Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First
Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First
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Representatives from the South Platte Natural Resources District along with the Oliver Reservoir Advisory Committee held a public meeting Wednesday, February 26, to inform local residents of the changes that will be taking place in the regulations that govern the reservoir and recreation areas. According to Galen Wittrock, Assistant Manager for South Platte Natural Resources District who have taken over management of Oliver Reservoir from Nebraska Game and Parks Commission as of Feb. 1, resident...
The Kimball County Jail, which sits on the top floor of the courthouse, is currently undergoing much needed maintenance to address health and safety issues that were brought before Kimball County Sheriff Harry Gillway and the Board of County Commissioners late last year. According to Gillway, the project, which comes at a cost of approximately $18,000 to the county, entails replacing much of the old plumbing through the facility in order to reduce water leaks which have plagued the structure in...
With the recent snow fall that accumulated on the streets this past week leaving people to struggle to navigate the roads, Kimball residents took to social media to vent their frustrations, focusing primarily on the work of the City of Kimball’s Street Department. Comments posted to Facebook primarily focused on frustrations with the conditions of the roads around the local public school with one resident stating that they had seen “tons of people get stuck at the school trying to drop off the kids or trying to pick them up.” Concerned citizen...
The Board of County Commissioners voted to take legal action regarding the Tallgrass Pony Express Pipeline, LLC at their February 4 meeting. According to Kimball County Zoning Administrator Sheila Newell, Tallgrass Pony Express Pipeline, LLC, which recently moved into the old ASI building on the east side of Kimball, has begun construction on a pump station which will be used in the process of converting the Pony Express Pipeline, also known as 'PXP', which runs from Guernsey, Wyoming to Cushing...
Cars lined the streets as residents descended upon the Harry McNees Auditorium at the Kimball High School to pay their respects to Bruce Evertson, the morning of Saturday, February 8. Evertson, 64, was killed along with a female passenger and business associate, Robin C. Lapaseotes, 56, in a car accident Tuesday, February 4, when his Cadillac Escalade crashed head-on with a semi westbound on Highway 88 west of Redington in Morrill County. The driver of the semi, Dennis G. Dobrinski of...
Vencil Ash was brought to the Kimball County District Courthouse for a status hearing concerning his upcoming re-trial the afternoon of Tuesday, February 6. Ash is once again facing first degree murder charges for allegedly murdering Ryan Guitron of Fort Collins in 2003. According to reports, on April 3, 2013 a five hour long standoff ended with the arrest of Ash by Cheyenne officers who were responding to a call of domestic violence and allegedly found Ash inside his home wielding a high-powere...
Kimball residents will soon be dealing with the effects of a six percent increase in electric utility rates. According to Kimball City Administrator Daniel Ortiz, the city of Kimball has recently decided to increase the electric rates, which will go into effect April, 1, 2014, in response to changes to the Municipal Energy Agency of Nebraska (MEAN) due to increased federal regulations. The increase, which will be the second six percent rate increase since October, also comes on the heels of an added $63,000 the city will have to pay over the...
Benjamin Klaassen was sentenced to 10 to 12 years imprisonment by Judge Derek C. Weimer in Kimball District Court for one count of Assault in the 2nd degree, a Class III felony. The charges stem from an incident that occurred July 2, 2012, at which time Benjamin and his brother Adam Klaassen, conspired to kill both their grandfather, Cornelius Klaassen, and his girlfriend, Frances Teeter. According to court documents, in the early hours of July 2, 2012, Ben Klaassen allegedly shot Teeter in her bedroom while she was sleeping, and at the same...
A car accident Tuesday afternoon claimed the life of prominent Kimball resident Bruce Evertson. According to Nebraska State Patrol, the accident occurred on Tuesday, February 4, when a semi westbound on Highway 88 west of Redington in Morrill County collided head-on with Evertson's Cadillac Escalade. Evertson, 64, and a female passenger identified as Robin C. Lapaseotes of Bridgeport, 56, were killed in the crash. The driver of the semi, Dennis G. Dobrinski of Bridgeport, 56, was transported to Regional West Medical Center in Scottsbluff with...
Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Dave Domina wishes to bring attention to key issues he believes residents of Nebraska face that are currently being neglected in the United States Senate if elected in 2014. Domina, who currently serves as a trial lawyer for his firm Domina Law Group pc llo, states that his primary motive for choosing to run in the 2014 election was a sense of obligation when considering the important issues that have fallen by the wayside in the Senate throughout the past year....
Congressman Adrian Smith stopped by the Kimball/Banner County Chamber of Commerce Tuesday, January 21, to update local residents on the issues being discussed in Washington. Among the issues discussed was the current tax code which Smith believes is too convoluted and needs to be reformed to better serve the country. "Our current tax code is 10,000 pages in length. And it costs our economy about $160 billion a year just to calculate our taxes. That doesn't include paying your taxes. Roughly...
Nebraska Governor David Heineman and Attorney General Jon Bruning have announced a proposed replacement for the 'good time' law that would force violent offenders to earn time off their sentence instead of being rewarded essentially one day off their sentence for every day spent incarcerated. According to a press release obtained from the governor's office, the proposed change, which would apply to inmates who commit the most violent crimes including murder, manslaughter, first degree assault,...
The Potter Duckpin Bowling Alley gives local residents not a only a chance to unwind but also a chance to take a step back into the past. According to Dale Dedic, member of the Potter Historical Foundation who own the establishment, the bowling alley was created in the first half of the 1900s and was a staple of the Potter community before closing down in 1951. "This bowling alley was in the building across the street where the bank is. There was a big brick building there. This was actually a...
The recall attempt in the Village of Bushnell has failed to acquire the needed signatures to host a special election. The recall attempt had been started by Dwayne Brackeen of Bushnell on October 22, 2013, attempting to recall Tim Nolting, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Village of Bushnell. The reasoning behind the recall efforts were based on allegations that Nolting had intimidated board members along with business owner Fal Calvert during his time as serving as chairman. Brackeen only needed to get 20 valid signatures on the petiti...
City Council member Ann Warner will not be seeking reelection in 2014. Warner, who has served on the council for eight years, has decided to take time off to pursue other areas of interest in the future. "There's just a lot of different things. We're getting to retirement age. I was on planning commission for eight years and then city council for eight years so I decided I'm going to take some time off," Warner said. Among the list of things that Warner would like to do with her free time in...
After 60 years of owning and operating Kimball Laundry and Dry Cleaning, Jim O'Brien has finally hung a 'For Sale' sign in the window in preparation of walking away from the business that has been part of his life since he was 15 years old. O'Brien remembers the early days of the business, back when they used four ringer wash machines and automatic machines were simply a fantasy. "It had a tub and you took them out one piece at a time and put it through a ringer and squeezed the water out of it...
The Banner County Wildcats have had a hard start to their season, walking away from the first half with only one victory. In the season opener at home against Garden County on December 6, 2013, the Wildcats fell by four points with the score resting at 49-45. The Wildcats started off strong in the first quarter of the game, trailing Garden County by only one point at the end of the quarter. However, Garden County was able to keep the Wildcats to only eight points in the second quarter, keeping...
July Kimball-Banner Chamber of Commerce Director, Jeanette Rabender, resigned. When asked why she said the reasons were personal. The resignation does come at a time when Kimball is at a critical juncture in it's economic future and development. However, Rabender and her knowledge of what's going on will be missed. Kimball celebrated the Fourth of July with an old-fashioned cookout and fireworks. The fire department provided lunch and there was a water fight at the park. The day was wrapped up...
In Kimball, and most likely around the nation as a whole, it is extremely rare to hear of a high school student who has been hand picked to sing in Carnegie Hall in New York City. However, recently, Kimball High School senior Courtney Hunsaker achieved such a feat, much to the pride of her family, community and her music teacher David Thelen. According to Thelen, it started out with a simple application process submitted to a program that picks students throughout the nation to group together...
Local resident Fern Stahla continues to show that age is merely a number. Stahla, 103, who was born on October 25, 1910 in Ordway, Colorado, grew up in a time much different than the one enjoyed by present day children and teenagers with the technological age and social media sites that are ever prominent in common daily routines and discussion. Instead, Stahla spent the early years of her life helping her parents farm on their plot in Greeley, Colorado with her siblings George, Hannah, Kate, Le...
Sirens blared down the streets as the vehicles of the local emergency services climbed up over highway 71 towards Shopko packed with excited children, ready to kick off the third annual Shop with a Cop event the morning of December 14. The sun had barely risen in the sky and the wind was fiercely blowing through the area as kids piled out of the vehicles in the Shopko parking lot, bouncing with excitement for the shopping spree to ensue as Kimball Police Chief Darren Huff directed the crowd to...
The Kimball Police Department made two drug arrests on Friday, December 6, in the vicinity of South Oak Street. According to Captain Justin Trout with the Kimball Police Department, the busts started with a phone call from a resident at 306 S. Oak, claiming that a gun had been stolen from the property. The investigation led Trout to 600 S. Oak, where Jody Kelley, 41, was arrested after drugs and drug paraphernalia were found at the residence. “At 600 S. Oak, I suspect that what I found is, of course a syringe and a needle, drug paraphernalia, I...
The annual Cattlemen's Ball of Nebraska will be coming to Banner County in June of 2014. The ball, which was started in 1997 by a group of beef industry leaders, is held every year throughout different parts of the state serving as a way to raise funds for cancer research at the Fred and Pamela Buffett Cancer Center at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, according to Co-Chairman of the 2014 Cattlemen's Ball Monty Stoddard. "It started out as a fairly small event with maybe 500 or 600...
The sidewalks on 2nd Street in Kimball were lined with local adults and youths as they eagerly anticipated the start of the Parade of Lights the night of Saturday, November 30. The air was biting as the lights of the fire truck beamed in the distance as residents looked on bundled up in coats, gloves and scarfs. After a brief wait, the fire truck siren echoed through the streets as the parade started barreling down on the downtown area. As the fire truck passed the crowds amassed on both sides...
The closing event for Marketing Hometown America was held Tuesday, November 26 at the Kimball Event Center. Approximately 70 participants packed into the Meadowlark room of the Event Center as the small groups involved in the process hung up their plans of the best way to market the Kimball area on the walls around the room and prepared to give presentations. Each presentation was given by a member of each group under a different facilitator for the program who had been picked to shape each...