Backer Emerges For Kimball Fireworks

An event that sets thousands of eyes on the night sky throughout this commuity, as well as the nation, is of course just a short day away. A great firework show arrives at dusk on the Fourth of July at the Kimball Junior/High School football field.

The way the fireworks are funded has changed over the past five years in the city of Kimball - and there is now a permanent funder: FirsTier Bank.

Over the past few years, coming up with the funding for the fireworks has become more difficult.

Karen Robinson, of Larsen’s Jewelry, graciously rounded up funds from local businesses to pay for the fireworks in 2016 and 2017.

Last year, Assunta Calise-Nelson and Amy Sapp took over in attempts to get citizens involved in raising funds for the fireworks. Although they were successful, they realized it was hard to continually ask small businesses to contribute.

This year also appeared to be a struggle until the Economic Development Board meeting in May. There was a discussion on how Kimball Economic Development funds could be used to help with “tourism related” activities and relieve some of the burden small businesses feel during continuous requests for money.

The board and the city staff wanted to come up with a solution so that everyone could enjoy fireworks year after year - and not have to worry about how and where the $5,000 to $7,000 yearly cost would come from.

During that meeting, they came up with a “Band-Aid” for this year but knew it wasn’t a permanent fix.

Sapp said that Mike Coleman, who sits on the Economic Development Board and is chief financial officer at FirsTier Bank in Kimball, decided that as the bank’s large donation to the community it would pay from here on out for the Kimball Community Fireworks.

Sapp encouraged folks to stop by FirsTier to express thanks.

Going forward, the fireworks will be called the FirsTier Firework Show.

For the full holiday schedule in Kimball, see Page A3.