‘Stinker Days’ this Friday, Saturday
July 16, 2008
Albion businesses will be offering many special sales this Friday and Saturday, July 18-19, during their annual “Stinker Day” promotion.
Complete Details in the Albion News Print Edition.
Legion Seniors Ride Strong Pitching
July 16, 2008
Keir Dane Harner applies tag vs. PWGS
The Seniors topped Ord 5-1 behind a complete-game three-hitter by lefty Kraig Flanagan Thursday, July 10, and Greg Young defeated Palmer-Wolbach-Greeley-Spalding 3-1 with a two-hit gem Monday. Neither pitcher allowed an earned run in the wins. Read more
Richard Heidemann, D.D.S., to open dental practice here
July 16, 2008
Richard Heidemann, D.D.S.
Dr. Heidemann plans to open his dental practice, Albion Family Dentistry, during the first week of August in the new Albion Professional Plaza building.
“I grew up in Chappell and graduated from high school at Fremont, where my parents still live,” said Dr. Heidemann. “I have enjoyed meeting people here, and I’m looking forward to moving here.”
At present, Dr. Heidemann is commuting from Fremont to set up equipment in his clinic. He has hired most of his staff and hopes to add more personnel in the future.
At its beginning, the clinic will have two operating rooms and two hygiene rooms, along with a reception area, laboratory and office space on the building’s west side. There is ample space to add two more operating rooms and two more hygiene rooms, with the possibility of another dentist joining the practice in the future.
Read More in the Albion News Print Edition.
Relay for Life features cancer survivors
July 16, 2008
Cancer Survivors Lap
Molly’s Musings
July 10, 2008
Visiting Ground Zero and Remembering
By Molly Young
The wooden flute’s notes split the sticky city air.
As I stood on the busy sidewalk, I joked about the selection: “My Heart Will Go On.” The Celine Dion love ballad was quite different than the flutist’s previous performance of South American songs.
The small town square near Wall Street paid little attention to the musician. Vendors peddled their fares: “Crystal figurines: 2 for $10!” “Roasted Chestnuts: Best in the City!” A tow-headed toddler chased pigeons into the fountain. Tourists with instant smiles and arms thrown over one another posed for a group picture.
Taxis whirred. Hot dogs sizzled. Pedestrians chatted.
I breathed deeply and inhaled the scenery. New York City was alive.
I continued walking; floating along with the resonating tune until reaching a construction zone. Chain-link fence reached into the air. Signs marked the zone as a “Hard Hat Only Area.” Suddenly, the noise - the traffic, the food, the people - stopped, and time stood on edge.
Music shattered the silence.
“Near, far, wherever you are…”
The words resounded in my mind. Tears welled in my eyes. This was no ordinary construction zone.
“…I believe that the heart does go on.”
This was Ground Zero.
Beside me, a father explained to his three young sons, “This is where the bad guys flew planes into a building seven years ago.”
None of the boys - dressed in matching navy blue New York City T-shirts - were born yet, I told myself. They will read about September 11 in history books. They will memorize numbers, locations and perhaps even names.
My generation, my parents’ generation, and my grandparents’ generation, though, need no visual aids or history books to remember 9/11.
Much like my grandmother Muriel Young recalls listening to President Franklin Roosevelt declare December 7, 1941, a “date which will live in infamy,” I remember everything about September 11, 2001.
There, standing in front of a chain link fence, I closed my eyes. Science. Second period. Movie about volcanoes. Interruption. “Class, two planes have just flown into the World Trade Center in New York City.” Confusion. “What? Was this a mistake?” Pre-Algebra. Third period. Another plane crashed in Pennsylvania. Another hit the Pentagon. Industrial Tech. Fourth period. “Thousands perished this morning.”
I grabbed the cool metal wire. Music pounded in my chest.
“…I believe that the heart does go on.”
Perspectives
July 10, 2008
Independence Day
By Paul Hosford
The trouble with never throwing anything away is that sooner or later you run out of space for everything. Save things over a span of generations and it can really get crowded. While waiting for fireworks on the Fourth, I decided to sort through an old suitcase in hopes I could throw it away. It turned out to contain papers, photos and one old table knife that had belonged to my great aunt and uncle.
It was fascinating to go through. He passed away in 1963 and at the top were bills he’d paid shortly before his death. Their natural gas bill had been $5. Property taxes for their farm were $337 - today they’re $2,947! The sale of their farm equipment had netted them about $1,200.
Moving deeper into the pile carried me backwards in time. He stopped farming with horses and bought a 12 horsepower Allis-Chalmers “C” in 1949 from Warner Farm Supply, Phone 17. The tractor cost $1,174 and a mounted 2-row lister $225. Today you could multiply those prices by 100.
There was a card for a businessman in “Habana, Cuba” from before Castro’s revolution. Then there were owner’s manuals for a 1960 Chevy and a 1954 Crosley TV, both of which were still in use far into my childhood; directions for a hearing aid built into a set of horn-rimmed glasses and instructions for a trick card deck that enabled my great-uncle to cheat without getting caught.
There were lots of old black and white photos. Some faces were familiar, but most were not. None had names, but a few had dates: August 1944, October 1941, Thanksgiving Day, 1938.
Near the bottom of the suitcase was a set of hand-written directions on how to tame a wild horse. It concluded with the simple observation that if you love the horse, the horse will love you. It was dated 1872, 15 years before my great-uncle’s birth.
There were also copies of two sale bills from pre-Civil War Kentucky. One began “Having sold my farm and am leaving for Oregon by ox-team…” and goes on to list what the farmer is leaving behind. Two cows and a mare, two yoke of oxen and an iron plow, 1,500 fence rails, a 60-gallon soap kettle, 10 gallons of maple syrup and a barrel of 7-year-old Johnston-Miller whiskey. He was also leaving 12 pitchforks, 2 spinning wheels, 30 lbs of tallow and a figle (?) with bullet molds and powder horns, along with six fox hounds, “all soft mouths but one!”
As an afterthought were listed “6 negro slaves, 4 men, 2 boys and 2 mulatto wenches.” Mercifully, they were to be sold “all together to one party as will not separate them.”
The second sale bill was dated Sept. 26, 1859. It was for a farmer moving from near Harrisburg to Missouri and started by listing “1 Buck N—– 25 yrs. Old wt. 219 lbs. 4 n—– wenches 18 to 24 years old. 3 n—- boys 6 years old.” It went on to list oxen and carts, whiskey jugs, “2Bbl saur kraut” and 2 tons of tobacco. Oh, and “1 extra good n—– whip.”
I suppose one must be prepared for anything when looking into the past…
I want to think that these sale bills didn’t involve anyone in my great-uncle’s family, that they were copied and preserved as a window to the past, but who knows? His family did come to Nebraska from Missouri, so the second sale bill (which doesn’t list the seller’s name) might have had a connection to his family.
I hope not.
Somewhere the descendants of those slaves sold at auctions in Kentucky, like the descendants of all slaves, struggle to come to terms with the lives their ancestors led. But to the rest of us, slavery is a wrong that happened long ago and righted by the Civil War. We intellectualize it today, like the Crusades or the Black Death. But stumbling on those sale bills and reading about those poor souls being sold like they were oxen, made slavery much more real to me.
Independence Day marks a milestone in human history, but July 4th, 1776, meant nothing to slaves, and we would do well to remember that Americans did not become free all at once. Independence has instead been an on-going process — a process that must continue until men, women and children everywhere are at last free.
Sentinel addition taking shape
July 9, 2008
Steel support structure for Sentinel addition.
After initial delays in concrete work due to wet weather in May and June, the 11,000 square foot structure has taken shape over the past two weeks.
After the concrete had cured, the steel support structure (top photo) was completed during the last week of June.
Last week, the exterior metal covering (lower photo) was installed. Construction of the roof is underway this week. The crew is also installing insulation below the roof.
See the Albion News Print Edition for details.
Final hearing is July 14 on zoning changes
July 9, 2008
Boone County Commissioners will hold a final public hearing next Monday, July 14, on proposed changes in zoning regulations related to livestock feeding operations (LFOs) in the county.
The hearing is scheduled for 1 p.m. in the courthouse.
The regulation changes have been under consideration since November, 2007, when the commissioners declared the moratorium on conditional use permits for new or expanding LFOs to allow time to study the issues. The moratorium was originally scheduled to last until May 1, 2008, but was extended in April to July 15.
Commissioners have the option to approve, deny or amend the regulations that were recommended by the Planning Commission in June.
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