City approves permit for cell phone tower

The Kimball City Council approved a conditional use permit for a cell tower belonging to Viaero Wireless at its Feb. 3 meeting.

A public hearing was held before the council approved the request for a cell phone tower from Viaero Wireless. Viaero requested the tower after it identified a need for one in the area to increase its 4G capacity within the City of Kimball. Viaero will install a 60-foot tower on the property.

The city council approved Mayor Keith Prunty’s appointment of Randy Gunn to fill Sarah Bouse’s unexpired term on the library board.

The city also granted $4,000 in Keno funds to Raise the Derrick in order to assist in paying off the last of its bills. The derrick was successfully installed last fall.

The city council was also approached with the notion of a speed study for South Chestnut Street. Due to several residents noting the increased foot traffic crossing Chestnut at 6th and 7th streets, it was thought that decreasing the speed limit might be a good idea. In order to decrease the speed on Chestnut, a speed study must be conducted. This requires a week of equipment monitoring the cars that pass through as well as their speeds. If 85 percent of the traffic that flows through is at the current speed limit, the speed limit reduction may be granted. The city council approved the speed study, which will be conducted for $4,000.

Kimball Volunteer Fire Department Chief Rick Wynne was present to give the yearly update on the fire department. According to Wynne, everything is running smoothly for the fire department. They did see an increase in calls. There were 30 calls in 2013 and 49 in 2014. Wynne also reported that the response time is three minutes, this is the time it takes the firefighters to get to the station to the trucks and get on their way.

The next city council meeting will be held at 7 p.m. on Feb. 17.