Nebraska

Arboretum brings native plants to towns across Nebraska

Published

11 months ago

July 28, 2023

Arboretum brings native plants to towns across Nebraska

LINCOLN, Neb. (KOLN) – The town of Battle Creek preserves their history with Heritage Park, a small plot of land with historic buildings and a teepee. But visitors are walking in the footsteps of their ancestors as soon as they walk through the park’s gates.

This summer, the Heritage Park Committee and volunteers installed plants that the Pawnee tribes would recognize.

“We’re trying very hard in this project to be able to have this be a community project,” said Marcie Sextro, member of the Heritage Park Committee. “But it’s also an education project and that’s the reason we put native plants and grasses in.”

Native Americans would have plants for medicinal and religious purposes. Examples include purple coneflowers, milkweed, service berries, white sage and sand cherry. Some of these species will be used by the museum to host cooking demonstrations.

“(Native plants) provide habitat. They provide biodiversity. They provide a working landscape that handles storm water,” said Sarah Buckley, a Nebraska Statewide Arboretum sustainable landscape specialist. “But they also create a sense of place. they tell us that we’re in Nebraska and that we’re proud to be in Nebraska.”

The plants are also built to withstand the Midwestern seasons.

“Once native plants are established in the landscape they require less water and to a certain extent, less maintenance than other exotic plants that you might be putting in your landscape,” said Brad Kindler, Nebraska Forest Service project manager and sustainable landscape specialist. “Native plants also this time of year are starting to flower and attracting a ton of pollinators.”

The Battle Creek Heritage Park Committee reached out to Buckley last October, and they planned for the project throughout the winter. The site was prepped in late spring. The Arboretum and Forest Service joined volunteers for planting on June 6, and they finished on June 30.

Together, Sextro said they planted 341 plants and over 40 bushes and trees. Rows of purple and yellow flowers were planted in honor of Battle Creek Public Schools colors. High school students in the Future Farmers of America helped install the plants.

“The FFA students can work with the state arboretum anytime they want to,” Kindler said with a smile. “They really know how to work. They were hands-on the whole time and required very little instruction.”

Two students are also assisting with the garden’s maintenance throughout the summer.

“A lot of kids think that this just kind of sat here,” said Macey Moore, the Battle Creek FFA President. “So redoing it and coming up with all of these new plants that are specifically made to thrive in Battle Creek, Nebraska is really cool. I think some of the younger kids in the elementary- I think we’re going to try to get them to visit over here.”

Some of the park’s historic treasures include a statue of Pawnee Chief Petalesharu and a school house. Volunteers also fixed up an old-timey doctor’s office turned museum with a mural of Battle Creek’s past inside.

The Skala Timber House is a unique asset because it’s the only building of its kind in Nebraska. The two-room cabin that was constructed in 1868 by a cabinet-builder who used Czech carpentry skills. The park’s second phase focuses on a walkway throughout the area, but the third phase will be directed toward restoring the Czech house.

The committee is searching for groups, perhaps with a Czech background, who would like to help. Restoration is needed especially for the house’s roof and foundation.

“It’s fallen into disrepair over the decades recently,” said Ginger Howser, Heritage Park Committee member. “We’re looking for people who can help physically restore it, financially restore it and also bring the history of the Czech culture back into the cabin.”

The committee has a quote for the cabin, and Howser said it could take $70-80,000 to repair. The entire Heritage Park restoration effort will take $200-250,000 with all the garden, walkway and cabin combined.

“We just have so many gifts and talents and diverse culture here,” Howser said. “It just kind of brings all the community together because there’s a little bit of everything.”

The Nebraska Statewide Arboretum and Nebraska Forest Service are encouraging communities to apply for grants and for shade trees. The organizations are planning for a tree-planting project at the Syracuse Area Health Center in the future.

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Nebraska

Nebraska: 7 shot, including 4 kids, by man who told them to ‘go back to where they came from’, suspect dies by suicide

Published

6 hours ago

July 1, 2024

Press Room

Nebraska: 7 shot, including 4 kids, by man who told them to ‘go back to where they came from’, suspect dies by suicide

Seven people, who are believed to be Hispanic, were injured after being shot by a Nebraska man who had earlier told them to “go back to where they came from” and to “speak English,” police said. Four of those who were wounded were children.

7 shot, including 4 kids, by Nebraska man who told them to ‘go back to where they came from’ (Getty Images/iStockphoto – representational image)

On Friday, June 28, 74-year-old Billy Booth opened fire at his neighbours from inside his Crete home, Nebraska State Patrol said. He then fatally shot himself.

There were about 15 people inside and outside the home when the incident took place just before 7 pm. Three of the victims were adults aged between 22 and 43. Four of them were children between the ages of 3 and 10, cops told KETV and NBC News.

While some of the victims were treated and released, one of them is still being treated in Lincoln. Two are receiving treatment at Children’s Nebraska in Omaha. None of the victims sustained life-threatening injuries.

Police arrived at the scene to find the victims with gunshot wounds outside the residence. Booth was found dead inside his own home from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, and a shotgun was recovered.

The incident

“Preliminary investigation shows that all rounds fired by Booth came from inside of his house,” Nebraska State Patrol Col. John Bolduc said. “Investigators are still actively working this investigation to understand everything that occurred, but at this point, we don’t believe there was any verbal contact between the suspect and any of the victims in the moments that led up to the shooting.”

According to cops, there was possibly no dispute between Booth and victims in the moments that led up to the crime. However, in the past, the family and Booth have had quarrels over parking and other nuisances. Police also quoted someone as saying Booth “told them to go back to where they came from and to speak English.”

Since 2021, the Crete Police have heard “several complaints” in the neighbourhood. “Not necessarily associated with the victims’ house, but cars driving too fast in the neighborhood, improper parking, nuisance properties, quality-of-life type issues,” Crete Police Chief Gary Young Jr. said during a news briefing on Saturday, June 29, according to New York Post. “There was a single report from the victims that the suspect had flipped them off, told them to, ‘Go home’ or ‘back to where they came from,’ to ‘speak English.’”

At the time, the family did not wish to take the matter forward. The situation was resolved.

Joshua Morales, a friend of one of the victims, told KETV that he believed that crime was racially motivated. He said he was aware of previous incidents involving Booth.

“[Booth] was supposedly telling [the friend’s] parents to go back to their country, and they got into problems. And I guess until now the dude just shot the house up. I guess it was just a racist thing that happened,” Morales said. “So, I guess the dude that shot them was just racist ’cause he shot a Hispanic family and he told a Hispanic family to go back to their country.”

A motive for the shooting is being investigated.

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Nebraska

A chance of rain/thunderstorms to start the week across Greater Nebraska

Published

13 hours ago

June 30, 2024

Press Room

A chance of rain/thunderstorms to start the week across Greater Nebraska

NORTH PLATTE, Neb. (KNOP) – For our Sunday we saw partly cloudy and breezy; some isolated t-storms are possible with highs staying near 77. Monday we keep partly cloudy skies with another chance of afternoon/evening showers/t-storms; hotter with highs near 89.

Spring like weather day to finish the weekend across Greater Nebraska.(Maxuser | Justin Craft)

Tuesday should be mainly dry with partly cloudy skies; still warm with highs near 85. Wednesday partly cloudy skies with highs near 88, with a slight chance of rain/thunderstorms after 1 pm and a chance of rain/thunderstorms for the night.

A chance of rain/thunderstorms for Wednesday across Greater Nebraska.(Maxuser | Justin Craft)

Thursday mostly sunny skies and a slight chance of rain/thunderstorms during the night, highs near 83. Then for Friday we’ll be mostly sunny but dry; highs remain in the low-mid 80s.

Mostly sunny skies return for Thursday and Friday across Greater Nebraska.(Maxuser | Justin Craft)

Saturday mostly sunny and highs near 89. Next Sunday highs near 90 and mostly sunny skies.

An active start to the week and then nice weather to finish across Greater Nebraska.(Maxuser | Justin Craft)

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Nebraska

Nebraska Considers Putting Fans' Ashes Under Football Field

Published

20 hours ago

June 30, 2024

Press Room

Nebraska Considers Putting Fans' Ashes Under Football Field

A University of Nebraska regent has proposed a way for lifelong Cornhusker fans to carry their support into the afterlife. When Memorial Stadium undergoes its next renovation, the AP reports that Regent Barbara Weitz of Omaha suggested building a columbarium under the football field where departed fans can have their ashes inurned. The idea might be dead on arrival. Her fellow regents laughed at the proposal. Weitz acknowledged she made her pitch light-heartedly but didn’t think any proposal should be dismissed out of hand with the university facing a $58 million budget shortfall. The price for niches, where cremation urns are stored, could vary depending on location, with a spot under the 50-yard line or end zone sold at a premium. Revenue, she said, would go to academics.

“One thing I know best about Nebraska is … we really do love our sports teams,” Weitz says. “It’s part of being a Nebraskan. So why wouldn’t being buried under the field be a great way to be close to your team forever? So it was kind of a combination of needing money, talking about ways to get it, and then kind of trying to say let’s use our imaginations.” Fans wishing to scatter a loved one’s ashes at their favorite team’s stadium is not unheard of and there are columbariums and other fan memorials at soccer, rugby, and horse racing venues in Europe. There are cemeteries and columbariums at Notre Dame, Texas A&M, and military academies that are unaffiliated with sports.

The passion of fans makes sports-themed columbariums a natural, said Colm Hannon, founder of an Ireland-based business that creates fan memorials in Europe. “I think many families realize the fan’s spiritual home was the stadium,” Hannon said. “It was the place they had the best memories. It’s somewhere they would much rather go to remember their loved one than a graveyard… If you want to be mourned, choose a graveyard. If you want to be celebrated, choose a sports ground.” Nebraska Regent Paul Kenney says he found Weitz’s proposal “somewhat entertaining” but says her idea is “not in my top 1,000” possible budget solutions. Regent Jack Stark, the Huskers’ team psychologist from 1989-2004, said over the years he has had people tell him a loved one’s dying wish was to have their ashes sprinkled on the field. “I do think there would be a market for it,” Stark says.

(More University of Nebraska stories.)

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