New Years Fireworks

By Scottsbluff Fire Department

Are you planning on starting your New Year off with a bang?

We encourage you to follow these safety tips to ensure you have a safe New Year’s celebration.

Have responsible adult supervision
Have a fire extinguisher available
Soak fireworks in water for 24 hours before disposal
Do not throw fireworks at people, animals or vehicles
Do not smoke, or keep flammables near any fireworks

If something goes wrong, call 911 immediately so resources can be dispatched.

The staff here at Scottsbluff Fire hopes everyone has a safe and happy New Year!

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Wednesday Oct 28 2026 - Scanner News - Panhandle Scanner News

One of our most important missions at Panhandle Scanner is our missing persons, and we have a juvenile currently missing in Scottsbluff, Rhylee Wilberger. Rhylee is a 17-year-old white female, 5'4", 105 pounds, red or auburn hair, and blue eyes. Rhylee Wilberger was last seen in the Scottsbluff area on October 26th. She was last seen wearing a grey sweater, blue jeans, grey shoes, and a black backpack. Please contact Scottsbluff Police Department if you know anything about Rhylee Wilberger's whereabouts. National Cemetery Day was yesterday and we want to tell you about a new business in Sidney. That's right, long-time friend Bob Gehrig from Sidney, Nebraska, has Gehrig Headstone Cleaning and Restoration and is offering free headstone cleanings for military veterans whose resting place is Boot Hill Cemetery in Sidney. If you are a family member or know of a veteran at Boot Hill Cemetery in Sidney, give Gehrig Headstone Cleaning a call. Find more information on his website with his address where the public can participate by sending him pumice stones to help with this cleanup effort. www.gehrigheadstonecleaning.com Website by Hale Multimedia Panhandle Scanner is well known for helping new businesses get exposure in the community. Be sure to visit our page at Panhandle Scanner on Facebook on Saturdays for Scanner Saturdays where we highlight local businesses around the Panhandle of Nebraska. Nominate your favorites every week for our quarterly Local Favorite Small Business Contest. And don't forget our very popular Growing Public Record every day Monday through Friday when available on Panhandle Scanner.

Fear of the Future (Certainty in Times of Uncertainty) Day 3 - Elevate Your Day with Andi and Brian Hale

From Certainty In Times of Uncertainty by Dave Villa We cannot always be certain of what is going to happen. There is no telling what the future will bring to anyone. We can make educated guesses. We can make assumptions. We can try to notice patterns and figure it out, but no one knows what tomorrow will bring. All we have is today. And today is enough. “casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. ” 1 Peter 5:7 ESV You have survived every bad day so far. Every circumstance and setback. You are undefeated. You’ve seen seemingly insurmountable situations before, and you have faced terrifying opponents who seemed to have the advantage, and yet you have come out the victor. In times of uncertainty, we choose to be certain. We have certainty not in our circumstances and situations but in our God, who provides for and protects us. Certainty – Firm conviction that something is the case. The quality of being reliably true. A fact that is definitely true or an event that is definitely going to take place. Uncertainty – The state of being uncertain. Something that is uncertain or that causes one to feel uncertain. Uncertainty says, “I don’t know what my future holds.” Certainty says, “I know who holds my future!” To be without Christ is to be without peace. To be uncertain. Every person has a conscience within them, which must be satisfied before they can truly be happy. There is only one thing that can give peace to the conscience, and that is being in the right relationship with God. Fight for what matters most to you. Fight for your faith. Fight for your family. Fight for your life. Don’t allow negativity and uncertainty to take up room in your mind. God is STILL in the blessing business. “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” Psalm 46:1 ESV It’s time that we evict uncertainty and make way for certainty. Negativity has overstayed it’s welcome and positivity is moving back in! We need to introduce an uncertain world to a certain Jesus.

Radical Pruning (Making Change) Day 4 of 5 - Elevate Your Day with Andi and Brian Hale

From Making Change by Michelle Van Loon When I learned that my hairdresser was a hobbyist hibiscus breeder, I told him about the three neglected old hibiscus bushes that were on the property of our new home. The skeletal plants were nearly leafless, and I figured I’d need to dig them up and replace them. He urged me instead to lop off about two-thirds of their branches. “It might look like you killed them. Fertilize them well and watch what happens.” He was right. It did look like I killed them after I first gave them a serious haircut with the hedge clippers. Sprinkling fertilizer around the base of the woody, shorn stumps seemed an exercise in futility. But within a few months, the trio of bushes were covered in green leaves and saucer-sized blooms. When it seems as though our lives are undergoing radical pruning, all we can see are the places where good and promising things once existed. Pastor Warren Wiersbe said, “Your heavenly Father is never nearer to you than when He is pruning you.” Pruning is rarely pleasant, nor is it instantly beautiful or fruitful. It hurts. “ I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. ” John 15:1-2 ESV We can trust that our Master Gardener is near, cultivating his goodness from the places in our lives that he’s currently pruning. But if your trust seems as sparse and barren as the branches on a blunt stub of a hibiscus bush after its been pruned, say so. Crying out for God’s help itself is an expression of trust, and is the place where new life and fresh growth begins. Prayer: Father, the pruning that accompanies changes in my life is painful and confusing. I thought those areas were fruitful, and I’ll confess that I don’t understand why you’re doing what you’re doing right now. Please help me to discover you are near. I pray these things in the name of the one who is God-with-us, your Son Jesus.

Lost in New Territory (Making Change) Day 3 of 5 - Elevate Your Day with Andi and Brian Hale

From Making Change by Michelle Van Loon In the days before readily available GPS navigation on our cell phones, I told my kids we’d be taking a quick run to the post office in our new town. A glance at the map told me the address was directly at the center of a spaghetti-bowl of hilly one-way streets. I was a veteran big city driver and figured the small suburban downtown area wouldn’t be a major challenge. After more than a half hour of driving in circles around that up-and-down tangle of streets, stopping to ask for directions twice, I gave up and returned home. I never found the post office that day, though later I discovered I’d driven by it several times. I relied on my earlier experience as a city driver to help me navigate my strange new location. That experience actually got in the way of me being able to make sense of what my eyes were seeing that day. I was so disoriented that after a while, I forgot what I was searching for. Understandably, we’re prone to rely on our previous experience to navigate change in our lives. While that previous experience may be of value, it can also hinder us from being able to assess and respond to what is happening right now. We need a guide who knows the terrain, especially when it is uncharted territory for us. “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. ” John 10:27 ESV In John 10, Jesus told his followers that there would be unhelpful or destructive people presenting themselves as caring guides who would lead them astray. He urged his followers to learn to listen to his voice. We can do that by engaging in regular Bible reading so we can learn to discern who God is and what he says, and by simple, conversational prayer. He will guide us step by step, even when it seems as though we are traveling without a map. Prayer: Good Shepherd Jesus, I am disoriented by this strange new place in which I find myself. Please protect me from the other voices who are not guiding me in the way I should travel. Please help me hear your voice clearly and follow you faithfully.

The Ache of Change (Making Change) Day 2 of 5 - Elevate Your Day with Andi and Brian Hale

From Making Change by Michelle Van Loon When I was fired from a job I’d fought hard to keep, a friend reminded me that I should be prepared for grief to present itself as I processed the loss. And she was right. I spent some time telling myself it was all for the best. I found myself dealing with eruptions of frustration and anger as I replayed months of difficult inter-office politics where it seemed I lost too many hyper-political interoffice skirmishes with a difficult coworker. I grew depressed, and days of initial shock became weeks blanketed by a wooly, gray emotional fog. The rejections I received as I dutifully searched for a new job amplified my sadness. While a job loss might be an easily-identifiable source of grief, I have discovered that every change – even a welcome one – carries with it some form of grief. For example, when a young adult child marries, you may love the partner they’ve chosen, and be overjoyed about the new family they’re forming, but find yourself unexpectedly aching with nostalgia as you come to terms with the reality that you’ve come to the end of an era in your family’s story. For more than 10 years, I have walked alongside many who are moving into midlife. Many are caught off guard by the endings that often come at this time of life – empty nest, career shifts, changes in family life and status. It has been a privilege to help others recognize that our souls process change in much the same way we experience grief. “ Though he slay me, I will hope in him; yet I will argue my ways to his face.” Job 13:15 ESV When Job dealt with a breathtaking pile-up of loss, his confession of hope in God contained a frank acknowledgement that he was actively grieving all the ways his life had changed. Reflect today on how changes you’ve experienced recently have elicited some form of grief response in your soul. These responses can include denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. Prayer: Unchanging Father, as I navigate this time of transition in my life, I am grieving a past I can not reclaim. Kindle within me a spark of hope as I continue to process these changes. I ask this in the name of your always faithful Son, Jesus.

The Whole Truth (Making Change) Day 1 of 5 - Elevate Your Day with Andi and Brian Hale

From Making Change by Michelle Van Loon “I’m so sorry to hear about your cancer diagnosis. How are you holding up?” I was grateful to have a moment of conversation with Tonya, a popular leader at church. Tonya smiled a 1000-watt smile. “Praise the Lord! God is good!” She then told me about how she’d had an opportunity to share her faith with a radiologist tech at the hospital earlier that week. I’d recently received a different, serious medical diagnosis, and had not responded with a 1000-watt smile like Tonya had. Frankly, I didn’t feel amazing. I’d logged some long, sleepless nights wrestling with God about what my future held and walked away from the conversation with Tonya wondering if there was something deficient in my faith. While each of us responds to bad news differently, God is not looking for a spiritual performance from any of us. This is the antithesis of what God already knows is true about us. 2 Samuel 11-12 details King David’s sin against God, Bathsheba, her husband Uriah, and his people. Psalm 51 captures his prayer of confession. It also offers us a reminder that to stay connected to God in relationship, He requires complete honesty from us. “Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.” Psalm 51:6 ESV These words were spoken in the context of confession of sin, but they apply just as powerfully to every aspect of our lives. When we face the challenge of unwelcome change in the form of a scary diagnosis, a lost job, broken relationship, or anything that sends our lives in a difficult new direction, it takes real faith to tell the truth. If you are brimming with trust, rest in that confidence. And if you are shaken and shaky, offer yourself just as you are to God, and know that the truth is all he asks of you in that moment – and every moment. Prayer: Lord, in this time of challenge in my life, I am disoriented and afraid. And by speaking that truth to you about myself, I recognize that I am taking a step toward learning to trust you as I am now in this difficult place. Please help me to grow in that trust, I pray, in the name of the One who made me and knows me better than I know myself.