Kimball may join regional emergency management association

For approximately the past decade, Sheriff Harry Gillway has been Kimball County’s Emergency Management Director. Although Sheriff Gillway has successfully fulfilled his duties as emergency manager, he has recommended to the Kimball County Commissioners that they look into joining either Region 21 or Region 22 emergency management association.

According to Gillway, he has no preference to either region, liking and respecting both directors equally, stating that he could work well with either. Gillway also remarked that he can and will continue to work as both Sheriff and Kimball’s Emergency Management Director if the board decides not to join either regional association, but he stressed that his number one job is as sheriff and if a serious emergency would happen, his abilities to fulfill both job duties would be strained if not impossible.

Luckily, in the time that he has been acting in both capacities, nothing major has happened to test his resourcefulness.

Possible benefits to being part of a larger management association, as stated by Gillway, include grants that are available only to those in a regional partnership, and the larger, always available and unconstrained staff.

On Dec. 20, during the normal Kimball County Commissioner’s meeting, representatives from both regions gave an informational and brief presentation as to what they could do for Kimball County and what it would cost to join their respective regional associations.

Tim Newman, Director of Region 22 Emergency Management, from Scottsbluff, was the first to present to the board. Newman expressed that he and his region have the time, flexibility and resources to cover Kimball County as well.

“I would bring to Kimball County a full-time emergency manager that is not just Scottsbluff’s emergency manager that also happens to be your emergency manager.”

He stressed that he would be Kimball’s manager 100 percent, just as he is in Scottsbluff and the other counties he supervises. Newman said that in the two years he has been the Region 22 Director he has brought in more than $100,000 in grants to Banner County, Henry, Morrill and the City of Scottsbluff.

He is asking $35,000 annually and an office with furniture in either the courthouse or annex, but that he would bring his own computer and in exchange would be in Kimball no less than one day a week and would be available for emergencies at any time.

As an added bonus, Newman lives just a few miles north of the Harrisburg turnoff, just off highway 71, so that any drive time would be nearly equal to both Kimball as well as Scottsbluff.

Region 21 Emergency Management Director, Ronald Leal from Sidney, reported that he also has the time, flexibility and resources to cover Kimball County.

Leal does not require an office as his truck is set up as his mobile office and he would be in the Kimball area several times per week as he is constantly driving through his region, talking with city and village representatives as part of his job.

“As far as grants, every year is different,” Leal stated, “I try to write as many grants as I can, and it’s wherever you need. Right now one of my big pushes is back up generators for the fire stations.”

He finished up with saying, “grants are easy, grants are hard, but everyone needs one.”

Leal works from a budget and is requesting $38,635.54 from Kimball County as their projected participation portion of his annual budget, however, he insists that he never uses his full budget, using between 70-80 percent, and that the final amount would almost certainly be much less than the request.

As an added bonus for Region 21, Leal has a nearly new 40-foot mobil command bus that has the entire back half set up as a mobile communications center. He has a CERT team (community emergency response team) that currently has 14 active members with seven more taking their classes in the near future.

Following the presentations, Sheriff Gillway stated that, “I know both guys would do a great job for the county.” He insisted that he works well with both men and said, “I give both men my support and I want you to seriously consider this and look at the benefits to the county.”

Commissioner Nolting suggested the item be put on the next board meeting’s agenda. Chairman Engstrom suggested it would likely be after the fiscal year that the county could make any major decisions like this, after the budget has been set, but he agreed that the county needed to look at this as an option for 2017/18.