It was a quick pair of meetings for the Broken Bow City Council on Tuesday, September 8 as they held a public hearing on the appropriation bill prior to the regular meeting.
City Clerk/Treasurer Stephanie Wright informed the public that the city property tax request would be 1% higher than the previous year coming to a total of $1,330,310. The property tax request will cause the tax rate to be $0.627243 per $100 of assessed value for the 2020-2021 fiscal year compared to last year’s slightly higher tax rate of $0.628208 per $100 of assessed value. For the 2019-2020 fiscal year, the city asked for $1,325,389.
Wright stated that the increase in the budget from last year would be in the area of $5,000 which had to do with the valuation going up 1%. She also noted that $370,000 will be used in the next year for capital improvement projects for levee engineering ($50,000), police station engineering ($20,000), Memorial Drive engineering ($185,000), and levee construction ($115,000).
During the regular meeting, the council approved a number of items in regard to the budget including the wage ordinance, appropriation bill, an additional 1% increase to the restricted funds which is used if the city needs additional funds, and the tax request.
The one and six-year plans were also approved where one main project is scheduled in the one year plan which is the $1.2 million project on Memorial Drive and 5th Ave for grading, concrete, sidewalk, storm sewer work, and erosion control. The six-year plan mostly included asphalt work in different areas throughout the city including South 1st Ave., South 9th Ave., South C St., South 8th Ave., South 10th Ave., South F St., and on a number of other streets. Wright did mention that the six-year plan can be changed at any time and is not “set in stone.”
A request was also made to ban parking on one of the sides of South 13th Ave. due to the difficulty of taking trucks up that street to the dump. The ordinance will be back on the agenda at the next meeting where the public will have the opportunity to voice their opinion on the topic.
Other approvals included adding an additional handicap parking space at North Park Elementary School and approving Megan Svoboda to move into the role of Library Director beginning October 1.
The next City Council meeting will be on Tuesday, September 22 at 6 PM.
