Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First
Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First
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Crumbled cars line the streets, debris is all that remains in the place where houses once stood and families are still trying to sift through the devastation left behind by one of the biggest tornadoes ever recorded. They dig through the rubble, searching for pictures reflecting better times that preceded the deadly storm. All that was left was the city’s water tower and a lone American flag blowing weakly in the passing gusts of wind: This was what Kimball County Sheriff Harry Gillway found h...
With the summer season in full swing, it is once again time for the Kimball-Banner County Fair Days. The 95th Kimball-Banner County Fair Days are set to take place between August 6 and August 12th in Kimball. According to Doug Lukassen, Secretary of the Kimball County Ag Society and President of the Nebraska Association of Fair Managers, the fair will offer several new events this year including a pedal tractor pull event the evening of Sunday, August 11. "Each age group is a separate division...
An AmeriCorps crew arrived in Kimball this past week in order to aid Keep Kimball Beautiful in several projects throughout the city with the hopes of helping to improve the curb appeal in order to attract visitors to the region. AmeriCorps crew Cedar One, led by Hannah Davis of Alpine, Texas, arrived in Kimball July 17, and immediately got to work cleaning up the property that houses the new High Point Welcome Center, according to Cedar One member Zack Hall. “We cleaned up the welcome center t...
A tip alerted the Western Nebraska Observer to a spill at Clean Harbors’ Kimball location last Wednesday, when a container overturned in the north yard of the facility, spilling some 3,000 - 5,000 pounds of its contents. “When we set it down, the rails on the truck were bent, and it got stuck,” said Jared Hunsaker, Plant Manager for the Kimball facility. “We got a forklift to try and lift it up onto those rails, and that’s when it tipped over.” According to Hunsaker, there was never any danger...
The Meadowlark room in the Kimball Event Center was filled with chatter and excitement this past week as kids participating in the 2013 4-H Robotics Camp tried to program their robots to perfectly navigate through obstacles courses that had been taped on the floor. The camp was led by Cynthia Gill, an educator for the Kimball-Banner Extension Office. According to Gill, this is the first time they have held the event in the form of a camp. "We've had lots of robotic workshops. Chanda DeMasters...
Last week, the Republican-controlled United States House of Representatives forced through a vote on a vastly different Farm Bill than seen in the last four decades – one with no funding for food stamp programs. With a 216-to-208 vote in favor of the legislation, House leadership was able to gather the necessary votes to pass the measure without a single Democratic vote. One of those who voted in favor of the bill was Nebraska Congressman Adrian Smith. “While this is not the process I would hav...
The Kimball Recycle Center was approved for a $76,000 grant this past week, much to the excitement of Keep Kimball Beautiful Director Larissa Binod and Spud Rowley, Manager of the Kimball Recycle Center. "I'm just over the moon about it," Binod said. The grant, awarded by the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality, was sought out by Binod in order to help maintain the recycling center services and help fund new educational projects to take place later in the year. "You submit grants, and...
The High Point Welcome Center is officially open for business. Kimball County Tourism Director Jo Caskey has been hard at work the past month scrubbing counters, cleaning the rooms and stocking up the old Burger King building out by Interstate 80 south of Kimball with brochures and travel guides for the Panhandle and other Nebraska communities scattered throughout the state. “I have three brochure racks. Two of the three are almost completely stocked, and the third one is partially stocked. The...
Kanalihoppers Restaurant and Spirits, a new restaurant which just opened up in the building that used to house Mulligan’s Restaurant right next to the Kimball Golf Course, is already setting off discussions around town with everybody wondering what exactly the name comes from. According to owner Donna Thompson, the name stems from a story from her childhood involving her grandfather. “My family is Irish. When I was a little girl, my grandpa would come into the house and say, ‘Oh gosh, my kanalihopper is killing me.’ I was about six years o...
A new presence has come to Kimball in the form of Mr. Marshall Lewis who has taken over the Superintendent of Kimball Public Schools position recently vacated by Troy Unzicker. Lewis comes to Kimball from Belmond, Iowa where he most recently served as the Superintendent of the Belmond-Klemme School District for three years. "I'm an Iowa boy from the beginning. I spent a little bit of time in South Dakota, but for the most part I've been in Iowa my whole life," Lewis said. As Lewis has never been...
The Dead Eye Shooters made an impressive showing at the Daisy National BB gun and Air Rifle competition in Rogers, Arkansas this past week, coming back home to Kimball with 11 medals. “I thought they went fantastic. I was really, really proud of the kids,” Dead Eye Shooters Coach Nicole Snyder said. The group started the journey to Rogers on Wednesday, June 26, arriving at the Convention Center where the competition was to take place on the Friday where they checked in their equipment and were g...
The old Kimball High School which sits on the south side of Highway 30 is yet another tragic tale of aging structures filled with a rich history falling by the wayside in today’s fast-paced world. Its halls once flourished with the chatter of youths speaking of basketball games and dances, knowledge was acquired in each classroom, and the staff roamed the halls spending each day trying to shape each student for the world of tomorrow. Now, the sounds heard throughout the building are few and f...
Four more reports of rattlesnakes within the city limits emerge have been reported in the last week, but no further dens have been discovered by city officials since last reported. Kimball Police Chief Darren Huff has figured out a new line of defense against the rattling pests: wasp killer. According to Huff, he had recently received a phone call from long-time Kimball resident Clark Huff, informing him of the unconventional solution to the problem. “He starts telling me about how this wasp killer will ‘turn them upside down and they’ll be pus...
The sun was hanging high in the sky as two large wrestling mats were lined up along the football field at the Kimball Junior/Senior High School, setting up for the day’s event to raise awareness and interest in the school’s wrestling program on Saturday, June 29. At 5:00 p.m., wrestlers starting pouring into the stadium to get weighed in and sign liability waivers, as Assistant Wrestling Coach Bob Culek and his fellow organizers made up brackets for the kids to compete in. The event not onl...
The Kimball Dead Eye Shooters are no stranger to the National Competition. This week, they will return their with their eyes on the prize. “The Daisy competition takes place in a convention center in Rogers, Arkansas, which is the headquarters of the Daisy manufacturing company. They have this in a hotel, and it takes place over about four days. We have families that are attending. There is no entry fee for the competition. Daisy provides us the entry fee, and they actually give us $1,000.” Nic...
The building that once housed West Elementary School changed hands at the auction put on by L.E.S. Realty, Co. on June 14, with Kimball Health Services purchasing the property. The back of the room in the old school building where the auction was set to take place was packed with people on cell phones serving as proxies for potential buyers as Dan Acheson sat in the front of the room on a stool, microphone in hand, water bottle at his side, and ready to start. The first round of the auction...
Carla Gunn, the new pastor at the United Methodist Church here in Kimball, is a great example of the fact that it is never too late to find your calling in life. Gunn, 60, started attending seminary school at St. Paul School of Theology in Kansas City when she was in her 50's. However, this was not her first brush with holding a leadership position in a Christian setting. "I started out in education, and then I moved into Christian education. It just was like God was calling me all along and preparing me," Gunn said. Before coming to Kimball,...
Editor’s Note: This is the final segment of a three-part series on the Wheat Growers Hotel, located in Kimball, NE. There will be coverage of any new developments concerning the property. “The Wheat Growers has enjoyed good times, survived bad times, adapted with changing times, and projects a link from the past to the future.” The Wheat Growers Hotel, fondly nicknamed the “Grand Ole’ Lady”, closed its doors for the final time to the public in 1983. Since that time, many dreamers have come t...
What will become of Chestnut Street? That was the question on the minds of everyone who attended the City Council meeting the night of June 4, with much of the discussion of what to do to keep the street in good condition after it is relinquished to the city of Kimball by the state of Nebraska. Mayor James Schnell opened the meeting by introducing Doug Hoevet, the Nebraska Department of Roads District Construction Engineer for District Five which includes Kimball. According to Hoevet, Chestnut...
Over the past five decades, generations of Kimball residents have passed LorRon Department Store while driving down East 2nd Street. Many have probably peered into its windows at the quaint antiques stored inside. However, fewer residents may know that the store has been around for nearly half a century. The business was first opened by Ames Hartung, Chuck Joplin, and Waldamar Muehlberger in 1960 under the name Hartung’s Department Store. The store at that time was stocked with a full line of m...
After serving seven years as the Superintendent of Kimball Public Schools, Troy Unzicker will be leaving his office in the Kimball Junior/Senior High School after a long day of work for the final time at the end of the month. Unzicker will be taking over the superintendent position for the public school system in Alliance, Nebraska July 1. “Sometimes I wonder, ‘Why am I leaving? It’s such a good position and I like what I’m doing here,’ but Alliance just was a good opportunity for me,” Unzicker said. Looking back on his seven years working for...
Kimball served as the first host city for the 33rd annual Bicycle Ride Across Nebraska (BRAN) trip across the state this past weekend. Riders began pouring into the city of Kimball in the early afternoon of Saturday, June 1, on their way to the high school where they set up tents and took in a mandatory meeting in the High School auditorium. By the end of the day, the practice field at the Kimball Junior/Senior High School was filled with a sea of tents as nearly 650 BRAN participants hunkered...
Senator Deb Fischer stopped by Kimball May 28, to give residents an update on what she has been working on for the people of Nebraska. Fischer walked into the Plains Historical Museum around 1:30 p.m. where she was greeted by a modest crowd of Kimball residents eager to hear what she had to say. Senator Fischer touched on topics such as the recent scandals that have rocked Washington, the Farm Bill, and took time to comment on the perception that everything in Washington is gridlocked and that...
Editor’s Note: This is the second segment of a three-part series on the Wheat Growers Hotel, located in Kimball, NE. The final segment will run in early June. “After more than 40 years, are the memories put to rest--or will they continue with me?” - Betty Bouck, Western Nebraska Observer, Thursday, March 1, 1979. After the fall of Frank Cunningham’s empire and the initial closing of the Wheat Growers Hotel, the building stood vacant, much the same as it does now. The only difference being that t...
A former Kimball High School graduate, Hunter Baliman, received the Spirit of Mitchell Technical Institute Award during his recent graduation ceremony from Mitchell Technical Institute in Mitchell, South Dakota. Baliman received the award for his exemplary work while attending the Culinary Academy of South Dakota, a program within the institute. According to Baliman, this was no easy feat as the award is given to a student who does as much as possible for the good of the program over the two years that students are part of the culinary...