News

Fifteen Callaway High School seniors gathered in the school gym for the final time as classmates on Sunday, May 11, as the Class of 2025 closed the book on an important chapter of their lives. The phrase the class chose as their motto is, “How lucky are we?” With the class colors of navy and ivory, the seniors entered the gymnasium filled with family members and friends as Pomp and Circumstance echoed from the band.

The following cases have been reported closed by the Clerk of the District Court of Custer County for the month of April 2025. April 3 - Rochale L.

Timothy Rosentrater, age 63 of Callaway, pled guilty on Thursday, May 1, in Custer County District Court to several charges of sexual assault that occurred over a period eclipsing more than 20 years. In March of 2024, Rosentrater faced a single charge after being arrested the previous month when a woman accused him of assaulting her during a seizure episode.

Greetings from the Capitol, where the Legislature is deep into debating the state budget and key policies as we near the session's end. It’s been a busy week, and I want to share some of the highlights.

Holy Trinity Episcopal Church in Callaway was built in 1890 and has stood empty since the mid-1980s. The Seven Valleys Historical Society is starting to put some money into repairing the 115-year-old landmark, starting with a much-needed new roof. Historical Society members Lorraine Smith and Doris Street said the new roof will cost $7,300 plus. In the process, Smith said the original bell tower was found to be rotted beyond repair and was removed. It may be replaced with a simple cross.

It went right down to the wire, but when the fifth Nebraska high school track and field championship was over Saturday, Class D had a new champion - Callaway! The Bearettes scored 39 points to shade defending champion Elwood for the title. The meet was run in near-perfect weather at North Platte High School.

Welcome to May. About this time each spring we see the peak migration of birds heading north to their nesting grounds. Last year the peak day was April 29, this year to date it was May 3. So far, as I type, the total number of birds that have passed over Dawson and Custer Counties this spring is just short of 23 million! As astounding as that sounds, it is four million fewer than this time last year and only 42% of the birds expected to cross on their way north. On the night of the 3rd, almost seven million birds flew over our county!

For the past few weeks we have been spotlighting each of the 15 Callaway seniors in the Courier, with our special Senior Salutes edition published on May 8. We would like to thank Callaway Public Schools for allowing us permission to use these beautiful tributes that they created for these seniors.

The end of another school year is upon us. A school year is a lot like the Nebraska weather. We definitely survive our tornados and hail storms, but there are so many days (like today) that are just perfect. As I look back on my first year as superintendent of Callaway Public Schools I can’t help but feel a little prideful and very fortunate. My year was focused on two guiding ideas. First, you can make a perfect system with imperfect parts. Secondly, excellence is not an accident.

Callaway Volunteer Fire and Rescue (CVFR) has been awarded The Nebraska EMSC Pediatric Readiness Recognition by the Nebraska Emergency Medical Services for Children (EMSC) program. This is a voluntary process offered to all EMS agencies currently licensed within the State of Nebraska. At this time CVFR is one of only nine other agencies in the State of Nebraska who have been awarded this recognition.