Judge Luebe retires after nearly 20 years on the bench
June 7, 2023
HARTINGTON — County Court Judge Douglas Luebe is hanging up his black robe and neckties for a more casual, laid-back lifestyle.
Luebe, who served the citizens of Burt, Cedar, Dakota, Dixon, Dodge, Thurston and Washington counties (Sixth Judicial District), officially retired June 2, after nearly 20 years on the bench.
“It has been a great privilege and opportunity to serve the great people of the state of Nebraska,” Luebe said.
He said waking up Monday morning and not having anywhere to be was different. Retirement hasn’t quite sunk in yet.
“My wife (Christina) and I want to do some things together,” Luebe said from his Ponca home. “We don’t have a bucket list, but we want to do some things.”
Reconnecting with family and friends is at the top of his retirement to-do list, but he’s also looking forward to spending more time doing activities he enjoys, such as riding his horses, hunting and fishing.
Luebe is a Pierce native, graduating high school in 1971. He was involved in work for the state health department for a number of years before he took a real estate course and became interested in property law.
He worked as a sole practitioner from 1995 to 2003 and for five years at Rager Law Office, Lincoln before that. He served as the Dakota County deputy county attorney from 1984-91.
He took the oath of office for the Sixth Judicial District and feels grateful for all of the support received from the court clerks, court magistrates and other staff in those county court offices for the last 20 years.
June 7, 2023
HARTINGTON – Three Cedar County Fairgrounds improvement projects are being worked on as the 2023 event approaches. The 130th edition of the fair is set for July 19-23.
Greg Heine, who is in his 11th year as fair board president, said one of the projects will add a wooden lean-to structure to the small animals building to shade spectators.
The funds for this work were donated by Pam Polenske, Randolph, in memory of her husband, Keith, who died on Oct. 30, 2021, at the age of 50, as a result of a workplace accident.
Both Polenskes served as members of the fair board in the past.
“They’ve always enjoyed the fair and they’ve always enjoyed just everything about it, so they wanted to help and give back,” Heine said.
“It’s kind of a neat thing from the Polenske family,” he said. “It’s going to be a nice little addition there.”
Another project going on at the fairgrounds is a new, expanded arena for rodeo activities.
“It’s a fairly good-sized project,” Heine said of the 30,000-square-foot facility. “A lot of stuff was donated for that. We always get a lot of help from the community, which is great.”
The arena project includes updated bucking chutes for the bulls and broncs to be released from with their riders. There are now six chutes instead of four.
“It just kind of speeds up the show a little bit,” Heine said. “This way, we can load up a few more bulls at a time or the broncs or whatever.”
The arena also will see new steelpipe fencing, wooden posts and overhead lights, thanks to the project.
The third project being worked on at the fairgrounds is improvements to 16 of the 32 livestock stalls for hogs.
“We’ve just seen an uptick in families interested in showing pigs,” Heine said. “It’s really a good problem to have. Last year, we actually maxed out most of the livestock barns. We were pretty happy about that.”
The focus of this project has been improving the hog stalls the fairgrounds already has, not adding more.
June 14, 2023
HARTINGTON – Brittni Benscoter is in a good position to get to know the rural community she will soon call home.
The 42-year-old started working for the city of Hartington on May 30 and was appointed as the full-time city clerk-treasurer by the City Council during its meeting on June 12, replacing Dani de Waal.
“The job has been going great – getting to learn everything there is about the town of Hartington and the people who live in it,” Benscoter said.
Her previous job required her to live in Iowa, as she had worked in two different state positions over the course of nearly 18 years.
“My husband and I both grew up in small towns and wanted our son to grow up in a small town and away from the city and the increasing crime.”
During her career working for the state of Iowa, she was an Economic Fraud Control Unit investigator in the Iowa Department of Inspections and Appeals’ Investigations Division. She investigated welfare fraud for about 13 years in that role.
Prior to that, Benscoter worked for the Iowa Department of Human Services for almost five years as an income maintenance worker, establishing benefit eligibility.
June 14, 2023
HARTINGTON – More than 6,800 Cedar County residents received notices that their property values are changing in 2023.
County Assessor Becky Dresden said the notices were mailed out on June 1 and sent to every owner with a change in value whether that was an increase or decrease.
She expected there to be an overall increase in value for Cedar County property although the numbers are still preliminary.
“Pretty much everything changed,” Dresden said. “It’s all according to the sales, and the sales have just been really high.”
The pre-certified real estate value is more than $2.6 billion, but that amount does not include personal property.
For comparison, last year’s certified total value – including real estate, agricultural land and personal property – came in at more than $2.4 billion.
A raise in valuation does not necessarily mean there will be an increase in taxes for property owners.
The tax rate or levy is set after budgets have been submitted each August. If budget requests increase, taxes will be raised.
State law mandates the assessed value on property must fall within a range – or required level of value – established by the Nebraska Legislature.
The statute states agricultural land has to be valued between 68-75 percent of what the sales are showing while the range for residential and commercial property is placed at 92 to 100 percent of the sales.
The selling price is recorded when a property is sold and the deed is recorded. The county assessor’s office then records the assessed value and a copy is submitted to the Nebraska Department of Revenue.
Residential property values – which have increased across the county – are set using the last two years of sales.
June 21, 2023
LINCOLN — The Nebraska Judicial Resources Commission decided Friday that a judicial vacancy exists in the Sixth Judicial District and should be filled after the retirement of Judge Doug Luebe.
The decision came after more than three hours of public hearing testimony, which included Laurel Attorney Alissa Baier, Cedar County Public Defender Nikki Brandt and Cedar County Sheriff Larry Koranda.
A total of 27 others submitted letters for the commission’s hearing, including the Cedar County Board of Commissioners; State Sen. Barry DeKay, Niobrara; Cedar County Attorney Nick Matney; Cedar County District Court Clerk Janet Wiechelman; and Northeast Nebraska News Co. Publishers Rob Dump and Peggy Year.
“We had a world record in the number of exhibits this time,” Commission Chairwoman Stephanie Stacy joked as the hearing began.
Luebe retired June 2 from the county court bench of the Sixth Judicial District, which includes Cedar, Dixon, Burt, Dakota, Dodge, Thurston and Washington counties.
Typically, the commission reviews data on the district’s caseload with tools to determine whether there are too many judges staffed in areas that no longer warrant them.
According to calculations, the Sixth Judicial District could be considered “over-judged” and so a lengthy discussion ensued about potentially not replacing Luebe.
Nebraska Supreme Court Chief Justice Michael Heavican suggested the commission table any action until another yet-to-be-formed committee discusses and considers potential redistricting or other solutions.
But Koranda urged the commission to look beyond the numbers in a report.
“All you hear is caseload, caseload, caseload. The numbers can be manipulated and interpreted differently depending on your needs,” he said.
Koranda explained how some of the decrease in caseload comes from the Cedar County Sheriff’s Office being short-staffed by two deputies for more than a year. Two Nebraska State Patrol troopers also relocated out of the county.