NOTICE OF MEETING
NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN
that the Regular meeting of the Otoe County Commissioners of
AGENDA OF THE NEXT MEETING August
12, 2008
meeting,
Audit and Sign payroll and regular claims
8:40 a.m. – Rick Sedersten, Custodian:
Discussion and/or action RE: Telephone System in Courthouse
8:45 a.m. – Jason Zeorian:
Discussion and/or action to approve Vogt Subdivision located in the SE ¼
14-9-10
8:55 a.m. – Dave Schmitz, Zoning
Administrator:
9:15 a.m. -- Discussion
and/or action RE: Other Road and Bridge matters
a) Update
of FEMA reports including assessment of damages and cost to repair/replace
b) Discussion
and/or action RE: Request by
c) Discussion
and/or action RE: Bridge Closing Reports required by NDOR
d) Discussion
and/or action RE: Project S-75-2(1040) located at junction of Hwy 2 & 75
Southeast of
e) Discussion
and/or action RE: Budgetary matters
f)
Miscellaeneous
10:00 a.m. – Kevin Turner
& Monica Welsh: Discussion and/or action RE: Establishing Keno at Table
Creek
Club House
Other business matters to address when
time allows:
Discussion
and/or action to appoint a county representative to the Southeast Regional
Emergency
Management Group in order to
participate in the NEMA and Homeland Security Programs
Discussion
and/or action RE: A contract with GIS Workshop to provide E911 GIS database
development
& maintenance for NE Public Service Commission
Therese
Trombino, Deputy County Assessor: Present list of
exempted cemeteries
Jackie
Smith,
To institute action to foreclose on
Certificates of Tax Sale
Discussion
and/or action RE: Letter of support to be included with a grant request by
Nemaha NRD;
Said grant would be used to collect
hazardous household waste and shredding of confidential
papers
Discussion
and/or action RE: Cooperative Reimbursement Agreement for Child Support
Services
Miscellaneous Correspondence and other matters that may
come before the Board
Janene Bennett, Otoe
The
Individuals requiring physical
or sensory accommodations, including interpreter service, Braille, large print
or recorded materials, please contact Janene Bennett,
August 12, 2008
The Otoe County Board of Commissioners convened in regular session at
8:30 a.m. on August 12, 2008 to audit and sign payroll claims and regular
claims and to take care of such other matters as are on the agenda for this
meeting. Advance notice of this meeting
was published in the Nebraska City News Press and Syracuse Journal Democrat,
announced on the local radio station KNCY and posted in at least three public
places. This meeting was open to the Public, and the agenda was kept current, and
is on file for public inspection at the office of the Otoe County Clerk during
regular business hours.
Before commencing the meeting, Nickola R Kreifels was sworn in as the First District Commissioner to
fill a vacancy created when Zoe Thummel
passed away on June 28, 2008.
The meeting was called to order by the Chairman of the Board, Dale Haverty. Answering present at roll call were Commissioner Haverty, Commissioner Kreifels
and Commissioner Schroder.
Chairman Haverty informed the public in
attendance that a current copy of the Open Meetings Act is posted on the south
wall of the Courtroom. Additional copies
are available upon request. He asked that all attendees turn off their cell
phones or set them to vibrate while present in the meeting room.
Commissioner Schroder made a motion, seconded
by Commissioner Kreifels to accept the agenda as
posted. Voting -- Commissioners Haverty, aye; Kreifels, aye; Schroder, aye.
Motion carried.
Commissioner Schroder made a motion, seconded
by Commissioner Kreifels to accept the minutes from
the previous meeting as mailed to them as each member was furnished with a copy
of same. Voting – Commissioners Kreifels, aye; Schroder, aye; Haverty, aye.
Motion carried.
Commissioner Schroder made a motion, seconded
by Commissioner Kreifels to audit and sign payroll
claims and regular claims unless otherwise noted. Voting – Commissioners Schroder, aye; Haverty aye; Kreifels, aye.
Motion carried.
At this time Commissioner Schroder requested
30 seconds of silence in memory of Zoe Thummel, former
Rick Sedersten, Courthouse Custodian, gave each board member a copy of a
quote compiled by Windstream listing several options
for installing additional phone lines to the courthouse. During the renovation,
some lines were pulled in the basement resulting in a shortage of phones in the
multi-purpose room. One option would be to install a 16 port digital card and
an 8 port analog card to the current system for the price of $1846. This would
allow for future growth to the system. A more conservative option would be to
add two business lines to the basement; they would not be a part of the phone
system and would cost approx $55.00 per month. Sedersten said a third option
would be to remove the road department from the courthouse system (which has
had problems due to the distance from the courthouse) and provide them with 5
separate business lines at a cost of $27.50 per line per month. Then there would
be no need to purchase extra cards for the system in the courthouse. He added
the monthly rate would decrease if the County signed a contract with Windstream. For example, the annual savings for a 24 month
contract would be $171.36; a 60 month contract netted a savings of $626.40 per
year. Commissioner Schroder made a motion, seconded
by Commissioner Kreifels to table the matter for now;
they will analyze these quotes and take them into consideration while figuring
the budget. Voting –Commissioners Haverty, aye; Kreifels, aye; Schroder, aye.
Motion carried.
Jason Zeorian, representing Vogt Subdivision,
said he lives on the existing farmstead located on his grandparent’s farm and
they want to separate it from the remaining farm ground. The plat was approved
at the Otoe County Planning Commission meeting in May with a stipulation that a
water quality test was needed before the plat would be approved by the
David Schmitz, Zoning Administrator, asked the Board to consider a
$6,000 allowance in his budget so that he could lease a scanner & plotter. He
explained that when the main server crashed in 2006, all of the survey records
were lost. To rewrite a program to recover them would cost over $13,000. Upon
further investigation he found that he could lease a scanner and rescan the
original surveys; then incorporate them into the Register of Deed’s (ROD)
records. This would make the records more convenient for researching as well as
providing a means to download the records on a CD for offsite storage. The ROD
could also use the scanner to scan subdivision plats and other large documents
in her office. Schmitz said he and the ROD would utilize their current staff to
do the work; he has room to place the machine in his office. If a company was
hired to do the scanning they would charge $3.85 per document resulting in a
cost of over $16,000. He felt that leasing the scanner for a year would be the
most economical approach. Commissioner Schroder asked
Schmitz to get another quote for a smaller scanner to compare cost. The Board will
take this request into consideration when planning the budget.
Other business matters were addressed.
Last March the
In order for the County to receive reimbursement for child support
enforcement expenses from the Nebraska Health and Human Services System, an interlocal agreement must be signed and accepted by both
parties. Commissioner Schroder made a motion,
seconded by Commissioner Kreifels to authorize the
Chairman Haverty to sign the interlocal
agreement accepting the terms as set forth. Voting – Commissioners Haverty, aye; Kreifels, aye; Schroder, aye. Motion carried. Said agreement shall be
effective October 1, 2008 through September 30, 2013.
The Nemaha Natural Resources District (NNRD) and Five Rivers RC&D are
collaborating to apply for a Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) grant
that will be used to collect household hazardous waste and provide paper
shredding services. In order to complete the application process, the NNRD is
asking
Steffensmeier said that he is still working with a FEMA representative
to review each road and bridge that was damaged by heavy rainstorms in May and
June. On Wednesday, he will meet with other FEMA officials to discuss the
damages. He noted that a bridge near Unadilla showed previous scouring problems,
so he was not sure whether FEMA would cover the entire cost for repairing this
bridge. He suggested turning in this bridge as a federal aid project if FEMA
does not approve it. He has not received any cost estimates yet and anticipates
that it will be another month before receiving a FEMA report. He stressed how
important it is for the road workers to keep good records of work being done on
these potential FEMA projects; the better the record, the more money the County
will receive in reimbursement.
Commissioner Schroder and Supt Steffensmeier
examined a minimum maintenance road last Friday at the request of a rural mail
carrier. This spring a bridge washed out on
Recently, Steffensmeier was notified that he must submit a Critical
Findings report every six months to the NDOR when a bridge has been closed. He
said he plans to write a generic report for the 17 bridges that are currently
closed; then update the reports every 6 months to comply with the State’s new
requirement.
Regarding Project S-75-2(1040: This involves the reconstruction of the
intersection of Highways 2 and 75 south of
In September,
Steffensmeier said he obtained quotes for the purchase of various sized
culverts. The information will be used to calculate costs for FEMA projects.
Steffensmeier said he is finding several roads that have been rocked,
but have never been reclassified. He plans to review the classification of all
the roads in the county. He said it is important to have the correct
classifications filed with the State since the amount of highway allocation we
receive is based on the number of miles or roads that have been designated as
local road status and above.
At 9:37 a.m. Commissioner Haverty made a
motion, seconded by Commissioner Schroder to go into
executive session to discuss personnel matters with Dave Partsch,
At 9:54 a.m. Commissioner Schroder made a
motion, seconded by Commissioner Haverty to go back
into regular session. Voting – Commissioners Kreifels,
aye; Schroder, aye; Haverty,
aye. Motion carried. No action was taken while in executive session.
Commissioner Schroder made a motion, seconded
by Commissioner Haverty to disband the Otoe County
Bridge Department effective September 1, 2008. Voting – Commissioners Schroder, aye; Haverty, aye; Kreifels, aye. Motion carried.
Commissioner Haverty made a motion, seconded
by Commissioner Schroder to discontinue hauling our
own rock; those employees working as truck drivers will be terminated effective
September 1, 2008. Voting – Commissioners Haverty,
aye; Kreifels, aye; Schroder,
aye. Motion carried. Notices will be sent immediately to the seven effected
employees. The reason given for such action was budget constraints.
The Board agreed to meet August 19, 2008, at 1:00 p.m. to continue
discussion of budgetary matters in the office of the
Kevin Turner and Monica Welsh appeared before the Board to discuss possibility
of placing the issue of establishing Keno on the General Ballot. Mr. Turner
said he is involved with the Keno establishment near Plattsmouth and presented
Board members with information on how to establish a Keno lottery in rural
Jackie Smith,
Ms. Smith requested the release of pledged securities with Otoe County
Bank,
Commissioner Schroder made a motion, seconded
by Commissioner Kreifels to issue tax refunds to: Lemar Outdoor Advertising - $47.76 for overpaid property
taxes in tax year 2005 and $1,244.86 for double taxation in tax year 2005.
Voting – Commissioners Kreifels, aye; Schroder, aye; Haverty, aye.
Motion carried.
Commissioner Haverty made a motion, seconded
by Commissioner Schroder to issue tax refunds to
Ralph and Ruth Johnson - $30.60 for tax year 2006 and $30.22 for tax year 2007
– the number of sq ft was corrected on the assessment record which reduced the
tax liability. Voting – Schroder, aye; Haverty, aye; Kreifels, aye.
Motion carried.
Therese Trombino, Deputy County Assessor,
presented a list of current cemetery property that is exempted in
There was brief discussion regarding the appointment of a
The Nebraska Public Service Commission (NEPSC) is in the process of
implementing phase II of the enhanced wireless 911 Service throughout the
state. For the past few years, the County has worked with GIS Workshop in
setting up an MSAG (Master Street Address Guide) and PSAP (Public Safety
Answering Points) for
Commissioner Haverty said he received notice
from NACO of grant money being made available from the Nebraska Internet
Enhancement Fund. Since the pre-application period ends September 2, 2008, he
felt there was not enough time to put a grant application together this year;
however, it could be a project to work on for next year’s grant period.
There being no further business to come before the Board at this time,
and since all items on the agenda have been disposed of, Commissioner Haverty made a motion, seconded by Commissioner Schroder to adjourn the meeting, until the next one, which
will be on August 26, 2008.
I, Janene Bennett, County Clerk of Otoe
County, do hereby certify that the above minutes were taken by me, and are true
and correct to the best of my knowledge, and I therefore set my hand and affix
the county seal this 12th day of August 2008.
Janene Bennett
Otoe