BROKEN BOW, Neb.— The Custer County Board of Supervisors met in regular session on Tuesday with a lot of items ahead on their agenda.
Conditional use permits for Cowboy Church arena, new ag business location, and gravel pit approved
At various points throughout Tuesday’s meeting, the supervisors discussed and then approved conditional use permits for locations in the county.
Rusty Kluender had his project of covering an outdoor arena east of Westerville approved. The arena is utilized by the Central Nebraska Cowboy Church nonprofit organization formed in 2018 that holds various events including calf roping clinics, horse therapy sessions, and small gatherings that ask for a donation in return. Anne Gibbons was the lone supervisor vote of ‘no’, citing she was not convinced that the arena was exclusively used for 501c3 nonprofit uses.
Maline Seed and Fence plans on opening a livestock supply and fencing equipment store location approximately 12 miles north of Broken Bow on the airport road. The business would operate from a 30’x60′ building. The permit, which came to the board with approval from the planning commission, was approved unanimously.
A gravel pit that was last operated by Overton Sand and Gravel over a decade ago got approval to re-open on property owned by the Reynolds family outside of Gates. Klotz Sand and Asphalt Paving of Holcomb, Kansas will be operating the location this time around. Large projects in the area and proximity of materials needed were named as reasons for the re-opening of the pit. Unanimous approval was given after recommendation came from the planning commission, pending state and federal permits being approved.
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County assessor conveys concern about not being able to access parcels
Custer County Assessor Elise Taylor came before the board to express concerns she had regarding a development that is making it difficult for her office to access properties for assessments.
“This whole time we thought that the assessor’s office was going to be exempt as well (in addition to the county surveyor). Last year there was a county that got in trouble and a county employee was actually caught trespassing and so there is a new attorney general opinion on this 1977 opinion saying that the county assessor is not exempt from going out and reviewing. Statutes do say that we are required to do a physical review of every property within Custer County on a six year basis,” explained Taylor.
Taylor explained that she has worked with County Attorney Steve Bowers on a consent to access form that asks for permission from property owners for necessary access to review all sides of properties necessary, but that it has been a struggle to get forms back. She added that she has used different methods, including a GoPro mounted on her vehicle and reviewing video back for good pictures of buildings, to try to do her job but the same problem exists: photos can’t be taken and observations can’t be made of structures not easily visible on all sides from the nearest non-private land. Struggles also exist for new builds on property that is not easily visible from a distance.
With nearly 1,000 properties to review for the 2026-27 cycle, Taylor suggested the use of on-hand wages for a position no longer filled in her office to go toward partnership with Central Plains Valuation to help complete some valuations. She cited that the company would be liable for trespassing issues, should they arise, rather than the county.
Taylor said that she herself would review Sargent, Sargent township, and Corner township which would leave 509 parcels for Central Plains Valuation to accomplish (at an estimated bid of $65,000). In addition to the leftover wages, money left over from commercial properties not accomplished with a partner company before, and existing budget dollars, it was stated that there wouldn’t be an additional cost to the county.
Consent to access forms have been mailed to upcoming parcels to be assessed. Taylor plans on being on foot in the Sargent community taking photos from public land. If she doesn’t have a consent form for a location, she plans on knocking on doors to receive permission to be on the property. If nobody answers, a door hanger will be left behind before she steps back to take a photo from an appropriate location before leaving.
The board asked that a contract be drafted to be presented at a future meeting.
Public hearings held for technology facility moratorium, poultry regulations
Darci Tibbs came before the board regarding two zoning resolutions. The first, a six month moratorium for technology related facilities suggested by the planning commission (75Z-26), puts the said time limit on work to get regulations in place regarding ‘tech facilities’ (including data centers, crypto mining, data mining, blockchain operations, and battery energy storage systems).
The moratorium will give the county time to research and understand the uses of the facilities to best write regulations for the facilities, which were stated to potentially require large amounts of electricity, create noise, and use ‘a lot’ of water. The goal of new regulations would be public health safety and consideration of adjacent properties.
The board approved the moratorium to eb in place through September 30.
The moratorium period regarding poultry facility regulations recently came to a close. The board unanimously adopted the regulations created at the suggestion of the planning commission. The regulations place classifications on types of birds, operation sizes, and waste management (and is thorough enough to even include emus and ostriches, which brought chuckles to the room).
Several pieces of roads department business move forward
Road project season is here, and several items on Tuesday’s agenda moved forward for the county roads department.
Bids were received from three companies for 2026 asphalt materials (Jebro Inc., Vance Brothers, and Asphalt & Fuel Supply) in four categories. Three bids, each the lowest of the three were accepted from Jebro Inc. and one (also the lowest in its category) was accepted from Vance Brothers after recommendation from Highway Superintendent Chris Jacobsen.
Gravel bids for 2026 were received by five different companies, each with bonds included. Those were given to the highway department to take under advisement to bring back a recommendation for the board.
An armor coating bid was awarded to Midwest Coatings, who bid .46 cents per square yard for all categories of continuous mileage sought in bids. The only bids that were received that were lower were for 6.1 to 9 continuous miles and 9.1 to 15 continuous miles from Vance Brothers, which were one cent cheaper at .45 cents.
Bids were opened for an asphalt surfacing deemed ‘Anselmo Road’. Two were received. The bid from Werner Construction was $3,098,433.20 while the bid from Paulsen Inc. totaled $3,364,122.57. Those bids will be reviewed by the county’s engineer partner in order to pass along a recommendation.
Change orders were made to asphalt projects #445 and #446 in the Gates area. Jacobsen told KCNI/KBBN following the meeting that the changes included shoulder repair and a little more ‘much needed’ road repair adjacent to the area the project would already have crews at.
Applications to cross right-of-way approved
Applications to cross right-of-way were approved for Red Fern Electric of Callaway and Custer Public Power District (CPPD).
Red Fern Electric: New well pipe install
CPPD: Three phase underground line
