Warriors' 8-0 Season Leads ACN's Top 10 Stories Of 2016

Nearly two-thirds of every person who voted for their top three stories of 2016, included Neligh-Oakdale’s perfect regular season, making it the runaway winner for biggest story of the year.

The Warriors went 8-0 in the regular season and finished as the only undefeated football team in Class D1. If being 8-0 wasn’t a big enough story, Neligh-Oakdale added to the drama by being ineligible for the playoffs due to enrollment numbers.

Neligh-Oakdale’s enrollment was four students higher than acceptable for eight-man football. The Warriors only suited up 16-18 players per game, so coaches Ron Beacom and George Loofe asked administration to keep the team in Class D1 despite being unable to play in the postseason.

Because they were playing above class, the perfect season meant the team also could not be crowned district champions.  However, there were plenty of other accolaides for individuals, including all-state players Grant White, Tyson Belitz and Chris Bentley. Coach Beacom was also named Class D1 Coach of the Year.

No. 2 — Tilden Manhunt: Just as the football season was beginning, the second-biggest story of the year quickly unfolded as a manhunt near Tilden brought out dozens of law enforcement. 

James Baker, age 24, and Jeremy Stevens, age 25, both from South Dakota were taken into custody on suspicion of being in possession of a stolen vehicle, flight to avoid arrest and possession of methamphetamine. 

The chase started in Clearwater and ended in Tilden, where the men allegedly fled on foot. After a couple of hours both men were apprehended. Their court case is ongoing, and both made appearances in District Court last week. 

No. 3 — Pitzer Digital Purchases The Orchard News:  Long-time owners John and Lucy Ferguson sold their newspaper to Wade and Carrie Pitzer of Pitzer Digital, LLC, in February. Carrie Pitzer is originally from Orchard and said she was excited about owning her hometown newspaper and transforming it into a county-wide publication by utilizing content from the Antelope County News.

The publication went through an immediate redesign and became the first color newspaper in the county.  Subscriptions and over the counter sales have more than doubled since the purchase.

No. 4 — Neligh-Oakdale Student Arrested After Alleged Snapchat Threat:  A Neligh-Oakdale student was arrested Dec. 18 after allegedly using Snapchat to threaten “to make Columbine look like a (expletive) joke.”  

According to Ofc. Kraig Nelson of the Neligh Police Department, the threat showed a picture of a toy gun and a message that stated “I’m going to make Columbine look like a ‘expletive’ joke.”  This Snapchat message was sent to a large group of students and friends of the suspect.

Nelson said upon investigating the threat, a male juvenile was arrested by the Neligh Police Department for Terroristic Threats, a Class IIIA Felony. The male juvenile was taken to the Juvenile Detention Center in Madison to be held on his charges.

No. 5 — Pizza Hut Closes In Neligh:  Pizza Hut in Neligh closed their doors for the final time Sunday, October 23. Neligh Economic Development Director Greg Ptacek said his office has been in contact with the management company in charge of the location at the intersection of Highways 275 and 14 in Neligh, and there is a prospect for the building.

Ptacek said when the franchise closed, the Neligh Police Department was told it was due the financial issues associated with updating the building.

“Basically, corporate office had wanted them to do updates,” Ptacek said. “It’s managed by a management corporation, and they didn’t think it would cash flow with the business as it is now. So they had two choices - do the updates or don’t do the updates and lose their franchise.”

No. 6 — Lisa Schacht Rescues Woman From Burning Car:  It was a snowy Feb. 4 afternoon in Orchard. Schacht was headed to work at TJ’s Market and noticed smoke from behind a house. She had no idea it was a car on fire or that Lavonna Ruterbories was still in side. 
Schacht said she couldn’t tell if Ruterbories was in the car or not. She drove around the highway by the house and saw the door was open. Ruterbories was still inside, unable to get out.  With all of the snow, Schacht said Ruterbories couldn’t get the door open far enough to get out “because it was brushing against the snow.”

Schacht pulled Ruterbories out of the burning vehicle. Wearing just her “little slippers,” Ruterbories actually walked right out of them on the snow as the two women rushed from danger.

Schacht never thought twice about rushing to burning car and saving Ruterbories from the flames. It was later that the shock sank in for the Orchard woman. 

“I just knew I had to get her out of there. It was after the fact that I got her in the house and the EMTs were there that, I just kind of broke down after that. Adrenaline rush I guess you an call it,” she said. 

No. 7 — EPPJ Places Third At State Volleyball:  In a back-and-forth evenly matched consolation game, the Wolfpack came out on top Nov. 12 to finish third at the Class D1 state championship.

Elgin Public/Pope John defeated Guardian Angels Central Catholic 23-25, 22-25, 25-21, 25-13, 15-10. Coached by Tina Thiele-Blecher, this was the first time the team advanced to state in the history of the co-op of Elgin High and Pope John Central Catholic. 

No. 8 — Elkhorn Valley Passes $17.2 Million Bond:  With a nearly 64 percent approval from voters, Elkhorn Valley will be building a new $17.2 million facility for grades 7-12.

Nearly two months after the Elkhorn Valley Board of Education proposed the new facility, district voters approved the bond on July 12. According to the Madison County Election Commissioner, Tuesday’s unofficial results show 481 votes in favor of the bonds and tax and 272 vote against.

There was a 53 percent voter turnout for the mail-in special election.

No. 9 — Thiele Dairy/Livestock Friendly Distinction:  It’s not often Thiele Dairy has a nearly 2:1 ratio between cattle and people, but they did on Thursday as more than 1,200 people made their way to the Clearwater farm. 

Thiele Dairy hosted its open house on the same day that Antelope County was being recognized as a Livestock Friendly County. Tours, food and music were happening all afternoon to celebrate such a big achievement for the Thiele family and for Antelope County. The Lieutenant Governor of Nebraska, Mike Foley was present to see just how impressive Thiele Dairy is.

Thiele Dairy is a four-generation operation ran by brothers Bill, Tom and Ron Thiele, along with Ron’s wife Karol. Tom’s son, Scott, and Ron and Karol’s son, Luke, are now part of the operation as well.  The Thieles are currently milking 1,730 cows with 28 stalls utilized on both sides.

No. 10 — Neligh-Oakdale Graduate Selected For Elite Google Camp:  Bryce Frey was known affectionately as “Google” by his co-workers at Antelope County News. That’s because Frey, who interned with ACN, was one of only 150 recent graduates that had the fortune of spending a three-week internship with the Internet giant this summer. The internship was an intensive programming course known as the Computer Science Summer Institute (CSSI). The participants were sent to one of five Google campuses across the country, with Frey being sent to Seattle.

During his time there, Frey learned programming, programming languages and how to use Google’s tools to deploy a website. By the end of the program, the graduates teamed with each other to create their own applications using the information they had learned. 

The course was taught by current employees of Google, or “Googlers”, who donated their time to the project as part of their “20 percent” time. At Google, employees are encouraged to use 20 percent of their time they are paid for to do a company related project, whether it turns a profit for the company or not. CSSI and Gmail are two products of that program.

More than a dozen other stories received votes as top stories, although they didn’t make the top 10. Other top vote-getters were (not in order) human remains found outside Tilden, Clearwater-Orchard discusses site location and feasibility study, Smeal purchased for $36.3 million, Scott Gregory hired as superintendent at Neligh-Oakdale, arson fires near Elgin, Angela Cuffe named National Success Story, Orchard Young Men’s Club plan to create community center and Neligh awarded $350,000 grant for downtown revitalization.