News & Events

C4K is the Communities for Kids initiative created by the Nebraska Children and Families Foundation (Nebraska Children) in response to the shortages of high-quality childcare throughout Nebraska.  Gage County is a Community for Kids! With a deficit of nearly 400 childcare spots in the county, there is a great need t...Continue Reading

BEATRICE – Students in Architecture and Planning at Kansas State University have been working with Beatrice Public School officials to find a new use for elementary buildings that will be replaced by a single site school. The effort that began this summer has morphed into a wider look at solutions fo...Continue Reading

As we end October and begin a new month, we would be remiss if we didn’t showcase last month’s Manufacturing Day celebration!  The observance of Manufacturing (MFG) Day, held nationally on the first Friday every October, is continued throughout the month to celebrate manufacturing, a $2 billion industry, employing almost 9...Continue Reading

LINCOLN – Today, Governor Pete Ricketts commented on this afternoon’s decision by the Nebraska Economic Forecasting Advisory Board to raise the State’s revenue forecast by $2.5 billion through fiscal year 2024-2025.  The board voted to increase the State’s revenue forecast by $621 million for the current fiscal year (FY2022-23), t...Continue Reading

What’s life like for workers now? Somewhere between terrible and meh, based on a quick scan of the news. We’re all enduring the Great Resignation, the Great Reshuffle, the Great Rethink. Whatever you call it, it feels like the opposite of great. Companies are coping with an epidemic of quie...Continue Reading

LINCOLN – Today, Governor Pete Ricketts announced that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has approved the continuation of groundbreaking research being done in Nebraska on E30 fuel.  Results of the State’s initial pilot program, launched in 2019, showed that E30 is safe and reliable fuel for use in conventiona...Continue Reading

“The first years of a child’s life are a period of rapid brain development, deeply influenced by early experiences, interactions and environments. That’s why high-quality early childhood care and learning environments are so important: they build the foundation for cognitive and social-emotional skills that help children succeed now and i...Continue Reading

An idea for downtown more than a decade in the making is being revisited by the Beatrice City Council. In 2011, RDG Planning was hired to develop a master plan for the downtown area. Part of that plan included a change to the highway system, and proposed moving Highway 136 on...Continue Reading

Residents of north central Gage County in southeast Nebraska will soon have fiber optic internet. The Hudson Oaks, TX. based company of NextLink Internet will soon be on the ground, providing what they believe to be some of the fastest and most reliable service to those in rural Gage County. Olive...Continue Reading

Beatrice elected officials have approved a resolution for a loan to help Beatrice Community Hospital upgrade technology. The city council Monday night approved a rural economic development loan agreement for $360,000 to help the hospital purchase telemetry monitors. City Administrator Tobias Tempelmeyer says the project will use a USDA Rural Economi...Continue Reading

Chet McGrury IV, of Beatrice, started Fat Rabbit Produce when he was 14 years old and looking for a job. “No one really hires someone that young and we had always gardened as a family,” McGrury said. “I decided that if I expanded a bit and delivered, as well as wen...Continue Reading

Over the past three years, we’ve dealt with shortages of many goods, from lumber to cars to toilet paper.  Supply chain shortages have shown that the United States is overreliant on foreign suppliers.  Instead of depending on China for medicine, Taiwan for computer chips, or Russia for fertilizer, we nee...Continue Reading

There are few subjects about which more ink has been spilled in the last three years than the state of the U.S. workforce. From the impact of business shutdowns and enhanced unemployment benefits on labor participation, to pent-up challenges bringing critical supply chain workers to the verge of major strikes...Continue Reading

Governor Pete Ricketts and leaders in the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) recognized child welfare specialists at a proclamation signing ceremony at the State Capitol. Gov. Ricketts proclaimed September 2022 as “Child Welfare Workforce Development Month” in appreciation of the great work being done by State teammates, agencies...Continue Reading

Quoting Site Selection colleagues isn’t a reportorial practice we typically employ. But in this instance, a thought-provoking presentation by Editor-in-Chief Mark Arend served as the prompt for an inquiry into attracting top talent through “quality of life” enhancements. QOL has rocketed up the priority list of economic developers. “In many case...Continue Reading

As a zoning and land use attorney over the last 15 years, I have witnessed a lot of change. That change has been brought about by a host of factors including traditional — but increasingly less predictable — business economic cycles, the Great Recession, the affordable housing crisis, and th...Continue Reading

Whether you’ve been implementing growth marketing for a while or are new to the practice, you want to succeed. No one likes to miss a goal post. In business, the stakes are high. Not meeting your targets could lead to disappointed stakeholders, future resignations and financial losses. But to achiev...Continue Reading

Prices are rising (8.6%, to be exact). This isn’t news. We see it at the grocery store, car dealership, and especially at the pump. But thanks to a mix of slowed business growth and rising labor costs, we’re starting to see something new. Companies like Tesla, Netflix, Wells Fargo, and Carvan...Continue Reading

NEBRASKA — Nebraskans may soon start seeing the impact of a state law, adopted in 2021, that’s intended to help grow small businesses and investment in urban cores with high poverty and unemployment rates. The Nebraska Department of Economic Development on Aug. 1 will begin accepting applications from businesses to ear...Continue Reading

7. Nebraska Economic Profile Governor: Pete Ricketts, Republican Population: 1,963,692 GDP growth (Q1 2022): -2.4% Read full article.Continue Reading

Five students studying at a North Carolina university will explore campus this summer as guests of Creighton University. The five are all sophomores enrolled at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University in Greensboro, North Carolina, which was founded in 1891 and is among the nation’s oldest historically Black universities. Th...Continue Reading

With the oncoming of a new Beatrice elementary and pre-school, a question remains in the minds of many: what will happen to the lots left abandoned? That’s exactly the question the Kansas State University Technical Assistance to Brownfields, or TAB, Program and dozens of KSU students will seek to answer thi...Continue Reading

NGage welcomes Rachel Kreikemeier to its executive director position. Being active community members of Gage County, Rachel and her family have been residents since 2015. Her children, ages 5, 7, 9 and 10, exert their energy participating in basketball, flag football, and other athletic programs. Rachel and her family liv...Continue Reading

Dozens of locals stepped from under one colorful canopy to the next, dodging the Thursday afternoon sun in the humid shade. The sound of a banjo, strummed by one vendor, served as background for the pockets of conversation—small talk about the weather, prices being haggled, old friends meeting. Customers visiting th...Continue Reading