Columns

This month is Renewable Fuels Month in Nebraska. It’s a chance for us all to celebrate the hardworking farmers, ranchers, and producers, who help fuel the world from right here at home.

But it’s also a reminder that while Nebraska is leading America’s energy revolution today, we have a lot of work to do if we want to deliver more of our homegrown fuel in the years to come.

There’s no better example of this next chapter — or of what Nebraska needs to do to help write it — than one of this year’s hottest topics: Sustainable aviation fuel, or SAF.

SAF is one of the biggest opportunities in American energy right now. And not just in renewable energy, but in American energy in general.

Graduating from high school is one of the first big steps each year for so many students, as they step up to take the next strides in life. This will be my 16th year of covering graduation ceremonies in Clay County, and each year, it is so different. The process, in many ways, are the very same with each school, but the feel and mood of each of our three county schools ceremonies are totally different. I anticipate that this year will be just the same.

This weekend, Sandy Creek and Harvard are the first up to send yet another class off into the “big world,” both having ceremonies Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m. Each year, for me, it always hits home as I drive away from commencement at each school. I often think about the students that just took that big step into the next chapter of their lives and I wonder what each is thinking, how each will do, and what each of our county graduates will be doing in life after going through 13 years of education, mostly together.

Competitors, well they compete, and in some cases, they are so good at what they do, while competing that they become an “idol” to many, no matter what they do for a living, a sport, or in life in general.

My idol was my father, sure I looked up to the likes of Micheal Jordan, to Dr. J (Julius Ervin) and many others, but my main idol, the one I looked up to the most was my father.

While watching the men’s and women’s final four games this past weekend, excluding the men’s title game, since I was covering a meeting Monday night, I have to say that the men’s tournament, and even more so, the women’s tournament this year were something else.

I’m sure most of you know where I’m going with this week’s Bull by now, and as much as I dislike anything Iowa Hawkeye, nobody can deny that Caitlin Clark has become one of the most iconic women’s players, maybe of all time, setting all sorts of scoring records, assist record, and so much more.

Common sense and paying attention to what’s going on in our world is what we at the Clay County News attempt to do each week. For that matter, any and all community newspapers throughout Nebraska, and the United States I hope work week in and week out with this same sense.

This week, as you will see, I ran across a story from the Flatwater Free Press, an independent, nonprofit newsroom focused on investigations and feature stories that matter, released a story by Sara Gentzler a reporter on the Flatwater staff that focused on an effort by state lawmakers that are trying to focus on the child care crisis, specifically in Nebraska, but let’s be honest, the crisis goes far beyond the Nebraska borders.

Growth in the right direction is always a great thing to see, and be a part of, throughout Clay County, positive growth is visible...if you are paying attention. It’s just hard to see sometimes, given the troubling events of this past year.

Since the July 29 tornado that hit Sutton, and the building collapse in Clay Center in the past nine months, the move in the right direction has been in full gear.

Sutton for instance has some major growth going on. The housing development has seen some major improvements going on just to the east of the Fox Hollow Golf Course. Much of the infrastructure is either in place, or nearing completion, as street development is just around the corner, both in the Schwab Ground development, and soon, the Hickory Street upgrades will be coming (the street located on the north end of the housing development).

Weekends for me are normally chock full of activities throughout the free time for most, and finally, for the first time since before the winter sports season began in early December, a free weekend was enjoyed to do whatever I wanted. So what did I do? Of course, I hit the road for “Crane Alley,” in and around my homeland of Central Nebraska, the Shelton, Gibbon and Wood River area’s to soak in the noise and wonder of the Sandhill Cranes.

The “river road,” as I always called it growing up in Shelton, didn’t disappoint, and while there are still more cranes that should be passing through the area, that over 200 mile drive this past Sunday sure served it’s purpose...some welcome down time doing things that I enjoy doing, and not what “I have to do.”

EDITORS NOTE: This opinion was first published by the Nebraska Examiner, online under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.

BY LYNN NEJEZCHLEB

In 2021, school tax credits were substantially increased to 25 percent of property taxes paid to your local school district. In addition, in 2023, state aid to schools was increased by providing foundation aid equal to $1,500 per student for the 2023-24 school year.

The tax credits directly lower property taxes, and school aid has the potential to lower property taxes by reducing the amount of local taxes needed to fund school operations. Recently, the Nebraska Department of Revenue and Nebraska Department of Education released data that show the results of these changes.

The reduction or potential reduction in property taxes is substantial. The data show that school tax credits for 2021 (the latest available data) totaled $274.5 million.

A recent editorial in this publication showed no understanding of the constraints on city governments regarding rundown properties, citing LB 45. While it would be most desirable for all property owners to keep their properties in peak condition, that is not the reality; thus, communities across the state are left with buildings which continue to deteriorate.

Let me start at the beginning of how the Revitalize Rural Nebraska law came about. Another senator and I were contacted by a small town, not in Gage County, not even in my District, which had several dilapidated buildings in their commercial downtown area.

The town invited us to see how rundown these buildings were and told us how expensive they would be to renovate.

Wowza, the 2023-24 school year has been an amazing year for Cougar Nation, following a trip to the state semifinals in football this past fall, a dose of adrenaline was added this past week by the girls basketball team and Rowan Jarosik in the 2024 Nebraska State High School Wrestling Championships in Omaha.

I’ll begin with Rowan, going into the state meet, as a third place medalist out of the D-1 District meet in Weeping Water, perhaps one of the toughest Class D 150-pound districts in the state, Jarosik showed up and meant business in Omaha.

He opened with a chip on his shoulder, opening the meet with a 3:37 pinfall win over Colton Mader of Crawford, a district runner-up out of the D-4 District, and advanced to the quarterfinals and destroyed a district champion from the D-3 meet, Jayden Reed, pinning Reed in 1:14.

I’m sure that a year ago the Revitalize Rural Nebraska Grant Program proposed by Sen. Myron Dorn of Adams and passed by the Legislature sounded like a great deal.

Administered by the Department of Environment and Energy, it’s intended to provide money to help towns under 5,000 populations with the cost of clearing away rundown buildings. Some consideration is allegedly given to historic properties. But there’s nothing really being done to address the root cause of the dilapidation.

Dorn’s heart is in the right place. He wants the funds to help the communities get those buildings so they’re not eyesores. “That when people drive by, they go, ‘boy that makes our town not look very good.’” The department is accepting grant applications through this month.