BROKEN BOW – The Broken Bow City Council held its first meeting of the new year on Tuesday at 6 p.m. in the Municipal Building. All council members were present.
The council quickly approved the consent agenda which included the approval of the December 13 meeting’s minutes as well as the bills as posted.
City Administrator Dan Knoell delivered an administrative update, which put the past month’s snowstorms in firm focus. All the credit and gratitude in the world, he said, only begins to cover how tirelessly city crews worked against seemingly impossible odds.
“I want to make sure the mayor and the council know about the great people that work for the city. For example, Darren Martin spent many extra hours moving snow. On January 3 he had been pushing snow since 2 a.m. all the way through to 6:30 p.m., and returned before midnight to push more snow, then worked from 5 p.m. to midnight the next day.”
That same dedication was present throughout Martin’s department; during the storm last week, Streets and Parks removed 20,000 yards of snow, over 2,000 dump truck loads, with at least, according to Knoell, another 1,000 to go, working over 50 hours in about 4 days to clear Broken Bow’s streets.
City Administrator Knoell also highlighted city projects for 2023 in his address, which will include the removal of H-frame structures between 10th and 9th Streets, and 9th and 8th Streets, where underground systems will be installed, sewer along Highway 2 from South 19th to South 15th Streets, and a gravity sewer from the Woodcrest Lift Station area to the Fairgrounds Lift Station area to accommodate roughly 32 new houses at Eagle Crest, and the creation of those lots in addition to the ongoing Custer School Project’s 6 future lots.
Knoell also urged the council to approve the mayor’s signature on the Civic and Community Center Financing Fund’s letter of intent, which he says as a dollar-for-dollar match could go a long way in helping alleviate the city’s ongoing childcare pinch, especially considering where Broken Bow won’t be competing with and how promising the premise is.
“With this grant, we don’t compete with Omaha, we don’t compete with Lincoln or Kearney, and they added Ralston to that list. I just got an e-mail from the state saying that we have a perfect idea and a perfect plan in place; they’re going to love to give us the money.”
The deadline for the letter of intent is January 15, though the council voted unanimously for the signature.
The meeting was adjourned at 6:13 p.m., with the next Broken Bow City Council meeting scheduled for Tuesday, January 24 at 6 p.m. As always, it will be open to the public.
