Oil Derrick One Step Closer To Standing Tall Over Kimball

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 conversation between the group who were interested in getting the derrick re-erected and Sam Geingrich who had purchased the derrick from the Chamber of Commerce for scrap.

“A group of us heard they were going to scrap off the derrick so we immediately contacted Sam and asked him to hold off a bit. He agreed to that, and we went and talked to the Chamber of Commerce,” Morrison said

After a discussion with the Chamber of Commerce about the oil derrick and the troubles they had faced getting it put back up including who could erect it and insurance concerns, the group did their own research into the matter.

“We discovered on the insurance side that it’s considered an attractive nuisance, and if you put it anywhere but on government property, you might have some problems with insurance. That got us to thinking that maybe we could put it on public property such as either the park or out at the recreation area,” Morrison said.

After finding a spot for the oil derrick which is located near the Four Winds Golf Course, the pursuit was turned over to the City of Kimball.

“They approached and asked if there was something the city could do so we started looking into it. They came back with this location. It gives it isolation being over there. Risk becomes a little better as the entity being the Park and Recreation board,” Mayor James Schnell said.

According to Schnell the site has been checked by the Parks and Recreation board to see what it would take to put a concrete foundation for the oil derrick there and Superintendent of the Electrical Department Bill Hinton to see how viable of an option the space is in order for the derrick to be lit up.

Though Hinton and and Parks and Recreation board did not see any problems with the land or moving forward with the project, the city will still have to get the consent of the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission to use the land for the oil derrick, which according to Kimball County Attorney David Wilson might not be as easy as it seems.

“That is not an easy thing to do, because we have used their funds, we are under their regulations. This would be considered converting land to something other than recreational use, and any time you do a conversion you have to contact them. They may require you to replace that land that is being converted. You can’t put anything out there without their consent,” Wison said.

After a brief discussion about potential rules and regulations the derrick would fall under, the committee moved to allow the Park and Recreation to continue to pursue getting the oil derrick put back up and see it through. The motion was passed unanimously.

Though re-erecting the derrick will take a little while longer than previously anticipated, the board hopes to see the process through to the end.

“The derrick is a symbol of our heritage around here, and it would be a shame, in our opinion, to see it go away,” Morrison said.