The top leadership in Kimball got a lot younger on Monday when new City Administrator Daniel Ortiz began work. Ortiz doesn’t turn 28 until March, while his predecessor…Harrold Farrar…was old enough to retire after 18 years with the city.

Ortiz most recently was a management analyst in the city manager’s officer of Casa Grande, Arizona…a community between Phoenix and Tucson that doubled in size over the the last decade.

He sees a lot of similarities with Kimball with Casa Grande a farming community with a main Union Pacific route that is a vital part of its economic engine.

Ortiz got some insights about Kimball from his old boss in Casa Grande…who’d been the city manager in Sterling, Colorado, and told him Kimball would be a good fit for him “both personally and professionally.”

As for his priorities on the job, one of his top goals is development of the city industrial park on the east side of the community.

Chadron City Council has renewed the city’s maintenance agreement with the Nebraska Department of Roads for the portions of Highways 20 and 385 within the city limits.

The state pays the city to handle maintenance work such as sealing cracks and filling potholes, while the city pays the state for plowing Highway 385 from 10th Street to the Ridgeview Golf Course…the south city limits.

The totals are based on lane milage, with the maintenance work bringing Chadron $1,575 per lane-mile and the city paying out just $375 per mile-lane.

With the state paying on 5.4-miles and the city paying a much lower fee on just 2.7-miles, Chadron will make $7,461 on the contract this year. That’s $441 less than last year, reflecting a slight shrinking of the milage listed by the state.

      U-S Attorney for South Dakota Brendan Johnson says his office has determined that a handful of the 60 unresolved deaths on the Pine Ridge Reservation being reviewed at the request of the Oglala Sioux Tribe should be closed, with the reviews still underway on the vast majority of the cases.

Johnson told The Associated Press in an interview on Tuesday that his office has completed reviews on four or five of the cases and that in some of them the conclusion was consistent with the original decisions to close the cases.

He would not go into specifics about the cases already reviewed, saying on that more information will be released in the spring after additional cases have been reviewed…pointing out that reviewing a case and following up possible leads can take months.

The tribe asked Johnson last year to review the unresolved deaths after the FBI refused to do so without new information. A report released in 2000 detailed the FBI’s decision to close 57 cases dating back to the 1960’s, but tribal leaders say that report is questionable.

Johnson has appointed three prosecutors from his office and an investigator to review the cases, and says they will reach out to family members of the victims in the next few months to discuss where the cases stand and see about any new leads.

Johnson said he has reached out to the Oglala Sioux Tribe and would welcome the involvement of tribal attorney general Tatewin Means.

Miss America 2011 Teresa Scanlan of Gering says she’s having to skip attending this year’s pageant because she’s suffering Dengue Fever…an infectious tropical disease characterized by fever, muscle and joint pain, headaches, and a rash similar to the measles.

Scanlan…a freshman at a small Christian college in Virginia… says on her Facebook page that she caught Dengue Fever…which is transmitted by mosquitoes…while in Haiti over the holidays, with her doctor saying no traveling while she recovers.

Although Dengue Fever can develop into two life-threatening forms, it usually just leaves victims feeling as if they have a really bad case of the flu. Scanlan says her doctor told her she should recover in 3-to-4 weeks as long as she rests and drinks lots of fluids.

Scanlan was scheduled to take part in some of the Miss America activities and cover the pageant for the TMG Pageant Network, but is instead at school in Virginia. She says she’s devestated to have to cancel, and hopes to recover quickly…asking everyone to pray that happens.

Preliminary competition got underway yesterday at the Miss America Pageant in Las Vegas with the 53 contestants divided into 3 groups identified by Greek letters: Alpha, Sigma, and Mu.

Miss Nebraska Mariah Cook of Chadron, Miss Wyoming Lexie Madden of Torrington, and Miss South Dakota Calista Kirby…who was a cheerleader for 3 years at the University of Nebraska…are all in the Mu group and had their on-stage interviews yesterday.

No results are announced for that portion of the competition, only for talent and swimsuit/evening wear. Winning yesterday’s preliminary talent competition…which featured the Alphas…was Miss Oklahoma Alicia Clifton…while swimsuit honors for the Sigmas went to Miss South Carolina Ali Rogers.

Cook, Madden, Kirby, and the other Mu’s have the swimsuit/evening wear competition today, with the Alphas moving on to the on-stage question and the Sigmas showing off their talents. The Mu talent competition is tomorrow. Cook and Madden will offer piano solos while has Kirby a tumbling routine.

The Miss America Pageant is taking place at Planet Hollywood, with the finals airing live Saturday night on ABC…although it’s delayed in the Mountain and Pacific time zones.

Instead of seeing the live pageant broadcast at 7 pm, viewers here will see the network’s hour-long lead-in, a special edition of ABC’s 20/20 titled “Pageant Confidential: The Road to Miss America”…offering behind-the-scenes looks at the pageant and contestants…with the pageant broadcast starting at 8:00.

Drivers going past Chadron State Park may seek smoke there periodically through the end of February as Nebraska Game and Parks continues to clean up from last summer’s West Ash Fire.

Mike Groenewold is heading up the project and says it entails cutting down, piling up, and burning some of the trees at the park that were killed by the fire…which reached it height in the park August 30th and 31st.

Groenewold says the work…from felling and cutting up the trees to the actual slash fires…will be done in-house using Game and Parks personnel from other locations to supplement Chadron State Park Superintendent Dave Kinnamon and his staff.

The initial burn piles will be near the campground and in the horse pasture area near the swimming pool, but Groenewold says additional burn areas may be established on the west side of the park as the project progresses.

No burning will be done on weekends, but Groenewold warns that smoke from smoldering piles may continue on weekends.

Chadron State College President Dr Randy Rhine is excited about the possible impacts of the 2-year tuition freeze for in-state students announced Monday by Governor Dave Heineman, University of Nebraska President J-B Milliken, and Nebraska State College System Chancellor Stan Carpenter.

If the legislature approves the plan, state funding for higher education would increase $47-million dollars…$43-million more to the university and $4.1-million additional to the state colleges.

The idea behind the freeze is to help keep higher education in Nebraska affordable and to increase enrollment at the state schools. Rhine thinks it should achieve both goals, and says it’s a “fine thing” anytime a new way is developed to control costs for students.

Rhine…officially still just the interim president until the State College System trustees meet next week…welcomes the additional state funding, but can’t say yet how much of the extra money will be coming to CSC. He expects it to be divided among the three colleges and applied to core needs.

Rhine says the trustees, state college system, and the 3 individual schools have all been exploring a variety of ways to hold down the cost of higher education for students. The trustees have limited tuition increases in recent years, including 3.5% for the coming year.

Enrollment has been growing at Chadron State, and Rhine thinks holding the line on tution has helped. He says potential students are “shopping” for colleges and scrutinizing the price of college education more.

Chadron State resident tuition and fee is $189.35 for one credit hour…bringing the total for a traditional full load of 15 hours per semester to a little under $5,600 a year. The savings under the tuition freeze for next year…based on the 3.5% increase approved by the trustees in April…would be a little under $200.