CUSTER COUNTY, Neb.— The Custer County Board of Supervisors met Tuesday morning for a meeting that would last less than an hour. Anne Gibbons was the lone absence.
Interlocal communications agreement between Broken Bow, Custer County approved
Broken Bow City Administrator Dave Schmidt and Custer County Emergency Manager Mark Rempe came before the board regarding an interlocal communications agreement between the city and county. Schmidt said that the agreement up for approval was the result of lots of work between all parties involved.
Instead of an ongoing agreement with ’99 year’ language attached, the new agreement allows the city and county to ‘sit at the table’ once every three years to evaluate where things stand. It also drops the city of Broken Bow’s cost percentage of the communications operation from 45% to 35%, while also requiring a City Council approval if there is more than a 3% budgetary ask from the county. There are also a couple changes to the makeup of the advisory/oversight effort from the two sides.
The agreement was approved unanimously.
Conditional use permit approved for Verizon cell phone tower near Mason City
Darren Hunter came before the board representing Vertical Bridge Cell Towers and Verizon, seeking approval on a conditional use permit to construct a tower Northeast of Mason City to assist in coverage strength in the area.
Hunter stated that the nearest towers to the area were a few miles away, that this tower would be 255 feet tall, and that there is one residence within a half mile of its site on leased land.
The permit was approved by the board unanimously, and comes with the availability of space on the tower for the county’s 911 operations if desired.
Broken Bow City Administrator makes statement on data centers
During the public comment period at the end of the meeting, Broken Bow City Administrator Dave Schmidt came forward to make a short statement to the board and the residents of the county regarding a current hot topic, data centers. The county and the city are both looking to adopt zoning regulations regarding the structures.
“Your concerns are heard. Your concerns are shared. That’s why these zoning regulations are so important,” said Schmidt.
Public concerns include utility, water, and electricity usage as well as noise levels from the structures. A short discussion that ensued afterward touched on the many different types of data centers, how some of them don’t require water, and that everyone is ‘in the same boat’ in trying to take in as much information on them as possible as regulations are worked to be put in place.
Other items from Tuesday’s meeting
- The board approved the signing of the 2027 community-based juvenile services aid enhancement grant award. $172,684 will be made available to juveniles in the county that need assistance.
- Kelly Flynn gave the quarterly recycling report to the board. He said a load of paper was sold recently, and that in general prices were up. A discussion had been opened with St. Paul and Burwell about a raise in rates for their trailers brought to the county. The CEDC will be assisting Flynn in applying for grants to help the recycling center’s operation costs.
- Shawn Boyd came forward representing the surveyor’s office. He expressed a concern about records being available to those surveying when staff is out of office and records are locked into locations not available to others. The issue can be rectified by scanning past records to be available electronically.
- Three applications to cross right of way were approved. One was for a water pipe across County Road 805, one was for underground powerline for Custer Public Power District (CPPD) across Fairview Drive north of Callaway, and a third was for CPPD for underground powerline across Road 785 southwest of Callaway.
Tuesday’s meeting adjourned at 9:49 AM.
