Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First
Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First
Porters Look To Build Underground Gun Range, Store, RV Park & More
This photo was in the Feb. 14, 1963, edition of the Western Nebraska Observer that reported the arrival of 16 trailers, the first to be placed in Boeing's Trailer City. New development plans are in the works there.
In February 1963, 16 trailers were brought in and parked in the area east of the Sunnyview Addition in Kimball, the start of what would be known as Boeing's Trailer City.
According to the Feb. 14, 1963, Western Nebraska Observer, 150 trailers would eventually house missile families. The area would be complete with streetlights, fire hydrants, and telephone lines. Missile families would call this their home for the next few years.
After the late '60s, the trailer park held far fewer than 150 trailers and eventually the facility would fall in disarray and be designated as a blighted property, forcing the city to cut services, according to Sonny Porter.
Purchased in October 2019, the Porters' intention is to develop the 24 acres into an underground gun range, retail store, fueling station for trucks, a convenience store and an RV park. The project won't happen overnight as the Porters are looking at 5-7 years to complete the enormous task.
The Porters themselves have been cleaning up and removing electric lines, gas lines, phone lines, waterlines and transformers, possibly leaking PCB, at the old vacated Ridgewood Trailer Park or Boeing's Trailer City.
Sonny said that they had pulled a little under 4,000 linear feet of gas main, most of it leaking, and removed 54 light or electric poles with 34 transformers
Kathy and Sonny Porter, along with Sonny's brother, Gerry, were looking for a piece of property for their project. The property located on the east edge of Kimball, previously known as Ridgewood Trailer Park, seemed a good fit.
The threesome purchased the two blighted parcels in October 2019 but have had to negotiate some difficult circumstances to gain a clear title, including four years of delinquent taxes, a foreclosure on one parcel, and petitioning the court to release the private mortgage from years ago.
The property is now owned by De La Grande Construction, Gerry Porter. All three Porters said almost in unison, "It is cleared up now."
They also purchased the adjacent house, which is another parcel.
Almost impossible to remove private property, the Porters had to sue all owners of the remaining trailers to have them removed, and now they are looking at the disposal of the PCB in the transformers, which includes vaulting them and transporting them to a facility in Kansas.
Sonny said, "We have already spent a fortune now, and we are cued up to spend another fortune."
On Tuesday, the Porters go before the Kimball City Council to ask for a zoning change. The property is zoned multifamily residential, and the change, should the City Council vote to approve it, would make it a C-4 Commercial.
