Update Given On Courthouse Upgrades

The Kimball County Commissioners met on Tuesday, Nov. 16, for their regular bimonthly meeting.

At the meeting, County Buildings and Grounds Superintendent Jim Calvin provided an update on work currently being conducted on the courthouse building. The buildings and grounds employees are working on windows, repairing chairs, finishing caulking on outside of the building, and have helped in the transit building with projects.

Calvin reported that the boiler was finally fixed after it had had some issues since August. He said: "it is finally running as it should."

All the fire extinguishers have been inspected, and the lawn sprinklers have been winterized. The sheriff's department on the third floor had a water leak, which has since been repaired, and the contractors for replacing the south side sidewalk will begin this project immediately.

Following Calvin, Randy Bymer, county highway superintendent, said, "Not a whole lot, been grading." He said one of the CAT graders has a wiring issue, and it is in the shop awaiting repairs.

Mike Simms and Andrew Barrett have completed the bridge inspections for the year.

The commissioners approved and adopted a resolution to authorize the chairman's signature on the year-end certification of County Highway Superintendent Randall Bymer. Bymer has a Class A certification, and the county receives a $9,000 reimbursement from the state for the certification, which goes into the road fund.

After a brief discussion on how and why High West Energy would bury electric lines under the road, the commissioners approved a permit to occupy right of way for High West Energy on Road 27. It appeared that the underground electric lines would be under the road although some would be on the side of the road. With no answer available, the permit was issued for Road 27 –which is straight south of Dunn's Corner, south of I-80.

Kimball County Zoning Administrator, Sheila Newell shared an email she received for information from Trailblazer Pipeline Company, LLC. They are seeking information to abandon 392 miles of the Trailblazer pipeline, as well as abandoning three mainline compressor stations and disconnect at two interconnects.

In Kimball County they would establish the Redtail Compressor Station. It would be a new compressor station with approximately 2,505 horsepower of natural gas compression, 8-inch hot tapes, and associated station piping. This proposed station would be located in Section 17, Township 12N, Range 57W.

A public hearing was set for Dec. 7, 2021, at 10 a.m. to receive comments for or against the conditional use permit application for Dale W. Critchfield, Real Western Wings. The Kimball County Commission recommended approval of the permit in their meeting on Nov. 15.

Although the number of employees may change daily, currently Kimball County has 61 full-time employees and 32 part-time employees for a total of 93 employees on the payroll. There are 56 employees with insurance and 19 full-time/part-time employees not on insurance.

The county commissioners opened sealed bids to purchase a transit van, and they accepted the bid from Panhandle Auto in Sidney for a 2019 Chevrolet Express van for $46,897, subject to availability.

Bytes, Computer and Network Solutions presented an assessment of the county's network and computer systems.

The overview of network issues indicated that it would be beneficial to update the server because it is at the end of life. Some hardware and switches are out of support as well as a variety of other minor issues; 90 percent of desktop computers are no longer supported. The recommendation is to add two physical servers and use the cloud to back everything else.

No action was taken on the assessment.