Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First
Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First
Sorted by date Results 101 - 125 of 239
The City of Kimball is looking to beef up security measures at local parks after a slew of summer incidents through the use of surveillance cameras with audio. According to Kimball Police Chief Darren Huff, the potential placement of the new camera system serves as a way to expand the continued efforts of the Kimball Police Department to keep crime in the city parks low. “What we’ve been looking at is a slew of vandalisms that have been going on in the city parks, both City Park and Gotte Park. Over the summer, we’ve given numerous tresp...
A burglary occurred at 201 North Myrtle this past weekend at which time several firearms were carried off. “The burglary happened some time after 9:00 p.m. Friday evening. It was discovered at approximately 4:00 p.m. Sunday afternoon after the homeowner’s returned home,” Kimball Police Chief Darren Huff said. Though the homeowners, Jay and Ashley Thurin, had some concerns that someone was targeting their house and knew what items were concealed inside, Huff’s main concern rests with the items that were taken. “There were six long guns take...
The walls of Vista Villa were filled with the works of Carla Goranson, Fern Yung, and Jack Lockwood this past Saturday when it opened its doors for the Canvas for Carla Art Show. Goranson's pictures hung on canvases in the hallway, depicting local wildlife, the changing of the guard at Arlington Cemetery, and various other scenes that she has come across through her travels and vacations. According to Goranson, photography has been a long held passion in her life. "I took photography with Don...
Nick Stull, recent graduate of the Kimball Jr./ Sr. High School, is no stranger to the rodeo arena, and many residents of the city have witnessed him riding on top of a bucking bronco, holding on with all he has to not be thrown. Unlike most young men in the modern world who dream of being doctors, scientists or writers, Stull seems to have always been drawn to the rodeo life, destined to ride bucking broncos. “I’ve been around it all my life, and it just always looked like fun,” Stull said....
The Kimball-Banner County Fair is a time where the focus rests on the different showmanship events, the efforts of the 4-H and FFA kids, and, of course, the rodeo which fills residents with wonderment as they watch man and beast clash in the arena. However, very few ever learn the story of the people behind the scenes that spend hours, days, and even years gathering the experience to give the public such a fine spectacle to behold: the funny clown, the man behind the voice in the announcer’s b...
With Bushnell Day fast approaching on August 17, the attention of residents of Kimball County has started to fixate on the small village and the festivities that will abound. However, there are hidden gems within the village that often get looked over the rest of the year. One of those gems being Johnson’s Surplus on 2nd Street. Sally Johnson, who owns the business with her husband Mark, has worked hard over the last few years to re-model the inside of the store. “We bought it about three yea...
The High Point Welcome Center has been overloaded with visitors in the first month of its existence, according to County Tourism Director Jo Caskey. "It's been relatively nonstop. After the end of the first four full weeks, we've had 942 visitors through from 42 states and nine foreign countries," Caskey said. The center maintains a relatively consistently flow throughout the week, with Caskey constantly jumping onto her feet from her desk in order to answer questions and direct visitors to destinations throughout the region. "Mondays are...
Henry Heeg, who will kick off his senior year at the Kimball Jr./Sr. High School this fall, has proven to be a vital component for the Kimball golf program this past year. Entering into the season after losing several of the seniors who had collectively carried the weight of the golf squad the previous year, Heeg knew that there would be many struggles along the way. “There are a lot of ‘ifs’,” Heeg said at the start of the season. However, Heeg wasn’t giving up, and through his hard work on t...
Initial reports of an injured female and a fire at a property on 1st Street in Bushnell that originated shortly before 8:00 P.M. Tuesday night turned out to be nothing more than a series of miscommunications. The Kimball Volunteer Ambulance Service and several Sheriff Department vehicles sped down Highway 30 towards Bushnell after a call came in stating that there was a female at a Bushnell residence who had her throat slit. However, according to Kimball County Sheriff Harry Gillway, when...
American Bullet, a company exclusive to the Kimball area, made their millionth round for the year this past week. The accomplishment comes on the heels of many struggles over the past year, according to Director of Sales Kim Baliman. “Hitting that million count mark before the end of the year was huge for us. It was a milestone for us this far already,” Baliman said. The company has been dealing with shortages of components in the industry over the past year. The first shortage encountered was...
Motel Kimball, which sits at 1017 East 3rd Street, has gone through some big changes since being taken over by the new management of local residents Amie Rutledge and Chris McNail. “We put in new televisions. We've upgraded. We've remodeled. We've cleaned up. We've put in new bedding, new linens, and we have a new clientele. We've done quite a bit," Rutledge said. Rutledge and McNail have been aided in renovating and maintaining the 16 room motel since they took over as owners on June 5 by Deb B...
There was a great deal of tension at the Kimball Cemetery Board meeting in the City Council Chamber the night of July 30, as residents sat in eager anticipation for their moment for their voices to be heard on how they feel about the recent maintenance at the Kimball Cemetery. Chairman Pat Sibal opened the meeting at 5:30 p.m., and after a brief statement from Mayor James Schnell, the floor was opened to the public. “I moved here just about five years ago. I’ve lived in four different states, an...
Kimball Heath Services, which recently purchased the West Elementary building, is looking for individual citizens or groups that would be willing to serve as director of the planned daycare to be opened inside of the building in the near future. According to Stephanie Pedersen, Executive Assistant for Kimball Health Services, the hospital is looking for interested parties to submit business plans and letters of interest as soon as possible so they can start getting the daycare program off the...
Crumbled cars line the streets, debris is all that remains in the place where houses once stood and families are still trying to sift through the devastation left behind by one of the biggest tornadoes ever recorded. They dig through the rubble, searching for pictures reflecting better times that preceded the deadly storm. All that was left was the city’s water tower and a lone American flag blowing weakly in the passing gusts of wind: This was what Kimball County Sheriff Harry Gillway found h...
With the summer season in full swing, it is once again time for the Kimball-Banner County Fair Days. The 95th Kimball-Banner County Fair Days are set to take place between August 6 and August 12th in Kimball. According to Doug Lukassen, Secretary of the Kimball County Ag Society and President of the Nebraska Association of Fair Managers, the fair will offer several new events this year including a pedal tractor pull event the evening of Sunday, August 11. "Each age group is a separate division...
An AmeriCorps crew arrived in Kimball this past week in order to aid Keep Kimball Beautiful in several projects throughout the city with the hopes of helping to improve the curb appeal in order to attract visitors to the region. AmeriCorps crew Cedar One, led by Hannah Davis of Alpine, Texas, arrived in Kimball July 17, and immediately got to work cleaning up the property that houses the new High Point Welcome Center, according to Cedar One member Zack Hall. “We cleaned up the welcome center t...
The Meadowlark room in the Kimball Event Center was filled with chatter and excitement this past week as kids participating in the 2013 4-H Robotics Camp tried to program their robots to perfectly navigate through obstacles courses that had been taped on the floor. The camp was led by Cynthia Gill, an educator for the Kimball-Banner Extension Office. According to Gill, this is the first time they have held the event in the form of a camp. "We've had lots of robotic workshops. Chanda DeMasters...
The Kimball Recycle Center was approved for a $76,000 grant this past week, much to the excitement of Keep Kimball Beautiful Director Larissa Binod and Spud Rowley, Manager of the Kimball Recycle Center. "I'm just over the moon about it," Binod said. The grant, awarded by the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality, was sought out by Binod in order to help maintain the recycling center services and help fund new educational projects to take place later in the year. "You submit grants, and...
The High Point Welcome Center is officially open for business. Kimball County Tourism Director Jo Caskey has been hard at work the past month scrubbing counters, cleaning the rooms and stocking up the old Burger King building out by Interstate 80 south of Kimball with brochures and travel guides for the Panhandle and other Nebraska communities scattered throughout the state. “I have three brochure racks. Two of the three are almost completely stocked, and the third one is partially stocked. The...
Kanalihoppers Restaurant and Spirits, a new restaurant which just opened up in the building that used to house Mulligan’s Restaurant right next to the Kimball Golf Course, is already setting off discussions around town with everybody wondering what exactly the name comes from. According to owner Donna Thompson, the name stems from a story from her childhood involving her grandfather. “My family is Irish. When I was a little girl, my grandpa would come into the house and say, ‘Oh gosh, my kanalihopper is killing me.’ I was about six years o...
A new presence has come to Kimball in the form of Mr. Marshall Lewis who has taken over the Superintendent of Kimball Public Schools position recently vacated by Troy Unzicker. Lewis comes to Kimball from Belmond, Iowa where he most recently served as the Superintendent of the Belmond-Klemme School District for three years. "I'm an Iowa boy from the beginning. I spent a little bit of time in South Dakota, but for the most part I've been in Iowa my whole life," Lewis said. As Lewis has never been...
The Dead Eye Shooters made an impressive showing at the Daisy National BB gun and Air Rifle competition in Rogers, Arkansas this past week, coming back home to Kimball with 11 medals. “I thought they went fantastic. I was really, really proud of the kids,” Dead Eye Shooters Coach Nicole Snyder said. The group started the journey to Rogers on Wednesday, June 26, arriving at the Convention Center where the competition was to take place on the Friday where they checked in their equipment and were g...
The old Kimball High School which sits on the south side of Highway 30 is yet another tragic tale of aging structures filled with a rich history falling by the wayside in today’s fast-paced world. Its halls once flourished with the chatter of youths speaking of basketball games and dances, knowledge was acquired in each classroom, and the staff roamed the halls spending each day trying to shape each student for the world of tomorrow. Now, the sounds heard throughout the building are few and f...
Four more reports of rattlesnakes within the city limits emerge have been reported in the last week, but no further dens have been discovered by city officials since last reported. Kimball Police Chief Darren Huff has figured out a new line of defense against the rattling pests: wasp killer. According to Huff, he had recently received a phone call from long-time Kimball resident Clark Huff, informing him of the unconventional solution to the problem. “He starts telling me about how this wasp killer will ‘turn them upside down and they’ll be pus...
The sun was hanging high in the sky as two large wrestling mats were lined up along the football field at the Kimball Junior/Senior High School, setting up for the day’s event to raise awareness and interest in the school’s wrestling program on Saturday, June 29. At 5:00 p.m., wrestlers starting pouring into the stadium to get weighed in and sign liability waivers, as Assistant Wrestling Coach Bob Culek and his fellow organizers made up brackets for the kids to compete in. The event not onl...