Kimball Event Center headed in the right direction

The Kimball Event Center was put up for bids following a special Kimball City Council meeting on Nov. 8, 2016, with the caveat that it be used in a similar fashion to its current use – as an event venue and community center.

“The price was set to encourage a buyer (at $10,000). They would receive almost everything in the building, such as kitchen equipment, dishes, tables, chairs, and fitness equipment,” council member Christy Warner said. “That makes it a good deal but the buyer would have a true investment in making the Event Center succeed.”

Though there was interest, according to Warner two inquiries, two tours and one inquiry about the fitness center alone, no bids were placed.

“The interest in the building is the reason we put it out for bid,” she said. “We had people looking who had a passion for continuing the services and even expanding them.”

During the Jan. 17 City Council meeting, Warner reported to the board that no bids had been received despite the interest.

Amy Sapp, Special Projects Coordinator for the City of Kimball explained, “Once we started exposing the utility bills and that kind of information, it just stopped at that point.”

Sapp added that since the City will continue running the Event Center, she has asked the Nebraska Municipal Power Pool seeking a free energy audit.

“I pulled numbers from as far back as 2009 and our utility bill is just outrageous,” Sapp said. “If we are ever going to move forward trying to sell it to somebody else, until we get this fixed, there is no way anybody is going to be interested in buying it.”

Sapp added that the electricity bill alone in January 2015 totaled $6,884 and $4,800 in December of 2016. Though the electricity bill is exorbitant, the natural gas bill is in a normal range, averaging between $140 and $180 each month.

“The first thing, for us to be successful in every way, shape or form, is to get that energy audit done to see what is going on with our electric bill,” Sapp said. “My concern is that, whether it is like service or an oilfield company, with a $6,000 utility bill we are not setting anybody up for success. We would be handing something over to somebody so they could fail. That is not what we want to do.”

Warner added in a subsequent interview that in addition to the utility costs, insurance and property taxes are also big deterrents for potential buyers.

“The building has not been assessed in almost two decades. Back then it was assessed at close to $200,000,” Warner said. “As you can imagine, the expected value for such a large building will be much higher.”

Additionally, at the Nov. 8, 2016 special meeting, council voted to continue operating the fitness and event centers within the approved budget.

Volunteers cleaned, reorganized, painted and updated fixtures with that purpose in mind.

“The volunteers did a great job on a very tight budget. There are more plans to update some of the rooms with paint, cleaning, etc. and we will be gathering up volunteers for what we have identified,” Warner said. “We have to take into consideration not only the volunteers’ time but what we have scheduled to make sure it’s the best timing for that.”

Warner added that several changes have also been made to the operation of the facility to more closely mirror the way the City of Kimball functions.

“That has changed the position at the Event Center from a manager to a coordinator,” she said. “We recently hired Echo Kizzair as the Event Center Coordinator and we currently have four part-time staffers who assist with larger events. Her role will be coordinating activities, taking care of housekeeping, ordering supplies, and working with the City staff in regards to the marketing and financial pieces, along with other duties.”

The committee has also updated the rental application so that contact information is saved and customer needs are documented. This change further allows the City a better understanding of revenues and expenses by event, according to Warner.

“You guys have asked how a particular event went or ‘How did the month go?’ in the past. We are watching those figures and I did come up with a report so, by event, we can come up with an actual profit or loss,” she said to the council. “The last two events we had, we made profits. We are just going through the process and I don’t think we will lose as much as before. We are headed in the right direction.”

The Event Center did see a profit in November 2016, Sapp reported, though it was small.

“I can tell you, after a couple of months of really digging into the entire project, you will find that while we may not make money every single month, it has been drastically different than it was in the past,” Warner said. “There were a lot of situations that have been rectified.”

Sapp added that current bookings include weddings and graduation parties and she added that the committee is working on some other fun events in the future. The hope of the committee is to generate enough revenue and create enough events for all ages to warrant continued operations at the Event Center while marketing the facility to potential buyers.

“We want to provide a great service that our community considers worth the tax dollars,” Warner said. “This year we the City Council removed over $32,000 in Occupation Tax from the Event Center budget. That means we have to make the money up by treating it like a business and make sure we have profitable events booked throughout the year. We have changed the rates to provide hourly service for meetings and small events so we don’t lose out on those. We have to be frugal with the money we spend and donations we make. We are the only facility that can host an event with 300+ people. Closing the doors may have a negative impact on hotels and restaurants, customers will begin going to Sidney and Scottsbluff. We want people to buy local, shop local and have a place to have large events such as wedding receptions and family reunions right here in their home town.”

According to Warner, there is just one way to make the Kimball Event Center a success, “Make it a place people immediately think of when they are planning an event. It is a two way street, we have to provide a great service to our community but they have to use the service. While the City Council realizes it will probably never make the kind of profit a private business would, we want it to break even and have the citizens feel the cost is worth the service it provides to them.”