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Six-year-old Cara Dennis puts in some time at the Aurora tennis facility early Monday morning. Aurora’s facility will host a six-week tennis clinic for anyone ranging from 5 years old to adults. -
A room on the boardwalk at the Plainsman Museum was recently remodeled to feature an Extension office, filled to the brim with pieces of history directly from Cranfill, including his books, slides and other folders. -
Devon Worley got up close and personal with kids in the audience during Friday’s Bands on the Bricks debut, inviting the crowd to dance and sing along to the music. -
A building that has housed numerous businesses since its construction in 1956 came crashing down last week. Mike Nelson Land Development crews demolished the building, which had stood mostly vacant since 2012.
Tennis lessons getting first serve in Aurora
Four years after cutting the tape on a brand-new tennis facility, the next phase of growing the game in Aurora is underway.
For the first time, Aurora will host a six-week tennis clinic on its new Streeter Park courts complete with a tennis pro leading the classes for all ages to participate.
A group of three individuals were part of a presentation July 6 to the Rotary Club, including Jennifer Dennis, a member of the Aurora Tennis Facility board, Kara Heim, a representative of the United States Tennis Association and Joa Vandervelpen, a tennis pro from Grand Island who will teach the clinics.
Extension icon J.C. Cranfill reflects on years in ag
There comes a time to harvest in everyone’s life. When the years have grown long and memories are just ripe enough pick to tell the next generation about a full life.
Few have a bounty so filled with experience as former Hamilton County Extension Agent J.C. Cranfill.
Born in 1929, he explained that his first memories and experiences in the agriculture business that would define his life were not always pleasant. Born on a farm situated not only in the Great Depression, but also in Oklahoma, meant he was in the middle of the Dust Bowl. Cranfill remembered the sand storms that would darken the skies as he walked to school.
“We lived about a mile and a half from town,” he recalled. “And us kids had to string out to walk home. Sometimes we’d get lost out there and we’d run to the fence and follow it to find where we were supposed to go.”
Summer bands, family fun back on the bricks
Music returned to Aurora’s downtown square Friday with week one of the six-week Bands on the Bricks concert series drawing perhaps its largest crowd yet, estimated at more than 400 people.
Event coordinator Sara Sutherland, president of the Aurora Chamber of Commerce, said she was thrilled with the energy and attendance, especially for opening night.
“It was a super proud moment for me seeing that the word is out before the first week,” Sutherland said. “What it felt like has happened in the past is people were like, ‘Oh yeah, that started again’ and we would see the bigger crowds for weeks three, four, five and six."
Aging structure demolished just south of downtown square
A small, vacant structure next to City Hall was demolished last week, clearing a lot just south of the downtown square for future development.
The aging facilities had for many years been home base for Hamilton Sales & Service, before it was eventually sold to the Aurora Development Corporation when the ag equipment company moved into a new facility on Highway 14. For the past few years, ADC rented the corner lot to Hamilton Telecommunications, which used it as a staging area for construction materials and equipment.
“With the construction project we’ve had going on for the last several years, there’s just an immense amount of materials that have to be secure and staged in order to keep ahead of construction,” noted John Nelson, Hamilton Telecommunications president and CEO. “Supply chain issues have required us to buy ahead so we don’t get to a point where we’re ready for materials and they’re not available. As a result, we had a short-term need for additional storage and we knew that ADC had a desire to get those buildings torn down.”
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