Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First
Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First
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Saturday found the youngsters, young and old, at New Hope Assembly of God Church, hosting what they hope will be an annual event. "Tea at Three" was filled with many giggles and a whole array of women volunteers being excited for the youth of New Hope to model their outfits. The women's quest was to challenge the girls to find an outfit with accessories as well as purchase a teacup for the upcoming Tea Party at New Hope. These were not just any "Ordinary" outfits! The day began with a quick...
The 2nd Annual Antelope Stampede Gravel Bike Adventure/Race took place on September 17 in Kimball, starting and finishing in Gotte Park. Courses of 100, 50 and 25 miles were offered and participants came to Kimball from Colorado, Wyoming and Nebraska. Jon and Anna-Lisa Heidemann incorporated family friendly activities for spectators and local Kimball County residents with music, a BBQ and pie eating contest, kids bouncy houses and face painting, and kids bike and skate board raffles. The...
On October 4, the Kimball City Council returned to the two-meeting-per-month format. In the first action of the evening, the Board of Public Works recommended approval of the Water and Sewer Study. According to city administrator Annette Brower, “This would be a full study of the water and sewer collection systems.” Brower continued, “They will basically tag manholes, everything. And build a working model for the city.” The Water and Sewer study was passed. The council approved the hiring of a secondary counsel from the Omaha area to assist...
Blake Wagner from the Kimball Wastewater Treatment plant truly believes the saying, "Water is not yours to waste. We only borrow it from our children and grandchildren." In the treatment method used at the Kimball facility, future generations will be able to use the water that goes through the facility. While raw sewage goes into the plant, after a 20-day treatment clean water is returned to Lodgepole Creek. The current wastewater treatment plant was built in 1979 and activated in 1981. It is...
The Kimball County Board of Commissioners met for its first October meeting on Tuesday Oct. 4. Natasha McFaul from the High Point Welcome Center of Western Nebraska topped the agenda items. After a report on the center, McFaul was appointed interim county Tourism Director. McFaul said that the center still averages 30 visitors a day, with weekends being a few less. New hours for the center will be 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturdays. Paint classes continue at the center, and the souvenir and gift shops are still open....
As the fall sports season draws to a close, the Longhorn cross country runners participated in two meets in less than a week – Thursday at Gothenburg followed by the WTC meet on Monday. Kimball junior high girls received second place in the Western Trails Conference championship meet in Hemingford. WTC highlights include Emmaline Tabor’s 10th place finish and Trey Cook’s 8th place. Other highlights include Braxton Miller’s 8th place finish at WTC. In Gothenburg, Shannen Acheson placed 62nd with a time of 31:24. Leading the pack of Kimball...
It takes volunteers who make Farmers Day happen every year, and 2022 was no exception. Many of the volunteers are individualswho have served the community for decades. With over 30 years of experience organizing the hamburger feed, Bob Abramson has enlisted committed individuals to get the burgers into the serving lines. The Kimball cheerleaders helped serve the food, and Abramson was thrilled with the help of the football team to set up. Abramson quickly mentioned all his volunteers, including...
Farmers Day weekend began with a Kimball City Council meeting to address agenda items that were postponed from the council meeting on Tuesday. The council dealt with an annexation, consideration of a future annexation, and set the property tax request. The public hearing for Ordinance No. 806, the annexation of the Community Walking Trail, the dog park and Janicek Damn, was opened and closed in less than one minute. With no public comments, the three city council members who were present went on to conduct the first reading for the annexation...
On Tuesday, with only two Kimball City Council members present along with the mayor, a law enacted in 2020 was used for the council to conduct an official meeting, according to city attorney Matt Turman. Turman explained how and why a meeting could still be conducted even though two members were absent and a quorum technically did not exist. In 2020, LB1003 changed the quorum requirements for second-class cities. The League of Municipalities lobbied the Unicameral for the new statute because a town in the eastern part of the state had two...
Dr. James Broomfield, formerly of Kimball Health Services, says he will be returning to town as the primary care physician and medical director at Arrow Medical Center. The center will be opening an office in Kimball in four to six weeks, he said. Broomfield said he currently is practicing with Arrow Medical in Sidney, and the new offices on East 3rd St. in Kimball are being remodeled. Broomfield said since he has been gone, “There hasn’t been a day that has gone by that I haven’t gotten texts, calls, emails or a messages” from patient...
Doug and Sandy Lukassen of Kimball County were recognized Saturday as Outstanding Farmer for the Farmer's Day Parade in Kimball. The Lukassens have been long-time supporters of 4-H and FFA programs as well as state agriculture boards. Sandy, not visible in this image, sits to the left of Doug in the pickup bed during the parade....
Kimball County native Jason Hanner will be taking a short detour from his walk across Nebraska to walk through the Farmer's Day parade on Saturday. Although he won't be stopping for long because he has about 20 miles to walk on Saturday to get to Potter, each day he will walk between 20-22 miles until he has covered the entire state for his walk across Nebraska. Hanner, a 1993 Kimball County graduate, is walking the state west-to-east to raise awareness for mental health for veterans, including...
The Farmer’s Day Committee has announced the dignitaries for Farmer’s Day 2022. A new category, Outstanding Entrepreneur, sponsored by the Nebraska Extension has been created, Hannah Synder received the award. Snyder owns Nebraska Coffee and Kimball Extended Stays. She is credited with promoting her thriving business as well as supporting other businesses. The Grand Marshall for the 2022 Farmer’s Day Parade is long-time resident Rose Marie Anderson. The Anderson family moved to Kimball in the early 1960s when the oil fields were booming, and t...
The Kimball County Commissioners began their regular bi-monthly meeting Tuesday with a lengthy discussion on a seven-mile stretch of blacktop on County Road 59 south of Dix. Even after the road department fixed many of the potholes prior to harvest, the potholes have returned. County Highway Superintendent Randy Bymer said that the road department purchased and put down two more loads of cold mix to try to fix the potholes again. Looking for a method to fix the road, Bymer obtained a bid for a chip seal project on the seven-mile stretch; the bi...
Several thousand books will go on sale Friday and Saturday at the Friends of the Kimball Library Book Sale in the back room of the Kimball Public Library. The sale includes fiction, non-fiction, kids and teen books, movies, audiobooks, puzzles and CDs. Most items sell for an inflation resistance price of 50 cents each. Kim Sharples, president of the Friends of the Library said, "The book sale and the cornhole tournament are the biggest fundraisers for the Friends." The sale starts Friday, Sept....
Tiffany Johnson is in many places, from the fairgrounds to the Farmer's Day Fun Run and many spots in between. Tiffany graduated from Kimball High School in 2002, has taught at KHS for the past 16 years, and is an integral part of many school and community activities. As a Special Education Instructor, Tiffany's motto for all her activities is "kids here need somebody in their corner" and she is the someone for many kids. Tiffany said, "Not only are you teaching them the skills to run or play...
On Friday of last week, Joe Hall began wearing his sixth pair of shoes in his journey across America. He stayed the night in Dix, then walked through Kimball to Pine Bluffs on Highway 30. Hall estimated that he will need two more pairs of shoes to complete the cross country walk. In May, he began the trip in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. The walk is to raise awareness for mental health issues and suicide awareness. He walks between 22-30 miles a day depending on the terrain, weather and location of...
In a special commissioners meeting, the Kimball County Commissioners held a public hearing Tuesday for the 2022-23 Kimball County budget and a public hearing for the 2022-23 Final Property Tax Request. During the public hearing comment period for the Kimball County budget, resident and local contractor Brian Johnson spoke to the commissioners. He said that he has “wanted to get more involved in government.” He continued, “We need some way of reassessing homes – bring assessed values up.” But he said the taxes would be the same not increased...
The Kimball School Board on Monday held its once a year hearing on the school district’s 2022-23 budget of expenses and the once a year hearing on the property tax levy for 2022-23, as well as its regular monthly meeting. During the budget hearing, Superintendent Trevor Anderson gave a short presentation on the budget. No one had comments or questions during the public hearings. He explained that there was a 2.7% increase in valuations, therefore the property tax rate mill levy that was previously 1.05 will be decreased to 1.04. The board s...
Banner County has a number of write-in candidates for the local election on Nov. 8. What exactly does that mean? According to Nebraska Secretary of State, write-in candidates will not have their name on the ballot but the voter must write the candidate’s name on the write-in line and shade or mark the oval next to the write-in line. Every office for election is required to have a write-in line below those candidates that have filed. What about misspelling of the write-in names? Even if the write-in candidate name is misspelled but it is reasona...
It was a beautiful cool day for the 2022 Kimball XC Invitational at the Four Winds Golf Course. The invite combined middle school and high school runners from eastern Wyoming and the Panhandle of Nebraska. Junior Shannen Acheson was the lone Kimball female runner. This is her first year of high school competition. With almost 50 girls competing, Shannen placed 32nd with a time of 26.46.62. Kimball's junior Braylon Miller ran 19th in 20:32.80. Then in quick succession, Xavier Thomas-Lewis placed...
High Point Visitor Center will close for the season from Oct. 1 through April 1, 2023, according to the motion made and approved Tuesday by the Kimball County Commissioners. A vendor from the center, Kim Sharples, questioned the commissioners with concerns for the 30 vendors who have souvenirs and other items for sale at the visitors center. In the following motion, the commissioners approved contacting an appraiser to obtain a fair market value for the High Point Visitors Center property. However, the commissioners assured people they were...
In November 2019, when Jessica Rocha, the new tourism director, took over, she provided some background information on the Highpoint Visitor Center in her Observer column. She wrote, "The county purchased this property (the old Burger King on the hill) about seven years ago, and we opened in July of 2013 as an information/welcome center. Since that time, we have had almost 83,000 visitors!" The county purchased the old Burger King building and parking areas, which include 4.9 acres, as well as...
With the general election two months away, Banner County has a full ballot for the local offices. The 540 registered voters will be looking to find the right people to fill the positions. Citizens can register to vote up until Oct. 21. Election day is Nov. 8. For the Banner County Clerk, Lisa Cross is vying for her first elected term. Katie West will not be on the ballot, but has submitted the write-in forms. The resignation of county Treasurer Monty Stoddard opened up the treasurer position....
Leading the pack of Kimball cross country runners at the Gering Invite on Sept. 2 was Xavier Thomas-Lewis in 19th place with a time of 21:32.80. Tiffany Johnson’s crew participated in the 5000 meter small school division at Five Rocks Amphitheater. Braylon Miller and Braxton Miller placed 23rd and 24th and clocked in at 22:18.39 and 22:27.72. Wyatt Cords came in 26 place in a tough field with a time of just under 23 minutes. Shannen Acheson placed 32nd in the 5K JV run with a time of 32:50.30. The JV boys 5K event saw Joseph Bremer land in f...