Greg Robinson Joins City Council

Former Kimball City Councilman and former Mayor Greg Robinson was appointed by current Mayor John Morrison to fill a council seat left vacant by the resignation of Don Muench.

Robinson’s appointment was approved at the Oct. 15, 2024 meeting by the council in a 3-0 vote, and the former Larsen’s Jewelry Store owner will assume his duties in November. Morrison said in December there would be two new council members with no experience, and he felt he needed to appoint someone with experience.

An executive session completed the council meeting. However, before the executive session, Gabriel Miller took advantage of the public comment period to provide his opinion on the time needed to make the new appointment to the council.

Miller cited statutes that said a new appointment was to happen within 45 days, but the process took closer to 90 days, violating the law. Miller also suggested that new people should be put into the council positions instead of previous officials.

Miller also commented on utilities costs and taxes, saying that he believed it is cheaper for Clean Harbors employees to live in other communities. The council members cannot respond on anything brought up in public comment section.

After Miller’s public comments, the public was excused when a motion was made to enter into an executive session to discuss police department personnel and contract matters. The entire Kimball Police Department was included in the executive session.

In other police department business, Chief Jose Ruiz said that as a result of the Mutual Aid Agreement with the City of Sidney, the Kimball police assisted the Sidney police with traffic enforcement during that community’s Oktoberfest, and the Sidney police attended the execution of a search warrant in Kimball. Other agencies involved with the search were the Nebraska State Patrol, Kimball County Sheriff’s Office and Kimball EMS.

During current business, the council approved, pending full engineering plans and city engineer approval, a recommendation from the planning commission to approve the development agreement between the City of Kimball and the Estate of Darlene Janice Gardner and Iron Guard Housing, LLC to install and connect utility improvements to the city water and sewer system.

According to the information presented, Stahla’s on-site sewer system and water well will not long handle all the extra mobile homes. The Stahlas will bring everything right up to the city line while paying for everything up to that boundary line.

A presentation by the Nebraska Municipal Power Pool and Mean Services explained to the council the benefits of being an original and long-term member of MEAN dating back to 1981. The current peak megawatt is 5.5, with an estimated projected growth of one megawatt each year for the next three years. In 15 years, megawatts usage will be about 10.8.

The presentation included benefits such as a scholarship program for line workers, tuitions for clerks, councils, or administrators for training, and energy-efficient programs like LED lighting, smart thermostats, attic insulation, cooling system tune-up, and high-efficiency heat pumps.

Bill Hinton is the Kimball representative on the board of directors, sitting on a variety of committees, including the executive committee, governance, power supply rates, and charges and services committees. No decision by the council was made on the new modernized SSM contract; the Board of Public Works was also presented with the information but has yet to make a recommendation to the council.

City Council meetings are scheduled for the first and third Tuesdays of each month at 5 p.m. in the council chambers.