Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First

Articles from the November 24, 2016 edition


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  • Season's first snowfall

    Nov 24, 2016

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  • KVFD protection classification positive

    Tonia Copeland|Nov 24, 2016

    The Kimball City Council heard from Fire Chief Rick Wynne regarding the Public Protection Classification, which sets insurance rates. The classification was given by ISO Mitigation, an independent classification company for hire, according to Wynne. ISO completed a survey and analysis for the local volunteer department and assigned Kimball a classification of 5/5Y. According to the company’s website, ISO’s Fire Suppression Rating Schedule (FSRS), evaluates four primary categories of fire suppression — fire department, emergency commu...

  • Time change in store for Shop with a Cop

    Tonia Copeland|Nov 24, 2016

    The sixth annual Shop with a Cop is in the works, and according to coordinator Erin Heidemann, they have gotten the work down to a science. Heidemann said that this unique program includes the Kimball School District, Potter-Dix School District, Kimball County Sheriff’s Office, Kimball Police Department, Kimball Ambulance crew, Dix First Responders, Bushnell Fire Department, Kimball Fire Department and the Nebraska State Patrol. The men and women in these departments, as well as volunteers from the Ladies Auxiliary and throughout the c...

  • Ambulance working well within budget

    Aleta Pearson|Nov 24, 2016

    Carla Goranson, Kimball County Ambulance Director and Kim Schildhauer presented the September and October financial and statistical reports to the Kimball County Board of Commissioners during their regular meeting on Nov. 15. According to the financial report, over the past four months the ambulance has charged $167,809.28, with their expenditures for the same time frame reaching $99,614.09. However, as it often takes anywhere from three to five months to receive payment from insurance companies, they have only had deposits for $50,423.88 in...

  • Friends and Neighbors: Thomas Merriam

    Aleta Pearson|Nov 24, 2016

    Thomas Merriam, known simply as Tom to his friends, grew up in Banner County and attended school in Harrisburg. His family still have a ranch in the area and he fondly remembers his younger years growing up running along the rocky hilltops and chasing white tail deer down through the canyons. Of his favorite childhood memories, he shared a long kept secret that he enjoyed tricking his buddies by sitting camouflaged in the pine trees during hide and seek. One autumn, when he was young, he was nea...

  • Across the fence

    Tim Nolting|Nov 24, 2016

    Ned Dunlap marched in the 1902 Old Settler's Day Parade in Kearney, Nebraska. Decked out in Angora chaps, bibbed shirt, silk neck scarf and appropriate wide brimmed hat. Ned bobbed his horse's tail and stuck the long hair under his hat, pulled bovine hooves up into his shirtsleeves, attached a set of longhorns to his head and marched in the parade as Kearney's only real 'cow / boy', and Solomon D. Butcher, like so many other hundreds of times, captured the moment for history. Although Ned...

  • Idrys M. Davis

    Nov 24, 2016

    Idrys Marie Davis of Tahoka passed away on Thursday, November 17, 2016 at the age of 96. She was born December 24, 1919 in Cozad, NE to George and Margaret (Jackson) Pile. She married Oliver Jackson Davis on August 21, 1949 in Kimball, NE. She was a member of Shiloh Primitive Baptist Church of Kimball, NE. Those left to cherish her memory are her daughters, Marcella Scholl (Dwight) of Garden City, KS and Sandra Laws (Terry) of Grassland; daughter-in-law, Carol Drake (Aaron) of Naponee, NE; step...

  • Kimball High School's guidance counselor Chauncey Pedersen receives 2016 Nebraska State College System Counseling Excellence Award

    Nov 24, 2016

    The Nebraska State College System (NSCS) has named Chauncey Pedersen the 2016 NSCS Counseling Excellence Award recipient. Pedersen, who has been the guidance counselor at Kimball Jr/Sr High School since 2008, also spends time coaching girls' basketball at Kimball. Pedersen worked at Mitchell, Neb. as an elementary teacher and coach for football and girls' basketball prior to taking the counseling position at Kimball. The Counseling Excellence Award was created to honor high school guidance...

  • Compassion begets gratitude

    Aleta Pearson|Nov 24, 2016

    Happy Thanksgiving! There are so many multitudes of joyful people and things in life to be grateful about and yet, as I write this, I am so very distracted. My intention for the past several weeks leading up to this issue was to write a lovely and positive editorial about thankfulness. A lyrical composition that would prompt my readers to dig deep into their souls, feel the compassion that is innately available for all of us and in turn light the candle of gratitude in us all. And yet, here I am, thoroughly distracted by the actions of others,...

  • Banner County School Board purchases several needed upgrades

    Aleta Pearson|Nov 24, 2016

    The Banner County School Board met for their regularly scheduled meeting on Nov. 14 at 7 p.m. In the past month, the school has made some exciting and needed purchases. Five new HP ProBooks, a new surveillance camera, miscellaneous computer hardware and an Adobe software package were one of major purchases. The laptops will be used mostly by the teachers who were in need of upgrades. The Adobe software has multiple programs, one of which is the Photoshop program that will be utilized by the...

  • Kimball district audit complete, no major issues

    Tonia Copeland|Nov 24, 2016

    The Kimball School District’s 2015-16 financial audit is complete with no concerns according to Julie Peetz, of Rauner and Associates, who reported to the Kimball Board of Education at their Nov. 7 meeting. Rauner and Associates has been performing school audits since 1979 and the company has 11 schools in the Nebraska Panhandle. Peetz did present suggestions to make procedures better. One such suggestion, the lack of segregation of duties, is a standard suggestion, according to Peetz. “One of them is always the lack of segregation of dut...

  • Continuing update on re-appraisals

    Aleta Pearson|Nov 24, 2016

    At the Nov. 15 Board of Equalization meeting, County Assessor, Sherri Winstrom reported that Stanard Appraisal Services, Inc. is now half way finished with their reappraisal of Kimball county. They had completed their portion of the rural residential work several weeks ago. Completion of their list of Dix and Bushnell properties, both commercial and residential was finished the end of last week. Stanard representatives and county employees will move into Kimball to complete both commercial and residential reappraisals in the coming weeks....

  • New purchases for road department

    Aleta Pearson|Nov 24, 2016

    During the regular meeting of the Kimball County Board of Commissioners meeting on Nov. 15, the board approved two purchases for the road department. Notice had been placed in the Observer for the purchase of one used pickup and a used tractor. A 2008, F-150 Ford super cab XLT, 4x4 with 141,807 miles from Bogart Auto Sales won the bid for $10,995. 4Rivers won the bid on the tractor with a 2014 John Deere 5085, 85 hp for the price of $49,756. The tractor comes with a standard two year warranty and comes with rock guards on the back...

  • Veterans History Project

    Larry Nelson|Nov 24, 2016

    The Veterans History Project of the Library of Congress collects, preserves, and makes accessible the personal accounts of American war veterans so that future generations may hear directly from veterans and better understand the realities of war. From his early childhood, Daniel Rouse (Dan) wanted to be a soldier. During elementary school classes, the question to the students was: "what do you want to be when you grow up?" Most of the kids' answers were about being teachers, policemen,...

  • Longhorn Booster Club sponsors Sip & Paint

    Aleta Pearson|Nov 24, 2016

    Sixty-two people attended the fundraising event sponsored by the Kimball Longhorn Booster Club on Nov. 19. at the Windbreak Bar and Grill. Proceeds from the event will go towards a new speaker system in the Kimball High School gymnasium. People of all ages, from elementary school to retired enjoyed the creative night out with Nikole Leonard, instructor, who hails from Scottsbluff. Two sessions were offered- the first started at 2 o'clock featured a cutout reindeer doorhanger. The second session...

  • Local Students Win Conservation Poster Contest with Creative Drawings

    Submitted|Nov 24, 2016

    The South Platte Natural Resources District (NRD) is excited to announce the regional winner of the NACD Poster Contest. She is Emma Patterson, sixth grader at Mary Lynch Public schools, in Kimball, Nebraska. "We're excited to see Mary Lynch Elementary participate this year," said Donald Davis, Information and Education Coordinator of the South Platte NRD. "The students impressed us with their skill and creative ideas put to paper. It was fun to see how they approached the theme of the contest."...

  • Junior High Students of the 1st trimester

    Nov 24, 2016

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