By Bob Copperstone
Dumpster-Diving Into History: Citizens Rescue Nearly Century-Old Bound Newspapers
WAHOO -- If it weren’t for just plain luck -- aided by the city library director, a history-loving studio photographer and a museum curator -- a slice of Saunders County journalistic history would have perished from local view.
In recent weeks, the interior of the Wahoo Newspaper’s former headquarters at Sixth and Broadway is being stripped of its contents in preparation for the property’s sale.
The building dates from 1907 and is currently owned by Robert Johnson of Wahoo. Lee Enterprises, owner of the Wahoo Newspaper, was the most recent tenant. It also owns several other newspapers in Nebraska and several states. The Wahoo paper continues be published from its other locations.
Driving by, Joe Vculek, a local photographer, farmer and unofficial local historian, peeked into the bin, noticing that many bound volumes of old newspapers were among the doomed rubbish.
“There’s no law against taking stuff from dumpsters,” Vculek declared. (Later, it was learned that their actions were legitimate since the dumpster was parked on a city street and not on private property).
Vculek took some loose newsprint scraps for study, and decided to share the discovery with Denise Lauver, Director of the Wahoo Public Library. Erin Hauser, Curator of the Saunders County Museum, joined the group that met that evening at the dumpster site.
Lauver later explained that Wahoo Police Department Chief, Joe Baudler, was notified of the group’s intent. (There were no police present at the recovery site or library).
The library director said her interest had first been piqued when she spotted the dumpster and some of its contents during her morning walk.
Subsequent inquiries by Vculek revealed that Lee Enterprises maintains warehousing in Omaha and that multiple truckloads from Wahoo had already been delivered there.
Vculek agreed that the albums left behind to be disposed of are possibly duplicates of those already in the company’s vast Omaha warehouses, or are in poor condition.
But he concurred that local access to any of the newspapers in Omaha would be iffy, at best, even if the papers were digitalized. For the sake of storage room, it is common practice most everywhere to destroy such items after they are thus reproduced.
Curator Hauser is still inventorying the albums now being stored in the library’s basement. When and if the printed history is snug and safe in acid-free capsules and officially accessioned by the local museum’s board of directors, the public would then be free to experience first-hand the actual printed pages.
Future generations of local history aficionados, perhaps hungry to know more about their family trees, may thank the small gang of citizens who were willing to dive deeply into a dumpster to bring the printed words to a safe harbor here at home.
Purple Streetlights May Pose Danger
One by one, many LED streetlights in the southwest part of Wahoo (the Lower West Side?) have recently begun emitting weird purplish-blue rays instead of the formerly bright white lighting.
This eerie color transformation is on the increase here in our town, causing a potential safety hazard.
The prestigious Scientific American issue of September 27, 2023 suggested that “…the hue of the light illuminating a roadway could affect how drivers and pedestrians perceive their surroundings as they make their way through the night. And that makes purple streetlights a potential safety hazard.”
I first noticed the purpling last spring around Chestnut and First streets. It has continued to spread in that general area.
The purpling is spreading steadily now, day by day. I estimate that a dozen or more are already tuned strong purple, and a lot more show signs of the deterioration. One can actually watch the progress of a defective light as it grows more purple.
I haven’t yet noticed this phenomenon in other parts of the city.
But Wahoo is not alone. Cities all over the nation have encountered this low-profile phenomenon over the past few years.
In 2021, the city of Lincoln began quietly replacing thousands of the faulty LED streetlights. That city said the manufacturer would foot that bill, and indicated that the labor costs involved would also be addressed.
The Scientific American stated that the bright purple light suggests the phosphor layer around the lights has been “delaminated”—peeled off—exposing the blue LED light underneath.*
..”American cities and towns started switching their streetlights from sodium lamps to LEDs about 15 years ago, which changed the color of many nighttime roads from yellowish orange to bright white.”
“But lately an odd new nocturnal color has been spotted across the nation—and the globe. Anecdotal reports of purple-looking streetlights have been popping up since early 2021 in states including Florida, Utah, Texas and Massachusetts, as well as in Canada and Ireland.”
The article continues: “As for the possible delamination of the lamps’ coating, it could be caused by anything: heat buildup inside the light fixture because of constant operation, vibrations from passing cars or even gravity tugging downward on the phosphor layer.”
“Purple streetlights aren’t good for driver or pedestrian safety.
“First, it’s possible that losing the phosphor layer dims the lamps’ brightness…
“Secondly, blue- and violet-saturated light can worsen people’s ability to see details because of the lack of blue-sensitive cones in the center of the (human eye’s) retina.
“Finally, the blue-violet light makes it very difficult to distinguish between different colors. Everything becomes a shade of blue or black.”
Pedestrians and drivers are advised to “stay safe under purple streetlights by removing sunglasses and blue-light-filtering glasses when walking or driving at night.”
Carolyn Barry, Wahoo’s Utility Office Manager, said the staff has recently been apprised of the purpling and had recently met to discuss it further.
