The Custer County Supervisors held their regular meeting on Tuesday, March 15 with the task of making their way through a lengthy agenda.
An engineering agreement was approved by the Supervisors for a 2023 Road Improvement Project. According to the agreement, asphalt concrete resurfacing engineering will take place on the Arnold River Road from the Village of Callaway to Road 419 (approximately 9 miles), Gates Road from Sargent Road south to the previous resurfacing project (approximately 6.1 miles), and on Sargent Road from Road 438 west to Victoria Springs Road (approximately 5.1 miles).
Bids were also accepted by the Supervisors for two pieces of equipment for the Custer County Highway Department. The first piece of equipment was a motor grader where NMC Cat in Doniphan submitted a bid of $272,000 for the purchase of a motor grader with trade. Murphy Tractor and Equipment in North Platte also submitted a bid of $314,641 which included the trade-in value of another piece of machinery from the Highway Department. The bid from NMC Cat was selected by the Supervisors. The motor grader is expected to be delivered on or before June 1.
Bids for a wheel loader were next on the agenda where four bids were heard by the Supervisors. Bids were submitted by (all figures represent bids including trade): Titan Machinery in North Platte $234,400; Murphy Tractor and Equipment in North Platte $269,000; Road Builders in Grand Island $247,951; NMC Cat in Doniphan $246,800.
Due to the large trade-in value that was offered by Titan Machinery, as well being the low bid, the Supervisors chose to proceed with the Titan bid of $234,400.
Recycling Manager Kelly Flynn briefly gave a recycling report to the Supervisors and said the market price is holding for some materials, but has dropped slightly for others. He noted he has not been able to get a price on plastic yet as there has not been enough to sell yet.
Earlier this year, the Supervisors chose to have trailers brought in from the communities instead of having the recycling center go out and retrieve them. When asked about how the system was working, Kelly said they are still working out some of the timing issues where communities are bringing in super full trailers at the same time, briefly overwhelming the center. Kelly said they have had instances where there has been nothing to unload, then two or three trailers will suddenly show up.
Supervisor Dwain Bryner asked if there was a way to set a schedule so the trailers were not arriving all at the same time. Kelly said he can try to set a schedule, but the trailers are brought in when the communities have someone available.
A conditional use permit was granted to Marty and Karin Bredthouer by the Supervisors as the pair talked about their plans to build two yurts on their property south of Broken Bow on Sumner Road. Karin said they have been doing Airbnb for some time, but are looking to add the yurts to have the ability for someone to rent the temporary homes if they are staying for longer than a few days.
Zoning Administrator Darci Tibbs stated the planning commission recommended approving the permit which was mirrored by the Supervisors’ unanimous approval. Through the agreement, building plans would also need to be submitted to the board. With the permit, the property where the yurts will be built would qualify as a short-term rental meaning a renter living there would need to sign a new contract every 30 days to abide by state statute, which the Bredthouers were agreeable with.
Also approved was placing 2.4 acres of Custer County property up for sale east of Broken Bow and sending a letter to townships regarding disaster loan payment and requesting they attend the next Supervisors meeting.
Other items on the agenda including declaring vacated part of Road 98/208 and cell phone policy were either tabled until the next meeting or deferred to committees for further discussion.
The next Custer County Board of Supervisors meeting will be held on Tuesday, March 29 at 9 AM.
