130 Years Ago
January 19, 1894
Commissioners met at 9 a.m.; all members present. The county treasurer is hereby authorized to refund William E. Hall $3.11 for tax erroneously collected for the year 1892; receipt No. 3,160. The official bonds of W. J. Earnest, deputy sheriff, and Bert Pinger, overseer road district No. 18, were filed, examined and approved.
125 Years Ago
January 20, 1899
Alliance Wins County Seat. Supreme Court holds mandamus may be maintained to compel commissioners to order election for removal of county seat if proper petition has been presented. Refusal of petition is arbitrary authority. District court affirmed. E. J. Streight. Assistant Clerk Supreme Court. The first glad tidings of the above came to Alliance yesterday afternoon in the shape of a short telegram from D. A. Campbell, clerk of the court, to R. C. Noleman stating that the case had been affirmed. The news spread like wild fire it was not five minuted until it was known in every business house and was the sole topic of discussion on the street. The cannon was brought out, and appraised people of the country roundabout that Alliance had cause for rejoicing. Hemingford’s attorneys are allowed by law forty days in which to apply to the supreme court for a re-hearing and new trial, but in this there is scarcely one chance in a thousand of success, and it is likely they will make the best of the situation and now accede to the will of the people and the mandates of the court without further contention.
120 Years Ago
January 19, 1904
Capt. W. H. Corbin again bid adieu to Alliance last night, going from here to Denver, thence over the Santa Fe road to Albuquerque, New Mexico. From there he will go to the city of Mexico. He has covered the greater portion of this territory in previous trips, but expects to enjoy another visit. TIMES hopes he may return to Alliance safe and sound in the springtime when he shall have had a surfeit of sight-seeing.
115 Years Ago
January 19, 1909
The energetic work of the Woman’s club in five short weeks soliciting and arranging, results in a public library of 328 volumes now accessible to all who desire. This is surely a nice start in so brief a time for a Carnegie library. Some thirty odd dollars is also to be expended for juvenile books and the public should remember that these books are free to all. The library is in the basement of the opera house block.
110 Years Ago
January 16, 1914
One of the most aggravating thefts yet reported in local railway circles occurred here Friday night, when a carload of flour consigned to local merchants from the Hemingford mills was entered and three sacks of flour taken and twenty-seven sacks ripped open by some sharp instrument and the contents scattered over the car floor. The car had been received Friday and partly unloaded by the merchants who had purchased the flour. A large amount still remained in the car, which was closed that night, but not locked, as the merchants claim, owing to a defective hasp.
105 Years Ago
January 17, 1919
The City Council met at the city hall last Tuesday evening, it being the first meeting for a considerable length of time, as other meetings had been deferred on account of the recent epidemic of influenza and a combination of other events.
100 Years Ago
January 18, 1924
The Box Butte county commissioners and the county attorney went to Berea Thursday afternoon to arrange for the right-of-way for the new federal aid highway between Alliance and Hemingford and then to Marsland. If satisfactory arrangements can be made through the village, work on the new road will be started just as soon as the weather will permit in the spring.
95 Years Ago
January 18, 1929
Complete remodeling of the city hall building from cellar to garret is taking place. The ring of the carpenter’s hammer is heard in every part of the dilapidated old structure which has stood on East Third street for the past quarter century. Old partitions are being torn out and new ones put in in various places about the building. Nearly everything is being changed except the furnace room and the city jail.
90 Years Ago
January 16, 1934
To farmers who desire to subscribe or renew their subscriptions, the Times-Herald is now offering to accept live poultry, turkeys or eggs as payment for subscriptions, offering a premium price to farmers who elect to make the exchange. The Times-Herald will accept live chickens or turkeys at three cents per pound above the market price on the day of delivery and eggs at a premium of four cents per dozen.
85 Years Ago
January 17, 1939
Horace “Huttie” Anderson has made good his boast that he would have the Alliance municipal auditorium blackballed by the American Federation of Musicians. This means that no union orchestra, local or out-of-town, can play in the auditorium, except those booked for engagements prior to the decision of the executive board of the A. F. & M. City officials were surprised, so was this newspaper, so were many citizens of Alliance, including members of the railroad and other unions, by the national musicians’ union’s action. They did not believe that the union musicians’ executive board would grant the local union’s request to blacklist the auditorium, in view of the fact that the city administration takes no part and, for that matter, has no legal right to take part in the hiring of the orchestras engaged by groups renting the auditorium.
80 Years Ago
January 18, 1944
Exhibit A, first in gathering of home brew since repeal, stood on a table in Sheriff Dan Hoppes office Monday morning, a result of an all-Sunday day’s work. Four half-gallon bottles, one gallon and another jar of mash, supposed to be “in the making.” Albert Waite, rancher 13 miles southwest of Alliance, made a frantic call to the sheriff at 5:00 a.m. saying he was about to be killed and for the sheriff to come out. He said he had found a baby in a snow drift and there was plenty trouble to straighten out.
75 Years Ago
January 18, 1949
The Panhandle REA late last week received a carload of wire. Stringing of the first 90 miles of lines in the east part of Box Butte county will take two or three weeks and will begin when county roads have been cleared off, J. L. Samuels, REA manager, said Saturday. Crews have set 178 miles of poles in this district and as additional wire is received and weather permits, more people will receive current, Samuels said.
70 Years Ago
January 16, 1954
Miss Marjorie Mischnick of Alliance High School, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Walter Mischnick, this morning won the annual Daughters of the American Revolution Good Citizenship contest. Her theme: “What Constitutes A Good Citizen” won her the right to compete in the state-wide contest.
65 Years Ago
January 17, 1959
The Alliance Livestock Commission Co. received a certificate this week denoting it a “Nationally Certified Livestock Auction Market”. The certificate as issued carried the name of the market and a certification by the chairman of the Association’s Livestock Market Council that the market has been found to meet the standards set forth in 17 operating principles condensed from the code.
60 Years Ago
January 17, 1964
Enthusiasm, appreciation, goodwill and good humor were qualities that were abundantly generated at the annual meeting of the Alliance Chamber of Commerce Thursday evening. Enthusiasm sprang from the sell-Nebraska talk of the state’s “first lady”, Mrs. Maxine Morrison, wife of the Governor.
55 Years Ago
January 17, 1969
While snow outside filtered down from a murky sky, the great protest meeting, as indicated by advance publicity, to singe City Hall for inadequate snow removal efforts fizzles inside an over-warm Council chamber here Thursday evening. The Councilmen outnumbered the articulate protestors. Talk resulted, but none of it warm enough to melt any snow, or to generate any more hours of removal work.
50 Years Ago
January 17, 1974
Box Butte County Supt. Joan Kollars announced today that her office has been approved for receipt of a mini-grant from the Nebraska Department of Education for a program designed to assist with the total education of accelerated learners in county schools.
45 Years Ago
January 17, 1979
Last summer, as the Box Butte County Commissioners considered budgets and pay increases for county employees, a disagreement arose between the county offices about when such pay increases should be granted. The Commissioners decided to give each county official the equivalent of $50 per month, per employee to be divided as the official saw fit and to be used when the employees wanted them. According to Commissioner John Ditsch, because of the lid requirement, employees who waited until January to get a pay raise, may have their salaries cut in July.
40 Years Ago
January 17, 1984
People were wall-to-wall in the former Copsey Clinic waiting room in Alliance, now the meeting room of Educational Service Unit 12, with the focus of attention on an action of the ESU six-member board launched last August. On Aug. 15, the ESU board in that same room had approved a resolution to file a complaint alleging a lack of cooperation by a former administrator, Joan (Mrs. Richard) Kollars. It became a board consensus that the item should be on the next regular agenda of the ESU.
35 Years Ago
January 17, 1989
After some grilling, the Alliance School Board approved an overnight trip for 14 to 16 varsity cheerleaders to attend the state girls basketball tournament March 2-3-4; state wrestling tournament Feb. 16-17-18; and state boys basketball tournament March 8-9-10. This was during a regular school board meeting Monday in the administration office.
30 Years Ago
January 17, 1994
The Alliance City Council will hold a special meeting Friday, Jan. 21, at 1 p.m. The meeting will be held in the Conference Room of the Municipal Building. The Council will be selecting the five finalists for the position of City Manager.
25 Years Ago
January 16, 1999
Current renovations of one of the Alliance YMCA’s four racquetball courts is making more room for the cardiovascular strength training machines which were donated by Burlington Northern Santa Fe to the Y.
20 Years Ago
January 21, 2004
Alliance Police Department Detective Deb Baldwin has been promoted to Sergeant. Baldwin is a seven-year veteran of the APD. She was promoted to Detective in 2002 and has extensive training in investigation.
15 Years Ago
January 16, 2009
Lieutenant Governor Rick Sheehy visited Alliance last night, stopping at the airport for a quick news conference. The visit was part of a fly-around to summarize Governor Dave Heineman’s State of the State Address and budget proposals, and to take questions from constituents.
10 Years Ago
January 17, 2014
Jean Nelson, this week’s honoree and final Unsung Hero, believes that “If you’re going to be a part of a community, you need to be the part that helps it grow and get better, and not just be a bystander,” which she herself lives by.
5 Years Ago
January 19, 2019
The Alliance Shopko was not on the list of stores closing today (Jan. 16) as the Green Bay, Wis., company announced on its website that the retailer has filed for a “court-supervised financial restructuring under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code.”