Area students learn from County Government Day

HARTINGTON — High school juniors from Hartington-Newcastle, Cedar Catholic, and Laurel-Concord-Coleridge attended County Government Day at the Cedar County Courthouse Friday.

The students learned about the many aspects of local government, touring the facility throughout the morning before having pizza for lunch across the street in the basement of the City Auditorium, where students learned about the Nebraska State Patrol and Nebraska National Guard.

“It’s been interesting learning about all the local government that goes on right here in town,” said HNS junior Morgan Koch. “It’s been fun all around.”

Koch said his favorite part was asking questions, specifically to the officers during lunch.

“I asked the State Patrol if he always wore his seat belt,” said Koch. “He said yes because why would he enforce it if he didn’t follow it. That was kind of nice to hear.”

For Cedar Catholic’s Chase Lammers and LCC’s Delaney Ehlers, they were most interested when visiting with the Cedar County Sheriff’s Department.

“My favorite stop was maybe the jail with the inmate,” said Ehlers. “It made you see how their day goes, how the inmate got in there, what the dispatcher does, and how they respond.”

To Lammers, the technology used by dispatch and learning how everyone works together seemed to interest him the most.

“My favorite stop was probably visiting the inmates and learning about all of the things that the dispatcher does when calls come in, and how they can track your phone to know where you are at,” said Lammers.

The juniors also learned about record keeping with County Clerk Dave Dowling highlighting some of his responsibilities.

“I did not know the clerk keeps all of the deeds and everything and has a full room of written records. I thought it was all digital, which they do have, but I didn’t know they kept written records and they keep everything from maybe even when the state started. So that was pretty cool.”

Following lunch, the juniors from the three schools went back to the courthouse, where they enjoyed a Mock Trial to show how court proceedings work.

Judge Douglas Luebe oversaw the trial where Sally Opfer played the defendant. Multiple witnesses were called up, including Officer Chad Claussen, who recounted a simulated call he responded to involving smoke bombs, rotten sh and feuding neighbors.

The Mock Trial showed abbreviated versions of the entire court process, including arraignment at the beginning, the prosecution and defense cross-examining witnesses, and ultimately a sentence being handed down.

Overall, the students said they enjoyed their mini eld trip as they learned about how integral local government is and how it keeps everything operating.