Observations from Nebraska

I was in Hastings, NE on Thursday giving a talk to the Nebraska Municipal Power Pool’s (NMPP) Annual Meeting. This is an association of municipal power providers in NE, IA, SD, CO and WY. They had a great program with lots of take home ideas, especially for smaller towns.

As I drove from Hastings to Grand Island, one of my NE agurbs®, I saw hundreds of sandhill cranes along the Platte River bottoms. They are in their annual 14,000 mile migration from TX, NM and northern Mexico to their breeding grounds in Canada, Alaska and even Siberia. More that 500,000 gather for up to six weeks to rest and refuel before they head north. I had first seen these birds in south TX and was reminded that bird watching is one of the fastest growing spectator activities in the USA today.

Grand Island looked great, except for their downtown area! They had way too many vacant store fronts and need to work on developing a sense of place in their downtown.

I learned that Henry Fonda was born in Grand Island, another Nebraska native, who made it big in the entertainment business. Johnny Carson, from Norfolk, was another one. What is with the water here?