County Budget In Focus

The Kimball County Commissioners went into two executive sessions Tuesday, Sept. 19, regarding deployment of security personnel and devices and the purpose of discussing confidential employee and personnel matters.

On Tuesday evening, the commissioners held a joint public hearing regarding the increase in the tax request, and on Tuesday, Sept. 26, at 9:15 a.m. the commissioners will hold the 2023-24 county budget hearing.

For more information about the county’s proposed budget and its notice of budget hearing and budget summary, see the public notice on the bottom of Page B7.

In other business, the Kimball County Road Department continues to do road maintenance and is graveling roads, according to Randy Bymer, county highway superintendent. Bymer’s update to the Kimball County Commissioners included information about mowing operations south of Dix, culvert repairs, and signage repair on the county roads.

Bymer continued to explain that a 2005 road grader had some front-end trouble and repairs would be about $21,000 on the grader.

Bymer was asked if he was satisfied with the chip/seal project on the Dix road. His response was that some of the edges are hard to hold; he was hoping the edges would have been built up enough to hold, but he said that he is not sure that will hold.

In other road department news, the county relinquished a portion of South Chestnut Street from 9th Street to 15th Street, which was the only part of Chestnut that was the county’s responsibility. When the documents are signed by the city and the Nebraska Department of Transportation, the city will have responsibility for all of Chestnut Street to Interstate 80.

Moving onto the High Point Visitors Center update, it was determined to maintain the current hours of 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday. Natasha McFaul, interim county tourism director, said the number of visitors has been strong with more than 1,000 people stopping in August and 830 in the first half of September. She said that reviews of the center on Google are very favorable, there are many five-star reviews, and paint classes will resume in November.

Christy Warner, Kimball County Transit Service administrator, updated the board on several items relevant to KCTS. A draft has been given to the commissioners for a long-term plan. NDOT, Olsson and KCTS are reviewing the plan before presenting it for final approval.

Warner said KCTS continues to have software issues for the routed services and has moved to paper records until new software can be approved. NDOT has authorized 100% reimbursement of the setup and implementation of new software.

Although new riders continue to come on board, KCTS is considering suspending one of the express routes until more need arises.

In KCTS financials, revenue brought in by KCTS to the county has been $670,952 (this fiscal year through Sept). Federal tax dollars back to Kimball total $435,216, while state tax dollars back to Kimball total $106,721.

Warner said that to increase revenue for KCTS, space may be rented to the University of Nebraska Kearny – Safety Center. The UNK Safety Center placed a classified ad in this edition of the Observer seeking a “full-time rural transit trainer.”

The next regular county board meeting is scheduled for Oct. 3.