THEDFORD – At 6:45 Thursday evening, the wood-paneled back room of Thedford’s Sandhills Corral was lined with faces, its floor molding skirted with ankles and shoes.
At 6:55, chairs were pulled from the dining room for the near-60 crowd, and not ten minutes later those were filled, with still more eyes and ears peering through the doorway as Senator Mike Jacobsen spoke.
In league with a hand-picked trust of members from the Nebraska Extension Office, the Nebraska Community Foundation, architects, and financiers, the senator called the meeting to talk next substantial steps for the Halsey 4-H Camp, starting first with a new working name: the Sandhills Discovery Center at Halsey.
From his earliest remarks to residents of Thomas and Blaine counties, Senator Jacobsen indicated that a name change was essential to reimagining the possibilities for the camp’s future.
“I want to tell you right out of the gate: we’re not looking at this like it’s going to be ‘Halsey 4-H Camp 2.0.’ What we’re aiming for is not just a youth camp, though that will be a component. We’re looking at a mostly, if not fully, year-round facility.”
Nebraska Community Foundation President and CEO Jeff Yost, whose organization is helping the Sandhills Discovery Center’s financial seed to germinate, concurred, offering a vision of Nebraska City as the basis for what could happen in the Nebraska National Forest.
“We need not just one Lied Lodge in Nebraska, we need two, and we need to put it right here.”
In addition to potentially impressive architecture, as found in the Arbor Day Lodge, the initial idea floated by the think tank incorporates classrooms, camping sites, conference facilities, and hospitality amenities, and Senator Jacobsen has recently secured a $10 million appropriation during the legislature’s most recent session to help make it happen.
The money requires a 1:1 match, though fundraising efforts will have 10 years to meet the goal. Another contingency is the approval of an approximately $800,000 initial feasibility study by the Nebraska Department of Economic Development.
The group anticipates that the tab will be picked up by the 4-H Foundation, who, after post-fire demolition and cleanup, is left with about $2.1 million in insurance money from last October’s fire.
If the feasibility study is greenlit, a committee would be set up consisting of representatives from Nebraska Game and Parks, the USDA National Forest Service, the State of Nebraska, and the university to complete construction of at least one phase of the project by 2026.
The big names in the project could mean automatic and tremendous success to the tune of $4 million in new economic activity every year, but Thedford’s Brenda Masek spoke for many in raising concerns that perhaps the expertise of smaller voices could be overlooked in the face of a perceived slam dunk.
“In this timeline, where does this community come in? There were some financial problems with the 4-H Camp and those of us who watched it knew it was from blatant mismanagement. I’m pretty sure everybody in this room would like to have somebody at the table so it doesn’t get to that point.”
Senator Jacobsen, in a brief interview with KCNI/KBBN during an intermission, insisted that the reason for holding a meeting such as the one in Thedford was just that: to keep the community in mind and at the forefront of the new Halsey center.
“That’s what this meeting is all about. To me, it starts with local people telling us what they envision this to be, what they want it to be, and telling us here tonight what they want us to build. Only when we know what that looks like will we consult experts to try and make it happen.”
The senator also offered to host more meetings throughout the Sandhills to gauge the breadth and depth of his constituency’s dreams and apprehensions.
Questions as to whether the facility should be built in the forest or on private land, how to propagate housing and mitigate railroad noise, and what constitutes the quintessential view of Nebraska’s Sandhills all have yet to be answered, but one thing remains certain: Blaine and Thomas County residents are going to need a bigger meeting room.
