City Repairs Wind Damage ON its own

Tens of thousands of dollars have been saved by the city of Kimball due to efforts of the city line crew and the power plant, Mayor Keith Prunty said.

After abnormal early morning high winds on Dec. 27, an east-west power line on the south side of town whipped back and forth – slapping lines together that created hours of short, on-and-off power outages for the majority of Kimball.

None of the repair work was contracted out. It was all addressed and completed with Kimball crews, saving about $30,000 to $40,000 in repair costs had the work been contracted out, Prunty said.

Prunty said multiple disconnect isolation points on the line allowed lineman to work safely.

"Safety is our No. 1 priority for our employees," he said. "If it is unsafe to address a problem at that time, it will wait until conditions are better."

Crews worked the majority of last week on the issue and early this week had the lines complete.

"This issue was not isolated to Kimball," Prunty said. "Parts of southeast Wyoming to Nebraska were affected. Carpenter, Wyo., to North Platte announced power outages based upon the same strong winds.

"A big thank you goes out to the city of Kimball's line crew and the power plant for their hard work during this issue."

The aims to inform residents about such issues that arise on its Facebook page.