PROGRESS State of the City: Kimberly rebuilds
Published 11:04 am Wednesday, July 27, 2016
Two years after a devastating tornado bent the City of Kimberly far below the surface, the community is experiencing growth.
Mayor Bob Ellerbrock, in his fourth year governing Kimberly, is excited about the proactive mindset exercising throughout the city.
“It’s exciting the direction that we’re going,” he said. “This council has worked really well for the last four years together and I think it’s paying off to be able to focus on a forward mindset.”
Ever since the April 2014 tornado that scattered 100-miles-per-hour winds throughout the streets of Kimberly, Ellerbrock has aimed to rebuild not just with haste, but with a purpose. The Kimberly Fire Department was one of many structures devastated by the EF-1 twister that Monday night.
Located on Stouts Road in Kimberly, the fire station remains under construction more than two years removed from the tornado.
“We really made a conscious decision to not just throw everything back together, to sit back and kind of plan for the future and that’s why the fire station has taken a little bit longer than anticipated,” said Ellerbrock.
“I think the station is going to be a nice-looking station and it’s going to be kind of the focal point of the community like the old station was,” he continued.
Unlike the former fire station, Kimberly wants a new facility that can handle growth in the community. According to records, the city has seen 61 new homes built since the beginning of the year. In 2015, 44 new homes went up and the mayor expects that upward trend to continue in coming years.
“We’re expecting probably 400 more homes at least in the next couple of years, so the city’s growing again,” said Ellerbrock. “We’re not growing blindly, we’re trying to look forward to have some sort of infrastructure that can handle the growth as well.”
Another point of emphasis for Kimberly has been making its municipal park more inviting to residence. The city has improved numerous aspects of the park including its bathrooms and pavilions while constructing a more kid-friendly environment for those in and beyond the city limits.
Although many strides have been taken in the efforts to revamp the park, Kimberly is still a year or two removed from reaching its long-term vision.
“More people use that park now than I’ve ever seen. I almost never drive by where there’s not some kids out there playing, and I love that because that’s what the community’s for. Everyone’s moving out here for the schools and for the sense of community,” said Ellerbrock.
There’s still plenty of work to be done in Kimberly, but thanks to its citizens, that dark April night is remembered as a starting point, not the finish.
“Everything’s coming together. I think we’re probably one to two years out from being… I don’t want to say finished because everything is going to be continually changing, but I think we’re a year or two out from being where we would have liked to have been the night before the storm,” said Ellerbrock.
Erik Harris is the Sports Editor of The North Jefferson News. Email him at njnsports@gmail.com or follow him on Twitter @jeharris2.