Check Out the Latest Happenings in Kearney, NE

Kirstina Kouma

Kearney, a bustling city in south-central Nebraska, is a great place to live and work. Its great quality of life is fueled by outstanding indoor and outdoor amenities, stellar support throughout the community, and continued growth and development. Check out the latest happenings in Kearney and the region.

New Pavilion Shines at Yanney Heritage Park

Yanney Heritage Park, nicknamed the “finest park between Omaha and Denver,” is an 80-acre recreation space that includes a 75-foot tall observation tower, a 40-acre lake with a marina, numerous walking and cycling trails, and landscaped botanical gardens.

The park features picnic shelters, two splash pads, two playgrounds, a fitness pad, a put-in egress for Kearney’s whitewater park and the Peterson Senior Activity Center. It has an amphitheater and three indoor rental facilities including the Environmental Resource Center, Mitzi’s Pavilion, and now, the new Gail and Michael Yanney Pavilion, slated to be one of Kearney’s premier event centers.

“The new pavilion is a larger, more upscale rental facility that overlooks the new 12-acre Gardens at Yanney Park,” says Scott Hayden, Kearney’s recreation services director. “It’s around 2,700 square feet plus a 15,000-square-foot grass courtyard, has a covered patio on three sides, and is all glass on the south side of the building, which overlooks the gardens.”

The Gail and Michael Yanney Pavilion opened its doors in January 2024 and features dressing rooms and a catering kitchen. It has A/V capabilities, including two projectors with drop-down screens and a built-in sound system that can utilize Bluetooth and Wi-Fi technologies.

The pavilion has two chandeliers by famed glass artist Dale Chihuly, plus three of his paintings and the work of local artist Jennifer Homan. The grass courtyard features a firepit, and the patios have wall heaters for use in colder weather.

Kearney Police Department Supports Community

Kearney Chief of Police Bryan Waugh has been in law enforcement for nearly 30 years, including four years of active duty as a U.S. Air Force law enforcement specialist. He was appointed Kearney police chief in January 2019 and admires how the community and Kearney Police Department get along.

“Kearney is a great place to be a police officer. This community embraces and cares about law enforcement,” Waugh says. “We receive first-class support from our citizens, city council, mayor, city manager and businesses.”

Kearney has one of the lowest crime rates in Nebraska, and Waugh appreciates that the department can partner with the community to ensure Kearney is a safe place to live, go to school, raise a family or operate a business.

“In our department today, we have 60 uniformed patrol officers, one airport police officer and 17 nonsworn employees,” he says. “And with more expansion projects occurring, especially in the southern part of Kearney, I anticipate adding more officers in the near future.”

The department has implemented an assigned vehicle program so uniformed officers now have their own assigned personal police vehicle. There are preliminary discussions about constructing a new law enforcement center, especially since both the Kearney Police Department and the Buffalo County Sheriff’s Office have shared the same building on Avenue A for 30+ years.

“Both the police and sheriff’s departments get along very well in the same building, but there is no more room for either of us to grow anymore,” Waugh says. “An expansion or new headquarters would be nice to have.”

Local Agencies Move Into New Headquarters

On Dec. 1, 2024, the Kearney Area Chamber of Commerce, Kearney Visitors Bureau and Development Council for Buffalo County moved into a combination welcome center, information hub and meeting place at the intersection of 11th Avenue and Talmadge Street. The new $5.6 million, 12,000-square-foot building is more than double the size of the former 5,600-square-foot headquarters that the agencies used for decades.

Kearney Area Chamber of Commerce President/CEO Derek Rusher says the former building was always a little tricky to find, as it was along a service road tucked behind Taco Bell. However, the new complex is well-positioned along the Interstate 80 corridor in a busy, natural traffic pattern where it can be easily recognized.

“The new headquarters provides high visibility for out-of-towners, especially those wanting information from Kearney Visitors Bureau about what sites to visit,” Rusher says. “The building also gives businesses and individuals a convenient place to meet with the chamber and the economic development council.”

The new facility will provide far more space than the old building and create more opportunities.

“We now have a large boardroom, a smaller boardroom, a small meeting space, a 2,000-square-foot welcome center, a media room and a catering kitchen that members can use for their meetings,” Rusher says. “We want our 875 chamber members to utilize this building whenever they need it for small events, podcasts, meetings or whatever else. We want a lot of activity at our new place.”

Kearney Catholic Completes Stadium Renovation

Kearney Catholic High School has completed a $6.5 million renovation to Stars Stadium, with upgrades finished in time for the 2024 fall football season. The renovation project included installing artificial turf at the stadium’s Miles Field. The field can now host football games along with soccer matches, band practices and more. Other improvements included installing an all-purpose eight-lane running track around the perimeter of Miles Field, a new press box, lights, bleachers, restrooms, a concession stand and storage sheds.

“After about 60 years of use, Miles Field and the stadium have received a much-needed makeover,” says Matt Rogers, principal of Kearney Catholic High School. “One of the previous problems was that the grass football field was slowly sinking and always needed more fill-in dirt and maintenance, while the old running track was basically just a pathway made of dirt and became virtually unusable. Today, we have a modern sports facility.”

Kearney Catholic High School opened in 1961 and is currently home to about 350 students in grades 6-12. The sports teams compete in the Nebraska School Activities Association. Most of the $6.5 million for the project was raised from company and individual private pledges along with small grants.

Initiative Aims to Tackle Rural Child Care Shortages

Access to quality child care is not just a quality-of-life issue; it’s also a workforce development issue.

In Kearney, a first-of-its-kind initiative is bringing together stakeholders from across the state to find solutions for the child care and early childhood education shortage. The University of Nebraska at Kearney’s Knowledge Network for Early Childhood Education Workforce (KNEW) project pairs university researchers and educators with Communities for Kids (C4K) and the University of Nebraska Extension to increase recruitment and retention of early childhood educators in rural parts of the state.

A 2023 Rural Child Care Policy Framework report commissioned by the Bipartisan Policy Center found that 86% of rural parents who had one partner not currently working said that child care responsibilities influenced their decision to not work, says Philip Lai, associate professor and graduate program chair in the Department of Communication Disorders at UNK.”

Lack of infrastructure and greater distances to travel to access child care programs were also found to be reasons.

Lack of child care and education programs has also impacted rural companies and industries. The Save the Children Action Network surveyed rural families and found that 48% of working parents had to call out or miss a shift at work at some point during the year due to difficulty securing child care.

The KNEW project aims to address this child care crisis by strengthening rural collaborative community partnerships, using social networks to identify gaps and opportunities for outreach that will address retention and recruitment of providers and educators. It also plans to develop a training program tailored to the learning needs of providers and teachers in rural communities.

“If families do not have quality child care for their child, then they cannot work and may have to leave the rural community to find work elsewhere,” Lai says. “Plus, it’s been found that high-quality early childhood education dramatically improves a child’s opportunities for a better future while offering parents greater job stability.”

– Teree Caruthers contributed to this article.