New land owners return to the land

"What goes around, comes around."

That old saying came to mind Wednesday when the Timmerman Land & Cattle Co. placed the $2 million bid to purchase 1,929.8 acres of land at the old McCook Army Air Base.

"It's ironic, but we first looked at the air base land in 1973 when we were searching for a feedlot location in Southwest Nebraska," Norman Timmerman said. Norm has vivid memories of the time he considered the air base site with Allen Strunk, former publisher of the McCook Daily Gazette, and Pete Graff and Dennis Utter of the McCook National Bank. "At the time, we thought we needed more hills," Timmerman said, leading the Timmerman company to purchase and develop a feedlot operation north of U.S. Highway 6-34 between Indianola and McCook.

Thirty years later, the Timmerman brothers were drawn back to the land north of McCook by its investment potential. A key part of that potential is the 11 existing wells, which are more valuable than ever because of the moratorium on drilling new wells.

At this point, the Timmermans are calling the purchase "an investment," and have yet to disclose their plans for the property.

One close observer of the city's air base land purchase and sale, Keith Arterburn, said the air base property ended up bringing slightly more than he thought it would. "The thing I didn't take into account was the value of the concrete," he said, referring to what is left of the vast array of runways at the old air base.

That ended up spurring one of several sub-plots during the slow-paced, but drama-filled auction. Dale Cotton of the McCook Army Air base Society and Ron Vloch of Grand Island kept upping each other's bids throughout the day.

"It was like a chess game being played on five boards," City Manager John Bingham said of the total auction scene.

The dramatic finale came with less than 10 minutes remaining on the auction clock. It came via a phone call from Norman Timmerman.

The transfer of land is scheduled to take place March 1, but the city and the former tenants, Kim and Carole Swearingen, have until March 31 to get their personal property removed. Even though the sale price was slightly more than many expected, the city is still left with more than a million dollar obligation as a result of the air base land episode. The shortage is a result of the difference beween the $2.7 million the city paid, plus interest and sale costs.

City Council members have 20 months -- until Sept. 30, 2004 -- to decide how to handle that bill. Meanwhile, it's good to know that the land is passing into the hands of a reputable family corporation which has served this area well for three decades.