Jlake News--New brewery & family restaurant coming!!

Newer posts and stories appear below:

New J-lake Business: A new brewery and family restaurant will be open at Johnson Lake in the spring of 2019. Michael and Jessica Bliven are working on getting the old RC Galley building converted to meet the needs of their business. Click to read the Kearney Hub Story: HUB STORY

OR Visit their Facebook page: Canyon Lakes Brewing Co

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CNPPID’s Don Kraus to retire with 45 years under belt

HOLDREGE — Central Nebraska Public Power and Irrigation District will have a leadership change early next year.

Don Kraus, who has been with the district for more than 45 years, including the past 25½ as general manager, announced at Monday’s CNPPID board meeting in Holdrege that he will retire in January.

The Sargent native and University of Nebraska-Lincoln graduate started at Central in 1971. He left for a job in Iowa for 1½ years, returned to CNPPID in 1976 as an electrical engineer, then chief electrical engineer and assistant manager, before being named general manager in December 1992.

After the board accepted Kraus’ letter of resignation, effective January 2019, President Dudley Nelson of Axtell said, “Under Don’s leadership, Central has advanced by leaps and bounds in technology and other ways.”

The board approved hiring the Denver firm of Mycoff, Fry and Prouse for $60,000 to help recruit a new general manager.

Also recognized Monday was Robert Garrett of Minden who served on the board from 1981 to January 2017. Garrett died Thursday.

In staff reports, civil engineer Cory Steinke said Lake McConaughy levels have been steady recently. The lake held 1.46 million acre-feet of water Monday, which is 84.1 percent of capacity. Recent North Platte River inflows have been approximately 1,100 cubic feet per second.

Steinke said upstream Bureau of Reclamation reservoirs in Wyoming also are nearly full, but runoff prospects from any area of the Platte Basin are not good.

Another concern is drought. “There’s a big red dot (representing extreme drought) in the Panhandle of Oklahoma,” he said. “It’s getting bigger and moving east and north.”

An update on groundwater levels in Gosper, Phelps and Kearney counties, where CNPPID delivers surface water for irrigation, was given by Irrigation Division Manager Dave Ford.

There wasn’t a huge difference in April 2017 and April 2018 readings from monitoring wells, he said, and increases in some Gosper County wells reflect benefits from diverting excess Platte flows into Elwood Reservoir the past few years to enhance groundwater recharge.

Trends seen the past 10 years and since baseline readings were taken in 1981-85 include larger groundwater declines in Phelps and Kearney counties east of Holdrege. “That’s an area where we will and have been having discussions,” Ford said.

He acknowledged some declines reflect conservation improvements in the CNPPID system and on farms during the years, such as lining irrigation canals, replacing canals with pipelines and greater use of more efficient pivot systems.

Ford, Tri-Basin Natural Resources District General Manager John Thorburn of Holdrege and two Central directors said current groundwater levels remain much higher than pre-development levels, so the declines are being measured from artificial highs from CNPPID system recharge.

Ford also said surface water is in place now to serve almost all 2018 Central irrigation customers within a day or two, and some pivots have been started.

In other business, the board:

- Approved a pilot program to list contractors certified to work on properties at CNPPID lakes to help speed up the permit process. Other contractors can be hired by lake residents, but will go through the regular permit process.

- Approved construction of a donor-funded memorial lighthouse on Johnson Lake’s Mallard Bay jetty. CNPPID will do site preparation for possible late summer construction and the lake association will handle jetty mowing.

- Was told by Deb Jensen, the liaison between Johnson Lake Development Inc. and the board, there needs to be better control of weeds and overgrowth along lake trails where native grass areas are being developed.

- Approved letters of consent and understanding with Gosper County for a fall project to replace a bridge over the E65 Canal with a box culvert. Central will pay 35 percent of the culvert cost up to $73,000.

- Heard from Glenvil farmer Dave Murman, a candidate for senator in the 38th Legislative District.

lori.potter@kearneyhub.com

New Business at Johnson Lake: