WOOD RIVER, Neb. (KSNB) – The Hall County Historical Society visited the senior center in Wood River to tell the story of an experimental government program from the 1930s.

Rural Rehabilitation was an experimental government program that spanned across the United States and started in 1934. One of the locations that met the criteria for the program was Hall County.

Michelle Setlik, Vice President of Hall County Historical Society, said 10 Hall County families were selected for the Farmstead Project.

“Hall County was chosen for the Farmstead Program because it met the criteria for the federal government,” said Setlik. “It had good quality soil, it had water, it had enough people that needed assistance that were on the relief roles and it had land available for the government to purchase for the project.”

The following conditions had to be met:

1. The area needed to have an agricultural history
2. A large number of families eligible for relief had to live in the area
3. An adequate water supply (either rainfall or irrigation) had to be present
4. The site had access to markets for the produced goods
5. There had to be suitable land available for purchase in the area

The communities for the Farmstead Program were selected by NERA (National Economic Research Associates) and supporting agencies. The families also had to meet a certain criteria to be considered for the program.

Criteria for selected families include:

1. The family must have been on the relief rolls of the county where the project was being constructed
2. The head of the household had to be between the ages of 35-50
3. There had to be 4-6 members of the family

According to the historical society, in order to be considered for the Farmstead Project, families had to submit an application that was then reviewed by three different agencies.

Each Farmstead Family received the following:

• Four room cottage
• Small barn
• Chicken House
• Poultry yard
• Land for garden and small orchard
• Seeds
• Livestock: two cows, 100 hens, 300 chickens

Once families agreed to the terms, they were given a one-year lease on the property for a nominal fee and after a one-year probation period they could be eligible to purchase the property on a 15-year payment plan, according to the historical society.

Setlik said the Hall County Historical Society is celebrating their 100th anniversary this year and have plans to make 12 new historical markers for the county.

One of those markers will be put at the site of the Farmstead homes in Grand Island off of Highway 34 on Farmstead Road.

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Former Nebraska sharpshooter Keisei Tominaga will get an opportunity to show whether he’s worth a turn in the NBA, as he agreed to an Exhibit 10 deal with the Indiana Pacers, a source told ESPN’s Jonathan Givony.

Tominaga was named second-team All-Big Ten last season after helping lead Nebraska to an NCAA Tournament bid for the first time since 2014.

Winner of this year’s College Three-Point content, he notched 76 3-pointers last season, on his way to compiling a 37.4 percent clip for 3-pointers over his three seasons as a Cornhusker.

Tominaga averaged 11.4 points, 1.8 rebounds, 0.9 assists and 22.7 minutes in 94 games (57 starts) with Nebraska.

An Exhibit 10 contract is essentially a tryout that includes a one-year, minimum-salary NBA contract. Teams have until the start of the regular season to convert that contract into a two-way contract with the player.

Information from Field Level Media was used in this report.

BEATRICE, Nebraska — A federal grant is expected to turn a long-discussed project to enhance downtown Beatrice into a reality.

The city recently was named a recipient of a $21.4 million grant from the federal infrastructure bill, which will be used to reroute U.S. Highway 136 one block south, around the downtown core, to make that area more pedestrian- and festival-friendly.

An official with the Main Street Beatrice program, which is leading redevelopment efforts, said that moving semi-truck traffic off the east-west highway, known as Court Street, in the center of downtown will allow the community to string holiday lights, install public art, benches and landscaping, and more easily shut off the street for festivals and events.

“It opens up a world of opportunities,” said Morgan Fox, executive director of Main Street Beatrice.

Tobias Tempelmeyer, Beatrice’s city manager, echoed that sentiment.

“It’s a very transformative project for us,” he said.

The grant money is coming from the federal Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity program, or RAISE, which is part of the bipartisan infrastructure program passed under President Joe Biden. 

The RAISE program has granted more than $7.2 billion to about 550 projects across the country, including one other in Nebraska. 

That is a $750,000 grant to Lincoln County to study alternative routes for freight traffic and improvements for pedestrians and bicyclists’ infrastructure, and support the ongoing development of the Nebraska International Port of the Plains, which is being developed near North Platte.

In Beatrice, rerouting Highway 136 has been discussed for several years, but it always included concerns about how to finance such a project, as well as questions about whether rerouting the east-west highway along Market Street, one block to the south, might harm restaurants, bars and others businesses along Court Street.

The city already has designated truck routes around Court Street, but the routes are voluntary, and few truckers traveling east-west used them, according to Tempelmeyer.

Gov. Jim Pillen, in a recent press release, congratulated Beatrice on obtaining the grant funds, noting the assistance from the Nebraska Department of Transportation.

“I’m proud that Beatrice leaned into this opportunity and appreciate NDOT’s efforts to support them in making the project a reality. It’s a big win for Nebraska,” said Pillen, who has called for increasing use of federal grant funds.

The $21 million grant will be used to redesign and reconstruct the highway and to add pedestrian and cyclist safety features, the press release said.

Tempelmeyer said a formal vote to accept the federal grant will be taken by the Beatrice City Council in the next couple of months. 

After that, he said, the city will hire an engineering firm to design the approximately six block rerouting. It will be at least two years, Tempelmeyer estimated, before work to reroute the highway and to beautify Court Street will begin.