Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First
Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First
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Children are almost magnets for accidents. They are growing into their bodies and experience a clumsy and accident-prone phase of life. They bump into things, people, and they fall down. Children and teens who participate in sports tend to be more likely to have some sort of an injury than most other adolescents. One injury that can pack a bit more punch than previously thought is a concussion. Thankfully, the Return To Learn program has been able to shed light on concussion care for students. Most would assume that concussions would only...
A new school year is on the horizon and among the hustle and bustle of getting classrooms ready and establishing lesson plans are 12 new teachers. Two of those new teachers are Chelsie Autrey and Jamie Murdoch. Both Autrey and Murdoch will be teaching at Mary Lynch the start of the new school year. Autrey will be teaching fourth grade and Murdoch will be teaching sixth grade. Autrey grew up in Pine Bluffs, Wyoming, and she is not the only teacher in her family. She said that she decided she...
Wesley and Anna Mietus hosted a lunch gathering for congressman Adrian Smith on Saturday, July 19. At the intimate gathering of roughly 25 people, Smith was able to converse with most in attendance individually and hear their concerns on issues plaguing the state and the nation. Smith is seeking to get reelected for Congress this year and is, therefore, campaigning throughout the state. A conservative republican candidate, Smith tends to fit the bill for many in the state. His stances on things...
A community cannot thrive and grow without people to make it grow. Unfortunately, Kimball has not seen much, if any, growth in the past 10 to 15 years. Kimball City Administrator Daniel Ortiz explained the importance of having a wide spectrum of housing in the Kimball area. Kimball is in need of more housing. If Kimball is to grow and thrive it’s important that it be full of places for a variety of people to call home. At one point, Kimball had a large number of residents. Some 6,000 people called Kimball home. However, over the years that n...
Nothing brings a community together better than the promise of good food and fundraising, except maybe a competition of who makes the best food. On Saturday, July 12, Kimball's Twelfth Annual Rib Cook-Off was held in Gotte Park. Jowain Sherman and his wife, Linda, work hard year after year to make sure the rib cook-off runs smoothly. This year a little twist was added to the competition: a trophy for best ribs and a traveling trophy that obligates the winner to come back the following year to...
The Kimball County Ambulance crew's hard work since Carla Goranson's appointment as director has paid off in a big way. Recently, the ambulance has been approved to run as a State of Nebraska EMS Advanced Services Transport. There is a lot of work that goes into being approved to operated as an advanced services transport. Not only must they be in compliance with certain regulations they must be able to show a history of compliance as well. "We had to develop and get approved protocols. We had t...
The Community Action Partnership of Western Nebraska (CAPWN) is a non-profit community based health and human services organization that serves low income and disadvantaged persons who are unable to meet their own needs through other resources. Recently the organization filed for Chapter 11. According to Tim Nolting, President of the CAPWN Board, this filing is due to some unfortunate financial issues that have set CAPWN back quite a bit. “We came across the issues and realized that they needed to be addressed and fixed, however, it was a...
On July 8, 2014, The High Point Welcome Center turned one year old. On Friday, July 11, the welcome center had its 10,000th visitor. In a mere year the welcome center has become a hub of activity and promotion for Kimball and the surrounding areas. Most recently the building that the welcome center operates out of was purchased as well as the 14 acres on which the building sits. The building was purchased by the county, who took out bonds to do so as well as using money provided by the welcome...
On July 4, Americans everywhere gather to celebrate their country's Independence Day. Everyone does so a little differently, however, the main theme of the day is one of national pride. In Kimball it was no different. The fire department kicked off the day with fire truck rides in Gotte Park. Kids young and old gathered around the old trucks, gleefully climbing over the back to take a seat at the top. As with every year, many of the younger kids got a kick out of sounding the sirens over and...
When thinking of art people generally picture paintings. However, there are various mediums in which art can be expressed. Amber Wilke is a local artist who expresses her art through making baskets. Wilke works at Clean Harbors during the day. Her husband works their farm. Despite the busy nature of her life, she manages to make time for her art. Wilke weaves baskets out of pine needles. Her specialized interest and talent in the art form of making pine needle baskets is the result of her...
The International 4-H Youth Exchange (IFYE), is a program that affords youths 19 and older the opportunity to travel to another country to learn about agriculture. Recently Mark and Jenna Miller were a host family to a girl from Switzerland. Switzerland can fit inside Nebraska about three times and has roughly the population of New York City. In Switzerland they speak German, French, or Italian depending on the area one lives in, and they measure their land in a unit called hectares instead of...
Dan Kinnison has been a long time resident of Kimball. He has seen it grow and evolve over the years and has made it his home. Recently Kinnison was asked to participate in the Honor Flight, a trip to D.C. to honor pilots from World War II. Kinnison went and got to see Washington D.C. more in depth than he had ever seen it. He, along with several others, were put up in a hotel in Baltimore. It was a way to appreciate those who had served. Kinnison shared that, while he had wanted to become a pil...
Kimball is participating in an internship for the University of Nebraska-Lincoln this summer. For eight weeks Kimball is home to two interns from UNL and they will be helping several projects. The interns are Jessica Bartak, 20 and Emilia Woeppel, 21. Both girls are involved with agriculture and are very excited to be in Kimball. Bartak, is a agriculture business major with a banking and finance option, and will be a junior in college this coming year. "It's kind of a wide major and I'm not...
Summertime is generally marked by warm weather and the freedom of school children. Usually high school students seek out a summer job to make a little money for themselves and learn responsibility. Younger school age children frequent the pool or ride their bikes around having adventures with friends. However, a large misconception with summertime is that school administrators and teachers get the summers off, free and clear like the students. This isn’t the case. School superintendent, Marshal Lewis, is as busy as ever during the summer, d...
On Friday June 27, 2014 Wolf Automotive celebrated their 19th Anniversary. They celebrated the occasion with a barbecue and the presence of a local radio station. They also brought in several older model cars to have on display as a tribute to years past. Dave Wolf and his daughter Denise were present at the occasion. They made the rounds and spoke with all the people who stopped by to join in on the celebration. Dave Wolf has been selling cars since 1968 and though he moved out to Kimball with the hopes of partially retiring in June of 1995,...
Several people gathered in Larsen's Jewelry last Friday to congratulate Carma Weisbrook, Mary Lynch Elementary School fifth grade teacher, on a job well done. Weisbrook recently wrote and published a children's book, which she was signing at the celebration. Weisbrook's book tells the story of a young girl named Jodi, who enjoys spending time with her grandma. However, Jodi starts to notice some changes in her grandma. Well as it turns out her grandma has Alzheimer's disease. A nurse helps Jodi...
In the summer time, Kimball sees an influx in snakes in the area, predominantly in bullsnakes and rattlesnakes. As a result, residents should be up to date on what to do if they encounter either of these animals. The first thing that should be known is how to identify the types of snakes and also how to differentiate between bullsnakes and rattlesnakes. Bullsnakes are nonvenomous constrictors, meaning they strangle their prey. Bullsnakes range from 37 to 72 inches as adults, the newly hatched...
Kimball County Manor, a county owned building, recently had a bond approved by the county in order to make renovations. "There are no property taxes involved. The Manor has sufficient funds for the renovations. It's just that since we're a county owned building there are some things we have to do in order to just follow procedure," Bev Schnell said. The Manor was built in 1968 making it roughly 46 years old. When it was built, the normal thing was for the assisted living to have semi-private...
The Potter Health Clinic was recently set back by the resignation of Tiffany Contet, who was going to run the operation a few days a week. However, it did not set back things for long, because Kimball Health Services has already appointed a replacement. Kim Hafeman is a physician assistant who will be the primary person running the Potter Health Clinic and her back up will be Holly Debrinski a nurse practitioner, according to Ken Hunter CEO of Kimball Health Services. “We’re going to open with an LPN(Licensed Practical Nurse) and a pro...
The Cattlemen's Ball was a highly anticipated event for the community. The event drew roughly 4,000 attendees, all interested in benefiting cancer research. However, this event owes a lot to the volunteers from the local community that were involved. According to both Trish Lukassen and Monty Stoddard, there were roughly 600 people that volunteered their time and effort to make the Cattlemen's Ball a success. The ball was held at Hoot Owl Ranch on June 6 and 7 in Banner County. The event sold...
The Kimball County Board of Commissioners approved the use of funds and issuance bonds for several different agenda item at their meeting Tuesday, June 3. The first financial item up for discussion was that of tickets for the Kimball Ambulance crew to the Cattlemen’s Ball. Banner County EMS requested that Kimball County assist as EMS volunteers at the ball. With three members of the ambulance crew volunteering the expenses, which included the tickets, it came to a total of $225. Carla Goranson was in attendance to request that the county pay f...
The Nebraska State Fair will be held August 22 to September 1 in 2014. The Nebraska State Board met in Kimball on Friday June 6 at the 4-H building. The board discussed the current state of all the committees working on making the upcoming fair in Grand Island a success. Kathleen Lodl, in charge of the Nebraska Agricultural Experience (NAE) at the upcoming fair, gave a presentation concerning the current state of the NAE. Giant corn stalks and other giant sized crops are being fabricated for the decoration of the building in which the NAE will...
The city landfill has been working on making sure that they are in compliance with requirements from Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality. As a part of this venture, the city must be sure that those taking trash to the landfill are up to date paying landfill user fees. As many are aware, the city recently increased the landfill rates. Upon the city's decision, the county also had to decide to increase their residents' landfill prices. However, to be sure that this was the best option...
The snow storm in March, that gave Kimball an estimated sixteen inches of snow, also produced a water runoff once the snow melted. This runoff, while it caused some flooding, also filled Oliver Lake. With spring wrapping up and summer around the corner, Oliver Lake is a great place for locals and visitors alike to spend their summer days. Oliver Lake is 270 acres and sits on 917 acres of land. The grounds include camping grounds, boat ramps and docks, a swimming beach, changing houses, 130...
From 1775 to 1783, Americans fought their first war to gain independence. The thirteen "United Colonies" fought for their freedom and independence from Great Britain. During this war, the colonies declared their independence and became the United States of America in 1776. Ever since the nation's birth, Americans have been fighting to protect the freedoms and rights of their country. As a result, many lives have been lost, although not in vain. To thank those past and present for their...