Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First
Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First
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Doug and Sandy Lukassen of Kimball County were recognized Saturday as Outstanding Farmer for the Farmer's Day Parade in Kimball. The Lukassens have been long-time supporters of 4-H and FFA programs as well as state agriculture boards. Sandy, not visible in this image, sits to the left of Doug in the pickup bed during the parade....
Good morning, and happy fall to you all, as the saying goes. This past weekend gave us some perfect fall days that were absolutely beautiful., great for all of the action for Farmer’s Day or to visit the Adams Family Pumpkin Patch. This week is fairly busy too with FFA Judging – Today! – September 29th and cross country at Bayard beginning at 2:30 p.m. The Hay Fort is open at the Riverside Discovery Center and so is the Splash Pad as long as the warm weather holds. Before long the Spooktacular will be open. Guess the splash pad will close...
The 2022 campaign season continues to be a busy one in Banner County, where lots of folks want change in local government. A lunch with the candidates is planned for 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 1, at Banner County Museum. The county Republican Party also plans to meet 7 p.m. Monday, Oct. 3, at the school cafeteria with special guest U.S. Rep. Adrian Smith, who will speak. Other agenda items include the selection of poll workers for the Nov. 8 election and a discussion of ideas for a Halloween youth event and a potluck thank you meal for...
Kimball County native Jason Hanner will be taking a short detour from his walk across Nebraska to walk through the Farmer's Day parade on Saturday. Although he won't be stopping for long because he has about 20 miles to walk on Saturday to get to Potter, each day he will walk between 20-22 miles until he has covered the entire state for his walk across Nebraska. Hanner, a 1993 Kimball County graduate, is walking the state west-to-east to raise awareness for mental health for veterans, including...
The Farmer’s Day Committee has announced the dignitaries for Farmer’s Day 2022. A new category, Outstanding Entrepreneur, sponsored by the Nebraska Extension has been created, Hannah Synder received the award. Snyder owns Nebraska Coffee and Kimball Extended Stays. She is credited with promoting her thriving business as well as supporting other businesses. The Grand Marshall for the 2022 Farmer’s Day Parade is long-time resident Rose Marie Anderson. The Anderson family moved to Kimball in the early 1960s when the oil fields were booming, and t...
The Kimball County Commissioners began their regular bi-monthly meeting Tuesday with a lengthy discussion on a seven-mile stretch of blacktop on County Road 59 south of Dix. Even after the road department fixed many of the potholes prior to harvest, the potholes have returned. County Highway Superintendent Randy Bymer said that the road department purchased and put down two more loads of cold mix to try to fix the potholes again. Looking for a method to fix the road, Bymer obtained a bid for a chip seal project on the seven-mile stretch; the bi...
Several thousand books will go on sale Friday and Saturday at the Friends of the Kimball Library Book Sale in the back room of the Kimball Public Library. The sale includes fiction, non-fiction, kids and teen books, movies, audiobooks, puzzles and CDs. Most items sell for an inflation resistance price of 50 cents each. Kim Sharples, president of the Friends of the Library said, "The book sale and the cornhole tournament are the biggest fundraisers for the Friends." The sale starts Friday, Sept....
Good morning. While we are busy planting and working the fields, fighting fires and gearing up for the upcoming election we find ourselves closing in on September. I was in one of the stores in the Bluffs recently and as the aisles progressed from the front to the back we literally went through four seasons/holidays. Fall, Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. Honestly, it is a bit overwhelming. Way too soon and working toward a burn out by the time for a particular season/holiday to get here. For now, I will just stick to what is going on in...
A Meet the Challengers event was held Saturday for Banner County voters at Laura Lee's Double L Country Store and Cafe. Candidates for county commissioners, county clerk and treasurer were present to introduce themselves and answer questions. Eddie Shaul announced on Tuesday that he was ending his write-in bid for commissioner....
Freshman Braxton Miller led the pack of varsity Kimball runners at the Alliance meet on Saturday. Braxton came in 20th with a time of 20:26.67, although Xaivier Thomas-Lewis and Braylon Miller followed close to Braxton. Thomas-Lewis was 22nd and Braylon Miller was 24th, with times of 20:45.7 and 20:52.25. Joseph Bremer placed 27th with a time of 21:47.29 and Wyatt Cords ran the course in 22:55.14 and was 31st. A solid performance by the JV runners with Patrick Howard finishing in 20th with a...
The girls golf season is quickly winding down with the Western Trails Conference girls golf meet on Thursday (today) in Bridgeport, then the district meet will be at the Four Winds Golf Course in Kimball on Monday, Oct. 3. The Kimball girls golf team travelled to Ogallala on Tuesday to finish out their regular season. Hayden Sours shot a 58/58 for the low Kimball score of 116, followed by Aubrey Culek with two 60s for a 120. Keara O’Brien shot a 71/53 for a total of 124 and Grace Anderson had a 64/68 totaling 132....
On Friday of last week, Joe Hall began wearing his sixth pair of shoes in his journey across America. He stayed the night in Dix, then walked through Kimball to Pine Bluffs on Highway 30. Hall estimated that he will need two more pairs of shoes to complete the cross country walk. In May, he began the trip in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. The walk is to raise awareness for mental health issues and suicide awareness. He walks between 22-30 miles a day depending on the terrain, weather and location of...
In a special commissioners meeting, the Kimball County Commissioners held a public hearing Tuesday for the 2022-23 Kimball County budget and a public hearing for the 2022-23 Final Property Tax Request. During the public hearing comment period for the Kimball County budget, resident and local contractor Brian Johnson spoke to the commissioners. He said that he has “wanted to get more involved in government.” He continued, “We need some way of reassessing homes – bring assessed values up.” But he said the taxes would be the same not increased...
The Kimball School Board on Monday held its once a year hearing on the school district’s 2022-23 budget of expenses and the once a year hearing on the property tax levy for 2022-23, as well as its regular monthly meeting. During the budget hearing, Superintendent Trevor Anderson gave a short presentation on the budget. No one had comments or questions during the public hearings. He explained that there was a 2.7% increase in valuations, therefore the property tax rate mill levy that was previously 1.05 will be decreased to 1.04. The board s...
4,559 miles from London, England, Old Glory flies at half-staff at the Kimball City Office Building in honor of Queen Elizabeth II, who died last week after 70 years on the British throne. She is remembered in Kimball and across Nebraska. See story, Page A3....
Get ready to cheer on bicycle racers at the community BBQ this Saturday, September 17, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m at Gotte Park. The second Annual Antelope Stampede Gravel Race kicks off the festivities that morning starting at 7:30 a.m. Other plans include a bouncy house and slide for kids, food and beverages and a pie eating contest. Proceeds from two bike raffles will go toward the KHS cheerleading team and supplies for Miss Malm's kindergarten class at Mary Lynch Elementary. Above is a photo...
Banner County has a number of write-in candidates for the local election on Nov. 8. What exactly does that mean? According to Nebraska Secretary of State, write-in candidates will not have their name on the ballot but the voter must write the candidate’s name on the write-in line and shade or mark the oval next to the write-in line. Every office for election is required to have a write-in line below those candidates that have filed. What about misspelling of the write-in names? Even if the write-in candidate name is misspelled but it is reasona...
Good morning. Here we are in the middle of September with Labor Day and 9/11 behind us. Over this past weekend I heard a short remembrance speech about that awful day, September 11, 2001. I know we all remember exactly what we were doing at the moment we first heard the news. I had flashbacks of the 9/11 Memorial in Washington that we visited a few years ago and other destinations of destruction on that awful day. Does not seem that long ago. Movie wise, going back even further to 1986 Tom Cruise starred in “Top Gun .” Recently, after 36 yea...
High Point Visitor Center will close for the season from Oct. 1 through April 1, 2023, according to the motion made and approved Tuesday by the Kimball County Commissioners. A vendor from the center, Kim Sharples, questioned the commissioners with concerns for the 30 vendors who have souvenirs and other items for sale at the visitors center. In the following motion, the commissioners approved contacting an appraiser to obtain a fair market value for the High Point Visitors Center property. However, the commissioners assured people they were...
In November 2019, when Jessica Rocha, the new tourism director, took over, she provided some background information on the Highpoint Visitor Center in her Observer column. She wrote, "The county purchased this property (the old Burger King on the hill) about seven years ago, and we opened in July of 2013 as an information/welcome center. Since that time, we have had almost 83,000 visitors!" The county purchased the old Burger King building and parking areas, which include 4.9 acres, as well as...
The heart of summer travel season for drivers ended Labor Day weekend with gas prices quite lower than as recently as July 4 but still way higher than a year ago. In Kimball, the Observer found that prices at the pump for regular unleaded averaged $3.70 on Sunday. That was 7 cents higher than the Nebraska average and 9 cents lower than the national average, according to the GasBuddy, which monitors gas prices and offers the data to motorists. At Conoco, near I-80 Exit 20 in Kimball, staff told the Observer on Sunday that business from...
Readers will notice a change in this week’s Observer. It’s bigger. Physically bigger. We’ve changed printers, moving to the press operation in Douglas, Wyo., in an effort to improve service – which includes getting the paper to you on time whether you get it at home or buy it over the counter. As a side benefit, the press in Douglas uses a larger size of paper for printing newspapers that you will notice. The news and advertising area is about 1.5 inches wider and 2 inches taller than before. That space really ads up and gives us more space f...
Beer and Loathing owners Heather and Nate Entingh, above, collected 102 large, heavy bags of shoes for their fundraiser, Positive Spaces, which benefits Kimball parks and provides shoes for those who need them. Each bag has 25 pairs of shoes in it – 2,550 pairs total – and they collected enough to have a truck pick them up. Volunteers helped load the truck, but Heather and Nate collected and stored the shoes....
Hello, here is hoping you a a great Labor Day weekend. As warm as our weather is this was probably not your last chance to barbecue, hit the lake, camp, or have other summer type of fun. We diffenately need some rain, but other than that I am good for awhile yet. The town of Morrill still has two Farmers Markets for you to catch – September 8th, Today! – and the 13th, both from 3-6 p.m. at the FOMO Park, west edge of town. Chimney Rock Pioneer Days will be celebrated in Bayard the 9th to 11th with a parade, class reunions, and much more. You ar...
With the general election two months away, Banner County has a full ballot for the local offices. The 540 registered voters will be looking to find the right people to fill the positions. Citizens can register to vote up until Oct. 21. Election day is Nov. 8. For the Banner County Clerk, Lisa Cross is vying for her first elected term. Katie West will not be on the ballot, but has submitted the write-in forms. The resignation of county Treasurer Monty Stoddard opened up the treasurer position....