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Blue skies over the groundbreaking
Torrential rains that built up and broke through a berm on the site of the new Red Willow County, Nebraska, jail and law enforcement center in McCook pause long enough Monday morning for a ground-breaking ceremony north of the courthouse. The new $5.4 million 24-bed jail and sheriff's department offices have been designed by Prochaska and Associates of Omaha; construction will be managed by Beckenhauer Construction Inc. of Norfolk. Wielding ceremonial spades at the muddy ground-breaking site were, from left, Beckenhauer senior site superintendent Carl Gibbs; Prochaska architect Scott A. Lundberg; county commissioners Steve Downer, Earl McNutt and Vesta Dack; sheriff's department personnel, office manager Diana Wilkinson, jail supervisor Gerry Hunter, Chief Deputy Alan Kotschwar and Sheriff Gene Mahon; and Beckenhauer site superintendent Craig Ternus. Gibbs said, "Now it's time to go to work ... " Commission chairman Earl McNutt joked, "If we had known that this is what it takes to get some rain, we'd have done this sooner ... " Construction is expected to last 14 months, depending upon the weather.
