May begins with sunny weather, students earn grant money in contest

May was a month of many changes. The weather is crisp and sunny, flowers are blooming and trees fill with thick, lustrous green foliage. With this came the release of school children for summer break and high school seniors stepped into their first stage of adulthood. In the beginning of May, a play was performed at the Fox Playhouse, in Nevada, called "Breaking and Entering", directed by Linda Davidson. The play was a comedy and starred Mike Seitz, John Jones, Erin McCollough and Sarah Burtch. In the play, a young man was burglarizing what he though to be a vacant apartment, when he was surprised by a woman getting out of the shower and the two end up falling in love.

The month of May also marked the bittersweet end of Ranea Schulze's tenure as coordinator of the drug-free programs in the Nevada school system. Schulze stated she would miss being a part of the program, but was looking forward to spending more time with her husband.

Nevada's parks board voted 5-1 making drinking alcohol at Frank E. Peters Municipal Golf Course legal. Bringing alcoholic beverages was illegal, but many golfers looked past the rule, as did authorities. The argument was made that if the no alcohol law was enforced the course would lose players, as well as, many tournaments that are held there. The idea that alcohol be sold at the course was later nixed by the city council.

Nevada Middle School's eighth grade action students took part in an environmental contest -- the Lexus Environmental Challenge. They placed recycling bins around the school and classrooms to collect paper products to be recycled. In all, the students collected 2,239 pounds of paper, winning $3,000 in grant money. The idea of living a greener lifestyle also inspired the action students at Truman Elementary to mock their upper classmen. Students placed recycling bins in each pod at Truman to collect paper. In all students at Truman collected more than 3,000 pounds of paper.

A chimney on the campus of Cottey College was starting to be torn down on May 9, by Carlini Construction. The chimney was put up in the 1930s, making the chimney itself give or take 70 years old. The chimney was taken down the same way it was put up -- on brick at a time. A boiler was put in place of the chimney.

An unusual sight for a now closed Nevada restaurant happened on May 11. A swarm of honeybees gathered on the window and wall of the Sunrise Family Restaurant, leaving employees baffled as to what to do about it. The bees were left untouched, as they were not posing a threat to customers or anyone passing by. Virginia Habjan also received the Missouri Public Administrator of the Year award for her diligent work as Vernon County Public Administrator. Habjan planned to retire after her term was up this year. Public administrators are on call 24/7, with duties such as guardianship of the mentally disabled, acting as personal representative of the deceased's estate, and acting as conservator of a minor's estate.

The ides of May brought a significant change to the YMCA. Matt Schneringer was appointed to the seat of CEO at the Osage Prairie YMCA. He replaced former CEO Tedd Maxwell. Schneringer enjoyed the pleasant, helpful environment that the city of Nevada showed.

A visitor from down under came to visit at the City/County Community Center, in Nevada. Amy Buller, of Butler, brought her pet kangaroo, Maxaroo, to see excited children and adults at the community center. Around 200 people came to see Maxaroo, even though she was a little late getting their because Maxaroo escaped from her home, sending her owners on a wild goose chase to find her. However, this did not deter anyone from wanting to see her.

With the month of May winding down, graduation ceremonies were held all over the county. Cottey College held their 124th graduation ceremony, on May 18. Also, school was being let out, and the public pool was opening for the summer. City councilman Russ Kemm resigned from his seat in the council. The vacant seat was taken by Jayne Novak.

A property feud between neighbors was also brought to the publics attention at the end of the month. In the May 24 edition of the Nevada Daily Mail, it was reported that 82-year-old Virginia Hornecker, and her neighbor Darry Miller were at a stand still in matters of property lines. When Hornecker decided to split her land between her daughters, she found that Miller's fence allegedly was 15 feet past his property line. Hornecker cleared brush out by herself, but was not bothered until she started to move Miller's fence. She stated threats were made by Miller and his lawyer about taking the matter to court.

Wrapping up the end of May 2008, school was let out on the 29th, and the first ever local guitarist contest was held at Shooters. Winners were: First place, Kyle Norberry; second place, Jennifer Herdliska; and third place, David Byerly.