The following questions were asked recently on the Wonderline:
Q: Why do we rarely see photos published, in the News-Times of the police and sheriff personnel? Group pictures of those brave individuals would be super.
A: Each October, we have special pages honoring our local law enforcement and on those pages, we publish all their photos.
As far as regularly seeing our officers in the newspaper – that was once a common practice. But two years ago, the YNT stopped per the request of the agencies, because of threats against officers and the dangers of their identities being known in certain circumstances.
Q: This hail damage sure didn’t help some of the properties in York that were already run down and really more than an eye sore already. There are some properties that desperately need to be cleaned up but nothing ever happens. Is there anything the city can do?
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A: This very topic was discussed this past week before the York City Council.
York’s asset manager, Dan Aude, said his office has contacted the owners of 15 properties with issues and “we’ve had a pretty good response. We gave them timeframes to address the problems. There are still some we haven’t been able to contact. We also talked with one who cannot do the repairs – we will give them some time and then the city will do the demo.”
He said the city continues to follow the steps of protocol when it comes to properties with these types of issues.
But he also noted that regarding one of the problem houses that was turned in last year – that house is now gone, the lot has been cleaned up and a new house is now in its place. “So that’s good news.”
Q: Is it true that the city work crews were out all night last Tuesday night/Wednesday morning (last week) cleaning up from the major hail storm? If so, we should all give them a big thank you.
A: That is true.
Mayor Barry Redfern said he wanted to say a public thank you to the city workers “for all they did. They were out there all night. Kudos to them for their hard work. We all really, really appreciate it.”
Q: How many calls go into the local emergency communications center in a month?
A: Lela Luft, director of the emergency communications center, said they receive about 450 911 emergency calls a month, as well as 3,500 non-emergent calls in that same timeframe.
Q: With the terrible school shooting in Texas, I was wondering if the sheriff’s department will be doing some added training for our school personnel in this area and if the staff at the York County Sheriff’s Department has done any special training of its own to prepare for such a tragic event.
A: York County Sheriff Paul Vrbka said, “The sheriff’s department has provided active shooter training (for staff and school personnel) in all the schools in the county and will continue to provide that training. We have also been working with several local businesses addressing active shooters in the workplace.
The sheriff’s department is also planning a future program to include training for fire departments on proper active shooter response procedures.”
Q: When was the worst hail storm in Nebraska history?
A: Many sources say it was in Aurora and Hamilton County on June 22, 2003. Many homes, buildings and crops were ruined across Hamilton County. Craters up to 14 inches in diameter were found in the ground in some places, sites say. The value of the damage was said to be the highest from a single hail storm in the state’s history.
Q: Is it possible for my tomato plants and other plants in my yard to bounce back after being hailed out? They looked completely dead last week but some of it almost seems to have little sprigs of green coming out of it.
A: Jenny Rees, UNL Extension educator, addressed damage to yards in a recent column, following the rounds of hail received in this area in recent weeks.
She said: “The biggest thing to remember for trees, lawns, plants in general is to not apply fertilizer or any products to stressed plants. Plants will shoot new growth as long as the growing point wasn’t injured. Damaged vegetation will turn brown and eventually slough off. If you do choose to cut away dead growth, it may be wise to dip your scissors/pruning shears in a 10% bleach solution (one part bleach to nine parts water) after each cut to reduce the opportunity for bacterial transmission. For those with rhubarb that was ready to be harvested, you can still cut and use stems that aren’t mushy from rotting at this point (can cut out the most damaged areas of stems with stone damage).”