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Single Car Accident Injures Three Local Men

On Sunday, July 25, 2010 at approximately 1:52 am, the Frontier County Sheriffs Office received a report of a one-vehicle accident south of Curtis on Highway 18, Frontier County, Nebraska. A 2006 Volkswagon Jetta (pictured above) had left the roadway and rolled several times down an embankment. There were three victims found at the scene. Jeremy J. Widick age 37, Wayne L. Schurr, age 37 and Bret L. Campbell, age 27. Widick was initially transported from the scene by ambulance and then transferred to helicopter and taken to Good Samaritan Hospital in Kearney. Schurr and Campbell were transported by ambulance to the Great Plains Medical Center in North Platte. All three subjects are from the Curtis/Maywood area. Widick currently resides in Lincoln, Nebraska. The accident is being investigated by the Frontier County Sheriff’s Office and the Nebraska State Patrol

NCTA’s Education Center Construction Project On Hold

The bids for the construction of the new Education Center and Veterinary Hospital addition were opened and the lowest bid was $1 million over what the architects had budgeted for the projects. Dr. Weldon Sleight said “that set us back and it was a very devastating day when we heard that news. But we went to work and did some value engineering and were able to cut the $1 million overage down to $500,000.” Sleight added, “If we go beyond the $500,000, we would be taking some very important pieces out of these buildings. We determined that we would have to do fund raising to cover the $500,000.”

According to Dr. Sleight, the $500,000 cut was the result changing out some of the components that were to be used and some items were eliminated. Sleight stated, “I feel bad about the items that were eliminated, but we will try to come up with the money that will allow us to add those items at a later date.” He added, “Obviously there is a bunch of equipment and such that we wish we could have but we won’t, at least initially.”

Another thing that added to the higher cost was trying to keep the old Dairy Barn intact because it is an icon on the NCTA campus. A large number of NCTA alumni had stated that they did not want the Dairy Barn to be taken down. So the Dairy Barn was incorporated into the plans that were developed. Dr. Sleight said, “We will do as much as we can to keep the Dairy Barn as part of the new Veterinary addition.”

When asked about the large difference in the architects’ budget and the actual bids that were submitted, Dr. Sleight stated that it was the difference in construction costs between building in rural southwest Nebraska and building in the Lincoln and Omaha area. Apparently it is the difference in transportation and travel costs. He stated “the same architectural firm (Clark Enersen Partners) came in $2 million under budget for a project in Lincoln, while they missed the mark by $1 million on the NCTA project

Dr. Sleight will be meeting with the University of Nebraska Board of Regents on August 17th. That leaves less than a month to raise a half a million dollars. Dr. Sleight stated, “We are hopeful that we can come up with the plan that is necessary to keep the project on track.” If the necessary money can be raised and the plan approved by the Board of Regents on August 17th, Dr. Sleight estimates that construction should begin by first part of September.

If the Board of Regents does not okay the revised plans for the Education Building and Veterinary addition, new plans would have to be prepared and the buildings would have to be made smaller and that would probably hold up construction for approximately six months.