John E. Weare

Funnel cakes. Nothing to it. Hot oil, batter, funnel, crisscross pattern . . . wait . . . flip, then serve covered in powdered

June 30th signals an early summer benchmark with the end of the second quarter of 2026. Through the first six months of the year Keep Alliance Beautiful patrons have recycled 447,693 pounds of material that would have otherwise ended up in area landfills. The figure includes 1,979 pounds of electronics previously unaccounted for from the first quarter. That total is down from the same period in 2025 when KAB processed 461,668 pounds of recyclables for shipment and further processing. However, the second quarters of this year and last were close in total volumes at 206,879 (2026) and 203,028 (2025).

There is no better place to forget about everything for a while than laying underneath the canopy of a tree. I am not picky, about any tree big enough to eclipse most of the sky will do just fine. At times my thoughts conjure places where there is no visible litter or even the odd can or bottle to recycle. Hikers, and those looking to just experience nature for a few hours, find just that daydream – often before summer starts on the first Saturday of June – National Trails Day.

Maybe you remember the pop song from a generation or so ago that went: “. . . I would walk five hundred miles; And I would walk five hundred more”. That describes my family's routine if you substitute “drive” for “walk” on the travel days of our summer vacation. States we visited in the east (the other side of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers in particular) were beautiful when viewed at highway speeds and mostly so when we left the interstates. It was interesting to compare places I had never been to with a hometown measuring stick.

Let's have a most unique find of the day contest, Bonnie Fanhauser suggested as she began her shift sorting at the north end of the Keep Alliance Beautiful Recycling Center. That day she would have won hands down. Bonnie and Larry Sanchez are our dedicated, veteran sorters – a decidedly valuable position. Now, KAB is seeking a third amigo to comb through curbside recycling bags, drive up recycling and whatever else comes through our doors that requires separating.

A farmer called me last week to find out if he could bring a load of chemical jugs with their respective boxes to the Keep Alliance Beautiful Recycling Center. I said he sure could as we reviewed how they needed to be rinsed out with clean cardboard as well. We separated plastic from cardboard on his first trip, followed by a second Friday, with neither material waiting long for the balers.

The Butte Bakery has stayed true to its name since opening four years ago over Heritage Days in a smallish room at Tawny Katen's insurance agency in the 300 block of Box Butte Avenue. Demand for its tasty treats meant expansion to a storefront up the street. Then, this summer, owner Whitney Baldwin moved south to the former home of The Printer with space for the bakery and a commercial kitchen.

Watch the sidewalks of Alliance in October. I would not predict they'll be everywhere, but expect a few dozen roughly oblong green blobs on the sidewalks. Improperly stuffed bean bags? No. An early promotion for St. Paddy's Day? Nope. Rather, the colorful 55-60 gallon sacks will be a literal nod to a new way to be “green”.

Cutline: Recycling Assistant Keith Cameron takes a couple bags out of Keep Chadron Beautiful's enclosed trailer Thursday, Aug. 27. Keep Alliance Beautiful processes recyclables from the monthly collection event in Chadron. The two Keep America Beautiful affiliates continue to partner to offer recycling in Northwest Nebraska.

Keep Alliance Beautiful keeps track of the volume, by weight, of material processed and shipped from our facility. Of course some of what we receive is trash and leaves via the City garbage truck. Other items find their way back into the community to be reused.