Two events designed to bring high school students to the Chadron State College campus to learn more about what the college has to offer have joined forces this year.
Health Professions Day…in which high school students visit the campus to learn the next steps in seeking a career in the health sciences…and the Eagle Open House…aimed specifically at getting students to come to CSC…are being held together on Monday.
Jill Mack, CSC director of health professions, and Seth Hulquist, CSC campus visit coordinator, says the merging of the Eagle Open House and the new Health Professions Showcase made sense.
Hulquist says this is the fifth year for the Open House program, which brings in students once in the fall and once in the springs. Attendance has been modest, but not this time.
Mack says the Health Professions Showcase has been changed just a bit with the merger with the Open House, with a greater emphasis on what Chadron State has to offer those interested in a career in a health profession than on the range of careers possible.
There was a deadline of yesterday for interested students to register to take part in Monday’s visits, but Hulquist says that was more to help plan logistics than anything else with late registrations still accepts…although those wanting to come for the Health Professions Showcase might be out of luck.
Dawes County is looking for a new Veterans Service Officer for the second time this year.
Mike Kohler, who in May filled the vacancy created by the January death of Jeff Fankhauser is leaving a week from Monday to take a position at Ellsworth Air Force Base just east of Rapid City.
Kohler says family considerations led to his decision to take the Rapid City job even though they love Chadron and his short time as VSO has been enjoyable.
Kohler’s duties at Ellsworth will involving transition….helping airmen who’ve been deployed overseas transition back to being home, and families who are moving from the military back to civilian life
Kohler says he understands both types of transitions…being an Army veteran who deployed overseas 3 times…including once to Iraq.
Kohler says the Dawes County Commissioners are starting the search for his successor, but that the bulk of the work will be done by the County Veterans Advisory Committee…whose chairman, Alan Connell, served as the de facto VSO in the month’s after Fankhauser’s death.
Dawes County eventually worked out an interlocal agreement with Sheridan County to use its VSO…Gary Sones…on a limited basis, but Connell says a repeat is unlikely…although Sones will continue to help out informally.
One of the key requirements for a Veterans Service Officer in Nebraska is that the individual must be a veteran.
A 26-year old city of Chadron dump truck was destroyed Thursday afternoon about 4:00 by an engine fire while in an open area next to the city street shop.
Chadron Public Works Director Milo Rust says the fire was apparently caused by a carburetor malfunction.
Street department workers tried unsuccessfully to put it out with an ABC fire extinguisher, but did limit the fire to the truck.
A 1986 GMC used to spread sand and plow streets, Rust says the truck was valued at $3,500 but is now considered totaled.
The Chadron State College theater department opens its 2012-13 season tonight with the musical Little Shop of Horrors…a black comedy based on the 1960 cult film by Roger Corman that tells the story of a man-eating plant from outer space raised by a nebish in a skid-row flower shop.
CSC theater head Roger Mays is the director and says the play, despite its name, is much less of a horror than a “wildly vivid cartoon” that he describes as “very PG,” suitable for a general audience.
The musical features multiple love stories…including ones between the beautiful Audrey, who has no self-esteem, and Seymour, the young loser stockboy who finds the plant after a total eclipse of the sun, and between Seymour and the plant…which he names Audrey II.
The stage show successfully moved back to the screen with a big-budget 1986 movie starring Rick Moranis, but was given a new, upbeat ending because test audiences didn’t like the original.
Audrey II is one of the stars of the show, portrayed through a series of puppets with Michael Kruger the puppeteer and James Steele the voice. Kruger is impressed with what his fellow CSC students have accomplished in creating the puppets.
Steele and Kruger obviously have to work together closely to bring Audrey II to life, but Kruger says he mostly just follows Steele’s lead…trying to match the puppet’s mouth and body movements to Steele’s tone of voice and energy.
Derek Phelps, who plays Seymour, admits that learning to act opposite a puppet has been a challenge at times, requiring him to really focus on the characters…both his and the plant’s.
The show and songs were written by Howard Ashman and the late Alan Menken, the Academy Award-winning songwriting duo best known for the animated Disney movies The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and Pocahontas.
Curtain times are 7:30 tonight through Saturday and Sunday afternoon at 2:00 in the Memorial Hall auditorium. Tickets are available at the door, but can be reserved in advance from the CSC Box Office online at [email protected] or by calling 308-432-6207.
“Little Shop of Horrors” is the first of 4 shows for the Chadron State Theater Department….to be followed by “God of Carnage,” “Vampire Cowboy Trilogy,” and “Almost Maine.”
More information about the shows is available at the department’s website csc.edu/theatre, with interviews of the Little Shop cast by clicking on the Behind the Scenes tab.
Nearly the entire South Dakota, Nebraska, and Wyoming Congressionals delegation have sent a joint letter to U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki, asking him to come to Hot Springs for a meeting on a VA proposal to close its medical center there.
Senators Tim Johnson and John Thune of South Dakota, Mike Enzi and John Barrasso of Wyoming, and Mike Johanns of Nebraska and Representatives Kristi Noem of South Dakota, Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming, and Adrian Smith of Nebraska also want the Save the VA Committee included in the meeting.
They expressed in the letter their “frustration and disappointment” on the unwillingness of regional VA officials to consider alternatives to closure offered by the Save the VA group…which had been promised by VA Black Hills Health Care System director Steve DiStasio that its alternatives would be considered.
Talks between the two sides broke down last month after DiStasio and VA regional officials said they were not in a position to negotiate from their initial plan. The letter from the Congressional delegations tells Shinseki that it’s important he hear first-hand from veterans, Hot Springs residents, and other stakeholders directly affected by the VA plan.
Save the VA Executive Committee member Pat Russell…speaking on behalf of the group…says the letter shows that the Congressional delegations are committed to the men and women who’ve served their country. Russell also says his group is looking forward to an “open and honest discussion” with the delegations and Shinseki on making decisions that “are in the best interests of all our veterans, urban and rural.”
A cost analysis done for the VA showed it would cost much less to close the Hot Springs center and replace it with a new domiciliary in Rapid City, a walk-in clinic in Hot Springs, and more contracting for services from hospitals and others in the region than to remodel or renovate the existing complex.
Save the VA crafted a plan it says is not only cheaper still but would provide better care for veterans. It would have Hot Springs host a national demonstration project focused on finding the best treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder and related problems.
The centerpiece would be a new a for-profit manufacturing company that would use domicillary patients and other veterans to make as-yet undetermined products. 75% of net profits would go to the VA to offset treatment and related costs, with the rest going to community development.
Oglala Sioux Tribal attorney Tom White plans to urge the Tribal Council to refile a half-billion dollar lawsuit over alcohol sales in Whiteclay and their impact on the Pine Ridge Reservation in state court.
A federal judge Monday dismissed the tribe’s suit against the 4 Whiteclay stores with liquor licenses, the wholesalers that serve them, and the brewers of the beer…saying that while the Whiteclay sales are obviously linked to problems on the reservation, the case involved no issues of federal law.
Critics say Whiteclay profits from alcoholism on the impoverished reservation, which bans alcohol. The unicorporated community with about a dozen residents sold the equivalent of 4.3 million 12-ounce cans of beer last year.
Oglala Sioux Tribal councilman James Toby Big Boy says the council knew the federal lawsuit was a long-shot, and says will now discuss what to do next. He plans to introduce a proposal to have tribal members vote on legalizing alcohol on the reservation…even though all past legalization measures have failed.
Mobius Communications, a subsidiary of the Hemingford Cooperative Telephone Company, has purchased the Alliance Radio Shack Store from Ray and Kim Hielscher.
Mobius general manager Tonya Mayer says the Radio Shack business will remain at 223 Box Butte Avenue, and that Mobius has moved its Alliance office from Third and Laramie to Radio Shack building. She says a grand opening for the new ownership will take place at a later date.
The Hielschers operated the business for eight years, and they are currently operating their Nationwide Management Services from their Alliance home.
Mayer says Mobius viewed the acquisition as a great opportunity to expand their retail presence in Alliance, calling it a natural extension of Mobius’ products and services.
Mobius offers several products, such as security monitoring, telephone systems, high speed internet, long distance and calling features.
Hemingford Cooperative Telephone was founded in 1931.
The Radio Shack number will remain the same at 762-4000.
The general election is still over a month away, but Box Butte County Clerk Judy Messersmith says judging by the first two days of early voting, several people are showing great interest.
Messersmith says that as of noon Tuesday, 103 people had either voted, picked up ballots or requested a ballot be mailed to them.
Messersmith says early voting, either in person or by mail, is becoming a more popular and convenient way to vote, especially with this year’s election featuring a presidential race and a hotly contested U.S. Senate Race.
Scotts Bluff County Clerk Vera Delany says she is experiencing the same type of interest in her county.
This reminder, October 26 is the deadline to register to vote, or to have your name, address or party affiliation changed on your registration.
Portions of a loaded coal train have derailed in the Nebraska Sandhills.
A spokesperson for BNSF Railway confirmed the derailment of 29 cars of the eastbound train at around 5 a.m., Tuesday between Ashby and Hyannis.
The spokeperson said that the derailed cars, which were in the middle of the 100-plus car train, were on their side. There were no injuries in the incident.
Sam and Sharon Rankin, at the CSC homecoming parade in 2011. (Photo by Justin Haag)
Dr. Sam Rankin and Nobel Prize winner Val Fitch who attended CSC prior to World War II. (Photo by Con Marshall)
Sam Rankin and Don Duncan, dir of physical facilities, former State Sen. Sandy Scofield, Gov. Ben Nelson, and U.S. Senators Jim Exon and Bob Kerrey. (Photo by Con Marshall)
Four CSC presidents in 1989: Larry Tangeman, Clark Elkins, Ed Nelson and Sam Rankin. (Photo by Con Marshall)
Chadron State College President Emeritus Dr Sam Rankin has died after a short bout with pancreatic cancer. Rankin passed away early Sunday in a Dayton, Ohio, hospital just 2 days after his 70th birthday.
Services will be at 11 a.m. Thursday at St. Peter’s Church in Huber Heights, Ohio, the suburb of Dayton where Rankin and his wife Sharon…both Dayton natives…had lived since his retirement from Chadron State in 2007.
Rankin was the eighth president of CSC and served nearly 12 years…from September 1986 through June of 1998…when he became both President Emeritus and Board of Trustees Professor of History. He taught on campus for 9 years, then online from Ohio during a 3-year phased retirement.
Rankin’s arrival from Montana State University-Billings…where he’d been vice president…helped spark Chadron State into one of its biggest eras of growth in terms enrollment, programs, and buildings. Enrollment jumped over 45%, the school added MBA and range management programs, scholarship support doubled, and assets of the Chadron State Foundation tripled.
Two key initiatives begun during his tenure as president helped spark the enrollment jump: RHOP…the Rural Health Opportunities Program…which is now at all 3 state colleges and Nebraska-Kearney…and the Non-Resident Scholars Program granting in-state tuition rates for top students from other states.
Chadron State saw a tremendous expansion in technology during Rankin’s tenure. The first was a 2-way television system allowing courses to be offered in Scottsbluff and several other towns and ending the need for professors to travel to those communities to offer classes.
That was followed by library automation, wiring all campus buildings with fiber optics, several computer upgrades, a site on the World Wide Web, and offering classes over the internet.
Rankin also led the way as the Eagles joined the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference after 20 years as independent with no viable conference affiliation. He was inducted into the CSC Athletic Hall of Fame in 2006.
The building mini-boom under Rankin included the school’s iconic Lindeken Clock Tower, the wood-fired heating plant that has won national acclaim, the Student Center, and the Con Marshall Press Box at Elliott Field/Don Beebe Stadium.
Conversion of the mothballed Miller Hall gymnasium into a state-of-the-art classroom building was also begun while Rankin was president.
After returning to teaching, Dr. Rankin earned a reputation as an outstanding scholar who was popular with students as he challenged them to make comparisons to what’s happening in the modern world with what they have learned through the study of history.
He later said it was an “extremely enjoyable” time because he was being paid for pursing his hobby: “the study of history and its application to today’s world.”.
Rankin graduated Magna Cum Laude with a major in history from St. Joseph College in Indiana in 1964, received his master’s degree from the University of Wyoming 2 years later, and his Ph.D. from Kent State University in Ohio in 1971.
While a graduate student at Kent State, he saw the 1970 confrontation between anti-war protesters and National Guard troops that resulted in 4 students being killed and one of the most memorable photographs of that turbulent period.
Rankin said he knew he was watching when the troops fired because he could see the barrel of one officer’s .45 pistol…which is only visible as the gun is ejecting a casing after being fired.
In 1974, Rankin was named as the Outstanding Faculty Member at Valley City State University in North Dakota in 1974, then later that year became the school’s Vice President of Academic Affairs at age 32.
He left Valley City State after 9 years to take the same position at Eastern Montana College…now Montana State-Billings…but left there after only 3 years for Chadron State.
Rankin is survived by three sons and a daughter, their spouses, seven grandchildren, and his wife Sharon, a retired registered nurse who worked in that capacity for the Chadron City Schools for 10 years and often was a community health screening volunteer.
Mrs Rankin also served on the Chadron Community Hospital Board, the Nebraska Educational Telecommunications board of directors, and a statewide selection committee for the nation’s military academies.
