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Cornerstone Bank announced Friday that it plans to buy The Tilden Bank and its two branches in Clearwater and Creighton.

Terms of the sale, expected to close in the first quarter of 2021, were not disclosed.

The purchase is subject to shareholder and regulatory approval.

The announcement was made by Rudy Dittrich, chairman; Gary Gunderson, president and chief executive officer of The Tilden Bank; Kelly Holthus, chairman and Kris Holoch, president and CEO of Cornerstone Bank.

"Cornerstone Bank is very pleased to be a part of the Tilden, Clearwater and Creighton communities and to continue to expand its banking footprint to this rich agricultural area," said Holthus and Holoch. "We are proud to serve many smaller communities in Nebraska."

"I want to thank our customers from Tilden, Clearwater, Creighton and the surrounding communities for their patronage and support to the bank over years," said Dittrich. "The Tilden Bank is known for treating their customers as family, and knowing that Cornerstone Bank is a family bank, I feel comfortable that our customers will be treated in the same manner."

Gunderson said that joining the Cornerstone family will benefit customers.

"Cornerstone has a reputation for the community-focused banking on which The Tilden Bank prides itself and will provide additional financial services such as online account opening, online mortgage applications and trust and investment services, to name a few," said Gunderson.

As of Sept. 30, 2019, The Tilden Bank had total assets of $84 million, total deposits of $73 million and total loans of $60 million.

Once the purchase closes, existing bank customers will have full access to Cornerstone's branch locations, ATM network and many other services.

As of Dec. 31, Cornerstone Bank had $1.733 billion in total assets.

With the acquisition of The Tilden Bank, Cornerstone Bank will have 46 banking facilities in 37 communities, along with 18 insurance agency locations.

At this time, Cornerstone Bank has banking facilities in Albion, Aurora, Bartlett, Beaver Lake, Bradshaw, Central City, Clay Center, Columbus, Davenport, Edgar, Franklin, Geneva, Glenvil, Grand Island, Guide Rock, Hampton, Harvard, Henderson, Hildreth, Marquette, Malmo, McCool Junction, Monroe, Murray, North Loup, Polk, Rising City, St. Edward, Shelton, Stromsburg, Sutton, Waco, Wilcox and York.

Cornerstone Bank is owned by First York Ban Corp. of York.