The Gering city council Monday night approved adding Martin Luther King Jr. Day to the list of holidays the city will observe beginning this January. The council voted seven to one to add a tenth day to the list city employees get off as an official holiday.

Councilman Larry Gibbs cast the lone vote against, emphasizing it had nothing to do with what Martin Luther King stands for, but the economics of having employees take another day off. Gibbs noted the ceconomic situation is so difficult Hall County is not paying its employees for eight days off.

But the Chairman of the Administrative Committee, Jill McFarland, said the committee felt it was time the city showed its support for the diversity King espoused, noting it would make Gering comparable in observed days with its sister city, Scottsbluff.

Council member Manuel Escamilla explained King promoted diversity in a civil not violent way, something that hadn't been done by others before him. Escamilla said the city needs to show it is honoring King not just through words but its actions.