City council discusses revitalization project; talks joint project with school board
OSMOND — The Osmond City Council met Monday, Oct. 10, with members of District 42R school board present. Osmond school board members Tyler Gansebom and Larry Krohn spoke with council about the idea to possibly do a joint project with the Terry McClain matching funds.
Gansebom asked council about the idea of an electronic marque from council’s previous minutes a few months back and said they had been in touch with Love Signs to get ideas on price ranges. He asked council for their input and some were in favor of the idea. Gansebom stated he can work with City Clerk Brittney Timmerman to get some pricing ideas put together to present at another meeting. After a little discussion, council thanked the board members for their time.
Downtown Revitalization
Susan Norris with Pierce County Economic Development (PCED) presented the next steps in the Downtown Revitalization (DTR) project. She reminded council that with its pledge of $10,000 and the $20,000 funds from PCED and Community HOME Team, council will need to decide if the clerk or mayor will sign the notice of request for proposals to start the bidding process with planning firms. At the December meeting, the council will have to read through the planning firms' submissions and narrow it down to just two. Norris also informed council that, by the December meeting, they need to have five to seven residents chosen to be part of the Osmond DTR Committee; however, no council members will be able to be part of the committee.
She stated she provided a list of possible candidates for the committee with a few community members who are willing to be part of the committee. These committee members will be working with the planning firm,
reporting back to the city council on how the project is going and what steps are next.
Norris also stated council will have to pick a person to be the point of con- tact for the project. Clerk Timmerman asked council not to appoint her as that contact with maternity leave coming up in the near future. Council thanked Norris for her time and will start the next steps of the project.
Generator Warranty Discussed
An extended warranty for the well generator that was installed in 2016 was discussed. Utility Supervisor Tom Kruse presented to council that the current warranty is due to expire in December of this year and there are five different extended warranty options that council can choose from.
He stated that the company would need to come up and do an inspection on the generator which would cost approximately $1,900 and the five-year warranty would be around $5,207.50. When asked how many hours have been put on the generator, Kruse stated there are 77 hours on it and he runs it for 20-30 minutes every Monday morning.
Councilman Timmerman said we can't justify spending with the power company installing a generator for the city to use when the power goes out.
Council agreed to not go forward with the extended warranty.
Utilities Increases Approved
Councilman Timmerman discussed with council his thoughts on the increases needed to be done in the water, sewer and garbage departments. Clerk Timmerman asked council to have a set number for rate increases chosen by next month’s meeting to allow the office staff enough time to draft the new ordinances to be passed by the December meeting.
After some discussion about where each department was at the end of the fiscal year and taking into con sideration of possible expenses the city had this year, but shouldn’t next year, Councilman Timmerman proposed increasing the water base rate $6.00, sewer $5.00 across the board and garbage $5.00 across the board.
Council approved the rate increases as follows to draft the new ordinances for passage at next month’s meeting: water base fee $6.00 increase, sewer $5.00 increase across all classes and garbage $5.00 across all accounts including dumpster charges.
Water Issues on Agenda
Clerk Timmerman informed council about an article in the Norfolk Daily News about the Lower Elkhorn Natural Resources District (NRD) Board. The article stated with the drought conditions the state is currently in, municipal utility customers may be limited to 250 gallons of water per person, per day which roughly amounts to 30,000 gallons a month for a family of four.
Timmerman also informed council that Rich Koenig with the State of Nebraska made his visit last week and stated that Code Ordinance 3-306 would need to be updated in the near future to enhance the water restrictions and fines during drought conditions when deemed necessary.
Timmerman informed council that this would take care of any ordinance or resolution that would come about if the NRD were to put into effect any rules or regulations for municipalities.
Next, Clerk Timmerman provided an update on the endpoint installations. She stated maintenance workers Caleb Eckstrom and Bert Wattier had installed 92 endpoints as of Oct. 10, then Utility Supervisor Tom Kruse submitted three more to make a total of 95 out of 380 endpoints installed. Mayor Kuhl asked how long the city has to finish this project and Tim merman stated they have until Dec.
21 to complete and if not completed, the accounts not done will have to be Kvols’ pigs are shipped to regional processing plants including Tyson in Madison and Smithfield in Sioux Falls, S.D., among others. There they are processed and shipped domestically but could be exposed to international markets as well, he said. There are certainly challenges to being a pork producer. Count market volatility, inflationary concerns related to feed and building materials, as well as an unstable labor market in production houses among them. But there are many great rewards, too, Kvols said. Personally, he said, the greatest reward of getting into the hog business was being able to bring his son, Dylan, back into the family farm operations. “It’s sustainability and to be able to bring that next genera-tion back to the farm and realizing with the livestock side of things, I'm able to do that," he said. "If I hadn't expanded into the livestock sector, it would be a lot more difficult for me to make a living." He’s also pleased that he was not only able to diversify his farm successfully but able to make the row crop farming and the hog production work together by utilizing his own homegrown fertilizer. In building his newest barn, he was also able to install solar panels which handles about 60 percent of the electrical needs. Kvols suggests there is a lot of room to expand pork production in Nebraska - especially in the northeast corner of the state. “The opportunity is bright when it comes to animal livestock and animal agriculture in Nebraska," he said.
