Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First
Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First
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Elizabeth Lee "Betty" Hays, 96, of Mitchell, Nebraska, passed away February 4, 2024, at the Mitchell Care Center. She was born October 6, 1927, in Lincoln, Kansas, the daughter of James and Anna Elizabeth (Thompson) Larsen. Betty has resided in Nebraska for the past seven years, formerly of Pratt and Geneseo, Kansas. She graduated from Lincoln High School. She was married to Claydean Alvin Hays. He preceded her in death on March 11, 2007. Betty is also preceded in death by her parents; two...
JoAnn Steele Thompson passed away November 30, 2015 at Valley Baptist Medical Center in Harlingen, TX after a recurring battle with cancer. JoAnn Mardelle Christensen Steele Thompson was born June 12, 1933, in Newman Grove, Nebraska to Lawrence and Pearl Christensen. She had an older sister, Reona, and an older brother, Virgil. JoAnn was confirmed at Shell Creek Lutheran Church in 1947 and graduated from Newman Grove High School in 1950. She began teaching that fall in Kimball County Nebraska. I...
The Western Nebraska Observer earned three awards in the 2015 Nebraska Press Association’s Better Newspaper Contest. The press association announced the awards at its annual convention held over the weekend in Lincoln. The Observer finished second for a Class B weekly newspaper in the prestigious general excellence category. The award looks at the overall quality of the newspaper, and considers news, content, quality of writing, headlines, page design, photos and captions, graphics and art elements, editorial page, front page, lifestyle p...
The Kimball school district has spent the last year trying to bring up its test scores. With the results of this past spring's Nebraska State Assessment (NeSA) finally available, it shows just how hard the school worked. "We set goals for the testing. We wanted to make sure that we had something to strive for, and well, we passed all our goals except for one," Kimball Jr/Sr High School Principal Mo Hanks said. The students take what is called Measures of Academic Progress(MAP) tests twice a...
A storm passed through the city of Kimball as rain soaked the ground of Gotte Park and supporters of the local Relay For Life gathered underneath a pavilion on Friday, August 22, for their annual event to raise both awareness and money for the cause of helping fund research in order to fight the deadly illness. Fran Wallin, who organized the event, stood before the crowd tucked away under the shelter from the rain, opening the event by expressing her gratitude for everyone who has shown their...
Members of the Bushnell Lions Club hosted test screening for hearing and vision at Kimball Jr./Sr. High School Monday, August 25. The screenings led by Steve Bennett, driver/operator/manager of the Mobile Screening Unit, and sponsored by the Lions Club International Foundation is used as a way to help schools identify problems that elementary students and high school students may be facing in the classroom and throughout their learning that are hard for teachers to identify, according to...
Kimball Health Services has hired a new Chief of Staff to replace Dr. Plate after he starts his retirement on August 27. Dr. James Broomfield, who has practiced medicine for 24 years, will be starting work Sept. 8 at Kimball Health Services. Broomfield, 50, served as Chief of Staff of Cheyenne Regional Medical Center from 2009 to 2012 and currently serves as Associate Chief of Staff at the VA hospital in Cheyenne. Though Broomfield has spent several years in Cheyenne, he is no stranger to...
Each year excitement fills the arena at the Kimball County fairgrounds as residents line up to see man face off against beast during the Kimball/Banner County Fair and Rodeo. As the announcer's voice echoes through the stands of the arena and the American flag is flown around the grounds, adults and children alike stand in reverence of the symbol of this great nation, relishing in the freedoms that it represents before readying themselves to sit on the edge of their seats as they watch dust fly...
After nearly 40 years in practice, Dr. James Plate, long-time physician for the city of Kimball, will be retiring from practicing medicine at the end of August. Dr. Plate, who has served as chief of staff for Kimball Health Services on and off for approximately 20 years, first came to Kimball in 1975 with his then partner Jim Nelson. According to Plate, he had very little knowledge of Kimball at the time with the decision primarily being influenced by the potential success of opening his...
As Friday's fair events closed down for the evening several fair goers were encouraged to make their way to the high school auditorium for the final event of the day, a concert by Gwen Sebastian. Gwen Sebastian is best known for being on the popular singing competition show, The Voice. The Voice opened many opportunities for her, such as being coached by Blake Shelton and Miranda Lambert. As a result of her time on The Voice, Sebastian was invited to tour with and sing back up for Shelton....
The Kimball Recruitment Coalition is looking to tap into the skill sets of local youths in their efforts to add a web presence to Kimball. The Kimball Recruitment Coalition (KRC) held a meeting Thursday, July 31, at which time they reviewed the films that had been made by University of Nebraska-Lincoln interns Emilia Woeppel and Jessica Bartak highlighting different businesses and recreational activities throughout the Kimball area. The eight videos created by Woeppel and Bartak, which each had a run time of approximately 30 seconds,...
Many times throughout each year the Kimball community is called on to give to a worthy cause. Whether it be Shop with a Cop or Pay it Forward, residents reach down into their hearts and give selflessly to help those of the community who are less fortunate. And the community certainly did not fail to, once again, show support for their fellow residents by donating supplies to the Stuff the Bus campaign at Wolf Auto. The program, which was given a boost from Wolf Auto this year by setting up a bus...
It's time for Kimball-Banner County residents to get excited about the upcoming fair. In five days, the fairgrounds in Kimball will be a lively hub of activity that includes several 4-H, FFA and rodeo competitions. The highlight of the fair for many will be the performance on Friday, August 8, by former contestant on The Voice, Gwen Sebastian. This will be the 96th year that the Kimball-Banner County Fair Days has been around, and it's the event to attend. There will be an array of livestock...
When the subject of poverty comes up in conversation throughout the state of Nebraska, there is seemingly a misconception that surrounds how residents of the state perceive it. More often than not, there is a common belief that poverty is strictly contained within the rural areas such as the Nebraska Panhandle. However, the 2014 Kids Count report, which ranks states based on 16 indicators including educational, social, economic and physical well-being of children using data on local, state and national levels, shows that poverty is pervasive...
Kelly Breen, who has represented Vencil Ash leading up to his retrial on first degree murder charges, was removed from Ash’s defense by Judge Derek C. Weimer at his own request the morning of July 22. At the opening of the hearing to introduce Breen’s motion to be removed from the case, Breen stated that the reason behind his motion comes from the fact that due to witnessing certain events that have transpired in which he witnessed certain claims made by Ash that could be used in court against the defense, he could be called as a witness for...
The dogs taken from the residence at 214 Spruce Street in Dix have been sent to a rescue in Colorado. According to D'nette Eastman, Veterinarian Technician for the Prairie Animal Hospital in Kimball, the dogs had been kept at the clinic after being removed by Sheriff Harry Gillway on Tuesday, July 8, coming at a total of 14 days and going against the clinic's policy of only keeping dogs impounded for a total of three days. "They should have only been here three days, and the sheriff made us keep...
With the summertime quickly drawing to a close, parents and children are starting to descend upon local businesses to once again gather supplies for the new school year. However, though many families have the means to successfully budget to acquire the needed supplies, others are less fortunate and could use a helping hand in order to stock their children's backpacks full of the notebooks, pens, and other necessary materials in order to be successful in their efforts in the classroom. This is...
The Potter-Dix Children's Theater will be putting on a production of "The Great American Duck Parade" Friday, July 18 at the American Legion Hall in Potter. The play centers around the character of Quincy, a grumpy old duck, who decides to make the Fourth of July tolerable for everyone at the duck pond and hosts an All-American Duck Parade. According to Kristin Kasten, who serves as a director for the play with Beth Bogert, the play is completely locally produced and written. "It's actually a...
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...
The lawsuit against Village of Bushnell Board of Trustees Chairman Timothy Nolting, brought forth by Emerson “Fal” Calvert, has been dismissed by Judge Derek C. Weimer. Calvert, who owns the property referred to as the “old lumberyard” in the Village of Bushnell, had initially filed a complaint stating that Nolting had been too aggressive in his efforts to make Calvert clean up the old lumberyard property, forcing Calvert to get rid of some of his personal items out of the fear that Nolting would take everything. “Plaintiff did get rid of some...
An incident of suspected animal neglect and abuse in the Village of Dix was investigated by the Kimball County Sheriff's Office this past week. Posts on the Facebook page for the High Plains PAW Inc. that first surfaced on June 23, pointed to neglect faced by two dogs, Merrick described as a "pit mix" and Shiloh described as a "hound mix", both located at 214 Spruce Street in Dix. According to Sybil Prosser, President of High Plains People for Animal Welfare (PAW), when investigating the...
The old saying goes that a picture is worth a thousand words. Pictures can bring one back to a single moment in time. Pictures can let people see time periods long passed and loved ones long taken away by the hands of time. They can act as a revolving door to bring us back around to times when smiles crowded our faces and times when the spaces under our eyes were merely occupied by tears, bringing us back to the places that we long and ache to go again. However, a picture lacks a level of...
The sun was hanging high in the sky as strong winds blew through the grass of the Four Winds Golf Course Saturday, June 27 for the Kimball TeamMates Golf Tournament. The tournament held a shotgun start at 1:30 p.m. as 11 teams kicked off the first round of play and participated in the start of the 10th year of the TeamMates. Though the day was perfect for walking the greens and basking in the open air, the tournmanet did not just offer local residents who participated to take time to enjoy the...
The Junior Golf program, which runs through the month of June each year at the Four Winds Golf Course, has wrapped up another successful session for the 2014 season. The program, which has been in existence since at least the 1970s, is split between age groups with preschool through 3rd grade kids being coached by Wilma Gilliland and the 4th grade through high school kids being coached by Kimball's Chad Wise. The aim of the program is to get kids involved with the sport early on, laying a solid...
The subject of how to word the option voters will get on the November ballot concerning what will be done with the funds that have been collected for the abandoned rail spur project was discussed at the City Council meeting the night of Tuesday, June 17. Though the conversation started off smoothly, it quickly turned into a contentious debate when the members were split on whether or not to give residents the option to discontinue the tax dollars that are still taken out for the project. The discussion began with the consideration of making...