Activate Kimball Effort Reaches Out To Schools

Activate Kimball – a project between the Kimball Area Foundation, city of Kimball, Panhandle Public Health District and Kimball Health Services – hopes in the near future that a possible partnership with the schools will be agreed upon.

Members of each organization joined for a presentation to the Kimball Board of Education this past Monday to educate the board on community matters, past improvement strategies and statistics.

Much of the focus is on physical fitness – and addressing the lack of it for some people.

The Kimball Health Services Community Health Improvement Plan 2017 included the statistic that Kimball County trends 7 percent worse than the state and national physical inactivity rates.

Being overweight and lacking exercise ranked in the top five biggest risks that respondents perceived as being issues in Kimball County.

The presentation also took a closer look at the Community Engineering Assessment, which included a community survey and engineering assessment that was conducted in the summer of 2018.

It also stated the most apparent trend is a strong desire for more and better biking and walking facilities.

For walking, the improvement identified as a top priority was better condition of sidewalks, as well as more sidewalks and trails.

For biking, the top priority was more bike trails, and many people also identified bike lanes as a desired improvement.

The ideas for the schools to partner in the health improvement plan includes a joint use agreement for gym use creating access for indoor walking during specified hours.

There also would be gym access for community basketball opportunities during specified hours, as well as consideration of a trail access point to the new Kimball Community Trail.