Nebraska State College System (NSCS) Chancellor Stan Carpenter announced today that the NSCS Board of Trustees will name Randy Rhine as the 11th president of Chadron State College (CSC) at its January 15, 2013 Board meeting. Rhine currently serves as the Interim President, a position he has held since Janie Park’s retirement in May of this year. Park had served as President of CSC for seven years.

Rhine is a familiar face around Chadron State College.  His career at CSC began in 2005 when he was brought to the college by President Park to provide leadership in increasing enrollment and designing initiatives targeting CSC’s mission of access to affordable high quality education.

The national search for Chadron’s 11th President was conducted by a committee representing various Chadron constituents, including faculty, staff, students, the community and NSCS Trustees. The two finalists for the presidency visited Chadron November 12 – 13 to meet with a number of college groups and individuals. They also met with the Board and NSCS office staff.

“I am honored by the opportunity to serve as president of Chadron State College,” said Rhine. “The faculty, staff and students are second-to-none and I look forward to working with everyone as we continue to provide excellent educational opportunities in Nebraska and the region.  As we look toward the future, I will work hard to see that Chadron State continues its role of outreach and service.”

Board Chair Carter “Cap” Peterson of Wayne said, “Randy is an excellent choice for president at CSC. I believe he will make Chadron an even stronger institution than it is today. The Board of Trustees was very impressed with the quality of candidates for the presidency, and congratulates the search committee on a job well done.”

When making the announcement this afternoon, Carpenter said, “Randy has a great understanding of Chadron State College and the Nebraska State College System. In his role as president, Dr. Rhine will continue his work with Chadron’s business and education leaders and those in ranching, farming and agribusiness across Nebraska and the high plains region generally. His experience with enrollment growth and retention, as well as developing partnerships with business and industry, will greatly benefit CSC and its students.”

 Prior to joining Chadron, Rhine served as the Dean of the College of Professional Studies and Lifelong Learning at Montana State University – Billings. He worked with University leadership to coordinate the College’s outreach efforts and provide an entrepreneurial approach for expansion in the community, region and internationally.

The City of Alliance reports that there has been a delay in the shipment of the parts to repair the traffic lights at 10th and Box Butte.

In a post on the city’s facebook page, they state that they have been notified that the parts will be shipped to Alliance early next week at which time the Electric Department will be making the repairs to the signal.

The lights were damaged in an October 18 windstorm, when the Alliance area experienced wind gusts of over 70 mph.

The lights have been in a continuous flashing red mode since then, creating a four-way stop.

The Chadron State College Community Symphonic Band joins the CSC Wind Symphony tonight for a free  concert at 7:30 in the Memorial Hall auditorium.

Both groups have new directors this year. The Wind Symphony is led by visiting music professor Dr Sidney Schuler, who is in charge of the CSC band program this year and who shares leadership of the community band with his Pamela, who is due soon with their first child.

The community band will open the concert with a selection of works centering on America from American sailing songs to Cajun folk songs, Broadway to a Sousa march. Dr Shuler says the program is designed to challenge the ensemble and have the audience humming along.

The 43-member Wind Symphony will play a number of  standards including Julis Fucik’s “Florentiner March,” Gustav Holst’s “Second Suite in F for Military Band” and transcriptions from the choral and jazz libraries.

The concert will close with the two ensembles combining for what the Shulers are calling a “secret” piece.

The second-annual Chadron Winter Festival of Trees at the Dawes County Courthouse opened this week with 35 specially-decorated trees on display through December 21st.

The Festival of Trees is sponsored by the Fur Trade Days Committee, and committee co-chairman Merle Morford is excited about the number of trees this year…10 more than for last year’s first festival.

Morford says there was no overall theme for the individuals, families, businesses, 4-H clubs, churches, and others who decorated trees, just the instructions to pick their own theme that reflects their own interests.

They did their work right in the courthouse, and Morford is especially excited about the tree done for the Dawes County Courthouse itself by local elementary school students.

The courthouse in Chadron is open for the Festival of Trees Monday through Friday from 8:30 am to 6 pm now through December 21st.

The South Dakota Water Management Board has postponed a hearing on two water rights permits sought for a proposed uranium mine north of Edgemont, SD.

Powertech Uranium‘s Dewey-Burdock project would be an in-situ injection mine…pumping a chemical solution similar to bicarbonate of soda into the groundwater to dissolve the uranium, then pumping the water out and removing the uranium.

The state Water Management Board had set a hearing on the water rights permits for next Wednesday, but that hearing has been delayed at the request of some people involved in the case.

Powertech also has applied for a state mining permit and an operating license from the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

The NRC has issued a draft environmental review recommending approval unless a separate safety review finds reasons not to. The agency’s target for a final decision is next June.

Powertech has leases on some 11,000-acres north of Edgemont, but plans to mine only about 200. The company estimates the mine will produce a million pounds of uranium oxide a year for 20 years.

A Hemingford woman charged with a felony for allegedly being an accessory in the murder of a former Alliance resident has entered a plea of not guilty.

Trial for 20-year-old Rose Siefke is set for the January 28 jury term in Box Butte County District Court.

Recently, District judge Travis O’Gorman overruled a motion by Siefke to have her case dismissed.

Siefke is charged with being an accessory in the December, 2011 death of Josh Bullock, a former Alliance resident who was residing in Denver. 

Siefke is accused of assisting 27-year-old Andy Gonzalez of Alliance in burning Bullock’s vehicle with Bullock’s body in it. Investigators say that happened in early December of last year in an area south of Chadron. Authorities say the two then returned to the area two days later and Gonzalez buried the body.

During a June 12 standoff with law enforcement in downtown Alliance, Gonzalez confessed to law enforcement that he had killed Bullock and buried his body in rural Dawes County.

The annual Salvation Army bell ringing campaign will take place in Alliance Dec. 1-22.

Coordinator Jean Nelson says the campaign represents over 50% of the local budget.

Volunteers are needed to man the bells and collection kettles.   Bell ringers will be stationed at Safeway and K-Mart.   Hours of operation are Monday-Friday from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.    There is no ringing on Sundays.

“We ask volunteers to handle a three-hour shift,” she says.  “But if a church or civic organization wants to be responsible for one of the shifts, then three or four people may split up that three-hour assignment.”

“A majority of the money is to help people with rent and utility payments, medications, good, gasoline and more,” she said.  “We offer a hand up, not a hand out.”

If you would like to volunteer as a bell ringer, contact Jean Nelson at the Alliance Branch of First National Bank – North Platte at 763-2124 or Trista Hopp at 763-2156.