AmFirst Bank: an emphasis on serving their customers FORWARD, TOGETHER
8 – McCook Daily Gazette
McCOOK, Nebraska – AmFirst Bank is a full service financial institution providing traditional and innovative products and services for individuals, businesses and agricultural entities. Our philosophy is to serve the people of Southwest Nebraska and Northwest Kansas with the latest products and services that can help our customers be more productive, efficient and profitable. Since 1906, we've served Southwest Nebraska as a strong independent community bank. At AmFirst Bank, we are powerful enough to handle all your banking needs yet personal enough to know your name. We are locally owned and managed, and take pride in the fact that our success is based on the people working within the organization. With locations in McCook, Hayes Center, Benkelman and Wallace, we take great pride in being a full-service financial center offering banking, investments and insurance. Between the four locations we have a staff of 48 local employees. AmFirst Bank values our
Friday, Feb. 25, 2011
Locally owned and managed, AmFirst Bank has 4 locations in Western Nebraska, including this one in McCook.
customers and the communities we live in. We continue to be active in our support of this area and its volunteer
and civic organizations. Our staff is involved and commits many hours to volunteer projects in McCook and the
neighboring communities. Our customers are the key to our success; they are our number one priority. We
want to take this opportunity to say thank you to our many loyal customers. We look forward to great progress in
Jeremy Blomstedt/McCook Daily Gazette
2011 and will forever increase our level of commitment to offer the finest in customer service to you.
Clean-up and rebuilding
Connie Jo Discoe/McCook Daily Gazette
Final check-out
Connie Jo Discoe/McCook Daily Gazette
In October 2010, Jim Stevens (left photo) of J.M. Stevens Painting, McCook, Nebraska, sprayed white paint on the red iron of the Red Willow Western Rural Fire Department fire barn damaged by fire on Aug. 27, 2010. A Nebraska State fire marshal blamed the fire on an electrical problem in a fire truck parked inside the barn; the fire barn, fire trucks and fire-fighting equipment sustained $150,000 in damage. The building was stripped down to its red iron bones, and M&B Construction replaced insulation and siding. K&D Electric wired the building and Pfeffer Service installed new heating in the storage areas. RWW Fire Chief Bill Elliott said the task of clean-up and rebuilding was a daunting and an eye-opening experience. "In 32 years on the fire department, I've never had to clean up after a fire," Elliott said. "We put it out, and leave. Now, I know." Elliott said the dedication of his firefighters was amazing. "My guys put in hundreds of hours down here, and they're still responding to fires and speaking to each other," Elliott said. "They need to be commended."
An excavator operated by Gerald Maris of Maris General Construction, McCook, Nebraska, grabbed a "handful" of debris while demolishing the former grocery store, filling station, motel and recycling center on the corner of South Street and South Highway 83 in McCook in September 2010. Chris Maris used a loader to sort recyclable metals from the debris pile. Early McCook businessman Sam Klein built the grocery store and filling station in the early 1930's and then expanded into a "motor hotel" he called "The Modern Motel" during the early 1940's. Jim and Violette Harris owned and operated the motel when, in 1993, Dolores Graff and a non-profit organization called "McCook Recyclers" purchased it and turned it into a recycling center. The City of McCook took over recycling efforts in 1997 and relocated the operation to the city transfer station. The city ordered the demolition of the aged recycling center in late 2009. Graff continued her recycling efforts until the motel's final check-out early in September 2010 — offering free building materials, kitchen and bathroom cabinets and fixtures, doors, windows, flooring and siding and contents such as accumulated furniture, bottles, jars and magazines to anyone who would recycle and reuse them, fulfilling the Recyclers' ultimate mission of protecting the earth's environment.