City reopens superintendent applications
Grant City Council met in executive session for approximately one hour during their regular meeting Tuesday, Feb. 12 to discuss the city superintendent candidates.
Brenda Ketcham of Ogallala and Patricia Jimenez of Grant were interviewed by the council in open session on Wednesday, Feb 6. A third candidate, Phillip Robinette of Tennessee, was eliminated before interviews took place.
The council ultimately decided to re-open applications for the position.
Health insurance
After a presentation from a Blue Cross Blue Shield representative on the different health insurance options, the council voted to keep the same plan as last year and increase the monthly Health Account Savings (HSA) contribution to $75. Councilman Matt Greenwood voted no on both motions.
Currently, the city contributes $50 to each employee’s HSA, with the option to match up to $50 more. The match option will remain the same.
The monthly premiums will cost the city $5,486.27, down 10.46 percent from the current $6,126.75. While premiums went down, the deductible and out-of-pocket limits went up.
Greenwood said the last time they discussed insurance, it was questioned whether employees should be paying for part of the premiums.
Mayor Lisa Schmitt said she feels they need to provide a good benefit package to keep and attract good employees.
“I think the best way to reward our employees is to keep paying 100 percent of their premiums, but it’s what the council wishes,” she said.
Council member Andrea Brueggeman said if they’re going to start looking at employees paying for part of the premium, that needs to be looked at when they’re reevaluating their wages.
Street repair
The council discussed the costs and options for paving up to three city blocks: Hancock from Fifth to Sixth, Fifth from Lincoln to Central and Fourth from Mitchem to Hall.
Public Works Foreman Gary Beckler said Fifth and Hancock would be the blocks he would recommend doing first.
Greenwood asked what needed to be done to fix the dips on Sixth. He said there are four intersections that are really bad. Beckler said water mains need to be put in first.
“It’s going to look bad if we put in a new intersection to take a dip out and then come back and tear it up to put a water main in,” said Beckler.
Greenwood asked where they are on water main discussions and when that would take place. City Clerk Jessie Faber said it’s discussed between Beckler and City Engineer Tom Werblow as to what the budget allows.
Beckler said he has 17 blocks of water main to put in for the next project, and that area is included.
After discussing what was in the budget for streets, Greenwood made a motion to bid each block for concrete and bid the Hancock block for asphalt as well. It passed unanimously.
CDBG Contract
Amy Thelander of Southwest Nebraska Community Betterment Corporation was present to discuss the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funding the city has been awarded.
The city will receive $252,000 to rehabilitate eight homes within the city limits.
To move forward, the council had to accept the contract with the State of Nebraska for the CDBG funding.
Thelander explained that there is no general contractor for the entire project. Every homeowner procures their own contractor. The city does not decide who the contractor is going to be.
When it came time to vote, Greenwood asked to come back to him as he continued to look over the contractor. After hesitating, he answered, “Yes, I guess.”
Brueggeman abstained since she serves on the SWNCBC board.
Appointments
Jim Howerter was appointed to Housing Authority. The previous appointment of Jim Bryant was incorrect.
Council member Kim Bishop was chosen to be the representative for West Central Nebraska Development District and Councilman Edward Dunn was selected as alternate.
Pool meeting
The council met in a special meeting on Wednesday, Feb. 13 with Miller & Associates to discuss the steps to move forward with the planned aquatic center.
In addition to the council, members from the park and recreation committee and Perkins County Pool Committee were present.
Miller & Associates went over previously presented information and also presented a suggested timeline for the new facility. Schmitt said they asked if the timeline could be pushed up to open around July 2020.
Another meeting is being planned for the beginning of next month. Once everything is decided, the city will be able to let bids for the new aquatic center.
While there was some tension in the meeting resulting in the early departure of Greenwood, Schmitt said she felt the meeting was very productive.
“It was just a really good coming together of the city, Miller & Associates, the park and rec committee, the pool committee, grant writer Angela Gloy. All of them took time out of their day to come to the meeting,” she said.
She noted it’s a team project of the town, and she wanted people to be able to come and get their questions answered, and tried to create a comfortable atmosphere where that could happen.