BROKEN BOW – The Custer County Board of Supervisors held its mid-month meeting on Tuesday; all supervisors were in attendance.
Supervisors Chairman Barry Fox, in committee reports, reported that the Custer Economic Development Corporation (CEDC) is curiously still sitting on nearly half a million dollars of revolving funds in the form of low-interest loans for all manner of rural workforce housing which have gone unused for well over a year.
“The funds are basically construction loans, low-interest, and can be used for a new house at $325,000 or a rental house at $250,000. It also can be used for infrastructure, for eventual rural workforce housing, or just for rehabilitation of homes as well.”
Fox went on to say that over the past year and a half, the CEDC has received no applications for the funds, but recently may have found a potential project after having been granted an extension for the money’s use.
Gravel and culvert bids were revisited after having been sent to the Highway Department for review. On the Highway Department’s advice, the board accepted the gravel bids as listed, and chose to reject all bids for culverts; Highway Superintendent Chris Jacobsen explained that the county doesn’t need to be in any hurry to increase its current stockpile.
“I think our inventory’s good. If we need to, we can go through the County Purchasing Act to restock our inventory as needed, but I think we’ll be good. We’ll just try to get past this craziness with pricing because it’s still so high.”
The supervisors revisited the issue of how to proceed with one of the county’s road reclaimers, ultimately arriving at a decision to sell the 22-year-old unit to Nebraska Machinery Company for $14,750.
Two bids for a drainage structure replacement on Road 817 were opened; the winning bid went to Contech Engineered Solutions of Lincoln for $64,585, with an expected delivery timeframe of 10-14 weeks.
The board approved the renewal of its contract with the Department of Health and Human Services, and an agreement allowing an environmental study of the area squared off for the federally-funded Comstock bridge project.
The supervisors also heard from Verizon representative Jeff Skinner regarding a conditional use permit for a 258-foot cell tower to be constructed 2 miles west of Broken Bow and north on Road 436, south of Highway 92. Skinner said that the installation would improve cell service by lifting the burden from often overloaded towers.
“What happens is, with the main concentration of users here in town, the panel antennas just get so much traffic on them that certain sectors don’t function as well, and this will alleviate that and make everything work properly.”
The board approved the conditional use permit unanimously, as well as a revisionary step in the Highway Department work cellphone policy: the department will now attempt to move forward with FirstNet. Discussions surrounding the employee handbook’s social media policy were tabled until the next meeting. The meeting adjourned at 11:43 a.m.
