The Nebraska State Director for USDA Rural Development is wrapping up a extended trip to the Panhandle to recognize the agency’s top lending partners and its accomplishments in the past fiscal year.

Maxine Moul…a former Nebraska Lt Governor and Department of Economic Development director…says USDA Rural Development gave out more than a quarter-billion dollars in grants and loans to help smaller, rural communities with infrastructure, housing, and development projects.

Nearly $257.3 million went to Nebraska entities in federal fiscal year 2012 that ended September 30th, bringing the total for the past 4 years to over a billion dollars and to about $2.3-billion in the 16 year history of the agency, total funding is at $2.3 billion in Nebraska.

USDA Rural Development made 9 loans and 2 grants totaling over $51-million dollars to Panhandle entities in the fiscal year that ended September 30th.

The two biggest were $20-million dollar hospital loans…one to the Cheyenne County Hospital Association for a new hospital in Sidney, and the other to Box Butte General in ALliance for an addition and renovation project.

The third-biggest piece of USDA Rural Development funding in the Panhandle was a $7.8-million loan to Alliance-based PREMA…the Panhandle Rural Electric Membership Association…to expand and upgrade its distribution facilities, including smart-read meters.

PREMA also received a million dollar loan to help Chadron State College with infrastructure for the new Rangeland Center just getting under construction on the extreme east end of the campus.

USDA Rural Development guaranteed a $5-million dollar refinancing loan for Adams Warehousing in Sidney, and  loans of $1.2-million to AARNA Hospitality of Scottsbluff and $800,000 to BPS Restaurant of Sidney to help with the transfer of ownership.

Lodgepole and Morrill received loans of $126,00 and $60,000…respectively…to cover cost over-runs on new sewer and water projects.

The agency’s two grants to the Panhandle were both relatively small…$50,000 to the Box Butte Development Corporation Revolving Loan Fund and $25,000 to the Community Action Partnership of Western Nebraska for a home repair program.

    Scottsbluff police say a lone man held up the Valley Bank branch at Broadway and Beltline Highway at 2:07 Wednesday afternoon, escaping with an unknown amount of money.

Scottsbluff Police Captain Brian Wasson says the white male entered the bank, gave the teller a note demanding money and then fled on foot to the west.

Authorities have released pictures from surveillance video of the suspect…described by bank employees as 5-10, 200 pounds, with a light-reddish colored thin goatee.

      Wasson says they don’t know the suspect’s hair color because he was wearing a black stocking cap, or his eye color because he wore sunglasses.  He was also wearing a black hooded sweatshirt and light-color or faded blue jeans.

Wasson says anyone with any information about the robbery or the suspect is asked to call the Scottsbluff police department or the Scotts Bluff County Crimestoppers at 632-STOP (5867). Tips to Crimestoppers may be made anonymously and still be eligible for rewards.

The president-elect of the Oglala Sioux Tribe says he wants to heal rifts that have developed between tribal members and organizations over the years so that they can move together to address the major problems facing the tribe.

65-year old Bryan Brewer says solving those problems will require the tribe and its neighbors working together…which can’t happen until tribal members move past old hurts.

He says many of the rifts within the Oglala Sioux Tribe have come about gradually and are more the result of no or poor communications by both individuals and organizations than true hostility.

Brewer has earned a reputation for healing rifts and preserving Lakota culture while opening it to non-Indians through his 36-years as director of the Lakota National Invitational.

A native of Pine Ridge who spent over a quarter-century working at Pine Ridge High School before his retirement, Brewer is known for his professionalism as a coach, teacher, and principal.

He wants to bring that professionalism to tribal government, but says the Tribal Council needs to give him help by approving the creation of a presidential cabinet of advisors.

Brewer says OST presidents have traditionally been limited to just 2 paid advisors, but with so many different types of problems facing the tribe, he wants a full cabinet of around 9 individuals…each with a specific area of focus.

With or without a cabinet, Brewer has already picked the two assistants traditionally allowed the Oglala Sioux president…and has turned to the younger generation of college-educated tribal members to fill those posts.

He says he feels very fortunate to have Angela Sam and Veronica Waters, both enrolled members of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, helping him for the next two years.

Brewer spoke Tuesday at Chadron State College.   He will be sworn in as president of the Oglala Sioux Tribe on Friday, December 7th,  at the Pine Ridge High School gym. The inauguration will be at 1:00 pm, followed by a supper at 4:30 and a pow wow at 6:00.

Rankings are given to Nebraska schools in three groups of grades…3rd-5th grade, 6th-8th grade, and 9th-12th…called cohorts, based on the results of the statewide tests given each spring in math, science, reading and writing.

Each district receives a ranking based on improvement from the previous year by comparing scores of the same grade in each year, and on growth of the students by comparing their scores from their previous grade to their new grade. The changes in growth and improvement were done in only math and reading.

All the school districts along Highway 20 from Harrison to Gordon, except Crawford, had at least one of the three grade cohorts rank in the top 20 in the state in at least one of the four testing areas.

The highest placing was by the Chadron 9-12th grade cohort in reading…4th out of 227 districts. Chadron’s other numbers were back in the pack…99th out of 249 for grades 3-12, 52nd in science, 68th in math, and 79th in reading.

Chadron showed both improvement…that’s comparing grade-to-grade between the two years… and growth…comparing scores of the same group of students each year…in reading, but lost ground slightly in both subjects in math.

Hay Springs ranked 5th in high school science, 21st overall in science, 35th in reading, 90th in math, and 196th in writing. In math, Hay Springs dropped almost 9-1/2 points in improvement and 1.1-points in growth, and had a split decision in reading…with growth jumping 13.2 points but improvement fall 3.6 points.

The Gordon-Rushville 6th-8th grade cohort was 7th out of 234 districts in science and 37th overall in science, but was 149th in math, 158th in reading and 204th in writing. Improvement and growth registered big jumps in both reading…11.2 and 12.4 points…and math…9.5 and 6.3 points.

Harrison-Sioux County middle school students were in the top 10 in two areas…5th in reading and 7th in math. The district also placed very well overall…21st in reading, 40th in math, 44th in science, and 108th in writing. Reading was up 6-points in improvement and 8.2 points in growth, but math had a split result with improvement dropping 5.1-points while growth was increasing 8.7-points.

Crawford’s scores were middling…152nd in math, 155th in reading, 160th in writing and 172nd out of 249 in science. Its improvement scores dropped slightly in math and reading, with the reading growth score also down slight but math growth improvement slight.

The State of the Schools report also shows if each school met the federally-mandated “adequate yearly progress” standards for elementary, middle school and high school. Crawford, Sioux County, and Hay Springs did for all 3 groups and for each district as a whole.

The Chadron school district met the progress standard at the elementary level, was ranked in the “needs improvement category” for the high school, and listed as “not met” for the middle school. Gordon-Rushville got “needs improvement” rankings at the elementary and middle school levels and “not meeting” for the high school.

As a result, both Chadron and Gordon-Rushville were listed as “not met” district wide.

The Nebraska State Patrol has kicked off its annual “Be Here for the Holidays” campaign, designed to encourage driver safety through voluntary compliance with all traffic safety laws.

Superintendent Colonel David Sankey says the Patrol wants everyone to put travel safety at the top of their holiday season list because the increased traffic and the potential for quickly changing weather conditions require extra attention from drivers.

        Lt Lance Rogers of the Panhandle’s Scottbluff-based Troop E says Be Here for the Holidays isn’t a specific event, but rather an awareness campaign that gives drivers plenty of warning for specific enforcement activities by posting their times and locations on the State Patrol website.

The campaign includes at least one traffic safety enforcement operation somewhere in the state almost every day.

The start of Be Here for the Holidays coincides with the latest edition of the national Click It or Ticket seat belt campaig, which runs through the end of the Thanksgiving weekend on Sunday.

The Nebraska Office of Highway Safety has awarded $180,000 in grants to 55 agencies to cover the costs of overtime to put more officers on the road. The grants went to 27 sheriff’s offices, 26 city police departments, the UNL campus police, and the Nebraska State Patrol.

Five Panhandle agencies received grants…4 local police departments – Scottsbluff $3,000…Gering $2,670…Kimball $1,500…and Chadron $1,379.96…while the Scotts Bluff County Sheriff’s Office received $3,000. Lt Rogers says Troop E got a share of the Patrol’s more than $28,000 grant as well.

The heavy holiday traffic isn’t the only hazard that Thanksgiving drivers in the Panhandle need to pay attention to, there’s still the matter of deer on the highways…which reinforces the importance of wearing a seatbelt.

The State Patrol handled two car-deer accidents early last evening in which the vehicles sustained heavy damage while the drivers escaped essentially unharmed because they were belted in.

One occurred about 5:30 on Highway 71 about 2 miles north of Kimball where 41-year old Michael Wagoner of Gering struck a deer and had his car suffer $10,000 damage.

The other was about 45 minutes later on Highway 27 about 4 miles north of Gordon. 15-year old Rhett Conroy of Gordon managed to miss that deer, but in swerving to avoid it he overcorrected and his car rolled 1-1/2 times. The car was listed as totaled.