Dealing With Old Hospital Discussed

Retiring Highway Superintendent Randy Bymer updated the Kimball County Commissioners on the road department at their meeting on Tuesday, December 3.

The department is blading, mowing, and graveling where necessary.

He assured the board that the bridge inspections had been completed and that the 120 motor grader with the oil pan issue was back home and working with no additional costs to the county.

The new door in Kimball shop has been installed, but a recent November hire quit, so Bymer is hunting and advertising for another individual to drive a road grader. The department was fully staffed for November, but now they are short one position.

With Bymer leaving his position on December 27, he will attend the NACO Conference in Kearney, and the discussion will focus on a replacement for him.

The board mentioned talking to Banner County about the possibility of sharing a highway superintendent, but an appointment of an interim highway superintendent is in the works.

Dalton Telephone is in the process of submitting applications for Permits to Occupy County Right of Way, and VistaBeam sent an email indicating they want 20 permits.

Meanwhile, the Building and Grounds Department continues to deal with the old Kimball County Hospital building and is fighting a battle with the elevator in the courthouse.

According to interim Buildings and Ground director Monica Todorov, repairs on the elevator are continuing as a part had to be ordered, the elevator was experiencing issues, and it has been in the state of needing repairs for a couple of weeks.

Officials are hoping repairs will be completed this week. 

The old Kimball hospital building continues to be a topic of discussion and concern as the county keeps the heat turned on and maintains the building in hopes of selling it.

New expenses there will occur for a pump on the air compressor. The building temperature was over 100 degrees, but one pump on the air compressor failed. Repairs are estimated to cost about $2,000 for the pump on the compressor.

Discussion continued about snow removal from the roof of the old hospital, Todorov’s concern is if a large wet snowfall happens then the roof would need to be scooped off. She also stated that a puddle of water accumulates after rain or snow in front of an electrical box in the electrical room. 

In other business, the IT Committee previously met to listen to presentations on upgrading the telephone system. The current contract for the telephone system is from Action Communication and is 14 years old.The bids were opened at the meeting, and all had features that were acceptable to the IT Committee. The bids included total costs of phones, headsets, fax, and installation for 59-61 locations, including the courthouse, transit and road department for a one-year contract.

The bid from EEKS was $23,473, with a monthly cost of $1,380.

VistaBeam was at $22,025 with a monthly of $1,996 for 59 phones and two sidecars.

Applied Connective’s bid came in at $19,981 with a monthly bill at $1,994 for 61 phones.

The board approved the bid from Applied Connective, which was the IT Committee’s recommendation, and the new system will become operational in 60-90 days.

Finally, Christy Warner, administrator for KCTS, updated the board on the spike in ridership from October to the current date. According to Warner, the routes appear to be working because everyday they have 8-14 riders from Scottsbluff coming to Kimball on the morning KCTS bus.

Sidney is also on a route system, but Cheyenne is sporadic and remains on-demand due to low ridership.

In 2021, three wheelchair accessible vans were ordered and those vans just became available. The board voted to purchase those vans at 10%, costing almost $8,000 per vehicle. The Buckley Trust has secured payment for one of the vans, but the county will pay for the other two. Funds from the sale of the old vans will pay for the cost of the new one.

These are simply replacement vans, there is no expansion of the fleet.

The commissioners will have a regular meeting on December 17 and plans were approved to meet January 9 at 8:30 a.m. for the oath of office for the new commissioner, Dave Hottell. The first meeting of the year will also be the reorganizational meeting.

The BOE meeting will be at 9:00 a.m., followed by the commissioner smeeting.