PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 9, 2006
CONTACT: 308-238-0375

Scott Kleeb Completes Two-Day Tour of North Central Nebraska Communities

DUNNING, NE—During two days of travel along Nebraska’s Highway 20, congressional candidate Scott Kleeb met with farmers, ranchers, small business owners, teachers and civic leaders from Valentine to O’Neill.

“You will never meet anyone more optimistic about the future of rural Nebraska than me,” Scott told gatherings at the Bunkhouse Cafe in Valentine, the Bassett Lodge and the Blarney Stone Restaurant in O’Neill. “We have some of the best schools and some of the hardest workers in the country. We have strong community leaders and a growing group of entrepreneurs who are showing the way forward to economic growth in the new century. But government can and must do more to plan for and support this new growth in our state.”

In O’Neill, Scott addressed the Rotary Club and toured a number of area businesses, including the CVA Central Valley Agriculture Co-op, the Cargill grain elevator, the Shamrock Nursery, the Holiday Inn Express, Tier One Bank, Carhart Lumber, the historic Golden Hotel, and the 21st Century Growers greenhouse. He also met with a group of O’Neill teachers at the Blarney Stone and attended a soup dinner at the Golden Age Senior Center.

Many of the O’Neill business leaders expressed concern about growing energy costs. Delray Kumm, owner of Shamrock Nursery, told Scott that his business profits suffered last year due to 30 percent increases in the cost of natural gas. Delray has since purchased a corn-burning furnace which he says has the potential to cut his annual heating bill by as much as 75 percent.

Marvin Fritz, owner of 21st Century Growers, said O’Neill has excellent sunlight, an outstanding workforce, and the best water in the world for producing tomatoes hydroponically. The company already employs more than 50 and has plans to expand operations. But first, Fritz must replace his oil burning boilers with electric furnaces, to cut down on a heating bill that is eating into the company’s profits day-by-day.

At the Co-op, Scott heard yet again how rising costs for fuel and fertilizer are cutting into farm income and threatening the survival of small and mid-sized farmers who are still the backbone of the region’s economy.

Scott said few states are as well equipped as Nebraska to reduce our energy costs nationally by increasing production of alternative energies like ethanol, bio-diesel, wind power and methane. He said now is the time to invest in increasing production of these alternatives, and he lamented the fact that current budget proposals in Washington would actually reduce funding for renewable fuels and energy efficiency.

O’Neill teachers told Scott that their schools are being asked, under No Child Left Behind legislation, to spend more time and money on testing. They worry that this overemphasis on testing is actually decreasing the quality of education available in O’Neill’s schools, which have long had a reputation for excellence. Furthermore, they said already tight school budgets are being strained to the breaking point because there are many new federal requirements but no new federal money.

“If you live in a rural area and you watch the country’s deficit continue to soar, you really have to ask yourself where that money is going,” Scott commented. “There are tremendous opportunities in Nebraska today. We need government to get behind them, or get out of the way.”

In Ainsworth, Scott toured a call center that employs more than 40 people. He learned that the center has a huge impact on the town’s economy since its opening in 2003, both through the jobs it created and through the business visits it generates to Ainsworth.

The center was opened by California-based company Technologent, Inc., whose CEO Tom Gallaway grew up in Ainsworth. Gallaway chose Ainsworth in part because he wanted to help his home town, but also because the town’s workforce included many people with the technology-related skills he was looking for. This is because, in the mid-nineties, community leaders in Ainsworth came up with a plan to help the city take advantage of new economic opportunities in the information age. With the help of a mini grant from Technology Across Nebraska, they offered computer training to many Ainsworth residents.

“This is a great example of how government can empower local leaders take advantage of emerging economic opportunities,” Scott said. “We ought to be expanding this model, but instead state and federal governments are cutting rural development dollars.”