SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) - A 20-year-old South Dakota woman was
sentenced to six months in prison for embezzling money from the
bank she worked at.
     U.S. Attorney Brendan Johnson announced Thursday that Kristen
Traversie, of Mission, must also pay back $6,400 in restitution.
     Traversie pleaded guilty in June to embezzling and misapplying
more than $1,000 in customer deposits and funds at the Wells Fargo
Bank in Mission between Jan. 3 and Feb. 23.

The Niobrara Council and Niobrara Valley Outdoor Education Partnership (NVOEP) will be offering Niobrara Youth Nature Club this fall. This free afterschool program is for grades K-5 and will meet from 3:45-5:00 p.m. on Mondays at the Niobrara Council Office. Meetings will start September 26 and run through December 12. The major goal of the club is to connect with local youth who have a passion for the environment and outdoors and create structured hands-on learning opportunities for them.

Youth must pre-register by September 23 by contacting the Niobrara Council office at (402) 376-2793 or visiting http://niobraracouncil.org. Registration is open to the first 20 participants. High school students are encouraged to apply to be club mentors. Mentor applications can also be found on the Council website and are due by September 20.

The Valentine City Council met last night for a regular monthly meeting.  Mike Burge gave the report on the economic development program. The five week business startup class finished last week with seven businesses participating.  Burge also presented the council with a copy of a news release from the University of Nebraska stating the about 75% of rural Nebraskans approve of the types of economic development that is going on in Valentine.  The annual North Central RC&D meeting will be held in Valentine on September 28^th with a tour of Main Street planned along with a tour of the Prairie Club and supper in Valentine.

The council discussed a 4% cost of living increase for non-union employees including administration, police and department foreman. The motion to approve passed on a 4 to 1 vote with council member Toby Miller voting no, expressing interest in knowing how much the increase would cost..

At 7:15 Mayor Rowdy Kluender opened a public hearing to receive comments on the proposed budget. The budget for 2011 and 2012 is 12.6 million dollars which includes funds that are not expected to be spent.  The expenditures during the present budget year are 8.2 million dollars.  The property tax request of $439,500 for the next budget year will be approximate $4,000 higher than the previous year.  This increase is due to assessed valuation going up not an increase in the tax levy. The budget was approved on a unanimous vote.

 Toby Miller made the motion to adopt the ordinance creating a new six member Economic Development board.  Don Nelson expressed his thoughts that the program should be run through the chamber of commerce. The motion failed for a lack of second. There was considerable discussion with the public about the economic development program, with the council expressing a desire to approach the chamber to discuss having them taking over the program.  No action was taken at this time.

 The council agreed to install stop sign on Cherry Street at the intersection of 3^rd Street to help curtail truck traffic on Cherry Street.

Bobbie Vanneman, John Hanzlicek and Ruth Harms were reappointed to the Library board at the recommendation of the board.

Heart City Radio will sign off the air early this evening (Tues)at 8pm to accommodate transmitter maintenance. In our efforts to better serve our listeners, KVSH will be installing a brand new 5,000 watt transmitter to better reach serve area. We apologize to some of our remote listeners who have struggled to receive our signal due to reduced power while repairs to the old transmitter were attempted. The new transmitter arrived last week and was prepared for installation. The installation procedure began today and hopefully be completed on Wednesday. Once again KVSH radio will sign off at 8pm this evening for technical adjustments.