COLERIDGE — The Coleridge Blade website, coleridge.us, will carry complete coverage of this year’s Cedar County elections.
The web site will be updated just as soon as the elections are finalized.
Since the polling places will still be open when the Blade is printed, next week’s issue will not contain any election news. However, results from the elections will be available on May 19.

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LAUREL — The wait is over — Coleridge will have a Middle School next fall.
After months of speculation, meetings, planning, research and differences of opinions, the Laurel-Concord School Board members voted 4-1 to approve moving students in grades 5-8 to a Middle School in Coleridge for the 2010-11 school year. John Wolfgram was the only Board member to vote against the plan.
Coleridge High School students will attend classes at Laurel-Concord and the two schools will be involved in a football co-op.
Coleridge is currently bussing pre-school through fourth grade students to Laurel.
Before the vote was taken, Supt. Rich Patton was asked to give his recommendation on the middle school.

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COLERIDGE — The main focus for Coleridge Christians Caring is helping those in need.
Representatives from all four churches in Coleridge came together in 1986 to discuss what they could do to offer a helping hand to others.
A decision was made at the meeting to ask each of the Coleridge churches to appoint two or three people to serve with the pastors on a steering committee which became known as the Christians Caring Committee.
Over the last 23 years the good deeds done by Christians Caring range from reaching out with a bag of groceries to helping send books to Afghanistan.

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COLERIDGE — The Coleridge School hallways were full Monday.
Over 160 people showed up to gather information, ask questions and voice opinions on whether a Middle School for Laurel and Coleridge students should be located in Coleridge.
The Middle School Information Meeting included a tour of the school building, along with information on having students from Coleridge and Laurel-Concord Schools merge if a middle school is created.
Supt. Rich Patton said a middle school at Coleridge would give the students their own space and activities.
This idea is not new as Coleridge, Laurel-Concord, Newcastle and Wynot schools have a history of sharing.

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WAKEFIELD — Board members from four schools in northeast Nebraska held a strategic planning workshop at the Education Service Unit in Wakefield on Sept 30.
Close to 40 school board members, administrators and patrons from the Coleridge, Laurel-Concord, Newcastle and Wynot School districts discussed the future of the inter-local agreement for sharing that the schools have been involved in.
Burma Kroger, Director of Board Development for the Nebraska Association of School Boards chaired the workshop.
The hot topic of the evening was football and the possibility of developing a middle school for the Coleridge and Laurel-Concord Schools.

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HARTINGTON — A Coleridge man is expected to be in court today on weapons and terroristic threat charges.
Nebraska State Patrol Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team and a police dog were used to apprehend Myron “Mike” Dirks, 49, who lives three miles east of Coleridge.
Dirks was arrested after a more than five-hour standoff with authorities following a domestic disturbance.
Dirks is being held in the Cedar County Jail in Hartington after being arrested for 1st degree Domestic Assault, 1st degree Assault, Terroristic Threats and use of a Fire Arm to Commit a Felony.

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HARTINGTON —A petition filed in District Court to stop a 5,000 head feedlot from being located within one mile of the Village of Coleridge has been thrown out.
District Judge William Binkard has issued an order to dismiss a petition filed by the “Concerned Citizens of Coleridge,” which asked the Coleridge Village Board to reverse their decision on the conditional use permit for the feedlot.
After reviewing the arguments and briefs, Binkard found the “Concerned Citizens of Coleridge” did not have a legal standing to bring the action to District Court. The order also said the petition had a jurisdictional defect.

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COLERIDGE — Immanuel Lutheran Church parishioners remembered their German heritage on Sunday with prayers and readings spoken in German, polka music and delicious food at the Germanfest Buffet which followed the morning worship service and Vacation Bible School Program.
The program was part of the special events connected with the church’s 125th anniversary celebration taking place this year.

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COLERIDGE —  A trip to New Orleans made a big impact on a group of Coleridge youth.
They have been inspired to bring some of the things they learned back to their home community.
Fourteen kids from the Coleridge Luther League were among over 38,000 youth who streamed into New Orleans for a National Youth Gathering put on by the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America.
Teens from nearly every state in the union took part in the National Youth Gathering which turned out to be more than a time of Bible studies, church services and fun activities.

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COLERIDGE —  An influenza, which was tagged as the “swine flu”, has had a negative affect on hog producers in Cedar County as well as across the nation.
The Novel H1N1 influenza, referred to as the swine flu early on, has definitely hurt the export market for pork, according to Jan Miller who serves as the director for the Nebraska Pork Producers.
“A virus that was misnamed has tremendously contributed to the problems the pork industry is facing,” said Miller.
Jim and Jan Miller, who have a farrow-to-finish hog operation near Belden, have seen first-hand what has happened to the hog market.
The industry has lost an estimated $800 million, according to Miller.

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