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 wind turbine that was placed at the Kimball High School is now up and running. According to teacher Alan Held, since the turbine was officially turned on February 6 at 7:00 a.m., it has produced a modest amount of electricity for the school, more specifically Held’s shop which is located right beside the turbine. “It’s produced 122.1 kilowatt hours. This building alone uses about 8,000 kilowatt hours a month. It’s not going to power the entire building, but all the electricity will be used in this building,” Held said. Though the electrici...
A public hearing was held at the Board of County Commissioners meeting the morning of February 19, to decide whether or not to approve the Conditional Use Permit Application from High West Energy to add a communication tower within the HWE substation located on County Road 54 in Kimball County. The primary concern of the board was whether or not the communication tower met the regulations in place for a conditional use permit. “One of the stipulations in a conditional use permit for communication towers is that the height of a communication t...
I have often heard warnings in my time about the obvious dangers of the world. Don’t walk alone at night in a strange neighborhood. Don’t play with fire. Don’t give out personal information on the internet. If a stranger offers you candy, don’t get in the van. Some warnings I have ignored (the candy was worth it by the way), but there is one danger that often gets overlooked: complacency. Too often I hear people say the words “good enough.” Some of the biggest mistakes I’ve ever seen made by friends, acquaintances and even myself have all star...
The process of getting the old oil derrick put back up has gotten one more step closer to reaching its completion. The Parks and Recreation Executive Board met February 13 to discuss whether or not to move forward with the location set aside for the oil derrick. City Council member John Morrison, who has been active in getting the oil derrick put back up, opened the conversation with a brief history of events that have taken place in the past few months concerning the oil derrick. The process to get the derrick put back up started with a...
The Board of County Commissioners has approved to authorize their signatures on the Memorandum of Understanding between the State of Nebraska Department of Verteran’s Affairs and Kimball County for the implementation of the VETRASPEC program at the request of Kimball County Veterans Service Center. The VETRASPEC program is a secure web-based application that will potentially make the process of obtaining benefits easier for military veterans. It contains every form for State and Federal Veteran’s benefits and will enable Veterans Service off...
The fate of West Elementary was decided by the Board of Education at their February 11 meeting. The decision was made to close West Elementary at the end of the school year. Discussion of West Elementary started with a statement from Kimball resident and former City Council President Kim Baliman who tried to get the board to reconsider closing West. “I hope there’s a way to keep West Elementary open. I think that school is designed perfectly for the kids.I would hate to see them moved into one building unless there’s nothing else that can b...
The Board of Education accepted the resignation of current Superintendent of Kimball Public Schools Troy Unzicker at their February 11 meeting. Unzicker will be leaving Kimball Public Schools at the end of the current school year in order to take over as Superintendent in Alliance, Nebraska. “Alliance appeared to me to be a similar situation to Kimball, a lot of community support. They’re a little farther advanced than us in the technology process within the school. They have things they’re ahead of us, and they have things where they...
The Longhorn Restaurant has officially closed its doors for the last time, at least under the most recent owners. The restaurant closed last week due to financial concerns, according to former employee Kim Randles. “We want to thank all of the customers who came in. We tried. We just couldn’t keep it going,” Randles said. The Longhorn Restaurant had re-opened in November of last year after being shut down abruptly by then owners Arnie and Louise Jay following a dispute with the city over the pace of repairs to the structure. A for sale sign...
It starts in the stairwell of an office building with guns drawn. You charge up the stairs with other officers in tow. A gun shot thunders in the distance as screams start to swell, echoing throughout the hallway. With each step, the shots get louder, the screams more piercing. Your heart starts to race as you clench your gun trying to prepare for what horrors await you ahead. As you approach the door, there’s a moment of calming silence before you turn to see a woman about to execute a hostage. You shoot the captor and as she falls, elation se...
Roses are red, Violets are blue, Was there no better thought in your head, Than to simply buy a card that says “I love you”? Let me start out by saying I like Valentine’s Day. I always have. Perhaps it’s because it is a day when people give you candy, and I was a fat child. However, as years go by, this holiday is getting more and more unbearable. It’s not because of the commercials and not because of the candy (I apparently still have a problem), but rather it is the Valentine’s Day cards. I know that there are people who are paid to phrase t...
At the heart of any good business is a focus on quality and a belief in the product. There’s certainly no lack of that at American Bullet. American Bullet is exclusively a Kimball business that located at 4360 E. Highway 30 here in town. According to American Bullet Director of Sales Kim Baliman, quality is the primary focus in the manufacturing of their product. “We hand check every bullet which we’re really proud of. We’re not the cheapest bullet out there, and we don’t try to be,” Baliman said. The process of making the bullets consists of...
The Kimball Police Department will be holding a course on women’s combat skills at the Kimball Junior-Senior High School on March 30 and April 6 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. “It’s going to be ten hours of training for physical conflict with an assailant. It teaches a woman the necessary skills to defend herself against the most anti-social members of our society,” Captain Darren Huff said of the course. According to Captain Huff, one of the primary goals of the course is to change people’s mental state from condition white to condition yellow. ...
The old troubles of Mad’s Dog’s Sports Bar have come to an end as previous owner Greg Reinninger has signed away any part in the business including anything that was left behind when the business closed down. “I signed everything over to Tom Williams. I was looking through my paperwork, and everything that was left behind belongs to Tom. I originally thought that the liquor was mine, but the paper that I signed included all the inventory,” Reinninger said. Reinninger expresses that he has no desire to pursue anything further with Mad Dog’s S...
Superintendent Troy Unzicker had little room to maneuver as he stood in front of a crowd of concerned citizens the night of January 30, at McNees Auditorium to discuss the fate of West Elementary. "We're all reluctant to close the building," Unzicker said. "But we don't see a lot of options." Unzicker started the forum by explaining the school's financial situation, and what would be needed to keep the public school system afloat. "Right now, I still look at being approximately $200,000 short in paying our bills. What that means is our...
Kimball's City Council heard updates on the city's nuisance abatement properties by Police Chief Mark Simpson at their meeting February 5. According to Simpson, the property located at 207 S. Walnut Street, owned by Mike Schadegg, has shown improvement since the last city council meeting. "He's gotten rid of a lot of the scrap iron. He's gotten rid of a lot of tires. He said he'll have another load of tires leaving shortly. He has moved several vehicles. He's done some stuff, and he has cleaned up quite a bit back there. It's not as messy or...
With the recent tragedies and shootings around the nation, I find myself like most of you wondering "Why?". I do not wonder why it happens, because most of the time there is no good reason or even a reason that will in any way soothe the pain inflicted or make enough sense so that we can point to it and say "Oh, that's why." I wonder why we blame the people who we blame for the act itself. Take the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut for example. Residents of Newtown were quick to offer sympathy to the families that had...
With winter upon us and the changing weather conditions, it is important to remember safe driving habits to avoid potential dangers on the roads, dangers such as rollover accidents. According to Kimball County Sheriff Harry Gillway, there are on average 12 rollover accidents each year here in Kimball County with speed being the most consistent contributing factor. “Two years ago we had a woman who had lived here all of her life, and she got caught in the gravel to the right. Her speed was so great that when she corrected herself, she swerved c...
This year marks the 100th anniversary of the completion of the Lincoln Highway that stretches from Times Square in New York City to Lincoln Park in San Francisco, California passing right through Kimball along the way. The 100th anniversary celebration will consist of automobile tours that will depart from Times Square and Lincoln Park on June 22 to follow the original Lincoln Highway route to Kearney, Nebraska where they will meet for the official centennial celebration events to take place June 30 through July 1. Though the official...
Keep Kimball Beautiful has received two grants from the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality. The first of the grants was for $40,362 for the litter reduction and recycling with the second being $13,702 for the public education grant. According to Keep Kimball Beautiful Director Larissa Binod the litter reduction grant will mostly be used to pay personnel and help sustain the recycle center. "I write the grants to help fund the personnel and the supplies needed and the operating expenses to offset the cost of running the recycle...
David Ford, Water Superintendent for the city of Kimball, was sentenced to 12 months probation by Judge Randin Roland on January 23, in the Kimball County court. Ford sat with his attorney Kristine R. Cecava who spoke on her client’s behalf before Judge Roland pronounced his sentence. “Mr. Ford stands here ready to accept responsibility for his actions. He is sorry for his momentary lapse in judgement. He felt threatened, and that is when the incident happened,” Cecava said. The incident Cecava was referring to was the August 3 confr...
A potential site for the oil derrick to be erected on has been picked out, according to Bob Abramson. The site picked is near the Four Winds Golf Course. “It’s just west of the golf course by the west well,” Abramson said. However, though a site has been picked out, the group still needs to go through a process of getting the site approved before any action can be taken on moving the derrick to that spot. “We have to ask the Department of Roads to approve us putting it there, and if the Department of Roads approves it, then we have to get the...
The County Commissioners recently approved the creation of a Kimball County Ambulance Advisory Committee. The committee was put together by Kimball County Ambulance Service Director Carla Goranson. “My goal for the committee is to help them to understand more about how the Kimball Volunteer Ambulance Service functions so that when there are questions in the community, they will be able to answer them,” Goranson said. The committee consists of Trevor Bush, MD, Richard Harriger, Virginia Halligan, Jordan Aurtey, and Michele Daum. Members of the...
The downtown area has undergone some remodeling in the past year with the street lights being changed to LED. The reason for the change was one of necessity, according to Bill Hinton, Superintendent of the Electric Department. “The old ones that were out there were all worn out and broken at the bases. There were two heads to a fixture which weren’t doing much good. These LED lights are much more crisp,” Hinton said. The project of converting the downtown lights to LED has been two years in the making with the process of changing out the light...
Don and Connie Onigkeit prove that one does not have to run into burning buildings or serve in the military to be a hero and save a life, but rather one can be a hero to someone by simply donating blood. The Kimball couple has been donating blood for approximately 25 years with Connie reaching the 100 donation mark, which adds up to 12 and a half gallons of blood, the day after Christmas this past year. “They say you save three lives with each unit, and one time they did tell me it was for a baby so that made me feel good,” Connie said. The...