Kimball council buys lighting with ACE refund

The Kimball City Council decided at its regularly scheduled meeting held March 17 to use the city’s ACE refund for lighting.

The city received an annual return on the Alliance for Community Energy (ACE) investment of just more than $3,000.

To date, Mayor Keith Prunty said, the city has received more the $35,000 in returns from ACE. Keith Prunty asked council for thoughts on how the money could best be used.

Council member James Schnell suggested that there are banners the city must purchase.

“Especially with the all-class reunion this summer, it would be nice to make sure we got them all,” Schnell said.

City Administrator Daniel Ortiz suggested lighting for the flags at the Kimball Cemetery, either solar or hard-wired.

“I think to get the illumination at that height, you are probably going to have to go with hard-wired,” Schnell said.

Ortiz added that with the kiosk planned for the cemetery, power will be hard-wired in eventually anyway.

The council voted unanimously to direct the funds towards the lighting for the flags at the cemetery.

In addition, the council heard from librarians Jan Sears and Leta Liesch for approval of a Little Free Library as well as from librarian Jamie Carpenter for a request to waive fees for the Kimball Public Library fundraiser to be held at the Kimball Event Center.

Sears and Liesch presented information regarding Little Free Libraries to the council, including a website, http://www.littlefreelibrary.org.

A Little Free Library provides communities with additional access to reading materials, according to Sears, who mentioned that outlying communities in the county would benefit.

“It is a way to provide books to the community for a lot of people who can’t get to the library,” Sears said. “We got enthused about doing this. We are coming to the council since it is a library project that would fall under the city’s liability.”

The council reviewed the website during the presentation and asked questions regarding location, materials and possible liabilities.

“We considered putting one up at the Head Start school near the food pantry, we are considering maybe Bushnell and Dix,” Sears said. “It is just an outreach from the library.”

Volunteers would be needed to check on the lending locations periodically, according to Sears, and reused materials including dorm refrigerators or microwaves could be used to build the weatherproof “libraries.”

There are currently are nearly 25,000 lending locations in 17 countries, according to Liesch.

Council members asked if other communities in western Nebraska are participating. While Sears was unsure, according to the website, there are locations in North Platte, Alliance and Brule.

Josh Enevoldsen of Kimball State Bank reported that he took the opportunity to speak with the underwriter for the city’s insurance company and it was decided that liability risk would be minimal.

The council voted unanimously to approve the program and directed Sears to move forward with plans.

Sears said that the library would like to start with a library at the local Head Start location before speaking with officials for the outlying villages of the county.

The council then heard the request from Carpenter, president of the Friends of the Library board, regarding a fundraising effort to purchase new carpet for the library.

“April 25 and 26 we are having a murder mystery dinner theater at the event center,” Carpenter said. “It was suggested that we ask you to waive the (usage) fee. We would still pay for catering.”

Ortiz questioned which room would be needed for the event. Carpenter anticipates using the smaller Meadowlark room at a fee of $250 as opposed to the $400 fee for the larger ballroom, called the Prairie Room.

“We probably can’t do it this way, but I think in the past when we had a deal like this we had it come in for a Keno grant so that we could charge the normal rate and then let the Keno money come back to the event center,” Schnell said. “But we can’t do that because that is not the type of application for tonight.”

Although for some time the council had avoided waiving fees for the use of the city-owned Kimball Event Center, also avoiding setting a precedent, the council has recently done so for certain entities.

“Didn’t (council) waive fees just at the end of last year?” council member Christy Warner questioned. “Wasn’t it for the school?”

Council member John Morrison suggested that since it was for another government entity, the fee should just be waived for use of the room.

The council voted unanimously to waive the facility rental fees for the fundraiser, but the organization will pay for catering as planned.