Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First
Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First
Sorted by date Results 51 - 75 of 175
Kimball County decided to renew its contract with Viaero wireless during Monday’s meeting of the county commissioners. The meeting was held Monday instead of the usual Tuesday date, due to the election. Before deciding to renew the wireless contract with Viaero, the commissioners directed County Clerk Cathy Sibal to look into the cell phone coverage in which the county reimburses its employees and see if they could be switched to Viaero. This could potentially save the county money. Dave Hottell, county highway superintendent, gave an update o...
Several new faces cast their ballots for the first time on Tuesday. Jeri Ferguson, a Kimball High School civics teacher, led several of her students into the Kimball Event Center Tuesday to vote in the election. It was the first time voting for students Colton Stull, Ryan Muneio, Jodell Schulte, Jobany Martinez, AJ Spicer and Michael Ferguson. After they voted the students all gathered in the entry area of the event center. "I think it's really important that we vote because it's how we can...
The City of Kimball board of public works heard an update on Keep Kimball Beautiful at its Oct. 28 meeting. Larissa Binod, director of KKB, told the board that 117,660 pounds of materials were diverted and recycled from July through September. The office pack, cardboard route, alley way collection, alley cat trailers in Bushnell and Dix, and confidential document shredding has all contributed to the organization’s recycling efforts, she said. With help from the AmeriCorps team that recently visited Kimball County, the recycling center was a...
Candidates for Kimball mayor and county commission answered questions at a forum last Thursday hosted by a Kimball High School civics class. The forum was put on by one of Jeri Ferguson’s civics classes. The students spent time researching different issues that would be on the ballot, as well as making visual aids that were displayed on the windows and of the walls of the KHS Student Center. The students first recognized unopposed candidates and then talked about different issues on the ballot. Issues on the ballot include a potential m...
The Kimball City Council provided KENO funds to the Village of Bushnell and discussed the roof of the Kimball Event Center at the regularly scheduled Oct. 21 meeting. Bushnell approached the city council for KENO funds at the meeting. The village requested the funds for new traffic and street signs, which are required by federal law. Norma Szobody, with the Village of Bushnell, has contacted 80 businesses and organizations within Kimball and Pine Bluffs. The village has raised $1,300 of its $4,575 goal. The village requested $3,275 in KENO fund...
County commissioners have been planning on some changes to the courthouse, and in order to move forward they accepted bids for the construction of a counter and room divider on the third floor of the courthouse. The county has been working to move the district court office from the second floor to the third floor of the county courthouse. As a result of the need for a move, a bit of construction must be done to accommodate the office. Sealed bids were received for the scope of work that needed to be accomplished on the third floor. A counter...
The City of Kimball Planning Commission discussed the upcoming housing study at its Oct. 20 meeting. The meeting opened with a public hearing on whether or not to add specific conditional uses to the C-1, C-4, C-5 and C-6 zoning districts. The conditional uses that will be added are already a part of the conditional uses for the other zoning districts. “Buildings, structures, and premises for public utility services, or public service corporations, which buildings or uses the Council, after report of Kimball Planning Commission, deems r...
Those driving down the I-80 will no doubt have a new landmark in their line of vision near Kimball. Last Wednesday, the Kimball oil derrick was raised and placed on land out by the golf course. The BW Drilling Company used the derrick in the 1960s and 1970s. After that time, the company donated it to the City of Kimball. It did so because oil is a big part of the history and heritage of Kimball. The derrick itself was built in 1949 in Texas, and was brought to Kimball by BW Drilling. The...
America Recycles is an event that cities and communities participate in country wide on or around Nov. 15. This initiative was set forth by Keep America Beautiful and the local Keep Kimball Beautiful Group can be counted on for participation this coming November. America Recycles is designed to raise awareness in communities about how recycling can be a big help to the environment and how communities can recycle more. Showing people how easy it is to be an active recycler is an easy way to get...
There are many differences between Kimball and other places. One of them is the way Kimball treats those looking to start a business. Where most places make it a hassle for a woman to start a business, Kimball is a place where a person's work ethic is valued more than their gender. According to the United States Department of Labor 57.2 percent of women of working age accounted for the labor force in 2013, which is compared to 69.7 percent of men of working age. It is estimated that there are...
The Kimball school board approved a fix for lighting at the football stadium at Monday’s regular monthly meeting. The board discussed in a previous meeting how the lighting was considered dangerous. As a result of this dangerous situation, several precautions have been taken in order to prevent an accident from occurring until the lights could be properly repaired. Bids from High West Wiring were brought before the board in an attempt to fix the lighting. Due to the nature of the issues with the football lights, the bid from High West was put i...
A public hearing for an amendment to the City of Kimball zoning ordinance to amend district C-4 traveler services district conditional uses was held at the Oct. 7 city council meeting. The rezoning of the property on which now sits a future RV park was changed to C-4 (traveler services district). This zoning more appropriately serves the purpose of the business that will inhabit the property, which will be an RV park. The RV park will be located at the site of what was formerly known as the Hilltop Mobile Home Park. The C-4 zoning will allow...
It is the beginning of a new fiscal year, and the City of Kimball recently passed a new budget. The budget for the 2014-2015 fiscal year is $24,809,594.95, a huge jump from the roughly $8 million the city spent last year. “The budget that is proposed has to reflect not only the projects that we plan to do, but also have some room for emergency situations that may arise. We have to propose our budget and if we don’t plan for these projects and propose them, we won’t get the funding,” said City Administrator Daniel Ortiz. The city has several pla...
Just before 1 a.m. on Sept. 30, a vehicle struck an electrical pole near the cemetery and caused a power outage through parts of Kimball for five or more hours. The driver fled the scene of the accident. The city was without power until almost 6 a.m. However, even after that the western portion of downtown was still experiencing issues with power from Chestnut to Burg streets. According to City Administrator Daniel Ortiz, everyone’s power was back on by 8 a.m. with the exception of three businesses. The power outage did not affect the hospital...
Fire Prevention Week 2014 is this week, and local fire departments are spreading awareness by talking about this year’s theme, which emphasizes smoke detector safety. The Kimball Fire Department visited Mary Lynch Elementary school and taught children about fire safety on Wednesday. The fire department also hosted an open house at the fire station on Wednesday evening. It is important for fire safety to be taught at a young age, said Steve Watson, a Kimball Fire Department representative. Teaching fire safety at a young age will allow it to b...
The Kimball City and County Park and Recreation Executive and Operating Boards met Sept. 30 for the purpose of looking at management proposals for the Four Winds Golf Course Pro Shop. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) recently told the city and county that the relationship with the Four Wind Pro Shop management was more of an employee relationship rather than that of an individual contractor. “We were told by the IRS that the city either needed to absorb the pro shop manager as a city or county employee, or we needed to make some changes to t...
Kimball celebrated its 88th annual Farmer's Day over the weekend as the community celebrated and honored its everyday heroes. The celebration kicked off Friday as families gathered at the movie in the park, while others chose to attend the Kimball Theater Group's production of Superhero Sanitarium. Superhero Sanitarium, directed by Tom O'Brien, was performed at the museum downtown. The cast of six delivered a memorable performance. It was a delight to watch the likes of Aidalyn Williams, Dan...
The Village of Bushnell is seeking funds for new signs. The village must get new up to date dual-sided reflective street signs by January of 2015 for traffic signs and by January of 2018 for street signs in order to comply with current federal standards. The federal law requires that all villages and cities have highly reflective signs that allow emergency vehicles to easily locate addresses. This also includes traffic signs. Bushnell currently has the original wooden street signs made by...
Kimball benefited from the help of a AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps (NCCC) over the past two weeks. The group came in and lended its time and efforts to help with Oliver Reservoir and also to assist Keep Kimball Beautiful (KKB). The AmeriCorps NCCC is a program for men and women between the ages of 18 and 24. This federal team-based program has its members serve full-time for a 10-month term assisting communities with projects that meet their needs concerning disaster services,...
More honors to report this week for Kimball High golfer Jaycie Walker. The talented senior earned All Western Trails Conference honors this past week by finishing in the top ten medal group shooting 108 to take 5th place at Bridgeport, this year’s conference hosts. Not one of Jaycie’s better scores as she has been under 100 a few times this year and could have been at the conference tournament had it not been for some penalty strokes that cost her about 10 strokes. “I had some problems with my swing and ended up hitting a handfull or more...
The Honor Flight Network is a program that sends World War II, Korean War and Vietnam War veterans to Washington, D.C., in order to see the memorial for the war in which they fought. One of Kimball's own, Arne Christensen, recently returned from his honor flight. The Korean War, often known as the Forgotten War, was fought from June 1950 to July 1953. The Korean War began when communist North Korea invaded South Korea. America went to the aid of South Korea. Though there were American soldiers a...
The Kimball City Council approved two requests for KENO funds and its annual budget at the Sept. 16 meeting. The city council approved a budget for the coming fiscal year. The only issue brought to the council’s attention was the amount promised to the Welcome Center. The county had previously pledged $500 monthly and the city pledged $1,000 monthly. After the figures were known, the county decided to up their contribution to $1,000 monthly, at the same time the city chose to lower its payment. The lack of communication caused for some f...
In the year since the opening of the High Point Welcome Center of Western Nebraska, the visitors committee has accomplished quite a bit. One of those accomplishments is that they recently won the 2014 Bruce Riley McDaniel Award for Bureau Innovation (budget of $350,000 or less). The Bruce Riley McDaniel Awards are given in memory of one of the founders of the Upper Midwest Conventions and Visitors Bureau Conference. These awards are given to tourism industry professionals that achieve and...
Farmer's Day starts Friday, and with a wide range of activities for the whole family to enjoy, the community is encouraged to make the most of the next three days. A few of the big highlights of Farmer's Day includes the Grand Marshal of the parade, and the Homemaker and Farmer nominations. This year's Grand Marshals are Noia "Cork" B. Brown and Bernita Brown. Cork and Bernita have been married for 60 years. While Bernita moved to Kimball in 1945 from Dix, Cork came to Kimball in 1954 to work...
Several Kimball Ambulance Service EMTs have strived to better the area's emergency care. Several of the EMTs have completed advanced EMT training, which is exactly what EMT Heather Gawith recently accomplished. "Basically, now that I am an advanced EMT, we can start IVs and give the patients fluids if we need to. We have the ability to administer certain pain killers depending on the circumstance, such as cardiac or trauma. We can also give the patient albuterol for respiratory emergencies. We c...