Flooding causes need for detour on CR49

The Kimball County Commissioners inked an agreement with a local landowner for temporary use of a portion of his land while a road is repaired.

The commissioners approved an agreement with Troy Carruthers to use a portion of his land surrounding County Road 49 south of Interstate 80 as a detour while the road is repaired. The heavy rains caused flooding on the road earlier this month and made a portion of it unpassable, said County Highway Superintendent Dave Hotell.

The agreement was set for 90 days and could be renewed, if necessary. Hottell said the road should be able to be repaired in 90 days.

“That’s going to take some major, major work to get that open,” Hottell said.

In return for using Carruthers’ land, the county will put some sand on one of his roads.

Carla Goranson, county ambulance director, said there were 50 calls for service in July. Most of those calls came the week of July 20-26.

Thursday was the busiest day for service last month with 15 calls, while there were 13 calls on Friday. Monday and Saturday had the fewest number of calls with two each.

In contrast to June, Goranson said most of the calls in July were during the day. She also reported the average age of patients at 63.

Goranson reported that Dawn Maier attended training for the Lucas device, which is device that standardizes chest compressions when used during CPR. Goranson acquired the device, which costs about $21,000, through a grant. The state paid for Maier’s training on the device. Maier will train members of the ambulance crew on the device when it arrives, which Goranson expects will be in September.

The ambulance service has a new EMT, new RN and new paramedic, with one more EMT who has passed all the testing but is waiting on a license. Goranson said adding these four to the service, in addition to two more who are almost finished with EMT training, will be a great help.

“Having these four people is going to help a lot to take the weight off of some of us who are doing five and shifts a week,” she said.

In response to a question about ambulance calls on I-80 that was raised at a previous meeting, Goranson reported that calls have greatly increased on the interstate from 2011 to the present time.

She reported that there were 326 total calls in 2011 and 13 of those calls were on I-80. That number went up to 385 calls with 18 on I-80 in 2012, 364 calls and 19 on I-80 in 2013 and 506 calls with 55 on I-80 in 2014. For the first half of this year, there have been 225 calls with 32 on I-80.

The commissioners also:

- Approved a request from Nate Entingh of Beer & Loathing for a special designated liquor license for the Western Nebraska Metal Fest. The event will be held Sept. 4-6 south of Kimball near county roads 6 and 45.

- Approved a contract with A&L Sales & Service of Kimball for maintenance on filters in the courthouse and courthouse annex. The contract is $375 per quarter, which is a savings of $200 per quarter from the previous contract.

- Approved a service contract with Protex Central for fire alarm inspections. They will be inspected twice per year and the contract is set for $773 per year for three years.