County Clerk Jerry Schmitz and his office staff, Deputy Darlene Miller and Mrs. Marcina Cody, did a commendable job compiling the election results Tuesday night.
Jerry and his crew were on duty at 8 p.m., when the polls closed and the clerk locked his office door at 3:20 a.m., the next day.
Compiling election results is always done in one, big rush. Everyone wants to know how the candidates did in the vote-getting and they want to know as soon after 8 o'clock as possible.
Sometimes there isn't time to give running totals because when the reports start coming in they all seem to come at the same time. In this primary, the clerk and his staff worked non-stop with pencils for nearly two hours to receive and total results.
There's a new election law in effect which says that election results in which a time zone is involved, cannot be reported until 9 p.m. As such, the results of state offices and U.S. Senate were secret until the legal reporting time.
Company B guardsmen who held their reunion Saturday in Nebraska City, missed their former commander, Colonel Jay "Duckey" Holmes, San Antonio, Texas.
The colonel and his wife have for several years attended the Kentucky Derby and driven to Nebraska City for the reunion before returning to their home. The couple arrived in Nebraska City last week, but was unable to stay over for the reunion.
The colonel has a box seat at the Derby and has had faithful attendance at the race. The horses haven't been so faithful, he confides.
Ray Price, Julian, handled the arrangements this year at Memorial Building.
Company B guardsmen bivouacked on the courthouse grounds, marched down Central avenue and went to war during WWI. They made a prominent name for themselves, a tradition held to firmly since the Otoe Rifles, according to General Lyle Welch, Milford, adjutant general of the Nebraska National Guard. The general can cite the accomplishments of the Nebraska City guardsmen from memory.
Volunteer firemen here say they need more space for fire, police and rescue equipment. An interesting curb check is a drive past City hall some day to see the red painted vehicles parked outside.
Firemen have added two more units in the past year and rescue squadsmen now have three units . . . and there isn't enough space for the equipment inside the present building they say.
With all the talk about "tight money" and higher interest rates, don't you wonder how the state can come up with $12 million in tax funds to build a new office building . . . A parent who has children at Northside school said the other day the school board's plans for a hard-surfaced playground may be closer than we think . . . Wonder what ever happened to the PTA campaign to get more sidewalks in Nebraska City . . . If you haven't attended one of the track meets at Hayward park you should. The attendance has been good and the Nebraska City Pioneers and Lourdes boys are burning up the asphalt.
Baccalaureate for the Class of 1970 will be held May 24 at Hayward park and three nights later commencement will be held at the field. Wonder if the clergy or the school board will win out on which night it rains.
The Optimist club will hold its Tuesday luncheon meetings at St. Mary's hospital lunch room beginning May 26, moving from Mary Ulbrick and her fried chicken, creamed cabbage and creamed corn.
Well fellas, if Rose Gilson stuffs the gang at St. Mary's lunch room, at least you will be close to a hospital bed.
Rose managed the school hot lunch program for many years in the old high school where Safeway is now located. Those were the years when the late Edgar Lightbody, school superintendent and myself, used to slip downstairs to the aroma of Rose's cinnamon rolls, hot buns and coffee.
Jim Brockhaus, Senior High athletic director, said this happened at K-State in Manhattan, Kansas, where Coach Vince Gibson has made the purple colors a proud mark.
It seems the football interest at K-State has got to the point where consideration is being given to the astro-turf, a type of commercial sodding for football fields.
The fiery Coach Gibson said there was no question about the size, thickness or cost of the turf. The only question, he said, "is whether it will be purple or green."