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 Blizzard of 2019 walloped the Kimball area with wicked sustained winds, freezing rain and heavy snow as forecast – forcing the closure of schools, businesses, government offices and highways across the Nebraska Panhandle. The historic late-winter storm also postponed on-time delivery of the Thursday, March 14, print edition of the Western Nebraska Observer. The shutdown of Interstate 80 and Highway 30 on March 13 and 14 due to hazardous conditions made it impossible for copies of the O...
Kimball Hospital Foundation hit the jackpot with its Casino Night fundraiser. That's in terms of community support and money raised. More than 200 charitable gamblers filled Kimball Event Center on Saturday for Casino Night, raising about $10,500 for the organization that champions Kimball Health Services, foundation director Kerry Ferguson told the Observer. "We couldn't be happier with the support and turnout of folks in the community and the sponsors," Ferguson said. "The people had fun."...
The end is just about here for the Kimball Shopko Hometown store on Highway 71. Shopko is expected to close its doors for good 2 p.m. Saturday, March 2. The company announced late last year that the store was among 39 in 17 states closing for reasons involving sales trends and business outlook. More than 1,300 supporters of the Kimball store joined an online campaign to save the store, and many emailed their concerns to Shopko corporate officials. Company decision-makers weren’t swayed. Liquidation sales have been ongoing at the store since s...
Getting the good word out about the Nebraska Panhandle has received a boost. The Nebraska Tourism Commission has awarded a $4,000 grant to the Western Nebraska Tourism Coalition, which serves the Kimball area, to participate in a “social media blitz” and banner marketing. Hal Enevoldsen of Potter, president of the western Nebraska coalition’s executive committee, said the grant and others like it in the region “will be a big boost to our marketing efforts throughout the state and beyond.” The coalition has worked to help tourism grow in recent...
Regional West Medical Center in Scottsbluff announced Tuesday, Jan. 29, that it was temporarily limiting visitor access due to widespread respiratory illness throughout the region. No visitors under age 18 were to be allowed in the hospital until further notice – unless they were a patient or parent of a patient. In addition, it was advised that any person with a fever, cough, or other flu-like symptom should not visit the hospital for social reasons. While no such measures were taken at Kimball Health Service as of Tuesday evening, visitor r...
Kimball Public Library is one of 30 libraries statewide chosen for a program to let library visitors use high-tech equipment to make various items – such as signs, personally designed T-shirts and pin-back buttons and much more – at bargain prices. Or for free. All while they learn skills for life or business. "It's different," Kimball librarian Jan Sears told The Observer. "It's kind of changing focus. Libraries are about education. Instead of reading a book, this will focus a bit on entrepreneurial activities." The project is called "Li...
Should it stay or should it go? The future of Kimball’s historic but rundown Longhorn Restaurant building apparently will be in the City Council’s hands as soon as it officially gains possession – and now the council has access to $100,000 if needed to help do whatever it deems best to do with the place. The council voted, 3-0, on Jan. 15 to accept the Kimball Loan Advisory Committee’s recommendation to use up to $100,000 in economic development funds to prepare the vacant Chestnut Street...
A big rally benefit for motorcycle crash victim Amy Sapp, the Kimball economic developer and special projects coordinator, is set for 4:30 to 10 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 2, at Kimball Event Center. And that's not all: An after party will feature Amy's favorite karaoke at Chute #7 in downtown Kimball. All proceeds from the Groundhog Day festivities will go to Sapp and her family to help with expenses during her recovery from the serious accident. She remains on the mend at Regional West Medical...
Usually, Drew Beisecker takes Kimball Longhorns basketball photos for the Western Nebraska Observer. But on June 20, he captured these images from his Kimball home of the only total lunar eclipse of 2019 in the night skies across North America and much of the world. The so-called Super Blood Wolf Moon did kind of look like a basketball, though, when Drew snapped this picture right around peak eclipse. The moon's color looked red-orange....
The Kimball school board at its organizational meeting Monday night welcomed three newly elected school board members, saluted more than two dozen students for a job well done, and discussed plans to more efficiently handle summer lawn care. Sworn into office were re-elected Matthew Shoup and Lynn Vogel and new member Travis Cook, who before the meeting made the rounds throughout the boardroom welcoming all in attendance individually. The six-member board voted unanimously to elect Heather Norbe...
A line of communication is established between the city of Kimball and the owner of the building that houses the Shopko Hometown store expected to close by the end of February. Both parties share a goal: finding a new business tenant or tenants to fill the building at 1217 S. Highway 71. City Administrator Dan Dean told the City Council on Tuesday night that the city “continues to be in touch with the building owner.” The businessman, not affiliated with Shopko stores, is based in the Kansas City area. Dean said the owner expressed ope...
A fire of suspicious nature on Friday night, Jan. 4, destroyed an automobile next to a carport on the north side of U.S. Highway 30 in Dix, the Dix Volunteer Fire Department reported. Dix firefighters said a Nebraska State Fire Marshall's Office investigator concluded that the blaze was not accidental or naturally occurring. The fire appeared to have started in the passenger area of the vehicle, identified as possibly an early 1990s Buick, and not near the engine or battery. The call came...
And the first Kimball baby born in 2019 is ... Rosalee Ann Osborn – all 6 pounds, 9 ounces, and 19.5 inches of her. Little Rosalee was born 7:56 a.m. Thursday, Jan. 3, at Regional West Medical Center in Scottsbluff. The 2019 honoree's name has much family meaning. Rosalee's name is a combination of Rose from the middle name of her father's mother, Lee from the second half of her mother Megan's mother's name, and Ann from Megan's step-mother's middle name. For being the first local baby of the N...
Average gas prices in Kimball dropped about 9 cents last week – from $2.24 to $2.15 per gallon of regular unleaded, according to a Western Nebraska Observer survey. The drop brings Kimball to within an uncharacteristically close 2 cents of Nebraska’s average, according to statewide gas prices Jan. 7 in GasBuddy’s weekly report. “I’m enjoying it,” said Tammy Miller, coordinator of the Kimball Banner County Chamber of Commerce. “I’m glad the price is down there, and I hope it stays down there with the state average. Any time prices are lowe...
The annual Kimball Banner Chamber of Commerce banquet will serve up a main course of economic promise this time around. The banquet, next Monday, Jan. 14, at Kimball Event Center, features a presentation, “Preparing Your Business for the Missile Rebuilds.” Chamber board member Rick Forepaugh told The Observer on Tuesday that the missile rebuilds are positive news for the community as it looks to emerge from challenging times and grow. There are signs of hope: Kimball County’s November unemployment rate of 2.5 percent, the most recent figur...
If it weren’t already the case, the future for Kimball’s Shopko Hometown store appears certain to be short. Consider: • The store has begun selling off its fixtures. • A banner across the front of the building says “CLOSING” in big, bold letters. • The founder of a nearly 1,400-signature petition to save the store asked top Shopko executives this past week to reconsider their shutdown decision. The company replied that the “right decision” for Shopko “is to close the store.” Nicole Sanneh of Kimball, who started the petition Dec. 19 on c...
Local shoppers continue filling their vehicles with items bought at Kimball's Shopko Hometown store, but they soon could be filling up with something else – more gasoline at the fuel pump -- if the store closes and they drive out of town to shop. This idea is not going over well in Kimball. "I'm really sad. It breaks my heart, " Toni Boos of Kimball said after shopping at Shopko this past weekend. "It's the nicest store we have without driving 100 miles roundtrip. A lot of us support this s...
Kimball County fares well when it comes to unemployment rates across Nebraska and the United States. The latest State Department of Labor figures show the county’s unemployment rate at 2.5 percent for November – an improvement from 2.7 percent in October and better than the statewide and national rates. Here’s the county’s statistical breakdown for November and October: • Total labor force: 2,027 in November; 2,000 in October. • Employed: 1,976 in November; 1,947 in October. • Unemployed: 51 in November; 53 in October. • Unemployment ra...
Kimball isn't giving up its Shopko Hometown store quietly, but saving it appears to be a long shot. An online petition urging Shopko Stores Operating Co. to keep open the store gained about 1,000 supporters in just two days last week, days after the company reversed its decision to close another Shopko Hometown outlet in Stanley, N.D., that also attracted a burst of community support. The total surpassed 1,250 by Christmas evening. The Kimball petition joined an email campaign to save the store...
Greetings, Western Nebraska Observer readers. I’m Jim Orr, the new publisher of your hometown newspaper. Some of you might recall when I filled in here -- right here in Kimball, right here in the Observer office -- as interim manager for about a month while the paper was between managers in 2008. I was publisher of The Sidney Sun-Telegraph and also serving as Stevenson Newspapers regional director, which involved overseeing the Observer. So when the need arose in Kimball, I responded. I got in my pickup, drove here on I-80 and pretty much did w...
Dear Santa, Some Kimball kids heard that you read the Western Nebraska Observer and, with that in mind, they wrote down some thoughts and questions for you in this special Christmas edition of their hometown paper. They want to know about you. And they want you to know what they want – as in toys and some other things that aren't toys at all. So before you finish making your list and checking it twice, here's some more food for thought before you fill up on all those cookies and milk while p...
Shopko Stores Operating Co., which announced plans this month to close its Kimball department store, keeps making moves to right its financial ship. The Wisconsin-headquartered retailer in recent days reported the sale of 64 of its pharmacy locations to supermarket chains – 42 to Kroger and 22 to Hy-Vee. Those moves don’t affect the Kimball operation, but this development offers perhaps a glimmer of hope: The manager of the Shopko Hometown outlet in Stanley, N.D., told the media last weekend that plans to close that store were reversed. Sta...