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

Wellness center considered and meetings reduced

Amid discussion regarding ongoing costs associated with the Kimball Event Center, the Kimball City Council considered partnering with the Kimball County Board of Commissioners and Kimball Health Services to bring a wellness center to Kimball.

The matter was considered at the City Council meeting on Feb. 2 following a vote to pursue the matter by the Kimball County Commissioner’s at their meeting earlier the same day.

“If you want to explore this, one thing I will be doing is sending the Nebraska Department of Economic Development a request for one year extension on our DED funds for the event center,” City Administrator Daniel Ortiz said.

Those funds are to be used to renovate the building, at a cost of more than $600,000 to be compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act and add a fire suppression system.

“Are we expecting that the entire remodel will still be done or are we expecting to change that and potentially save a little bit of money on the remodel?” council member Christy Warner asked.

Ortiz replied that he would expect to still expend the funds to remodel the building but that the County and the hospital would probably contribute something as well.

At approximately 90,000 square feet, the building currently houses a fitness center, which would be incorporated into the wellness center, but there would likely be plenty of space remaining for conventions.

Kimball Health Services CEO Ken Hunter added that they would need more space than what is in the existing fitness center, but that an adjacent room would that is currently unused would be sufficient for his purposes.

“Our initial reaction, was that there was more than enough square feet to do a wellness center and an event center. Certainly, Kimball needs an event center. There would be enough square feet for the front part to be used as a convention center, as it is now,” Hunter said. “I’m not sure if it would require a fire suppression system or not, we didn’t have to at the school. We could do any type of ambulatory care without fire suppression.”

He added that time is the important factor and that he looked forward to working with the County and the City to build something affordable that would help the community moving forward.

“My statement was ‘love it or list it’ last time, so this might give everybody a way to love it,” council member James Schnell said.

The board voted to partner with the other two entities and further investigate the possibility of the wellness center in Kimball.

Council heard discussion on the proposed amendment to Ordinance 733 pertaining to council meetings.

Mayor Keith Prunty had spoke with an unnamed citizen regarding the proposed change following the last council meeting. That citizen could not attend the meeting, according to Prunty, but requested Prunty to read a letter to the council in his or her stead.

“Do you really feel that spending a couple hours twice a month is too much to ask of council people? Residents are your customers and meetings should be for the convenience of the public,” the letter read in part.

Council member John Morrison answered, “If we had the people that are here tonight at every meeting, it wouldn’t bother me a bit to have two meetings a month that lasted two hours.”

Morrison added that too often council convenes for fifteen minutes to go over consent agenda items with no public in attendance.

“We can conduct our business in a couple of hours once a month. I just do not like fifteen minute or half hour meetings where all we do is approve the bills, go through the agenda and go home,” Morrison said. “That’s a waste of my time, that’s a waste of the city’s time and its a waste of the citizen’s time. What is really irritating is that there is one person sitting in the audience and the only reason they are there is just to watch us.”

Schnell reiterated that special liquor licenses are now handled administratively, as are many of the nuisance issues, which frees some time up on the council agenda. He added that each meeting held costs taxpayer money, so reducing the number of meetings reduced the cost to the citizenship.

Council amended the ordinance governing the number, date and time of council meetings with the sole dissenting vote from Warner.

The amendment, which will take affect in March, reduced the number of meeting each month from two to one and changed the time from 7 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Other action taken by the board:

Approve a $2,000 Keno Grant application for the Kimball Lion’s Club.

Waive the Event Center Fees for theKimball Public Library and the Friends of the Kimball Public Library.

Authorized City Administrator Daniel Ortiz as the certified individual to review privileged Nebraska Department of Revenue sales tax information.