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 Kimball County Jail, located in the courthouse, is facing the cost of much needed repairs to its plumbing system. According to Kimball County Jail Administrator Linda Williams, the system which was installed in the 1920s has worn down with time and will need to be partially reconstructed. "All the plumbing here is really showing its stress. There's a lot of rotten out places," Williams said. The primary concern is with the pipes connected to the shower in the jail which over the past few...
The Event Center was filled with excitement the afternoon of Saturday, November 23, as local residents waited in anticipation of the arrival of Caroljo Nagel and the presentation of her new car. News crews and photographers scattered around the ballroom of the Event Center as the side doors opened illuminating the back of the room with sunlight as the silhouette of Nagel passed through the threshold. As she walked towards Blain Schilreff, who has spent the past 35 days collecting donations in...
The City Council voted to move forward with the long awaited underpass project incorporating the use of federal funds at their meeting the night of November 19. The decision came on the heels of a presentation by Dave Schaff of M.C. Schaff and Associates, who are in charge of the design of the project, which made it clear that the project is coming up on a very important deadline. "The gist of it truly is that we are at the point in the programming for the funding agency, Federal Highways...
A Dix resident was arrested recently for terroristic threats made against students at the Potter-Dix High School in Potter, Nebraska. According to the Cheyenne County arrest affidavit, Charles “Dusty” Smith of Dix, left a threatening message on the school’s answering machine on Friday, November 8, 2013, in which he allegedly threatened to kill “all non virgins and the people that they attend school with”. After the school played back the message for Fred C. Wiedeburg, Chief Deputy for the Cheyenne County Sheriff’s Office, Smith allegedly c...
Despite the sounds of the workers repairing the floor, the 26 seniors at the Kimball Senior Center spent time visiting with each other and settling in to partake of Thanksgiving lunch on Friday November 22. With smiles on their faces and food about to fill their stomachs. Twenty-six is a rather large number of people for the senior center to see, considering their daily average of nine visitors. Despite the somewhat small number of seniors visiting the center daily, everyone stays busy....
Republican senate candidate Shane Osborn promises to help bring transparency to the federal government if elected in 2014. Osborn, who served as Nebraska State Treasurer from 2007 to 2011, believes that transparency is a way to hold the government accountable to its people by letting them see where their money is coming from and where it is going. "If the government's going to take our money, the least they can do is give us a receipt," Osborn said. This form of transparency is not foreign to Os...
Kimball Public Schools will be getting a School Resource Officer in time for second semester of classes. According to Kimball Police Chief Darren Huff, Ryan Smith, who currently serves as a deputy for the Boon County Sheriff's Office, has taken the position and will be reporting for duty in Kimball on December 30, 2013. Smith comes with training and experience that will serve him well in the specific duties and capacity of the School Resource Officer (SRO) position. "We narrowed our search down...
The Scotts Bluff County Democrats held an event at Java Blend last Tuesday, November 12, where they were able to talk to democratic candidates through the utilization of newer technologies. According to Jeff Leanna, chairman of the Scotts Bluff County Democrats, residents were able to hear from democratic candidates spread throughout the state and ask questions through the use of Skype and a projector from the Java Blend building in Kimball. “It’s really difficult with 93 counties in the state for candidates from Fullerton, Doniphan and Lyo...
Fog sat in the cold crisp air as local residents and military veterans stood in the Kimball cemetery as the local VFW and Kimball Police Department honored veterans both present and past by raising 21 flags and giving a seven gun salute the morning of November 11. Though the air was biting and the sun was nowhere to be seen in the sky, veterans stood steady and proud as each shot rang in the distance, sending each flag up with honor and due diligence. Later in the morning, Jeri Ferguson's...
The City Council voted to transfer the Goodhand Theater over to the possession of Forward Kimball Industries at their meeting the night of November 5 in the City Council chambers. According to Kimball City Administrator Daniel Ortiz, the reasoning behind the transfer stems from FKI being better suited to find a buyer for the old theater. "Because of just the way and nature of how city government operates, it makes it a lot more difficult for us to try to market and sell a property and have to...
The Village of Bushnell may be headed for a recall election to take place early next year. On October 22, 2013, a recall affidavit put forth by Dwayne Brackeen, a resident of the Village of Bushnell, and accepted by Kimball County Clerk Cathy Sibal seeking the removal of Tim Nolting from the Board of Trustees for the Village of Bushnell. The affidavit states that the reason for the removal is that more than one board member has felt bullied by Nolting into voting his way, and that, due to Nolting’s actions, the village was threatened with a v...
With the current setbacks and issues affecting HealthCare.gov, county hospitals are left wondering whether or not the new health insurance marketplaces will be effective in helping residents receive affordable coverage. According to a report by The Washington Post, Quality Software Services, Inc., has been charged with taking over management of HealthCare.gov in order to fix the website to create a smoother process for U.S. citizens to select insurance plans. Among the problems impacting the...
When Blain Schilreff started the process of gathering donations to buy long time Kimball resident Caroljo Nagel a new car, it was merely just a small dream, a small act he believed could dispel the darkness permeating the news and the nation in general. However, as time has gone by and donations have poured in, it is clear that the seemingly small act reflects something much bigger than simply the kindness shown for the cause at hand. It wasn’t until the morning of November 1 that the scope of the project truly hit Schilreff while he was b...
The Nebraska Farm Bureau is refocusing their efforts in order to better educate the general population about their organization. The Nebraska Farm Bureau is a general volunteer farm organization which has various different types of farmers and ranchers as members throughout the state who raise all different types of commodities, according to Craig Head, Vice President of Issue Management. "Out in this part of the state, there are sugar beats, dry beans, there's corn out here obviously. We...
For most residents, Halloween is a time to dress up in pop culture costumes and go door-to-door trick or treating and gorge on candy as the night winds down. However, for the Meyers, it's a time to break out boxes upon boxes of decorations and give the people of Kimball another great show. Don and Carol Meyer, who reside at 501 South Adams Street, spend each holiday season hanging lights and placing a plethora of props on their lawn in order to celebrate certain holidays. "Ever since we've been...
At the heart of Republican gubernatorial candidate Pete Ricketts campaign is a focus on education. Ricketts, who previously served as the Chief Operating Officer of TD Ameritrade and national committeeman for the Republican National Committee, decided to run for governor, because he feels that it will give him the opportunity to bring about change and address issues that may have fallen by the wayside in recent years. “As governor, you actually have an opportunity to work with people and make a difference in people’s lives. We have a great his...
The Kimball/Banner County Farm Bureau held their annual meeting at the Kimball Event Center Thursday, October 14. Members of the Kimball/Banner Farm Bureau piled into the Meadowlark room of the event center where they enjoyed a dinner prepared by the event center staff before the meeting was called to order. Along with the regular members of the local Farm Bureau, notable guests also attended the annual meeting including Nebraska State Senator Tom Carlson, who had spent the day in Sidney at a meeting concerning water issues. “I’m a friend of...
Poor test scores in the lower levels of the Kimball Public School system have resulted in warnings from the Department of Education, stating that the local education system is not meeting the federal accountability standard. The lack of meeting the federal standard has pushed Mary Lynch Elementary into being identified as a School in Need of Assistance (SINA), a designation that occurs when a school fails to meet the standards for a given area at the grade level two years in a row. However,...
Marketing Hometown America held its kickoff event at the Kimball Event Center Thursday, October 10. A modest crowd of local residents sat in the Meadowlark Room in the Event Center as Connie Hancock, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension Educator, kicked off the meeting with an explanation for the project. “The Vice Chancellor of the Institute of Ag and Natural Resources has charged all of us within the university, particularly the College of Ag and Natural Resources and Extension to work on changing the demographics of the state of N...
The City Council approved the use of Keno funds to us towards the beautification of the Kimball Recycling Center at their October 17 meeting. The city awarded $15,000 dollars in Keno funds to the project to revamp the appearance of the exterior of the Recycling Center in hopes to make it appear more attractive to passersby, according to City Administrator Daniel Ortiz. “It’s more of a beautification project, ensuring that we have concrete put in to make it last longer but also to create a nice a...
Although results from the Nebraska State of Schools report indicate positive trends throughout much of the state, the numbers offer little comfort to the Kimball Public School system. The annual Nebraska Department of Education report focuses on the results of state testing students participate in each year. In then compares and ranks schools based on the students’ scores. According to Kimball Public Schools Superintendent Marshall Lewis, though Kimball is not quite at the bottom of the barrel,...
Standing in the middle of downtown Kimball as the sunlight bounces off the windows of the businesses, one can’t help but notice the vacant lot where the Corner Bar used to sit and the dilapidated signs randomly hanging near the buildings downtown that used to house the businesses of old, businesses that have long faded from the public memory. The story of Kimball and its businesses is one of humble beginnings and booms throughout the years that have left it still standing nearly 128 years l...
Saturday morning started off with a chill as the starter pistol went ‘pop’ in the distance and runners started trudging down the pavement of 2nd Street for the annual ‘Fun Run’. The sound of feet pounding the pavement as the runners headed towards Gotte Park served as a gentle morning melody that resounded through Kimball. As runners passed the corner of 2nd and Myrtle, their bodies appeared as mere silhouettes as they passed under the shade of the trees while the sun beat down on the train c...
Local resident, Jessica Williams, daughter of Daniel and Rose Ellen Williams, has earned the title of 3rd top Girl Scout Cookie seller in the entire state of Nebraska. Williams, 14, has been a girl scout since she was in the fourth grade and is one of 44 girls scouts who sold over 1,000 boxes of Girl Scout Cookies in 2013, leading the Girl Scouts Spirit of Nebraska council to create a ‘1,000 club’. Previously, the council’s top recognition level was for girls selling 500 boxes. “It’s pretty cool, because there are only 44 people who got into...
The Kimball Community Theater’s melodrama “The Dastardly Doctor Devereaux” served as a perfect cap to the Farmers Day festivities Saturday night. The production, directed by Tom O’Brien, was put on in the Plains Historical Society Museum in front of a packed house of local residents. “The Dastardly Doctor Devereaux” takes place in the emergency room of the Hanover D. Cash Clinic where Dr. Dogsbreath Devereaux, played by O’Brien, and his accomplice Nurse Hilda Hatchett, played by Aida Williams...