KIMBALL – Registration of Kimball businesses  and a new in-house phone system for City Hall generated a lot of discussion during the City Council meeting of Feb. 18.Kent Worker, the city’s Economic Development Director, said, “Our present business listing is seven years old. It’s incomplete and out of date. We need an up-to-date list so we can communicate with local businesses.”He said the proposed registration is not an attempt to enforce zoning or check on collection of sales tax.Mayor Greg Dinges said he had trouble with language on the proposed registration form which read “There is no anticipated fee for businesses to register.” and, “Business is issued a fee for failure to register.” Council member Scott Haun said he had difficulty with that language also. He suggested that the form be on a “help us so we can help you” basis.City Administrator Harold Fararr said. “Kimball doesn’t have many business requirements. We try to keep it simple. This registration would help Worker out quite a bit.”Larry Stahla said, “This registration should be voluntary, not mandatory. It is an invasion of privacy and is more government control.”After removing the language in question, council passed the proposal 3-0. Council member James Schnell was absent from the meeting.Registration forms can be picked up, completed and returned to City Hall.Fararr presented a proposal for a new in-house phone system for an out-of-pocket cost of $25,000.“The present system is failing. It was purchased from Sprint 10 years ago and Sprint’s successor will no longer service it,” he said.“The after-hours answering system no longer works,” said Farrar.Fararr said city government is a public service operation and needs a good telephone system. Action Communications is the vendor of the new system. The cost will be split between the city’s general and utility funds.The system will be similar to the one in use at the hospital and would be  compatible with a possible city fiber-optic system.Council member Warner said, “In the present sour economy, can we cut expenses somewhere to pay for this?”Haun said, “We are not buying any vehicles so the only cuts we could make would be laying off employees.”No one wanted to do that.Haun considers the failing phone service to be a crisis.Citizens Susie Abramson and Carol Dunne-Benson said the city’s public service function is very important.After reaching no resolution about how to fit such a purchase into the city budget, the proposal was approved 3-0.Countryman audit service gave their verbal report of city finances for 2007-2008 and found everything in order. Warner said council should read the audit report just handed to them carefully before approving it.She said, “We don’t want to be like Congress, approving the Stimulus bill without reading it.”Approval of the audit report will be considered at the next council meeting, scheduled for March 4.An insurance policy backing up city utility funds in excess of $250,000 deposited at FirsTier Bank has been replaced by a Letter of Credit with the Federal Bank of Topeka, Kan. This approach is used by numerous other Nebraska cities. The previous insurance policy is no longer offered by the carrier.A $300 Keno grant was approved for supervision and exercise of children while their parents are using the Fitness Center.City Clerk/Treasurer Pam Richter gave a demonstration of the on-line access to city codes possible once the work of the Codification Committee is complete. The committee is working to streamline 400 plus pages of code into 330 pages to avoid added on-line costs.Routine business items were approved and the meeting was adjourned.