I'm short on time, and my mind is all over the place right now.
I lived in Omaha for 5 years, I'm not "from" there. But I'm from close enough, Lincoln, 45 minutes away.
Anyways, my hubby and I are big city people. We HATE the outdoors (altho I'm embracing it living here). We hate small towns, the boredom in the winter, the fact that we are so far away from civilization. We hate that to purchase what we want, we have to buy it online. And I've got so many issues with RC public schools. IMO, RC schools is WORSE than OPS.
Seriously.
But, if you love the small town feel, the outdoors, the slow paced calm feel, this is the place for you. If you can get over the fact that in Omaha trailer parks are hidden from society, but in RC they're ALL OVER, you won't mind living here.
Wages here SUCK compared to the big city, any city, not just Omaha. Homes cost 1 1/2 to 2 times what they would cost in Omaha, BUT property taxes are dirt cheap here. Many parts of town you'll have a beautiful view, which you can't get in Omaha. There's no state income tax, so you get to keep more of your paycheck. To license your car, you pay approx $50 per car (it went up this year I see, damn it, mine's due in July) instead of $300 to $500 per car in Omaha. Sales tax on buying a new car is only 4% compared to 7 or 8% in Omaha (I can't remember, I've lived here 5 years now).
I've always chuckled when I think that Omaha's metro population was 750,000, and that's the population of the ENTIRE state of SD!
When I'm on later, I'll list some more positives. Those negatives are things that have drove me nuts for 5 years, and everyone that knows me on here has heard it all from me
In the 5 years, we've had 1 tornado that didn't reach RC anyway, it was 15 miles south. I think that 1 time was the only time we were in a tornado warning, too. It's just not something to worry about here. Snow is USUALLY mild, melts the next day. This spring was wacko! When we do get dumped with snow, you'll be in shock with snow removal here. Much slower/less urgent than the big O. The town can shut down because of the weather.
Also, your hair will love RC, very little to no humidity. But your nose will hate it! My furnace is in my crawl space and I can't get any contractor/heater guy to come install a humidifier because of its' location!
I LOVE the month of June here. 60/70 degree weather with 20% humidity so it really FEELS like it's 60/70. It's just the most beautiful month here. If you love Spring, you won't like it here. We've had about 3-4 weeks of spring this year, THIS month, and next month is summer. You can't plant your garden til May/June because we still have cold nights here in May. It does reach 100 degrees in July/Aug, but it cools down after dinner and with no humidity you won't feel it as bad.