Richard and Mary Cabela’s outdoor sporting goods chain decorates its huge stores with exotic game trophies, twice-life-size sculptures of battling wildlife and artificial mountains and streams.
So it’s no surprise that the couple’s project to expand their home here is drawing attention, too, along with some gripes from neighbors.
Motorists cruise by to check the progress of the $4.2 million addition to the Cabelas’ $250,000 home.
Outside, the two-story structure will have 36-foot-tall parapets at the corners, a green Spanish tile roof, artificial stucco walls, alcoves for fountains and marble statues and carved lions’ heads, and gas torches at the entrance.
Inside, an artificial mountain with a waterfall and display cases will exhibit mounted game trophies from North America, Asia and Africa.
The family isn’t talking about the addition. Teri Wolff, the Cabelas’ daughter and Richard’s assistant, said it’s private. But the design by architects Stephen R. Elliott & Associates of Chattanooga, Tenn., filed with the City of Sidney, shows African tribal decorations, a second-floor balcony ringing the main display area, a 60-foot indoor lap pool with men’s and women’s showers in a nearby “cave” and other luxury features.
Folks in town think the house eventually will be donated to the city for a museum.
For now, said Sidney Mayor Suzanne Moore, “I love it. I think it’s great. We’re excited to see the finished product.”
She said there was no opposition to the project at a planning commission meeting last year. The city followed standard procedures in approving the plan, she said.
But some residents are upset.
Sharon Thompson of Lincoln, who grew up across from the Cabela home, said the addition doesn’t fit the area and damages the neighborhood. Her mother, Lisa Thompson, still lives there, in a house built about 1900 with a wrap-around porch and a well-kept yard.
“Ninety percent of us around here think it’s a really bad idea,” said Sharon Thompson, who was visiting her mother.
She doubts that most people will ever see the inside. “It’s going to be open to all the bigwigs until he dies, and then it’ll go over to the city.”
Other neighbors are less upset. Ernie and Carol Nebarez live just across the street.
“It’s something nice for the community,” said Ernie Nebarez, who is employed by the city waterworks. “But it’s going to stick out, compared to the houses around here.”
Last year, the Nebarezes were notified of the planning commission meeting and saw the plans. “It looked real nice, but I just can’t see it here in the middle of town,” said Nebarez, whose house is assessed at $33,196.
Mara Lechman, whose family owns the Country Kettle restaurant in downtown Sidney, said the addition is an example of the Cabelas’ interest in improving the community.
“It will help bring people downtown,” Lechman said. “People in the small towns have to work together. That’s how you survive.”
County Assessor Norma Rogers said she will set a partial value on the expanded house on Jan. 1 and then a full value when it is finished, possibly next year.
She may hire an outside appraiser. There are no comparable residences in town, she said. “Omaha, maybe, but nothing that I can even think about in this area.”
