Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First
Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First
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The Four Winds Golf Tournament on Sept. 14 attracted 26 foursomes and raised more than $55,000 for capital improvements, such as sprinklers and other upgrades, at the Kimball golf course and recreation area. The $55,000 far exceeded the fundraising goal. Kimball Rotary Club organized the event. Here are the tournament's top three foursomes: First place: Geoff Watkins, Brad Bringleson, Gene Golding and Tom Stephens. Second place: Josh Enevoldson, Tanner Hinton, Scott Noah and Ed Reyard. Third...
Union Pacific's Big Boy 4014 steam engine drew quite the crowd when it passed through Kimball on its "Heartland of America" tour that continues this week in the Midwest. The iconic locomotive departed Aug. 28 from its base in Cheyenne and has passed through Nebraska and Iowa to Illinois, where it proved to be a popular attraction this week at train stations and crossings along its route. Coming up are stops in Missouri, Arkansas, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Colorado. The Big Boy is the last...
Fall sports season has arrived for the Kimball Longhorns, Banner County Wildcats and Potter-Dix Coyotes. New to the sports scene this fall is softball under the cooperative agreement that lets Kimball players compete on the Gering team. Kimball rodeo started out first last weekend at Lexington. All other varsity action gets going next week for the three schools. Here's a look at the Kimball, Banner County and Potter-Dix varsity schedules through August. Kimball Aug. 17-18, 8 a.m., Rodeo at...
Longhorn Kyler Lusche shot 76 in the NSAA Class D Boys Golf Championship's second and final round, improving four strokes on his first round score to tie for seventh and medal. As a team, Kimball placed 11th in the field of 15 with a two round total of 729 last week at Lake Mahoney Golf Club in North Platte. Two-day scores for Kimball golfers were 80-76 (156) for Lusche, 88-98 (186) for Landon Norberg, 95-101 (196) for Bransyn Kiefer, 101-98 (199) for Connor Deboodt, and 111-122 (133) for Ryker...
Kimball’s golf team played through cool, damp conditions at North Platte on Tuesday to rank ninth after Round 1 of the NSAA Class D Boys Golf Championship. The conditions delayed the tournament’s morning start, but the Longhorns put up a team round of 364 at Lake Maloney Golf Club to sit five strokes inside the top 10 ahead of Bloomfield. Overton led team standings at 336. Individually, District champion Kyler Lusche shot 80 to lead the Longhorns. He was tied for 13th – but just a single shot from joining those tied for 10th place. He shot...
A new person apparently will be in the mix among those with a voice in overseeing the Kimball City/County Recreation Area while it’s at a crossroads. The county commissioners are seeking interested parties to serve on the Kimball City/County Park & Recreation Operating Board as a county appointee to complete Ashley Thurin’s four-year term ending Dec. 31, 2026. Thurin resigned. The commissioners on May 3 decided not to vote on appointing Klent Schnell to the position in favor of advertising it. This development comes during talk of a pro...
Kimball schools Superintendent Trevor Anderson has added the role of boys basketball coach to his responsibilities. Basketball and coaching are in his blood. His head coaching record at Battle Creek, a Division C2 school near Norfolk, was 86-52 over five seasons from 2013-14 to 2017-18. Before coming to Kimball four years ago, he coached multiple teams to conference/district titles and the state tournament. Basketball coaching success runs in the family. Anderson’s father, Mark, compiled a record of 214-90 as head coach at Randolph. That includ...
Remember shooting a basketball or attending PE in the West Elementary School gymnasium? Well, times have really changed. The old gym, the lone surviving remnant of the school still in place, has begun a new life as part of the newly opened Kimball Health Services hospital. Troy Kurz, KHS facilities director and the new hospital project manager, provided some insight to the Observer. "The former West Elementary gymnasium space is the hospital's new central utility plant, which provides all of...
Next up for the new – and now open – Kimball Health Services hospital is next week's ribbon cutting celebration with Gov. Jim Pillen in attendance. Patient services shifted to the facility from the old hospital at 7 a.m. Monday. The 505 S. Burg St. location, home to the hospital since 1950, is out. The new address, 255 W. 4th St., is in. "We're very pleased with how the move has gone so far, with only a few small items to be moved yet between buildings," Kerry Ferguson, KHS community rel...
Among the special touches at the new Kimball Health Services hospital are plaques next to rooms that recognize donors for helping make possible healthcare services in those rooms. In this case, Ryan and Stephanie McElroy of Kimball are recognized for their contributions to mammography services. They posed for this image during a tour of the new facility...
Little Bushnell is getting some big attention. Big Rig attention. The Kimball County village, population 115, has been a place of interest on three Big Rig Travels/YouTube videos that about 54,800 viewers watched from last Thursday through Tuesday. BigRigSteve (real name Stephen Michaels), the trucker star of Big Rig Travels for 16 years, even spent a night outside Bushnell. He had little choice. A tire on BigRigSteve's semi-trailer truck blew out heading westbound on I-80 out of Kimball that...
The Kimball County campaign season is underway at this early date for the May 14 primary. Challenger David R. Hottell (not the sheriff) and incumbent Carl Stander are off and running. They already have filed as Republicans in the election for a seat on the county Board of Commissioners. No other candidate filings were received at the county courthouse as of Monday, but a good many area positions are up for election in 2024. The Kimball County Clerk’s Office provided this list of those positions, the incumbents and term lengths: • Kimball Cou...
Pastor Roger Gillming and Kathy Welfl, volunteer leaders with Operation Christmas Child in the Nebraska Panhandle, expressed gratitude to all who helped “this amazing ministry” grow significantly in the region this past Christmas season. Gillming and Welfl said 572 more shoeboxes were filled this year than last year thanks to assistance in the goodwill effort from volunteers, the Observer and other media. “With your help, 3,372 shoeboxes from the Panhandle were filled (with donations) and delivered to our central drop-off site in Allia...
Longhorns basketball legend Mike Daum, who turned 28 on Oct. 30, is still moving up. Daum has joined the high-level Anadolu Efes of the Turkish Basketball Super League and the EuroLeague after the Bertram Derthona team in Italy released him from his contract so he could try to further his career. This follows the Dauminator's fine performance in the 2023 NBA Summer League with the Sacramento Kings. "It was not easy to make this decision," Bertram Derthona president Marco Picchi said on the team...
Edith Dee Hall's gravestone at Kimball Cemetery is inscribed, simply, with 1897-1971. What's important, though, is not the birth and death years on one's grave marker. It's that dash between the years. It's how a person lived during the dash – and Edith Dee Hall lived quite the dash. She might be the most accomplished Kimball native that Kimball doesn't know much, if anything, about. "It's not every day that a little girl from Kimball, Nebraska, helps change the way surgery is done around the w...
Kimball Longhorns boys basketball is looking good. The Horns continue the busy pre-Christmas stretch of their schedule this week after opening the season 2-0 with convincing wins over Bayard and Leyton. Next up for Kimball were Garden County in this week's Dec. 5 home opener, then games at Perkins County on Dec. 8, at home against Morrill on Dec. 9, and then Dec. 15 at Hershey. JV games open the action at 4:30 p.m. at Perkins County, 3 p.m. against Morrill, and 2 p.m. at Hershey. Here are...
The 2023-24 basketball seasons continue today, Nov. 30, at Bayard for the Kimball Longhorns and Lady Longhorns after their Nov. 27 debuts at the Hall of Fame Jamboree in Alliance. Both squads get right back at it Friday, Dec. 1, with a trip to Leyton to take on the Warriors. Their home seasons open next Tuesday, Dec. 5, when Garden County comes to K-Town. Play begins at 4 p.m. with JV action on all those dates. Both Kimball varsity teams look to build on their showings at Alliance, where they we...
Kimball FFA showed well – among the best – Nov. 15 during the District 12 Leadership Contest at Chadron State College. The top three finishers in each category qualified for the state contest in Lincoln next April – and Kimball was among the highest overall leaders in qualifiers. Potter-Dix and Banner County FFA chapters added to the southern Panhandle's fine showing with their own qualifiers. Hundreds of FFA students from 20 schools participated. Here are this area's state qualifiers: Kimba...
The Kimball Longhorns travel to Bayard on Friday, Oct. 13, for a matchup of football teams tied for third place with 1-2 records in D1 District 11. Both teams are 2-5 overall entering this 2023 season finale. Kickoff is at 7 p.m. Kimball has dropped two straight and scored 140 points and allowed 358 on the season. Bayard has lost three straight and scored 232 points and allowed 291 on the season. The Tigers came up short last week, 36-34, in a non-league game against Cambridge, while the Horns l...
The Kimball Volunteer Fire Department invites the public to its annual open house celebration from 5:30 to 8 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 11, at the fire hall, 200 W. 2nd St. KVFD members will provide a light supper and refreshments to show appreciation for the community's support. The event also is in conjunction with National Fire Prevention Week from Oct. 8 to 14. Free will donations will be accepted during the open house. They also can be sent to Kimball Volunteer Fire Department, c/o Jordan...
Folks visiting for Farmers Day weekend will see a dramatically changed landscape on the old West Elementary School grounds. Construction of Kimball's new $43.6 million hospital there is on track for completion by Dec. 22, Kimball Health Services community relations director Kerry Ferguson told the Observer. Jeff Van Es, project manager with Haselden Construction, said last week that the project is 85 percent complete. The facility is 61,200 square feet in size. Finish work has begun, Ferguson...
Lincoln Highway painters Jessica Rocha, left, and Jaime Bright were back at it on Labor Day, laboring to highlight the historic old roadway that runs throught these parts with a fresh coat of red, white and blue. Last week, their painting posse gave Kimball's corner of Chestnut and 2nd the Lincoln Highway makeover. This week, they painted the bridge, shown above, on the west end of Bushnell and north side of the tunnels. It was part of the original Lincoln Highway route – and now it's a t...
Banner County School opened the new academic year with a number of new staff members and the distinction of being the first Panhandle school to establish the JAG NE program for students to explore career options. Superintendent Evelyn Browne told the Observer on Tuesday that JAG NE, which stands for Jobs for American Graduates Nebraska, is a program supported by United Way of the Midlands. Browne said JAG NE students in grades 7-12 take part in problem-based learning activities to help them explore career options, identify interests, and...
The aging process for Kimball's old water system is showing again. This time it happened when a small leak in a 1-inch waterline under 2nd Street, which goes to the fire hall, became a big problem. City crews tried to turn off a water valve Friday at 2nd and Chestnut streets so they could make repairs, but the valve broke and started spewing water, Mayor John Morrision told the Observer. He said since all the water was going into a sewer and not damaging businesses, the decision was made to not...
Go time is here for Longhorns, Coyotes and Wildcats. High school and junior high fall sports seasons open this coming week for this area's cross country, football, girls golf and volleyball teams. Here are the schedules for Kimball, Potter-Dix and Banner County through the first full week of September. Kimball Aug. 18, 2023 Tailgate Sports Kickoff. Volleyball scrimmage at 5:30 p.m., cross country showcase at 5:45, golf showcase at 6:30 and football scrimmage at 7. Aug. 21, 6 p.m., football,...