Lou Dart, owner of Lou and Mary Anne’s Bar in Bee, serves fish to Bill and Kathy Payne of Seward Nov. 30 as part of the bar’s long-standing Friday night fish fry tradition. The Paynes said the fish fry in Bee was their first date 15 years ago. Bill said the bar is like the one in the TV sitcom "Cheers," where "everybody knows your name."
Yanise Ho, 23, stopped in Seward on her way from Miami, Florida, to Portland, Oregon this summer—rollerblading the entire way to raise money to send girls to school.
Lou Dart spent 26 years of his life serving his country in the United States Air Force and the last 44 years serving his customers at Lou and Mary Anne’s Bar in Bee.
Even though he just turned 90, he still fills out “99 percent of the order forms” for the business, chats with customers every day and regularly drives to Milford to visit his wife, Mary Anne, at her nursing home.
How does he stay sharp enough to still accomplish so much?
Dart gives credit to the feeling of community.
Dart was born and raised on a farm outside Green Bay, Wisconsin, and the Green Bay Packers memorabilia scattered around the carpet-walled bar and grill is a testament to that.
Before the bar was his, it was a favorite haunt for him and his wife.
When the bar closed in 1973, Lou decided to buy the property in 1974 and retire from the military to start his new career.
Given his Catholic background and the large Catholic presence in the area, it only made sense that Dart started up his now-famous Friday night fish frys right away.
Now the bar is not only a place to grab a beer, it is a place to sit down and eat a good meal with family and friends.
Read the full story HERE.
Two conflicting votes from the Seward City Council regarding a blight designation led to the mayor vetoing the first vote.
On Dec. 4, a motion to approve a blight designation for four lots on the northwest corner of Lincoln Street and North Columbia Avenue was met with a tie vote.
Mayor Josh Eickmeier broke the tie with a yes vote during the meeting.
Next, the board considered a motion to add the newly designated area to the city’s blight map. It failed with a 5-3 vote.
reas need to be designated as blighted to qualify for TIF. Seward can only designate up to 35 percent of the city as such.
On Dec. 5, Eickmeier said the vote to designate the four lots counts against the city’s 35 percent limit. But the council’s decision to not add the lots to the blight map means they can’t be used for TIF.
So on Dec. 7, Eickmeier vetoed the first vote by the council. This means the area will not be designated as blighted.
This is the first time the city considered naming a residential area as blighted. This topic led to more than two-and-a-half-hours of discussion.
Read more from the meeting HERE.
Yanise Ho, 23, has lived all over the world, but this summer she experienced 3,800 miles of the U.S. in a unique way: from coast to coast on rollerblades.
The Bladress, as she calls herself, passed through Seward on her seven-month roller trip, which started March 14 in Miami, Florida, and routed her north to New York before she headed west.
“The whole mission is to go with nothing. No plans. No money,” Ho said.
Her goal was to show there are a lot of wonderful people in the world.
“I rely on the kindness of strangers every day,” she said.
Ho managed to make a lot of friends along the way, including one Seward family who took her in one night in August and showed her around town before sending her on her way toward York.
“I’ve seen nothing but good people along the way,” Ho said.
Her aim was to restore faith in humanity and get people to trust one another, “because we don’t do that anymore,” she said.
Along the way, Ho promoted The Bladress Scholarship in connection with One Girl Can, which raised money for girls’ education in Kenya and Uganda with the empowering idea that “one girl can” do anything.
Online donations for the scholarship totaled $33,185, surpassing her goal of $30,000. One donor, inspired by her journey, offered to match funds dollar for dollar, according to Ho’s fundraising page on fundrazr.com.
“Education is crucial to ending the vicious cycle of poverty, child marriage and gender inequality,” she wrote. “More importantly, it provides an opportunity for girls to reach their full potential and pursue a life of their choosing.”
Read more about her journey HERE.
Heartfelt Connections, a grief support group for parents who have lost children, meets the second Thursday of each month. Contact Sharon Dickinson at (402) 643-8145 or Diane Krieser at (402) 588-2687 for more information or visit the website at sewardheartfeltconnections.org. The next meeting will be Thursday, Dec. 13, at 7 p.m. at the Seward Civic Center.
The Eagle Explorers 4-H Club in Milford is holding a food drive to benefit the Milford Food Pantry. Shelf-stable food donations can be dropped off at Pac ‘N’ Save in Milford from now until Jan. 5. The Milford Food Pantry is especially in need of boxed dinners, cereal, canned meat, peanut butter, pancake mix and syrup and cake mixes. Toiletries and paper products will also be accepted, but no refrigerated or frozen food items.
The Utica Senior Center will host the third and fourth graders from St. Paul Lutheran School for a Christmas program Friday, Dec. 14, at 1 p.m.
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