I was out of the office (and out of town, too) all last week, and as is often the case when we return from time off work, I spent most of Monday catching up on everything that happened in Central Nebraska. I thought it might be helpful to round it up for you as well:

— The big story, by far, was the announcement by a group of physicians that they plan to build a new hospital in southwest Kearney. The physicians, many of whom work at Kearney’s Good Samaritan Hospital and all but one of whom seem to be remaining anonymous, are frustrated with what they see as Good Sam’s gradual shift from being community-run to corporate-run.

Good Sam, which apparently has seen this announcement coming, fired back, saying that Kearney doesn’t have enough people to support a second hospital. Regardless of whether or not that’s true, Good Sam clearly has a big problem on its hands and a lot of seriously disgruntled physicians to make amends with. What do you think? Would a second hospital be good for Kearney and rural Central Nebraska?

— Butch Hughes — who keeps popping up in just about everything going on in Hastings, from recall efforts to anti-fluoride campaigns — showed off his newly purchased former Hastings Middle School on Sunday. The old building, which was used for school until last year, was initially bought by First Presbyterian Church, then sold to Hughes at auction last month after the community found out that the church planned to demolish the building if it couldn’t be sold.

Now, Hughes is trying to figure out what to do with it. He tells NTV he’d like to use the first floor for office space and the second for condos, but he’s got to put in a lot of work and a lot of money to see that happen. With the Community Redevelopment Authority and Business Improvement District staying out of this, he has an uphill battle in front of him. But sentiment for that building is strong, and Hughes has shown remarkable community organizing power over the past few years.

— Two other Central Nebraska school districts, Hastings Adams Central and Ord, are looking at bond issues for building improvements, and both are gearing up for public votes. Adams Central, which is considering building a new consolidated elementary school, decided to push its vote back to at least next March, with the new building’s projected opening being bumped back a year to 2012.

Meanwhile, the rhetoric on both sides of Ord’s proposed $9.8 million bond issue for school upgrades and a new practice gym is heating up, as the emails and radio ads fly back and forth. If you want a taste of the spicy conversation surrounding the issue, the generally pro-bond comment sections can be found here, here and here, and the largely anti-bond forums are here.

— The Omaha World-Herald joined Central City school employees on a trip over to St. Libory for a nifty feature on locally produced food in school lunch programs.

— A new wind energy promotion group, the Nebraska Energy Export Association, announced its formation. What’s interesting about this group are its participants — namely, the Nebraska Cattlemen and Nebraska Farm Bureau, two groups that haven’t always been aboard the wind bandwagon. In fact, it’s typically been the Nebraska Farmers Union, the Farm Bureau’s counterpart on left side of the political spectrum, that’s been pushing wind energy in the state.

— And finally, just yesterday, we got word of the official approval of flights to Denver from Grand Island. I wrote in August about why the airport’s growth could be good for rural Nebraska, though the Kearney Regional Airport isn’t exactly pleased with this news.