KIMBALL -- The City Council unanimously approved an almost $200,000 grant in the meeting Tuesday evening to fund a portion of the Clean Harbors Lighthouse Subdivision. 

While there was some hesitancy from the council members, they did ultimately approve the Workforce Housing Infrastructure Grant in the amount of $191,515.21, which will go toward the cost of electrical work for the 14 lots currently being constructed on. 

The money will come from the LB840 fund, which has a current balance of $320,000. 

The process began at the Loan Advisory meeting where the board voted to recommend that the council approve it. 

A couple community members were vocal about their disapproval of the city allocating funds to a corporation rather than putting it directly toward the city. 

“There are a lot of budget issues already so that would be a big benefit here in a few years if that money was still in there,” Gabriel Miller said. “That money would be better spent on a noncorporation that is worth almost 14 billion dollars.” 

Those in favor of supporting the grant say the value that Clean Harbors brings to the town and the money they would indirectly return to the community outweighs the doubts. 

“The town needs the subdivision; the town needs housing,” Mayor John Morrison said. “There is very little precedence in this situation.” 

Councilman Greg Robinson adds that this is an investment in the town. 

“You can argue how you want, but the money is coming back [to the community] in rates, taxes, additional shopping that people living in those homes will do in town,” Robinson said. 

Paul Whiting with Clean Harbors said the company wants to transition from temporary trailer housing to permanent housing that will add value to the town. 

“We are funding most of that development other than the electricity; we are funding the roads, the site work, the drainage, the water, the sewer lines and the paving,” Whiting said. “We unfortunately did not get grants from the state, and we realize the City of Kimball doesn't have excess funds, and we don’t want to see the taxes go up.” 

City Employee Taylor brown pointed out that a big chunk of the cost estimate is not due to the subdivision itself. 

“$60,000 of that is for the electric department to put a line that runs in front of that property there underground because it is our problem, and it’s a problem every winter,” Brown said. “This is a way to take those funds that we would not be able to use for that and bring it around.” 

Councilman Creg Pike said this was a tough decision for him, and he started out the process completely against it. 

“However, these funds are for development and building in our community. If we don’t start trying to figure out how to make this community expand, we will continue to not have a community that can grow,” he said. “In the grand scheme of things, if this takes off, it was a pretty d*** good investment.”