Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First
Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First
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Discussion and action items consumed a majority of the meeting time at the Tuesday, January 16, Kimball County Commissioner meeting. At the last meeting, the commissioner decided not to reappoint Steve Warner, buildings and grounds superintendent, but no action was taken on his termination. The non-appointment turned out to be a gray area and so the termination of Warner was on the agenda. Commissioner Carl Stander stated that Warner has worked for the county for 7-8 years and has built and repaired a number of projects, including most...
When the Kimball School Board voted to approve the negotiated two-year agreement with the Kimball Education Association for the 2004-25 and 2025-26 school years, it cinched the four-day week school year. The deal included a 162-day contract with a $1,000 base increase for both school years and a retention bonus. The agreement was approved in a 5-0 vote, with board member and former athletic director Ken Smith abstaining with conflict. After the approval of the 162-day contract, the board...
Kimball County Court has increased its traffic and criminal caseloads significantly from 2022 to 2023. Traffic cases from 2022 to 2023 rose from 645 in 2022 to 941 in 2023, a 32% increase. Agencies responsible for the traffic cases are the Nebraska State Patrol, the Kimball Police Department and the Kimball County Sheriff’s Office. County Attorney Dave Wilson explained reasons for the increase in cases. Wilson said that the Nebraska State Patrol does a concentrated patrol on certain areas, and in the Kimball area the patrol focuses on I-80. T...
Kimball County Buildings and Ground Superintendent Steve Warner was stripped of his appointment at the first meeting of the year by the Kimball County commissioners. The appointment never came to a vote because when Commissioner Carl Stander made the motion to reappoint Warner, the motion died for lack of a second. This all occurred shortly before the vote when three commissioners, attorney Matthew Turman, County Clerk Cathy Sibal and Warner had an executive closed meeting. Even with the vote to not reappoint Warner as superintendent of...
Kimball Post Office carrier Johnny Martinez, who tranferred here from Sterling, Colo., has some bitter cold work days coming up. This winter has been relatively mild, but its coldest snap so far is forecast to hit in force on Thrusday, Jan. 11, with a string of days with low temperatures plunging into minus degrees. See the Main Street Market forecast below. The City of Kimball advises water customers to keep a small stream of water running from faucets to keep pipes from freezing and breaking...
The Kimball County campaign season is underway at this early date for the May 14 primary. Challenger David R. Hottell (not the sheriff) and incumbent Carl Stander are off and running. They already have filed as Republicans in the election for a seat on the county Board of Commissioners. No other candidate filings were received at the county courthouse as of Monday, but a good many area positions are up for election in 2024. The Kimball County Clerk’s Office provided this list of those positions, the incumbents and term lengths: • Kimball Cou...
Good morning! Baby it’s cold outside, acting like it is January! Here is hoping that all is well with you and that you have your hat and gloves on if you must be outside! This week starts out with our kids having a regular day of school tomorrow, Friday, January 12th. However, there are still sports as the girls and boys varsity teams are off to play basketball at South Platte. The Lady Cats play at 5 p.m. and the Wildcats play at 6:30 p.m. Meanwhile, over in the valley, there will be a PFR Insight meeting at the Hampton Inn & Suites in Scottsb...
Jeffrey J. Morgart, 56 of Kimball, died at his home in Kimball on January 2, 2024. Cremation has been held and memorial services will be at 2:00 p.m. in the Kimball Cemetery on Friday, January 12, 2024. Friends may visit www.cantrellfh.com to view Jeff's tribute wall to leave condolences and stories for the family. Memorials may be given to the family. The services for Jeff have been entrusted to the Cantrell Funeral Home. Jeffrey Morgart was born in Sidney, Nebraska on July 17, 1967, the son...
After two long days and nights of working wrecks on the interstate during the Christmas blizzard, Kimball County Sheriff Dave Hottell said he anticipated having a nice, quiet day at home on Wednesday. The relaxing day off did not happen. A county court arrest warrant for nonpayment of a fine would trigger a search warrant and eventually the arrest of a total of seven individuals for felony meth possession. Wednesday began by serving an arrest warrant for fines unpaid from the County Court of...
Josh Holz is moving in a positive direction as the New Year begins. "You have to look forward," he said. "There is no sense in looking backward." These wise words from 33-year-old Josh Holz ring true as he begins 2024 using his first prosthetic hand. Daily, ordinary things have been difficult, but with his new prosthetic, he can hold and grip things. Josh said it is "easier to hold the plate and cut my steak" and "easier to butter toast." His first prosthetic "is a very simple one that uses a...
Contractors are putting the finishing touches on Kimball's new hospital, with a planned completion date of Jan. 12 and a projected opening of Feb. 5. Those dates are pending inspections by several entities and are certainly not "set in stone" according to Troy Kurz, Director of Facilities at KHS and project manager for the $43 million new construction project. Kurz said final inspections by the state fire marshal and state electrical inspector are complete and final reports are expected within...
Pastor Roger Gillming and Kathy Welfl, volunteer leaders with Operation Christmas Child in the Nebraska Panhandle, expressed gratitude to all who helped “this amazing ministry” grow significantly in the region this past Christmas season. Gillming and Welfl said 572 more shoeboxes were filled this year than last year thanks to assistance in the goodwill effort from volunteers, the Observer and other media. “With your help, 3,372 shoeboxes from the Panhandle were filled (with donations) and delivered to our central drop-off site in Allia...
If you're not out and about at 5:30 a.m. this time of year, this is what downtown Kimball looks like. A winter postcard. The city once again did a fine job stringing those lights across the business building roofs....
After public hearings and agenda items, the Kimball City Council rezoned two properties from single family residential to multi-family residential for a planned Clean Harbors housing developent. At the public hearings, the council heard neighbors of the properties voice concerns about traffic, the number of apartments, and the stipulation that Clean Harbors open the apartments to the general public. The two rezoned tracts directly north of Kimball County Manor were re-plated to one tract. The...
The Kimball School Board is expected to continue discussing and gathering information on the four day school week into its next regular meeting. According to Superintendent Trevor Anderson, the next year’s school calendar is typically approved in March – and decisions will be made. Kimball Public Schools currently function on a 4.5 day a week calendar with a half-day of professional development scheduled on Wednesday afternoons for the entire year. In recent weeks, surveys were sent out to students, staff and patrons to obtain information. A m...
The day after Christmas brought an official blizzard warning and blizzard condititons to the southern Panhandle on Tuesday that the National Weather Service forecast would last until Wednesday morning with gusts up to 60 mph and up to 7 inches of snow in the Kimball area. The storm kept city road crews busy plowing, above on East 2nd Street, and forced some business to adjust operations. Interstate 80 and Highway30 were closed from Cheyenne to North Platte, the Kimball landfill was shut down,...
The Kimball City/County Park and Recreation Executive Board voted unanimously to borrow $182,500 at 5.35% interest to drill a well and repair Four Winds Golf Course’s largest pump. Sargent Irrigation from Broken Bow will be doing the installation and repairs. The well will be operational by April 1, 2024. Approval for the well was given at a meeting on Tuesday, December 19. Four Winds Superintendent Jeremy Williams explained to the Observer the recent trouble with the large 100 hp well. For the past couple of years, the heads have plugged up wi...
The winners for Santa's Helpers 2023 Kimball residential and business decorating contest have been announced. Residential winners are Cheryl and Charlie Paul of 316 S. Chestnut St. in first (top photo) and Jim and Vonnie Saukerson of 121 W. 7th St. in second. Business winners are Upside Down Daycare at 1200 E. 6th St. in first and Kimball County Manor at 810 E. 7th St. in second (bottom photo). Santa's Helpers also gave special recognition to three houses on Road 29: Ben and Jill Ferguson,...
The winners for Santa's Helpers 2023 Kimball residential and business decorating contest have been announced. Residential winners are Cheryl and Charlie Paul of 316 S. Chestnut St. in first (top photo) and Jim and Vonnie Saukerson of 121 W. 7th St. in second. Business winners are Upside Down Daycare at 1200 E. 6th St. in first and Kimball County Manor at 810 E. 7th St. in second (bottom photo). Santa's Helpers also gave special recognition to three houses on Road 29: Ben and Jill Ferguson,...
Edith Dee Hall's gravestone at Kimball Cemetery is inscribed, simply, with 1897-1971. What's important, though, is not the birth and death years on one's grave marker. It's that dash between the years. It's how a person lived during the dash – and Edith Dee Hall lived quite the dash. She might be the most accomplished Kimball native that Kimball doesn't know much, if anything, about. "It's not every day that a little girl from Kimball, Nebraska, helps change the way surgery is done around the w...
At Tuesday’s Kimball County Commissioners meeting, the structure of the courthouse was a topic that building and grounds superintendent Steve Warner reported on. Warner told the commissioners that he contacted Jacob Hurla from Community Solutions, and Hurla obtained a structural engineer to look at the foundation. Warner said that the structural engineer found that the grade on the foundation of the courthouse needed to be raised. Warner said, “In 1988, the grade was lowered, but it should have been raised.” The next step is to get an idea...
Josh Thompson was named Kimball Volunteer Fire Department Fireman of the Year at KVFD's recent banquet. Josh, who joined in January 2020, said the "best part of being on the fire department is the friends and family you gain from being involved in the community." Here are the KVFD election results: Chief Andrew Bohac, 1st assistant chief Mark Whetham and 2nd assistant chief Taylor Brown. Other officers are President Tim Culek, Vice President Tyson Culek and Secretary/treasurer Jordan Autrey....
Reorganization was the main objective of the Dec. 14 meeting of the Kimball City Council but the council entered executive session to discuss selling of city properties and pending claims and imminent litigation involving Hometown Hardware, Inc. The city had a long list of appointments and approvals for their reorganization meeting. The council approved Mayor John Morrison’s appointments of Annette Brower for City Administrator, Paula Tarnago for city clerk, Jean Klassen for treasurer, and Jose Ruiz for chief of police. The active members of t...
The Kimball Food Pantry has scored again for the second month in a row, and just in time for the holidays. Kimball EMS volunteers sponsored and organized the "Fill the Ambulances" food drive on Saturday. They estimated their food collection to be about 2,000 pounds of products, and an additional $1,370 in cash that will help stock the pantry. Chellie Autrey, director of the Kimball Food Pantry, said that she was overwhelmed by the amount of food and money they brought in. "They probably had six...
Results from the survey on whether Kimball Public Schools should move to a four-day school week were shared with the Kimball School Board at its meeting on Monday evening. The results from students, staff and parents were favorable, although lots of questions remain before any decision will be made. Superintendent Trevor Anderson stressed that the school district wants to do what would be best for the students of Kimball County. During the public comment period, Laura Perry spoke on the issue. Perry favored the four-day week, but was concerned...