Former Hemingford Police Chief Mark Lindburg has entered not guilty pleas to felony sexual assault of a minor and felony child abuse.

Lindburg appeared in Box Butte County District Court Wednesday morning after waiving his right to a preliminary hearing on Tuesday in county court.

Lindburg’s request to have his bond reduced from $100,000 to $10,000 was denied by Judge Travis O’Gorman, who stated that the bond would continue due to the seriousness of the charges.

Pubic Defender Dave Eubanks told the judge that Lindburg was not a flight risk because he has known about the pending charges for 18 months but has not fled from the area. Without a public explanation, Lindburg resigned as Hemingford Police Chief in November, 2011, and found employment working in security in Scottsbluff.

However, the state attorney general’s office opposed the bond reduction due to the serious nature of the charges.

The 52-year-old Lindburg remains in custody. His trial is set for the April 29 jury term.

      The charges against a man accused of brutally murdering his girlfriend in their Sidney area home, then fleeing to Michigan 14 months ago have been increased to 1st-degree murder.

47-year-old Craig Johnson…who was living in Sidney but is list as being from Texas…had already pleaded Not Guilty to 2nd-degree murder in the death of 42-year old April Smith, but Cheyenne County Attorney Paul Schaub says new information from investigators convinced him that 1st-degree murder was a more appropriate charge.

Johnson also faces two other felonies in connection with the death of  Smith in December 2011: felony use of a deadly weapon and being a habitual criminal…the latter because of 3 convictions in Texas in the 80’s and 90’s.

Prosecutors say he killed Smith because he was angry she had allowed her estranged husband to fix her vehicle. Witnesses also said Smith indicated that she had planned to get back together with her husband.

Her body was found was in the home she shared with Johnson after her employer reported her missing. Court documents show her hands and feet were tied with rope and wire, and that she’d died about 2 days earlier after being badly beaten, visciously stabbed repeatedly, and choked.

Jackson was arrested 3 days later in Michigan after a police chase there, and was eventually extradicted back to Nebraska. While in custody in Sidney, he refused to take medications for a mental health condition…which led to his being placed on a suicide watch in a Lincoln hospital.

He was declared incompetent to stand trial early last year, but after 6 months in the Lincoln Regional Center was determined to be competent to stand trial.

Schaub…who currently has 2 other murder cases pending…is getting help from the state, with a prosecutor from the Attorney General’s Office serving as a special deputy county attorney for all 3 cases.

         There may be smoke visible in the Chadron area today as the U-S Forest Service burns a slash pile of limbs and other timber debris at the Red Cloud Campground, about a mile south of Chadron State Park.

Agency spokesman Cydney Janssen says the burn is being coordinated with state and local agencies, with the Forest Service crews and one engine to remain on-scene until the fire is out and mopped-up. Visitors are asked to stay out of the Red Cloud Campground until firefighters leave.

Controlled burns are conducted only when weather and wind conditions fall within a set criteria, and Janssen says today’s conditions are safe for burning.

     A series of private sessions with pool consultant and engineer Dave Burbach yesterday afternoon capped by a roughly hour-long public session last night seems to have members of the Chadron city council looking more favorably toward hiring him on a no-cost contract to develop a plan to enclose the city pool as a replacement for the Armstrong Pool at Chadron State College.

Several council members had expressed concerns for several weeks about the proposed contract with Burbach’s firm, Burbach Aquatics, including the possible cost of the pool project and whether the public would support such a project even though pool supporters kept pointing out that contract was for a conceptual design study that would answer questions about what would be included in the project and the expected cost.

Councilman Paris Fisher says being able to meet with Burbach personally and hearing his public presentation as well left him feeling much better about the contract and related agreement…both of which will be on the agenda for next Monday’s council meeting.

While not willing to speculate on whether his fellow council members will be willing to approve the contract with Burbach next Monday…in part because he didn’t talk with them about it…Fisher thinks Wednesday’s meetings alleviated most of their concerns and questions as well.

The public and private meetings did clear up several misconceptions for those on both sides of the issue. Mayor Karin Fischer said she was wrong in saying the contract with Burbach would require the council to send the pool proposal to the voters…while City Manager Wayne Anderson…who supports the Burbach contract…found out that there is no charge for the Phase 1 conceptual design work even if the council decides against holding referendum.

Burbach says the Phase 1 work would take 4-to-6 months, with another 4-to-5 months for Phase 2…which includes designing and getting state approval of plans and specifications for the project and finding grants and other funding sources. Phase 3…construction of the pool enclosure building…would likely take 12-to-14 months.

While the city can stop the project at any point, the contract requires it to use Burbach as the designer and engineer if the decision is made to resume within 5 years. Some of the contract language was rewritten because of lingering concerns by Mayor Fischer. The changes will be reviewed by City Attorney Adam Edmond before Monday night’s council meeting.

          Two men charged with 1st degree murder in separate homicide cases in Sidney each entered Not Guilty pleas Tuesday in Cheyenne County District Court.

A trial date for 53-year old Larry Martinez will be set during a March 6th hearing, while a status hearing for 34-year old Jason Custer is scheduled for April 3rd. Both men remain in the Cheyenne County jail.

Martinez is charged with 1st degree murder and felony use of a firearm for the shooting death of 30 year old Mandy Kerschman in a Sidney home last July. Court documents say Martinez told investigators he shot Kershman because a text message from her made him mad.

Custer faces the same 2 charges as Martinez plus illegal possession of a firearm. He’s accused of the fatal shooting in November of Adam McCormick of Sidney, allegedly in an argument over some $160 in drug money. Custer fled to Big Springs after the shooting, but was arrested later that day at a motel.

Box Butte General Hospital Cardio-Pulmonary Rehabilitation Coordinator Jennifer Johnson, RN, is spearheading a two prong effort for heart health in celebration of February being American Heart Health Month.

The first goal is providing a community wellness event via a non-fasting coronary risk assessment on Thursday, February 21, from 9 a.m to 1 p.m. at the Cardio-Pulmonary Rehab Department in Suite 2107.

“Since the blood draw part of the assessment is non-fasting, those wishing to take advantage of the test can come any time of the day,” Ms. Johnson said. “Eating won’t affect the results. The lab test will provide cholesterol and high density lipids (healthy lipids) data used to determine individual risk ratios (along with blood pressure readings). There is a minimal $10 fee to cover lab costs.”

Risk ratio results will be sent directly to the people taking the test. Ms. Johnson said, “If your risk ratio is high, we certainly urge you contact your health care provider.” Results will be given within three weeks of the assessment.

“Another aspect of our American Heart Month celebration is providing information about the national Million Hearts initiative launched by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS),” she continued. “People may have noticed our billboard at Third and Cody in Alliance featuring the Million Hearts logo and the slogan “Be One in a Million Hearts along with the web address millionhearts.hhs.gov. The billboard is there for a visual reminder to go to that site and learn all you can about heart health.”

She said the national initiative was started in September of 2011 and is designed to prevent 1 million heart attacks and stroke over five years. “They want to achieve this goal by lowering the number of people needing heart disease treatment by promoting the ABCS’s,” Ms. Johnson said. The acronym stands for Aspirin (for people at risk); Blood pressure control; Cholesterol management; and Smoking cessation.

Preventable risk factors for heart disease include inactivity, obesity, smoking, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and Type 2 diabetes.  “There are seven preventable actions a person can do to decrease their risk for heart disease,” Ms. Johnson said. “Get active, eat better, lose weight, stop smoking, control your cholesterol, manage your blood pressure and reduce your blood sugar. As stressed before, heart disease risk management should be discussed with your medical provider.”

The reason for Ms. Johnson’s effort to educate and urge people to adopt a heart healthy lifestyle is simple. “The number of people in the United States who die from heart disease is staggering when you look at the statistics,” she said. Those statistics include:

• Number of people in the United States who die from heart disease: 2,200 each day; 800,000 each year (with 150,000 of those deaths under the age of 65)
• One in four deaths in the United States is due to heart disease
• One in three adults (80 million) in the United States have some form of heart disease, stroke, or other blood vessel disease
• Number of heart attacks and strokes that occur in the United State each year: 2,000,000
• Heart disease and stroke cost the nation $444 billion per year in health care costs and lost economic productivity  “These statistics can be found at the millionhearts.hhs.gov web site, along with a wealth of other information on heart health,” Ms. Johnson concluded. “I urge everyone to go to that site, since it has links to many resources that provide a wealth of information on heart disease prevention.”

Alliance Floral Hoffhaus has donated a sweetheart bouquet which will be available for raffle to cardiac risk assessment participants.

BBGH is a non-profit, county owned 25-bed Critical Access Hospital. The mission of BBGH is to lead and innovate in healthcare delivery and community wellness.

 The Million Hearts™ word and logo marks, and the Be One in a Million Hearts™ slogan and logo marks and

associated trade dress are owned by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

Participation by Box Butte General Hospital does not imply endorsement by HHS.

      The Chadron School Board Monday night unanimously approved a new 2-year contract with the Chadron Teachers Association that starts with this coming fall’s school year.

Under the agreement, the district’s base salary will be $31,700…up $600 from the current year, when teachers received a $700 base salary increase.

School Board President Sandy Roes is pleased by both the agreement and the cooperation shown by the teachers and the district’s negotiators in reaching it. She also says it’s important because it gives the district  some early certainty in the budgeting process.

Roes says the $600 increase in the base salary is the average among the 11 districts in the state’s “array” for the Chadron Public Schools…a group of similar sized districts used for comparison purposes.

The new agreement also increases the employee health insurance deductible from $700 to $950, clarifies minor points in contract language, and makes minor adjustments in the extra-duty schedule for coaches and advisors.

Board members discovered just before voting on the agreement that a planned reduction in payment options for extra-duty pay had accidentally been overlooked, but decided the issue was too small not to go ahead and approve the contract.

The Alliance School Board has selected current Kimball Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Troy Unzicker, as its next Superintendent.

The board approved the hiring of Unzicker during its regular meeting Monday night, by a 6-0 vote.    He will begin his new job on July 1.

Unzicker, a 1982 Gering High graduate,  obtained his doctorate in December.

Dr. Unzicker was a recently a finalist for the Gering Supt. of Schools.

The Alliance Public Schools has seen a reducdtion in state aid over the past three yeasr, and Unzicker says Kimball faced a loss of over $2 million in state aid, forcing the district to set priorities in spending. He says there were some reductions in programs, but not one of them were eliminated and there were no staff reductions.

Unzicker believes that communicating with staff is important, as well as being involved in the community.

“Talking to patrons is necessary in order to gauge how the district is doing, what the different pockets of the community feel are important, and to get everyone going in one direction for the benefit of students,” he said.

Dr. Unzicker’s professional experiences include serving as a teacher of North Loop Scotia (north of Grand Island), where he also coached football, boys’ basketball, and track.  He was also a secondary principal in Mitchell, where he oversaw grades 7-12.    Unzicker has been the Kimball Superintendent for seven years.

He also is a veteran of the U.S. Air Force.  He and his wife, Susan, have a daughter, Tabitha, a high school Junior, who is also a three-sport athlete.

A Chadron State College freshman who died over the weekend…apparently of natural causes…is being remembered as a well-liked young man preparing for a career in the medical field.

18-year old Chadron State College student Sterling Atkins of Broken Bow lost consciousness while watching television at his girlfriend’s residence in Chadron. College President Dr Randy Rhine calls Atkins’ death a terrible loss for the school.

“Sterling was well-known on campus and had many friends here,” says Rhine. “He was one of our health professions students, and that’s a pretty tight group so he will be missed.”

Rhine…who was attending a hockey match in Rapid City when notified of the death…says Atkins had been under the weather the previous couple of days, with his girlfriend having him over Saturday to help him feel better.

Chadron State has a standing plan for counseling services if a student, faculty, or staff member dies, and Rhine says it was activated as soon as officials were notified by authorities.

“Even though it occurred off-campus, (Sterling) lived on campus and Aaron Prestwich, our interim executive director of student affairs, got in touch with our counseling staff and director of housing.”

Rhine believes many students took advantage of the chance to talk to counseling staff later Saturday night and Sunday, adding that “it’s good we’re in a position to be able to provide those kinds of services.”

Dawes County Attorney and Coroner Vance Haug scheduled an autopsy and a number of tests for Monday afternoon, but says Atkins’ death appears to be the result of a medical condition…with no evidence of drug or alcohol use.