Ord Talk

Here is what hunter has been looking for on the Vent. If you haven't kept up, its a grim picture of what the future holds if the Valley County Health Systems goes on the tax roles and why the taxpayers will end up footing the bill. Heres the link, its a large file so it may take a minute or two to load...

Marty Petska nominated Josh Zangger

Dawn Skibinski nominated Jacob Lange

Lonny Clausen nominated Megan Cargill

Kim Radil nominated Tom Kruml

Lets just take this from the top, Josh Zangger won the vote, 4 to 1 (no surprises there). The real shocker is that the board didn't really look any farther than their own cheerleading section to come up with nominees. Tom Kruml lost the last election and so was an obvious choice to bring back on board through the back door. Megan Cargill is extremely outspoken when it comes to OurKids1st and has been haunting the board meetings for the last few months and this opportunity was ripe for the picking. Jacob Lange was a former schoolboard member at Vinton before the State of Nebraska shut down the Class 1 Districts and was the only nominee who even bothered to show up at the meeting and address the board as to why he wanted the job. Good for him, at least he showed up in good faith, futile though it may have been.

Concerning Mr. Zangger, you would think with the debacle over the choice of a superintendent and the ensuing bending over of the board by the Teachers Union, they might have learned a lesson. Guess not. Josh Zangger is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy, and works for his dads popcorn company in North Loup. I have even heard rumors that those in the elite are grooming him for a run at Nebraska Senator some day. We all have aspirations I guess. The problem comes when you look at what Mr. Zangger has lent his name to in the recent past.

The school bond issue comes to mind first where Mr. Zangger was the spokes person for OurKids1st. The video shown at the OK1 meetings depicted horrible visions of electrical wires hanging loose, broken stairs and dark dank locker rooms deep in the bowels of the highschool. All these ills could be remedied if we just had a practice gym, which I guess was the biggest deception of the entire bond issue. We all know about the violence, the rude interruptions and the fallout from the CARE5 meeting at the Vets club and how those who don't get their way become somewhat unhinged. The bond passed by only 160 votes and split the community in half...again. Which brings us to the second issue Mr. Zangger has lent his name and services to, the hospital bond.

Remember "We don't want your money, just your Vote"? How we had to have the new Hospital so Ord could "Move Forward"? How many Drs., nurses, administrators, technitions and housekeeping staff have left, been fired or just couldn't deal with the uncivil treatment and so took their skills to Grand Island or Kearney? Thats a list for another day. The point is, that bond issue ripped this community apart too and with about the same number of votes to pass it, a little over 160.

I cannot fault Josh Zangger in the least in either of these instances. He is passionate about what he believes in, he lives in this community and a he wants a good school and a good hospital for his family and children. He is clear in what he belives and he went out and made that happen. I do fault the Ord School Board for choosing a lightening rod to represent the rest of the community on the board. They had a golden opportunity to reach out to the disenfranchised and they wasted it. They picked from inside the family. Again.