Grape Harvest

On Saturday, August 29th I did something I have never done before. My sister, Cindy, her husband, John and I help our cousin Hank Rahmig pick grapes in his small vineyard southeast of Gering.
We saw them at Mulligan's on Friday night when we were celebrating family birthdays. They mentioned that they were picking grapes the next morning. So out we went picking grapes.


The picking of the grapes was okay, but seeing his small vineyard and seeing the grapes on the vine, was very picturesque. Here are the pictures. We only picked the white grapes that day. Hank will pick the others sometime next week.

Today was the budget workshop. I would have rather been out picking grapes, since the session lasted over four hours. However, issues were resolved and we will take it to public hearing in September.

Next Tuesday, September 8th, will be a joint council session with the City of Scottsbluff. As we both move forward, we have to continue to look at ways to work together, or services will be cut.

The State of the Valley luncheon will be held on Wednesday, September 16th at the Hampton Inn. Call the chamber for tickets if you are interested. Sometimes you feel you are getting anywhere until you look back and see what has been accomplished. If you have an interest in the communities, please plan on attending and hear first hand what is happening in the community as a whole.

Until next time.....

Building a Playground

I am a member of the Scottsbluff Kiwanis Club. You know the club that headed up building the Trails of Fun Playground in Riverside Park! Months ago when the club decided to do this, I thought that it was rather ambitious. However, with the leadership of Bob Commings, Charmaine Uhrig, Roger Russell, and LOTS of volunteers the mission was accomplished on Sunday.

I usually refer to myself as "craftily challenged." Meaning I usually don't have patience for crafts like woodworking. However, I seemed to take to power tools last week! This first day I worked was Thursday and I mostly painted boards. To say the least pretty boring.

By Saturday, Dave one of the engineers from Leathers Associates, Inc. asked,"Do you think you can do signs?" Well since I am a Marketing person by trade, I figured, "yes I can!"


So Ann Koehler, Mary Crawford and I set to making the signs for the new playground. We drew out the letters on the 2x8 and 2x6 boards and then what? Time for the ROUTER. Dave picked it up, showed me what to do, and said do it. From 5" letters to 1 1/2" letters, I carved them in the wood! To say the least, my hands were cramping up that night. After all, I am used to making signs on a computer, not a piece of wood! Thanks Dave for showing me a new skill! I probably need to also thank Rick Myers for capturing the moment.

The playground is for the most part done! I few minor things remain. However, you need to go just south of Riverside Zoo and see it. It is truly amazing! After all as one of the signs reads:
"Imagined by Kids, Designed by the Community, Built by Volunteers"

I am very proud to part of such a wonderful project that brought all the cities together. The Mayor of Terrytown, Kent Greenwalt worked on it and the Mayor of Scottsbluff, Randy Meininger was there with the first aid station from Valley Ambulance. Luckily no major injuries. Just a lot of sore muscles! We did give Mayor Meininger grief about staying so clean!

Congratulations to the Kiwanis Clubs putting it all together, and to our "progressive, growing community of one". On behalf of the City of Scottsbluff, the City of Terrytown, Scotts Bluff County and the City of Gering, I commend all the volunteers for a job WELL DONE!

By the way, if you would like to find out more about Kiwanis, we meet on Thursday at noon at the Skyport Restaurant. Find out what amazing things you can do, one child, one community at a time.

Check out Rick Myers photos on the project at:
http://www.starherald.com/articles/2009/08/18/lifestyles/community/doc4a8a260d06025433914134.txt

Until next time....

Busy Summer

Tonight after the Council meeting, Jerry Purvis from the Gering Citizen politely mentioned that I haven't updated this blog since June. So I thought since the council meeting only lasted 15 minutes that I would take the time to do it.

It has been a very busy summer for me. Not only as Mayor, but also as Marketing Director of Panhandle Coop, my job that pays the bills and I had family in town the first three weekends in July!

We made it through the 10 noisy days of "fireworks season." I don't believe we had any major damage, then it was on to Oregon Trail Days.

The newly paved 10th street looked mighty nice for the Street Dance on the 9th, the Food Fair on the 10th, and of course the parade on the 11th. I have to commend the city employees who work through out that weekend. Police, streets, electric, parks and sanitation all work hours of overtime to keep things looking nice for everyone during that weekend and making sure people behave. We had a few challenges, but overall it was a fun filled weekend! The concert had a little rain delay, but Terry Clark and James Otto both performed good shows!

I was also excited to see my niece, April Nigh, who was in town. She currently lives in Beijing, China. On Sunday morning, July 12th many members of my family and I walked up the Saddle Rock trail at

Scotts Bluff National Monument. Besides the

beautiful scenery we encountered two unexpected individuals. One being Congressman Adrian Smith and the other, Mr. Rattlesnake making his way across the trail. If you look closely you can see him next to the grass on the left.

The next weekend, one of Gering's longtime volunteers for the Tree, Park and Cemetery Board, Charlie Fenster celebrated his 90th birthday! On Saturday, July 18 a reception was held for him at Northfield Villa. I presented Charlie, who has been on the Park Board since 1972 and is one of the reasons our parks are so beautiful, a key to the City and proclaimed it Charlie Fenster Day!! Charlie was almost speechless and that is very unusual.

Also that day, my family had a small reunion. My niece April was still here and her brother, Eric Nigh, his wife Tania and their six-month daughter Tati were here from Baghdad, Iraq. It was the first time many of us had met Tania and their baby, Tati, who was just precious! On Sunday, we drove to the top of Scotts Bluff (no snakes this time) to show them around as well as my other nephew John Wiedeman and his wife Krista, who live in Lincoln, NE.

I have also been working on a new website for Panhandle Coop which is now up and running. Check it out at http://www.panhandlecoop.com/.

Gering City Clerk, Rosie Russell and I have been working on the City's website. We are currently working with someone to update it. We were also getting ready for filming of a community video, which was filmed last week. A young man named Seth Wells, was here from New York and Rosie took him everywhere. He had never been to Nebraska before and was totally amazed at our city. He told me sometimes he has to work to make a city look good on video, but Gering was easy. He took lots of video and we are anxious to view it.

Other projects going on, is the start of construction of the City's new well field. I will have updates for you in future blogs. I will try to update this more often, but as you can see, it has been a very busy summer!
Until next time,
Susan