City Avoids Tax Increase Under New Budget

In seven minutes, the Kimball City Council held two public hearings last week for the 2019-20 Fiscal Year Budget and 2019-20 Set Final Property Tax Request.

“The mill levy was up but the valuation was down. We didn’t raise taxes,” ” Mayor Keith Prunty explained.

The city’s operating budget increased slightly from 2018 to 2019. The property tax request for 2018 was $478,604.66, while the 2019 property tax request was $480,558.00.

Valuation was down 2 percent and the tax rate was up 2 percent.

With the budget hearing completed by 6:08 p.m., it was on to other city business. That included a vote on the sale of the Longhorn Building.

Kim Baliman and James Shield voted to approve the sale and Matt Bright voted against the pending sale. Christie Warner was absent. The project will have a three-year time frame for completion.

City Administrator Dan Dean reported on ongoing issues.

He said the liner repair at the landfill received an estimated bid of $21,000 while the Nebraska Department of Environment and Energy engineer predicted the cost would be around $7,000. The decision was to hold off and look for other companies that specialize in liner repair, hoping to get a more cost efficient estimate.

In addition, it doesn’t appear that Jeremy Williams, groundskeeper at the golf course, has found something that might control the windmill grass at the cemetery.

Dean also reported on a water complaint that the City Council might see from the attorney general’s office. This has been a year-long issue of water loss on a private property, and almost a half a million gallons have been lost. The city replaced the meter on the property, thinking perhaps that was part of the issue, but it appears now that the owner of the property has found the leak and it is being repaired.

Meanwhile, the new underpass project is complete and in the mayor’s report the city has had numerous complaints about the drainage in the underpass. The issue will be tended to soon. Z & S has a vac truck and the city is hoping to take Keno Funds to clean/suck that drain out and remove the debris in the drain.