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

Commissioners approve tourism board bylaws change

The Kimball County commissioners approved bylaw changes for the county visitors committee at Tuesday’s regularly scheduled meeting.

Prior to Tuesday, the bylaws required that two members of the seven-member visitors committee be involved in overnight lodging in the county. The changed added the phrase “if possible” in order to help the board get up to a full seven members.

“We’re kind of hanging out there. We have not been able to come up with a full operating board in two years,” said Jo Caskey, county tourism director.

The second change in the bylaws was a numerical disagreement that had five written and seven in parentheses when stating the number of members on the board. Caskey said the board moved from five to seven members when it separated from the chamber of commerce and simply needed to correct the number in the bylaws to seven.

Diana Quicke, county treasurer, presented the distress warrant return presented to her by the sheriff. This list is uncollected property taxes.

Quicke said Linda Williams in the sheriff’s office collected 34 of 64 warrants, totalling $16,450.65 of the $23,143.14 owed.

The treasurer said she still hopes to see several properties collected on in the future.

The commissioners also:

- Reviewed and approved inventory lists for the board and for all county officials.

- Approved a lease agreement for a copier in the extension office at $135 per month for 60 months. The previous lease agreement was $145 per month.

- Heard a pitch from Beth Fiegenschuh, Cheyenne County clerk and Nebraska Intergovernmental Risk Management Association (NIRMA) board member, for attending NIRMA events and conferences. “I’m glad we’re a part of NIRMA, myself,” Commissioner Larry Engstrom said. “I don’t know that a county can do much better than what NIRMA’s done for keeping us above water.”