Council Hires Brower, Helps Cats

When the Kimball City Council meeting was all said and done Oct. 19, a year and a half after former city administrator Dan Dean retired, the City of Kimball had a new city administrator, Annette Brower.

Brower's city employment began in March 2018, as city treasurer and deputy clerk. Then, in January 2021, she began doing both city clerk/city treasurer duties, rounding out her experience in Kimball city government. From May 2020 to January 2021, Brower served as interim City Utilities Administrator, and now she is the Kimball city administrator. Her initial salary is $105,000 annually.

Brower will retain the city clerk/city treasurer position until those positions are filled.

Mayor Keith Prunty read a statement justifying his nomination of Brower, and he focused on the following topics: experienced with growth, communication, involvement in the community, willingness to put on hard hat and boots, and not wanting to fill the clerk/treasurer position.

The motion for approval of the nomination was made and seconded for Brower to be appointed city administrator when the votes were cast: Matt Bright-no, Gabe Ingram-no, Creg Pike-yes, Christy Warner-yes. Prunty voted yes to break the tie, and Brower became city administrator.

Meanwhile, with handheld high throughout the voting process, former council member Kim Baliman asked if Mayor Prunty was going to take any public comment?

Baliman's stated, “I have been asked to come here and talk tonight. I have nothing to lose, and I am going to speak my mind.”

She clarified that nothing that she would say was against Annette Brower. But she continued, “I just think it is wrong to, obviously you have had this in mind for a quite some time, I think a neutral party with no ties and an experienced administrator would be great.”

Baliman claimed that Warner had the council votes lined up in Brower's favor prior to this.

“If that was done deal,” Baliman asked, “how was that fiscally responsible?”

Prunty responded that the council went through a national firm for the recruitment and the firm handled the process. Warner also spoke up in her own defense.

The discussion continued, but the votes had been cast and counted and the nomination had been approved.

In other business, Kimball resident Tiffany LaBeau provided an update on her nonprofit status for the Catch and Release program for feral cats. LaBeau completed the nonprofit paperwork, and the board voted to approve $2,800 in Keno Funds for the program. The mayor reported that there was $177,000 in the Keno Fund. LaBeau will be providing quarterly updates.

The city council also approved an EZ-Screen Trommel for the Landfill for $28,900. They had budgeted $35000 for this piece of equipment. The landfill previously rented a Trommel from Gering for $2500 a week, but Gering stopped renting it out. A Trommel is used to separate trash from compostable material.

The council agreed that there is a need to educate people to put their trash in the correct dumpsters. The brown dumpsters are only for compostable material like grass and leaves.

Meanwhile, the Board of Public Works recommended, and the city council approved a generator for the Water Department at a cost of $50,990. The generator would be for the north water well.

The following discussion centered on an three-month engineering study for the Wastewater Treatment Plant costing $30,000 to $40,000. The study must be done in order for the city to apply for state grants. The wastewater treatment facility that was built in 1979 is is aging out, but the pandemic created some problems for the plant as well.

Chairman of the Board of Public Works Sonny Porter said, “Through the pandemic, our facility has taken some big hits, with the on slough of sanitary wipes it has ruined two of our grinders.”

Two different types of grinders were installed, and they are better, but the sanitary wipes and alcohol have continued to plague the wastewater treatment plant.

“The sanitary wipes are gumming up the grinders,” Potter said.

There was no action taken on the wastewater treatment plant study, but it will be on the agenda at a later date.

The meeting concluded with approval of the consent agenda items.