County agrees to help city, villages during disasters

The Kimball City Council dispatched all the items on its agenda in 20 minutes in its May 19 meeting.

The council passed ordinance 723, meant to clarify the municipal code regarding the hours of sale for alcoholic beverages, at the meeting.

“It’s a clean-up ordinance from our old book to our new book,” city attorney Kent Hadenfeldt said. “When we passed the new book, a couple years ago, this was not consistent with what we actually do.”

The council also approved an inter-local agreement drafted by the Kimball County Highway Department. The agreement was drafted at the suggestion of the Local Emergency Planning Committee and was signed by the county commissioners at their regular meeting on April 7.

The agreement will allow the City of Kimball, as well as the villages of Bushnell and Dix, to request aid and use of equipment from the county in times of natural disaster.

“Does there have to be declaration made that there is a natural disaster before we get (aid)?” council member James Schnell questioned.

The agreement is not contingent on a declaration. The aid will only be offered if requested, and will only be available if the equipment is available and the department has the ability to do so.

The agreement will be perpetual once it is signed by both parties, the City of Kimball and Kimball County, and will last until one or both parties terminate it. A termination requires 30 days written notice.

Terms of the agreement state that the Kimball Highway Department will provide equipment and operators for use during or following tornadoes, floods and blizzards, as well as other disasters.

“We will let the county know that we will work with them, for anything, basically,” Mayor Keith Prunty said.

City Administrator Daniel Ortiz said that the recent rain/snow mix has delayed planned repairs for the city’s swimming pool.

At the end of last summer, Arnold Pool removed caulking from parts of the pool to address leaks. That same company planned to come at the beginning of this summer to reapply new caulk, patch concrete and complete the project.

“If you recall, we had issues with the water levels dropping down considerably during the summer months,” Ortiz said. “When they pressure tested the pipes, everything seemed OK.”

Sandblasting and painting the pool was also scheduled.

“I have informed Carla (Goranson, pool manager) that our tentative start date, June 3, is up in the air depending on how quickly we can get that work done,” Ortiz said. “With the weather the way it is, she is probably not planning on opening right away.”

Other issues at the local swimming spot include water heaters for the pool and locker rooms that need to be replaced.

Also at the meeting, Ortiz said the landfill was taking only household trash last week as the wet weather damaged roads leading up to the construction and demolition area.

“We had to shut down the landfill because it was too muddy to process anything out there,” Ortiz said. “We weren’t even able to take the bales and put them in the pit as the pit itself was flooded.”

Ortiz said the landfill crew worked to pump the excess water out of the pit and they planned to use a road grader on the roads as soon as possible.

Difficulties presented by the increasingly wet spring include treacherous roads to the waste water treatment plant.

City crews prepared the Kimball Cemetery for Memorial Day ceremonies, which was later canceled due to rain. Though weather made an open house to introduce the new kiosk unlikely, crews were on hand over the holiday weekend to assist users in operating that kiosk.

Ortiz concluded his update with a message about the local health board, which will convene May 27 at 3 p.m.

“We are going to update how we process matters pertaining to the health board. I think we are trying to change it like we did with the weed abatement issue to leave enforcement action up to (Kimball Police) Chief Huff and myself, to hopefully streamline that process a bit,” Ortiz said.

Prunty also introduced Stacie Schadegg as the new school resource officer for the police department. She will begin her time at the police academy June 8.

“We also have a new officer with Dwain Murdoch since Preston Walls has resigned,” Prunty added. “I think we are just one short now.”

Prunty said the city is now identifying junk vehicles. Once the vehicles are identified as junk, letters will be sent to owners to remove those vehicles from properties within city limits.

“There are a bunch,” Prunty said. “Hopefully we will have some of the public take care of it themselves so we don’t have to do it.”