Moving to Grand Island (Hastings, Aurora: apartments, to rent, house)

[bigtruckin71]

Hello. I am currently an over-the-road truck driver for a trucking company based in Grand Island. My wife and I have decided to move to Grand Island in an effort to see me more often as I'm normally in GI at least once a week. However, even though Im there often, there is still a lot I dont know about GI. Currently we live in rural Southern Iowa, but have also lived in Cheyenne, WY and the Colorado front range. I know how the weather is in GI, but my wife and I have several questions.
1) What are the schools like in Grand Island? Our kids are 3 and 1 right now, but would like to know.
2) What neighborhoods should we try to live in/avoid? We are needing to rent a 3-bedroom apartment.
3) What kind of activities does GI have for kids and my wife?
4) Any advice is appreciated. I guess this is a statement rather than a question.

I guess I should describe us a little better. My wife likes going to church, and wants to get involved with a "younger generation" church. She is also curious about Mom and Me groups/activities that she can do with the kids and other moms. When we lived in Colorado she did Zumba and enjoyed it. I'm never home long enough to do anything. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[CAllenDoudna]

I may not be much help since I don't have any kids in school and go to a church for Bible-based doctirnes and teachings instead of the be "with-it". Aurora may actually be the town you're looking for: Aurora is the local Silicon Valley so they must have a good school system and the Edgerton Center there is a Must See. There's a big park in north-central Aurora and a nature trail leads from there all the way around the eastern edge of town. You'll be close to all the Advantages of Grand Island but away from the Problems. Grand Island schools seem to be okay. About ten or fifteen years ago the Grand Island Seventh-day Adventist Church near Shady Bend and Bismark had a church school that won some kind of award, but they've got different teachers now. There's a general Christian School across from Skagway North. I know the kindergarten teacher from there and she seems pretty good, doubt you'll find better.

Grand Island has a lot of parks with playground equipment geared to younger children and then there is Kid's Kingdom in Stolley Park; it was designed by children and has a train that will take them for rides around the park. In summer there's Island Oasis on South Locust. Every Spring the DC Lynch Carnival puts on a show in the Shopko Parking Lot. At the end of the summer the Nebraska State Fair takes place on grounds donated by Fonner Park; it has a lot of rides and the kids (and parents) will enjoy the pig races. Kool Aide was invented in Hastings and every summer they celebrate Kool Aide Days there. In winter there's roller skating at Skate Island up in the Mall-Shopko area.

As far as the kind of church your wife is looking for, Abundant Life and E-Free might be good places to start and the folks there could tell her about all the other activities she wants to know about.

You should be able to find a nice apartment in a decent neighborhood for about $750. You might want to check out Continental Garden Apartments near Webb Road and College Street near the Mall and not far from West Lawn elementry school. Areas to avoid? In general most of the problems seem to be east of Broadwell and from 13th street down to about Fonner Park Road--though those borders are a bit fuzzy.

Dining out? Sooner or later everybody goes to Valentino's on Web Road across from Shopko--and with Good Reason. Next door is Hunan's for Chinese. Way down on South Locust there's Uncle Ed's Steak House and next door El Tapito for Mexican. After that thgere's a great variety of restaurants all over town.

All-in-all GI is a family-friendly community, as are all the little towns around it.