What happened in the Midlands on this day? Here's a sampling from the World-Herald archives.
School board urged to fight beer flats
Feb. 20, 1934: A committee from the Nebraska Beverage Dispensers Association appealed to the school board to cooperate in a drive against beer flats and other establishments that are selling beer without state and city licenses. H. Malcolm Baldrige told the board that since beer became legal in Nebraska, legitimate dispensers paid out nearly $70,000 in license fees, all of which went into the coffers of the school district. "Unless protection is given to the legitimate dealers that $70,000 will drop tremendously next August," he predicted. "And the school district will be the big loser."
1975: Kearney volunteer firemen were called to the new city library, nearing completion in downtown Kearney, when workmen digging an elevator shaft struck an underground pool of gasoline. Fire Chief Dwaine Gorgensen speculated that the adjoining gas station, Miller Skelly Service, may have developed an underground leak in its supply tanks and the gasoline was never absorbed by the soil. All heat was shut down and work stopped at the library while firemen sprayed foam into the shaft on top of the gasoline to prevent vapors from escaping.
1993: A total of 698 eagles wintered in Nebraska this year, a Nebraska Game and Parks Commission survey showed. The number was about average for the five prior years and was 594 fewer than a year ago, when the most eagles ever recorded wintered in the state. The winter's weather kept down the number of eagles, said John Dinan, commission nongame biologist.
2006: Kearney's new Cherry Avenue exit from Interstate 80 wouldn't look like most roadway tributes to the nation's fast-food culture. Instead, Kearney's new exit, due to open in 2009, would resemble Grand Island's undeveloped Locust Street interchange, which had opened two years earlier. "You can't build out there for half a mile or a mile on either side of the Interstate. It's infringing on the whooping cranes' territory,'' former Grand Island Mayor Ken Gnadt said. The Locust Street exit reflected federal efforts to preserve habitat for white whooping cranes and other wildlife.
Copyright ©2012 Omaha World-Herald®. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, displayed or redistributed for any purpose without permission from the Omaha World-Herald.
