard a quarterly report from Bobbi Pettit, the founder of Five Rule Rural Planning of Kearney on an updated vacant property report within the city limits.

Pettit shared that 10 properties remain on the active list, and that eight properties had been removed as of March, 2023.

Those properties on the active list include:

• 603 E. Maple, with a balance owed in relation to a violation fine of $3,750;

• 105 N. Way. No fine has been placed on the property yet;

• 305 S. Saunders: No fine has been placed on the property yet;

• 203 S. Maltby: No fine has been placed on the property yet;

• 407 S. Way: No fine has been placed on the property yet;

• Road X and Highway 6: with a balance owed in relation to a violation fine of $15,000;

• 506 E. Elm, with a balance owed in relation to a violation fine of $3,750;

CPI patron LaVerne Remple brought in the first ever load of grain to the CPI Lewis Grain Complex, located at Roads 318 and Highway 14 North in Clay County on Saturday, Oct. 14. Those on hand for the first-ever load, shown below, included, from the left: Tom White, Lewis Location Manager, Zachary Rickert, Grain & Agronomy Operator, Brian Garretson, Grain & Agronomy Operator, Wayne du Plessis, Grain & Agronomy Operator, Brandon Pham, Grain & Agronomy Operator, Remple, Haley Bankson, CPI Grain Originator, Brandon McKay, CPI Grain Originator, Jerry Bahe, Vice President of Operations, and Mitch Woeste, Regional Operations Manager.

A catastrophic loss of one of Clay Center’s downtown building was suffered early Saturday, Oct. 14, when the roof of the building that houses the Clay Center Fitness Center came crashing down out of the blue.

The first call related to the collapse was made to the Clay Center Fire Department at 5:41 p.m., which in turn involved the Sutton Fire Department and its ladder truck.

Also assisting on the scene was the Clay County Emergency Management, along with the Clay Center and Sutton Fire Departments.

Additionally, Black Hills Energy was called to the scene to disconnect gas services to the north side of Fairfield Street in Clay Center.

Also on the scene to render aid was the South Central Public Power District to shut down power to the buildings along Fairfield Street.

Work got underway on the newest housing development by the City of Sutton in a number of years in late September, as Sutton’s own Van Kirk Bros. Construction started moving dirt on the ground, located just east of the Fox Hollow Golf Course in Sutton.

The over $6 million infrastructure project, to put in place streets, utility components, such as storm sewer and sanitary creation, as well as grading work on the 40 northernmost acre area of the 80-acre tract, started taking shape early when the Sutton construction firm moved in to start the development.

During the September meeting of the Sutton City Council, council members approved a bid, with an added alternate bid by Van Kirk Bros. for the development of the ground.

As we head into the fall and winter seasons, plan to protect yourself and your family from respiratory illnesses.

While COVID-19 illness is currently less common in our communities than it has been in the past years, there are new and more transmissible variants that continue to emerge. The combination of COVID-19 and other respiratory illnesses, like Influenza and RSV (respiratory syncytial virus), can produce a “Triple Threat” as we enter the fall season. On top of those big three–there are colds and seasonal allergies that complicate the picture.

The health department monitors respiratory virus activity in the four-county health district. For example, we track hospitalizations and deaths attributed to COVID, respiratory outbreaks in long-term care facilities, and levels of virus in samples taken from the wastewater facility.