Grinning face kabobs bobbing around at sporting events, large yard signs adorning front lawns, banners and more – these are all a sign of the times.
While first known for its excellence in flags, Blackburn Manufacturing has found increasing success and popular demand for its signs. To fit its customer base with the lawn care industry, the business first started producing cardstock signs to go with lawn application flags about 20 years ago, Blackburn graphic arts manager Jenny Murray said. From simple cardstock, the business has progressed into full-color digital print signs. “Once we started getting into the kind of more colorful signs, that opened up more doors to other products that can be printed with what we have,” she said. “We’ve kind of branched out into things like marking tags and larger yard signs.” The use of technology, such as an automated knife cutting system, digital printer and graphic arts software, has helped to make these creative signs possible. All over, Blackburns has sold custom-cut seed corn signs for agriculture businesses, as well as custom-printed door tags and custom waterproof irrigation or identification tags. However, it also offers more novelty-type signs for local customers, such as face kabobs, banners, yard photo cutout signs, window clings and hand fans. Sports cutout signs have become a popular trend for local athletes and their families, as they save parents’ time by not having to meet to craft their own signs, according to Murray. “I think it’s fairly inexpensive and it’s a whole lot easier for the parents, especially if they’re in large groups,” she said. “And, I think parents really like the photo aspect of it.” Face kabobs have also made their presence known in local sports for more than just the players. “We’ve even had some recent ones that have chosen the coaches,” Murray said. “They don’t tell the coaches what they’re doing, and it makes it fun for the whole team and the coaches.” By purchasing face kabobs, sports cutouts and other signs through Blackburns and its revamped website, people save more money than by ordering from other online options, as it is the direct manufacturer, eliminating resellers with additional fees. Blackburns also works to find the best rates for shipping on orders and provides quantity discounts for low quantities, according to Murray. But, this doesn’t mean Blackburn Manufacturing is waving its white flag in the flag business. In fact, its flag sales continue to thrive as its mainstay, selling millions of flags every month across the U.S. and other countries. As spring months approach and more flag and sign orders come in, Murray said the business will strive to continue providing quality customers service, while completing orders as quickly as possible. “It’s just a new, up-and-coming kind of thing. I know it’s been around for a little while, but it’s the latest craze at the moment,” she said. “And I’m sure we’ll have to keep up and come up with something just as nice in the near future to keep it fresh and current. We’ll see what comes up next.” Midplains Ag near Elgin continues to be a partner with farm owners and operators to enable them to make sound and effective planning and operational decisions to dramatically improve efficiency, effectiveness, reduce overall input costs and increase yield while protecting the bottom line.
This full-service precision ag company opened in April of 2013 with the mission of partnering with farm owners and operators to collect and analyze georeferenced terra and crop data in order to formulate and implement effective operational decisions for their operations. They have expanded to include precision ag services as well as risk management options. Midplains Ag utilizes technology for imagery with drones, including with TerrAvion, which delivers subscription aerial imagery for agriculture. Periodic multi-layered imagery across the growing season allows farmers to find and resolve discrepancies before they affect their bottom line. “It’s a very helpful tool for diagnosing what’s going on in your fields,” Tiffany Hemenway said. “It helps pinpoint where to look for problems. When you’re crop scouting or working in the field, you know where to go. Directed scouting is the biggest bang for your buck.” Using advanced imagery, Midplains Ag provides visual, multi-SPEC, thermal and hyperspectral images. Ryan Hemenway said it helps with chemical and cultural issues from diseases to irrigation. Using the multispec’s four cameras, Midplains Ag takes combines green, red, red-edge and N-IR photos to make NDVI or CIRE indices to show plant stress that is not visible to the human eye for another couple weeks. Some of these indices also mirror harvest maps giving producers a sneak peek at potential yields. “If these issues are discovered at harvest, it’s too late,” Ryan Hemenway said. “It needs to be earlier in the season.” Midplains Ag also offers crop insurance, which is handled by Tiffany Hemenway and Donnah Uhrenholdt. The sales closing deadline for crop insurance is March 15. “We’ve been farming since 1973, so we understand the farmer aspect of crop insurance,” Rich Uhrenholdt said. “We approach this as a farmer because of that background and are looking at this as sales.” Donna Uhrenholdt said that’s why they offer crop insurance with no plans of expanding into other types of insurance. “We don’t cover property, casualty or health insurance,” she said. “We focus on crop insurance because that’s our speciality. It’s very technical, and we have a great understanding of it.” Midplains Ag is working with several irrigation projects through the University of Nebraska this season, which will provide local data for projects with international implications. Research remains key to their mission as a company. “While others are sales oriented, we’re research oriented,” Ryan Hemenway said. “We’re in this to help the farmers.” Quality assisted living continues to be something that many people search out for their loved ones, and that quality can be found in Neligh at the Willows Assisted Living.
The Willows Assisted Living has been providing quality care and comfort for tenants in Neligh for 18 years. Jayne Prince, the administrator for The Willows, said that assisted living is beneficial to help promote the independence of individuals. “Assisted living is a great place that people can come get assistance with medicine, bathing, three good meals a day, and activities while they still maintain their independence because they are in their own apartments,” she said. Prince is active in the health field and serves as chair for the Nebraska Assisted Living Association and co–chair of the Nebraska Health Care Association. Tenants at the Willows live in their own apartments and have their own possessions with them, but they can be secure and safe in case something were to happen. There are 32 licensed beds and 25 employees at the Willows. “They have their own amenities in their own apartment, but yet they have the security and safety,” Prince said. Tenants live in the apartments full time, but some still have houses that they live at during the nicer months. Prince said that the transition back and forth is a breeze. A warm and welcoming facility, the Neligh-Oakdale third-graders adopt a grandparent each year, and the high school students stop by monthly for visits and games with the residents. The Willows is consistently an award-winning center having won a national bronze award. Prince said that residents receive the quality of life that they do because they are more than just tenants. “Our residents do not live in our workplace. We work in their home,” Prince said. “We are family.” Neligh residents are now able to receive faster Internet at a discounted price thanks to Stealth Broadband’s new two-year contract packages.
Kira Buol, business development manager for Stealth Broadband, said the company prides itself on both its speed and being local. “Our speeds are unmatched and having no data caps is a huge thing,” Buol said. Since expanding to Neligh, Buol said Stealth Broadband has been in such high demand that the company is looking to expand the areas within the community that it can offer Internet. “We’re a local company and our speed is next to none,” she said. “We don’t have data limits.” Stealth uses only fiber optics and point to multipoint wireless technologies. These two transport mediums are designed to be highly reliable and very scalable. This allows Stealth to deliver high speeds to their customers so that their online activities work how they should and how the customers would want them to. Using fiber optics, Stealth is able to bring faster Internet to consumers than other providers on the market. Many companies sell Internet through phone lines and modems, which are limited in the speed at which the signal can travel. Fiber optic systems are designed for the high speed data transfers that are with Internet connections. Available now in Neligh is the option to have an Internet package on a two-year contract. In Neligh, Stealth offers two packages for residential use- the premium package and the elite package. The premium package offers 25 mbps download and 5 mbps upload. The elite package offers 50 mbps download and 10 mbps upload. New also to Neligh is the option of having a phone line along with internet. There are three packages: a 500-minute, 1,000-minute and a 2,000-minute package. After nearly five decades in real estate, White Realty & Appraisal continues to play a vital role in Northeast Nebraska acquisitions.
Owned by Keith and Nancy White of Neligh, the company dates back to the mid-1970s.Former Neligh mayor Stanley Maddux helped Keith begin in real estate in 1974. He started in appraisal two years later and ventured on his own as broker. Nebraska was the first state in the nation to require appraisers to take a test to be licensed. “I was the fifth one to take to the test in the state,” Keith said. He likely was the fifth one in the nation as well.Keith has renewed his appraisal license every other year since after completing 28 hours of continuing education. “Farm appraisals are my favorite,” he said. “I specialize primarily in ag appraisals because I was in ag for so many years.” Keith spent 40 years in the grain business and said he ventured into real estate to help with the down time that went along with the elevator business. “The reason I started in real estate was because the grain business had periods of inactivity that got longer and longer,” he said. “It was a pretty good fit. It made sense.” His wife, Nancy, is also a licensed broker and appraiser, having become a broker in 2006 and appraiser in 2008. She focuses on real estate sales and is one of the most active agents in the county. “She’s done such a good job at selling real estate it keeps her too busy,” Keith said with a chuckle. Nancy said she enjoys the real estate aspect of their business, but she doesn’t actually look at selling house as a business because it means so much to her. “I wouldn’t say we sell real estate to make money. It’s to help people out,” she said. After nearly 50 years in real estate, Keith doesn’t hesitate when asked how long he continues to work. “As long a I can,” Keith said matter of factly. “If I wasn’t doing this, I don’t know what I’d be doing. I enjoy it.” Nancy said appraisals are easy work for Keith because he knows what he’s doing and has so much experience in the field. “I’ve had several people tell me he’s the best in the state,” she said. “He makes it look easy because he’s so good at it.” But like many successful business people, the Whites also credit their staff with the company’s success. They said Julie Harrison is very organized and helps keep the company on track. White Realty has also adapted to the digital age and places its listings on its website and Facebook. To view their current listing, visit White Realty & Appraisal online. Farming isn’t easy, but Two Rivers Irrigation is excited about a new product that makes it a whole lot easier to not only know how much to water crops but also to save money.
Through Lindsay, Two Rivers is offering FieldNET® advisor as the only product in the industry right now that gives farm the watering recommendations. “It takes into account your soil types, what hybrid you planted and its maturity, when you planted it and the weather forecast with 20 years of history,” Two Rivers owner Cody Frank said. “It knows where the crop should be progressing at that time. It knows daily ET, knows when you irrigate, radar indicated rainfall. With all that, it can model your watering needs in that field all summer and be very accurate.” Frank said the data can go to your phone or computer and will send alerts if a field is getting too dry. He said there is no physical hardware installed in the field to monitor the moisture. It’s a computer model that knows exactly what the field needs. He said FieldNET® by Lindsay puts you in total control. Gain fast, easy access to your entire irrigation operation. As your fully integrated wireless management tool, FieldNET lets you view and control your systems from virtually anywhere. Frank said the system uses all of the data collected over the years to calculate what the weather is at that exact field on those exact dates. “It knows exactly what stage your crop is in and how much rainfall you’ve gotten and how much your pivot has put on. It will tell you how much to water and when to water to give that crop its optimal amount of water. Frank said there is an annual fee of $383 per year per field per pivot, which gives the farmer access to the information and peace of mind. “You figure that per acre on a standard irrigated quarter, and you’re looking at $2.80 an acre to have somebody scouting your field every day for moisture,” he said. If Frank seems like he knows a lot about the product, it’s because he’s using it himself. Frank said he wanted to test it out on his own fields before recommending it to anyone else. After using it for a couple of seasons, he’s sold on the product. “It use it on our fields, and I wouldn’t recommend it if it wasn’t exactly what it says it is,” he said. “This is a great product that saves money and offers peace of mind.” Frank said he started promoting it last year and is really confident and ready to promote the product.He said if customers by a FieldNET unit before April 1, the first three years of subscriptions is free. Frank said this technology is the future of agriculture, and this is being tested and developed by Zimmatic. Other technology Two Rivers is promoting is Farmer’s Edge, which provides satellite imagery on the fields. It’s a daily image that provides crop health. That’s $1.50 per acre subscription. Frank said the additional costs actually save money. “It’s been proven that spending a couple of dollars per acre with this technology actually saves a round or two with their irrigation,” he said. “They would otherwise irrigate when they didn’t have to. This will help save fuel and wear and tear on their equipment.” Frank said he will have more information on the new products on display next week during the Antelope County Ag & Home Expo for people to view and for questions. A new service is available at Neligh Family Dentistry.
Dr. Tim Brovont said his wife, Dr. Cristina Brovont, is offering care for traditional straightwire braces. “We offer Invisalign, the clear retainers here, but she’s also doing the traditional straightwire ortho,” he said. “So that’s something that’s really new, being able to pick up where Dr. Jensen left off. He was doing that. To make it clear, she’s not an orthodontist, she’s a general dentist that does the traditional braces.” Dr. Brovont said they have “gotten a lot of good feedback” from their patients already. “People don’t want to drive clear to Norfolk because that’s the closest orthodontist that I’m aware of,” he said. Dr. Cristina Brovont is currently working in Neligh on a limited basis, but that will change in the coming months. “She’s just here typically one day a week right now,” Dr. Brovont said. “This summer that will change to where she’ll be here a couple days a week. Hopefully early this summer.” In addition to ortho work, he said Neligh Family Dentistry offers a broad range of dental services. “We do pretty much everything,” Dr. Brovont said. “Extractions, root canals, now we’re doing clear retainers with invisalign and clear correct, the traditional ortho, cosmetic dentistry—crowns, bridges, implant restorations, regular traditional fillings, gum health.” Neligh Family Dentistry also offers digital X-rays and digital pano. “We’re pretty much 100 percent digital here, which makes it nice because you can take an x-ray and if it doesn’t work, you can take another one real quick and you don’t have to wait for processing,” he said. Dr. Brovont took ownership of the dentist office from Dr. Terry Jensen in January 2018. The Brovont doctors are joined by two front desk employees, two hygienists and two dental assistants. Dr. Brovont recently did some restoration work to the exterior of the building. “We got tied in with the historical preservation grant, trying to keep the downtown area revitalized and looking good,” he said. “So we replaced the old awning that was out front, changed some of the paneling that was around the bottom and had transom windows put in. We did full-faced brick on the front of the building and then put up the nice cloth awning. Later this year, we’re looking at adding a sign above the windows.” Located at 322 M St., the regular business hours for Neligh Family Dentistry are Monday through Thursday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Friday from 8 a.m. to noon. They say home is where the heart is, and Prairie View Assisted Living puts a lot of heart into making it feel like a home for its residents.
For six years, the facility has offered a variety of activities and features, providing a quality living experience. Outdoor activities, a lobby to gather and watch TV, open dining breakfasts, trivia, devotions and personalization of rooms help residents feel at home, Prairie View Assisted Living LPN and administrator, Angela Cuffe, said. “They decorate their room however they want; they get to bring in all their belongings from their home,” she said. “They get to go out and enjoy activities outside of the facility if they want to. They pretty much have a choice of when they want to go to bed and when they want to get up.” The facility, which is licensed to house 26 residents and has 22 employees, puts in extra effort to make residents feel comfortable with a welcome basket. Staff also encourages socializing by introducing them to current residents. “Sometimes, I’ll get somebody from out of town and we’ll make them feel at home, and we’re all just one big family here,” she said. Not only is it easy for residents to converse with one another, but it’s also easy for them to stay in touch with and have their families visit, as the facility is very family oriented. Prairie View Assisted Living’s hard work in serving its residents has shown, as it received the bronze level for the National Quality Award Program in October of 2017. Cuffe, who was appointed to the Nebraska Board of Nursing in December, said they are very proud of their accomplishments and that she couldn’t ask for a better team. “We just continue to strive in giving good quality care,” she said. “And, I have good staff and the team, itself, here at Prairie View, works hard to ensure that loved ones are being taken care of. We live by our mission.” Coupons and deals from Thriftway is just text away as the Neligh and Tilden grocery stores continue to keep up in a digital world.
“Customers can get text messages with coupons on their phones, they can download our app or they can get coupons on Facebook and our website,” said Ronda Schwager. “We’re doing lots of things to be more trendy and digital.” Thriftway Market, which is celebrating nearly 20 years of serving the public for their grocery needs, has also set up meal planning tips and advice through their app, which is available in the app store. The app has a list of recipes that rotate through the seasons, or you can import your own recipes. Once you have the recipes entered on your devices, you can add the items you will need to your grocery list and bring it on your phone with you to the store. “It’s really easy to use,” Schwager said. “It’s a great way for people to look through what’s available on the go.” Schwager said the website is similar to the app, so customers can use either one and be able to view the recipes and meals. Also, Thriftway has coupons that they list online that customers can bring into the store. One of the biggest changes at the Neligh location was offering alcohol and liquor sales last summer. Schwager said sales have exceeded expectations, and the store is already looking to expand its offerings. “It’s very convenient for customers to purchase alcohol while getting their groceries, so it’s been a great addition to the store,” she said. “We’re taking a closer look at what items are selling and what isn’t and will try to narrow that down as we expand our offerings.” Schwager said the stores serve people from across the county, not just Neligh and Tilden. She said the meat and produce departments not only attract customers from other communities, but they also keep local customers from shopping elsewhere. Schwager said the Thriftway team is dedicated to providing great products at the best possible price as they promote shopping local. For a weekly list of deals going at Thriftway, customers can text 41570. The Thriftway app is also available for download. Most people know that State Farm offers insurance, but did you know that they also offer investment planning services?
These investment services include retirement, IRAs, mutual funds and college savings plans, according to Neligh State Farm agent Melissa Smith. Smith said she is currently working to obtain her series 65 securities license which is required for her to act as an investment advisor representative. “A big part of what we do is help younger people get started on retirement,” she said. “I think it’s important that everybody have access to help with that, and I think sometimes people feel overwhelmed by going to a firm. Everybody has to save for retirement, whether you make $1 million a year or $20,000 a year. You have to start saving something.” Smith said her customers like the fact that she is “down-to-earth and local.” “We make the process as easy as possible,” she said. “Even on the life insurance side of things, I think a lot of people have the fear that it’s complicated.” Smith said they focus heavily on life insurance and “really try to help people understand and just get started.” “State Farm has been awarded the J.D. Power award for customer satisfaction in life insurance providers for five years in a row now,” she said. “That’s kind of a big deal.” State Farm offers all types of life insurance: term, whole life, universal life, individuals, businesses and business owners. Smith joined State Farm on Jan. 1, 2014, and she recently celebrated her fifth year with the company. Two years later, she moved the State Farm business to its current location at 306 L St., suite 201. Smith has two employees in her office. State Farm can be reached by calling 402-887-5156 and is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. or after hours by appointment. |
|
News That Matters To Antelope County - Your News. Your Way. Every Day!
© Pitzer Digital, LLC