Historical Markers Dedicated Near Milligan

Exeter American Legion Post 218 members from the left John Becker (partially hidden), Butch Jansen, Jack Underwood and Bob Becker.

Family members and guests look at the new historical markers.

It was about providing closure in the form of three Nebraska State Historical Markers for the family of 32 airmen involved in three midair collisions near Milligan, Neb.

Exactly one year ago, Jerry Penry, who has spent several years documenting Nebraska’s WWII air crashes, challenged a group at the Milligan Library as he shared with them some history of the crashes in their area..

Those community members took his challenge to heart and began collecting information about the crashes that took place near Milligan. They researched eyewitnesses, crash locations, and located family members from coast to coast.

Saturday , August 14^th was the culmination of that work in Milligan. Family members from as far as Connecticut and California, South Carolina, and Oregon made the trip for the daylong celebration.

The family members were welcomed with nametags and corsages by the committee and started the day with a tour of the Fairmont Air Base. Doug Rung, a local historian and member of the FMZ Association gave them a bus tour of the locations of the buildings present and gone on the airbase. They had the opportunity to go inside a hanger that was open and were amazed at the size of the hanger. Rung expounded on the construction of the hanger and the base. The pilot’s lounge is still there and the family members were able to tour that as well.

Family members stopped briefly on Highway 41 at the marker site according to Committee Chair Janet L. Bartels. “We went straight to the markers so the family could go and have time alone with the markers that had their relatives name on it. It was very emotional for them to see these markers and I am so glad there were able to have that time there.”

After returning to Milligan, family members were greeted with a hospitality hour by the Legion Auxiliary. Local citizens escorted family members that wanted to to the crash site of their choosing. Returning to Milligan they boarded buses to the site of the three historical markers at 1 p.m. for a special dedication program. Janet Bartels, the chair of the Milligan Memorial Committee, served as the emcee of the event.

The short program started with the presentation of the colors by the Milligan Legion Post and the singing of the National Anthem by Karen Kotas Eisenhaur.

Rev. Brian Kottas gave a prayer and then Russ Karpisek the Nebraska State Senator from District 32 welcomed the crowd. First Lt. Ernest Pence of the Nebraska Wing of the Civil Air Patrol introduced the guest speaker, Retired Major General Roger P. Lempke.

Lempke spoke to the group of around 200 about the history that the markers will preserve. He spoke for Senator Mike Johanns who wanted him to share “he was so proud that you as a community came forward to make this happen.”

Lemke shared how the committee has “done something here to provide an opportunity for this history to continue. The stories from around here resonate. . .I hope that these markers will serve to help that resonation move ahead to future generations.”

After Father David Bourek of St. Wenceslaus Catholic Church in Milligan gave a prayer and blessing over the memorial markers Sue Underwood played Amazing Grace on her Dudy. Members of the Milligan Memorial Committee placed wreaths at the three new crash markers at the site.

After a flyover by a Blackhawk helicopter piloted by Captain John Vavra Fong, son of Bartels, American Legion Post #240 gave a volley salute. Taps and taps echo was played by Michael Kassik and Galen Beck before the retirement of the colors and closing remarks.

After the ceremony the family members soaked in the words on the marker where their loved ones name was etched. Members of Sgt. Ursulo Galindo, Jr.’s family came from Escondido, California and Sioux Falls, SD. His niece, Denise Snyder, was so thankful for the honor that had been bestowed on the uncle she never got to know. “I was one week old when he died,” said Snyder.

This was an unexpected opportunity for Snyder as she received word from her mother that a letter from Milligan, Neb. had been received. Snyder started corresponding with Memorial Committee member Shirley Brunkow. She had never delved into the history of her family so deeply. What struck her the most was the impact that her uncle’s death had on the community. “At that time Escondido had about 3500 population and my uncle and his two brothers were well-known baseball players, especially after winning a big tournament. They even had their picture taken with the governor.”

These bits of history also prompted her to research her own father, Adan. She found her “Dad’s aviation book, all because of this.” She and her husband Dennis along with her cousin Pete and five of his family members felt it was important to be there for the dedication.

Also making the trip were John Herzog, his sister Catherine and their cousin, Camille. John, of Springfield, Ohio was very touched by the memorial services. His uncle, 2nd Lt. William Herzog was killed in the October 25, 1943 crash that also killed Galindo. He had “always wanted to have a relationship with my uncle. This is my only connection with him. It was like I was able to attend his funeral. I feel a bonding here, I feel like my grandparents are here today.”

Corporal Walter A. Divan was just 20 years old in 1944 when his plane was involved in a mid-air collision on September 8^th. He was one of four survivors of that crash, and spent several days in the hospital recovering followed by 30 days of leave. He is the only still living of those four survivors and spent the weekend in Milligan.

After the marker dedication program on the highway, Divan spent a few moments decompressing in the cool semi-darkness of the Milligan Auditorium. He was overwhelmed “by the dedication of the committee and all they have done. City people are city people and they just don’t get all of this. Small town people have roots and they care about their roots.”

Divan spoke about his own grandson who has been in the service for 10 years and how proud he is of him “doing what we need to in order to have a strong country.”

When asked about the weekend memorial events he explained how much “this means to the families of those who didn’t make it. They have a better sense of knowing their soldier’s service was appreciated and not wasted.”

After his leave, Divan and the other three survivors were assigned to another crew and went overseas to fly 23 missions before the war was over. He met his wife June after the war while attending college. At his request, June had her wedding dress made from the parachute that saved Divan’s life and brought the dress with her to the Memorial Weekend where it was displayed. They and daughters Cindy Clemens and Debbie Norris made the trip from Wisconsin for the event.

Later in the afternoon the Memorial Committee and Milligan Public Library hosted a dedication program in the Milligan Centennial Garden and the Milligan Auditorium.

American Legion’s from the surrounding areas sent color guards to help open the program. According to committee member Shirley Brunkow, “our visitors were most impressed with the community support and the many honor guards who came to honor the fallen.” Brunkow was impressed with the turnout at the highway dedication, which she estimated was close to 200.

During the 3 p.m. program the Milligan Brass Band provided musical numbers as well as other community members. Featured speakers were Governor Dave Heineman, Lempke, Secretary of State John Gale and Karpisek.

Letters of the airmen who served in the area were read and the Memorial committee spent some special time recognizing the relatives and special guests of the airmen. The family members were presented with a flag flown over the airbase where their family member was stationed. Balloons holding the names of the airmen that were involved in the crashes were released after Amazing Grace was played.

After several more musical numbers, another volley salute by the Milligan Legion and the playing of Taps and Taps Echo the program was concluded by a benediction by Rev. Brian Kottas and the singing of “God Bless America.”

The Sons of the American Legion hosted a dinner in the Centennial Garden and during the evening a slide presentation on the crashes and sites was given by Penry before the dance featuring the Leo Lonnie Orchestra.

End of Summer Acquatic Center Hours

The Exeter Acquatic Center will remain open the regular hours for the first week of school.

The week of August 23 and 27 the pool will open at 3:30 and close at 8 p.m. Regular weekend hours on 28th and 29th. Starting the 30th the pool will be open at 3:30 and close at 8 p.m. On Saturday September 4th the pool will close for the season. The hours on Saturday will be 1:30 p.m. - 5:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. - midnight with EVERYONE invited to stay until midnight.

Any questions call the pool at 266-3001

Exeter-Milligan District Levy Override on November Ballot

The Exeter-Milligan school district is once again looking at a levy override on the November ballot.

The last levy override was on the February 2005 ballot and covered the years through 2011-12. The new ballot issue will start the same .30 per $100 override in the fiscal 2012-2013 year and will be for five years, in effect through the 2016-2017 school year.

Exeter-Milligan Superintendent Paul Sheffield states, “Our goal in renewing it (the levy override) is to maintain the quality of education and opportunities for our students.”

Although the district has the ability to go up to $1.35 currently they are using a levy of $1.22. Sheffield expects that number to go down next year as it has every year.

The district heavily depends on the override passing because they get very little in state aid. According to Sheffield, “State aid for the 2010-2011 school year is $32,948.34 and that will go down next year because of the state budget crunch. Last year it was 47,000.00 so it dropped 15,000 this year.”

In looking at the dependence on the levy override, Sheffield noted that they would have to “cut $400,000 - $500,000 from our budget and the only way you can do that is people. Roughly we would have to cut a minimum of seven to eight teachers.”

For a small district like Exeter-Milligan that is a large percentage of their total budget of $4.3 million.

The last time the override measure was on the ballot it passed by a vote of 288 for and 129 against. In 2002, the vote was 357 for and 140 against. To Sheffield and the Board of Education the override is essential, “We are trying to control costs, but with anything the costs of providing a service goes up,” he stated.

As for the future of the district he hopes “to look at it as an investment in the future. We are investing money in our students for the future. As our mission statement iterates, in partnership with parents and the community, our mission is to provide excellent educational programs, which empower our students to be knowledgeable, responsible, patriotic citizens. Ultimately we would like them return to the Exeter-Milligan area to work and raise a family.”

Recently, the district had a facilities study done to access where they are as far as codes and efficiency. With the results of the study in hand the maintenance staff spent a great deal of time painting inside the facility this summer and also all of the lights in the Exeter gymnasium were replaced with more efficient fluorescent lighting.

For Sheffield, “Our first priority is the levy override, make sure that passes. Next step is a facility study which is done, and then we will have some community-wide discussions with the results of the facility study."

Voters in the Fillmore Central district will have the opportunity to vote on this levy override at the polls in November.

FC Hospital Vote Wrap -Up

Special election turnout is notoriously low, but of Fillmore County's 4,114 eligible voters nearly half of that number voiced their opinion at the ballot box during Tuesday's Fillmore County New Hospital special election.

Of the 1713 who voted in the hospital special election the official results show that 1298 supported the new hospital while 415 lodged their vote against building a new hospital. The results were finalized with Exeter voting 71 for and 52 against.

With the overwhelmingly positive vote, the Hospital Board will now wait for notification from the USDA regarding the loan application for the project. That decision is expected sometime around August 31st.

Following approval of the USDA loan the Hospital Board will have to finalize all of the financing between the USDA and the General Obligation bonds before completing transactions on the site acquisitions.

"Should all of the pieces of the plan proceed as scheduled, a start date in the month of October should be possible," said Utemark.

As of now, the medical clinic is included in the funding application for the new hospital as an option but could be a possibility with a capitol campaign that is being discussed by residents of the county.

Fillmore County Hospital Board members and Utemark are thrilled with the results, "We are thankful the voters of Fillmore County attended town hall meetings, asked questions, became informed and turned out to vote. The strong support of the proposed project is appreciated by the board and the hospital staff."

New Teachers at Exeter-Milligan

The Exeter-Milligan school district welcomes two new educators to the community. Casey Pohl joins the district in the third grade position at the Milligan campus and Jamie Ellis will be teaching High School English and Speech at the Exeter site.

Pohl, a Dorchester native, graduated in May from UNL and is looking forward to the small town atmosphere. She is "looking forward to meeting my students and getting involved in the community."

She loves the smaller class sizes and is glad to be closer to her family. Pohl is living in Geneva right now and enjoying getting familiar with her new surroundings.

Ellis, originally from Elm Creek is also looking forward to getting to know her students. She graduated from UNK in December of 2009 and had a permanent substitute job for the spring last year.

Ellis, will be teaching English to 10th, 11th and 12th graders as well as speech. She will also be coaching the speech and one-act teams.

Ellis is engaged and living in Crete.

Salon C adds Nail Technician

Exeter now has a nail services available two days a week. Salon C, in Exeter, recently added to their services a full line of manicure and pedicure care.

Nail technician Kristine Winters will join owner/stylist Christina Hartmann at Salon C. Winters has 13 years of experience with nails and will be in Exeter on Tuesday and Friday's and in Beatrice the rest of the week.

She and her husband, Scott, recently purchased a home in Cordova and, after some updating, will move there.

Originally from Beatrice, Winters loves doing nails and has over 70 nail colors to choose from in Exeter. She also offers pedicures, acrylic and gel nails.

She always says, "I love my job because someone comes in and they might be in a bad mood but when they leave they feel good about themselves."

She enjoys welcoming her six children home for visits now that they have all left the nest and made sure to purchase a home where they could all stay for the holidays.

One to One Laptop Program Ready to Go at Exeter-Milligan

It’s a life-learning tool all wrapped up in a sleek 13” Macbook Pro and every Exeter-Milligan seventh through twelfth grader is about to experience one.

The district is “preparing our kids for life outside the friendly confines of Exeter-Milligan school to be the 21^st century learners they are,” according to Superintendent Paul Sheffield.

With a goal of eventually becoming paperless the district is passing out the laptops starting this week with a group of parent/student orientation meetings. During the evening sessions students and their parents will sign a contract and pay a $35 fee if the students want to have the privilege of taking the Macbook’s home.

The students will not be able to access the internet in general but all internet traffic, no matter where they log on, will be re-routed back to the school’s filter. The filter, according to Sheffield, is designed to have different access times. Right now, email and social networking are blocked during the day but will be opened up in the evenings.

Most of the cost of the new program has been financed through a grant from the Rural Education Achievement Program (REAP). About $30,000 came from the REAP program that “was earmarked toward technology,” according to Sheffield.

The total cost of the program was around $45,000 and there will be “some stimulus money that carries over for special ed and that will come out of there,” said Sheffield. The rest of the funding will come from the school budget.

The students will have to be responsible for the laptops and those who don’t pay the extra fee will check their laptop in every day after school. The fee money will go to a fund for minor fixes or maintenance issues. Sheffield explained that, “If the laptop is stolen or something major is broken the kids are responsible, they have to sign a contract.”

When pursuing this project the school did a survey and found that 93% of the students had internet access or wifi at home. Right now the wifi at the Exeter campus reaches about a half a block away. Unfortunately there is no where else in town the students can access wifi right now.

The students will use the laptops in class for research and also for homework. The school currently uses a site that allows teachers to post homework assignments online and also lets students drop their completed homework into a teacher’s online basket. Sheffield stated that the laptops are “

Not going to replace or be a cure all, but another tool at their disposal to enhance their learning.”

One of the most important things the school wants to emphasize is internet responsibility. They are “l

ooking to incorporate a digital citizenship class in grades 4,5, and 6. . . teaching kids to know what kinds of things to put on internet and what not to,” said Sheffield.

The school hopes to emphasize the responsibility of having a tool at students' disposal while delving into some of the fun aspects of technology like creating movies and pod casts. Thanks to the REAP grant, Exeter-Milligan students will have an opportunity to have some fun while learning.

Hospital Vote Passes by a Large Margin

Fillmore County voters spoke a loud YES to the new hospital in the special election on Tuesday. The unofficial results of the election were a resounding 1200+ yes versus 415 no votes.

With the positive outcome on the election, voters can expect to see quick movement as the Hospital Board works with landowners to acquire the land and start construction.

Girl's and Boy's State Representatives Give Report

Kelsey Moore, far left, Tyler Manning, middle and Amanda Dinneen, far right, represented Exeter at the 2010 Nebraska Girls and Boys State Convention.

With numerous guests in attendance the Girl's and Boy's State representatives from Exeter gave a report on their experiences to the Exeter American Legion Auxiliary and Legion Monday evening in Exeter.

The three representatives from Exeter expressed their gratitude to the Legion and the Auxiliary for the opportunity to attend the State convention.

Amanda Dinneen, daughter of Joe and Sharla Dinneen, spoke first sharing about "one of the best experiences of my life."

Dinneen gave some history of the event and then explained how it "teaches young women about respect for our country and our government. . .learning skills useful for the rest of my life."

Dinneen was elected a senator for her floor and was thrilled that a bill their floor worked on passed. She explained it was a bill that made it illegal to text and drive for everyone not just younger drivers.

Kelsey Moore, daughter of Brent and Lori Moore, spoke next about her experience of campaigning for county engineer. She was elected to her office and got the opportunity to visit the Lancaster County Engineering Department. Moore also had the opportunity to participate in the Girl's State band that performed for the combined group on Wednesday night.

Moore noted that "it was an irreplaceable experience for me. Thank you for the opportunity."

Tyler Manning, son of Kent and Cyndi Manning, was the Legion's representative to Boy's State. Manning started off his presentation thanking "the Legion for letting me have such a great experience - I made a lot of good friends."

The Boy's State group were able to pass 10 different laws. Manning was elected to the city council for his floor and also participated on a softball team.

American Legion Auxiliary President Annette Gloystein was thrilled that over 420 girls participated in the Nebraska Girls State this year. Gloystein has volunteered at the week-long event for the last eight years.

Legion President Alan Songster spoke to the students after they expressed their gratitude once again, "We are glad to support our young and as long as its a learning experience we will send you. Thank you for representing Exeter."

FCDC Hosts Tire Recycling Event

It was like a sea of tires had taken over an old runway at the Fairmont State Airfield.

Instead, it was a free tire recycling event and those in Fillmore County took advantage of this bi-yearly opportunity. Fillmore County Development Corporation (FCDC)sponsored the event along with the Fillmore County Board of Supervisors.

The group received a grant from the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality (NDEQ). The grant covered a recycling center to pick up the tires, advertising for the event and a wage for those monitoring the tire drop off. This year the money raised from the event will go the Fillmore County Historical Society (FCHS). Members of the FCHS volunteered their time to man the tire recycling center and record where the tires came from and the number of tires dropped.

The event started at noon on Friday and by 2:00 p.m. the pile of tires was already a quarter-mile long. Trucks came in a steady stream all afternoon to recycle old tires with close to 200 trucks bringing tires in, according to FCDC Director Patt Lentfer.

According to FCHS member Dave Moore and Lentfer, the recycled tires will be picked up by Champlin Tire Recycling, Inc. out of Concordia, KS. They will be recycled into park benches and other rubber uses while the tires in fair condition will be recapped.

"It's a good deal for everyone. People can get rid of their old tires and the money goes to a good cause," said Moore.