More Cedar County voters are utilizing early voting
HARTINGTON — Sixty-four percent of Cedar County’s 6,415 registered voters cast ballots in last week’s general election. 
Of those, a record-setting 721, or 11 percent, voted early with the new early voting ballots, said Cedar County Clerk Dave Dowling. 
One area in particular really brought the voters out, Dowling said. In the Fordyce area, 80 percent of the registered voters cast ballots in the election. The city of Randolph also had a high voter participation as 64 percent of the voters turned out for the election.
The lowest voter turn-out was in the Magnet area, where only 32 percent of eligible voters cast ballots.
The Aten and Constance areas had the next lowest voter turn-out, with 42 percent of those elgible casting ballots.
Statewide 54 percent of the state’s registered voters cast ballots in the election.
In the May Primary election a dismal 27 percent of the electorate voted in Cedar County.
Dowling estimated some hotly contested races helped bring the majority of voters out for the Nov. 7 election. 
Dowling was himself involved in two races on Tuesday. He successfully ran for his sixth term as Cedar County Clerk. He also made a bid to unseat Nebraska Public Power District Chairman Wayne Boyd in the 11 District, but fell to the incumbent, 11,522-9,935. Dowling won Cedar County in the race and garnered 46 percent of the vote in the seven-county district.
In the major statewide races, Gov. Dave Heineman easily defeated Democratic challenger David Hahn, winning  74 percent of the vote.  
Heineman, 58, a a stalwart for the Nebraska Republican Party for 30 years, became the  unexpected governor in January 2005, when then-Gov. Mike Johanns became the unexpected U. S. secretary of agriculture.  
Heineman, whose only previous statewide office had been state treasurer, had become lieutenant governor after the previous one resigned.  
When Heineman filed for re-election, his name was not a household name and he found himself 40 points behind Rep. Tom Osborne in the initial polls taken during the primary race.   In May, however, Heineman’s campaign of doggedly criss-crossing the state for personal appearances allowed him to overtake the popular Nebraska football coach with a 17,000-vote victory, winning 75 of the state’s 93 counties.  
Asked if he had expected to be in this position when he was elected lieutenant governor four years ago, Heineman laughed and said:  
“No especially not the way this occurred.  I just want to thank the people of Nebraska.  They gave me a chance to prove myself in the primary.  They liked the job I’m doing, and we carried it over into the general election.”  
As a Republican who kept a firm grip on a governor’s office, Heineman bucked national trends on election day.  
While Heineman was defeating David Hahn, GOP governor candidates went down to defeat in several other states.  
Incumbent Sen. Ben Nelson and incumbent Congressmen Lee Terry and Jeff Fortenberry also won re-election Tuesday. Newcomer Adrian Smith defeated Scott Kleeb for the Third District Congressional seat.

Campbell brothers share stories from Iraq
By Deanna Anderson
Northeast Nebraska News
BELDEN — Three members of the 189th Transportation Company who were recently welcomed home from Iraq spoke here at the Cedar County American Legion Convention.
The Convention was held at the Union Presbyterian Church Basement Sunday evening.
Three brothers, Sgt. Brian Campbell, Sgt. Jody Campbell and Spec. Casey Campbell, showed slides from Iraq and answered questions.
The brothers who lived within 150 feet of one another in Iraq said they received training at Fort Riley in Kansas before being deployed.
“We knew how to do everything before we left, not just transportation,” said Jody.
While in Iraq, some of the items the transportation unit hauled included vehicles that had been blown up.
A slide was shown of a shattered windshield that had been in a vehicle.
“The windshields in our vehicles are strong, strong enough to withstand some of the bullets and explosives,” said Jody. “But not strong enough for everything.”
The explosives that are encountered in Iraq vary.
“At first the explosives were put on the guardrails so the military cut the guardrails down,” said Jody. “Then they put mines and explosives along the side of the roads. Some of the explosives are set off by wires with a detonator switch, while others work similar to a garage door opener.”
Even cell phones are used to set off some explosives, they said.
Some of the newer explosives are no bigger than a pop can.
The Campbell brothers were asked if the news coverage on Iraq was accurate here in the U.S.
“It shows the bad stuff; things being blown up,” Jody said. “It doesn’t show the good stuff that happens.”
The Campbells would like the American public to hear about some of the ‘good stuff, like getting the Iraqi Army up and running.’
“There were 30 of our unit sent to another base. Mike Olsen, from Coleridge, was one of them who helped train the Iraqis. They progressed enough for the Iraqis to take over on that base.”
The Campbells said it varies from area to area, but the Iraq people by their base liked having the U.S. in their country.
“There are really nice people in Iraq,” they said. “Some of them would give you the shirt off of their back.”
Some of the Iraqis are hired to do construction on the bases.
“They would be making $30 a month off base, on base they were paid about $300 a month,” Jody said.
The weather in Iraq is very hot during part of the year. The temperature was at 140 degrees at the hottest —with the wind blowing the heat into your face they said.
But during the winter months it was rainy and cooled off.
“I saw ice on top of the water during the rainy season,” said Jody. “There was a lot of mud when it rained.”
A short video was shown of a sandstorm in Iraq, where the visibility became zero during the daylight hours.
“You could not see anything,” said Jody. “If you were 20 feet from a truck, you could not see the tail lights.”
One thing the Campbell’s saw in Iraq that was familiar to them were corn fields.
“In certain sections they have a lot of corn growing,” said Jody. “Some of the country is beautiful. Further north it was greener and there were bushes. You could see snow up in the mountains.”
They saw several donkeys and camels, but a lot of people walked wherever they needed to go.
They have a lot of the same technology we have in the U.S.
“We saw clay houses with satellite dishes on top,” they said. “They have cell phones, lap tops and digital cameras. You can buy stuff a lot cheaper over there than you can back here.”
They had no trouble finding things to keep busy when they had time off.
“We had the internet and phones to use. You can play football or baseball. We played a lot of cards,” they said.
All three of the Campbell brothers have re-enlisted since joining the National Guards.
Their parents are Terry and Pat Campbell.
 
   
 County commission approves county-wide economic development plan
By Rita Brhel
Cedar County News
 
HARTINGTON -- The Cedar County Commission voted Tuesday to approve a new county-wide economic development project, effectively taking the first step to make the county and its communities more competitive for new business opportunities.
“We’re all in agreement that we got to invest in our future,” said Commissioner Richard Donner. An increasing number of counties are taking the regional route in economic development, marketing communities together instead of forcing towns to fight for survival on their own.
“We have been talking about this for years. We’ve been seeing what’s happening in other parts of the state and in other counties,” said Chris Miller of Hartington Community Development, the organization that led a group of multi-community leaders to propose the county-wide economic development project to the County Commission.
To show their support toward the project, the commissioners agreed to provide $2,500 in seed money, which will come from the County’s $15,000 economic development fund.
The money will be used to organize a public meeting, research potential costs and sources of funding, and recruit representatives from each of the county’s communities, whether incorporated and not.
“We need chamber presidents, economic development people, bankers, city boards, school superintendents and ag people,” Miller said. “It’s important that we get a good cross-section of the county.”
The goal of the county-wide economic development project is to eventually hire a coordinator to oversee all of Cedar County, working with community leaders in marketing the county and directing efforts in getting new business opportunities established. Towns would retain their economic development coordinators to work on individual downtown districts and other community-specific projects, but the county coordinator would administer any business opportunities that would affect a multi-community area.
The origin of the county-wide economic development program rests with a proposal from E3 BioFuels, a company seeking a location in Cedar County on which to build a combination ethanol plant-beef feedlot featuring a closed-loop system. The closed-loop system recycles the feedlot manure by turning it into methane gas that is then converted into electricity to power the operation.
The company is set to begin production at its first facility near Mead by the end of the year, and is interested in constructing an $84 million facility in Cedar County. Such a facility would provide 70 jobs and would boost both tax revenues and income potential for feed-supplying farmers in the county.
However, without a county-wide economic development program in place, Cedar County is unable to organize an effort to even explore the E3 BioFuels’ idea, let alone assist the company in beginning the process of locating here.
“They (E3 BioFuels) are still interested in coming up here, so what now?” Miller said.
During discussion about the county-wide economic development program, commissioners aired concerns about treating communities and school districts fairly in business development, and convincing communities to work with their neighbors that are still considered competitors.
“I know that some of these smaller communities, they’re going to be interested but want to know how this helps them,” Donner said. “They need to understand that if it (a business opportunity) isn’t going to happen in their community, it’s still going to benefit their community.”
There was also some apprehension in regards to finding a qualified county coordinator and then finding the funding to pay for him or her. Funding for a county coordinator and any additional staff would range from $30,000 to $150,000 per year. Other counties have used sales taxes and private business donations to match grant funds to pay for their coordinators. More research would need to be done to determine the best route for Cedar County.
If part of the coordinator’s salary must come from tax dollars, convincing county residents could be a challenge, said Commissioner Fred Pinkelman.
“The Commission can’t contribute much money, and the same thing holds for a lot of the taxpayers in the county,” he said. “A lot of people don’t look out far enough and don’t see the whole picture.”
The commissioners agreed that the first step is to hold a public meeting, hopefully in early 2007, to present the idea of a county-wide economic development program to the public.
The next County Commission meeting to address progress toward the project will be at 1 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 12, at the Cedar County Courthouse in Hartington.