      Nebraska Governor Jim Pillen has filled one of 2 vacancies on the Nebraska Public Power District Board of Directors.
Tryon cattle rancher Rusty Kemp will represent Subdivision 5 – covering all or parts of 21 counties making up nearly the western third of the state.
He succeeds Charlie Kennedy of Scottsbluff, who resigned last month after serving a little more than 4 years of a 6-year term. Kemp will fill out the rest of the term through December of next year and says he’ll run for a full 6-year term in next year’s election.
The 51-year old has a 30,000-acre ranch near the McPherson-Hooker county line northwest of Tryon.
A co-founder of Sustainable Beef LLC, the rancher-driven group building a beef processing plant in North Platte, Kemp has served on the McPherson County School Board and the board of the McPherson County Co-op Credit Union.
Still vacant is the Subdivision 11 seat held by the late Fred Christensen, who died earlier this month more than halfway through his second term. Subdivision 11 covers 6 counties north and northwest of Omaha.
Governor Pillen closed the application period last Monday. Kemp’s appointment came about 2 weeks after he was interviewed by the governor and about 3 weeks after Subdivision 5 applications closed.