BROKEN BOW – The Custer County Board of Supervisors held a marathon meeting Tuesday, the focus of which was how the upcoming year’s budget would be allocated and balanced. All members were present.
Donna Glendy of the Seven Valleys Historical Society approached the board with an increased ask for her organization due to tumultuous circumstances that most of the county has known all too well.
“We know that our insurance is probably going to go up next year considering the hail damage that we had. The annex alone had about $43,000 of hail damage.”
Glendy pointed out that the Seven Valleys Historical Society had not asked for an increase in a great many years, and cited a total of 147 holes in the roof of one of the museum’s four buildings as one reason for the ask increase. The number she arrived at was $8,000 for the year, with an additional, one-time $10,000 to help with repairs and insurance coverage.
After a short deliberation, Supervisor Bobby Myers succinctly paraphrased the general feeling of the board. “I like old stuff. I think history’s pretty important, and we have money sitting around that’s for things like this.” His motion to approve Glendy’s ask was amended to include a one-time additional $15,000, $5,000 above the initial ask. It passed, unanimously and emphatically.
The Ag Society and Cliff Township were two more beneficiaries of levy requests; the board granted the former a 3% increase over last year, and the latter’s one-time increase to help repay the township’s disaster loan.
Resolutions 33-2022, 32-2022, and 31-2022 were approved unanimously. Resolution 31 dealt with substitutions of securities for Nebraska State Bank, 32 with a Direct Road Study petition on Road #47 resulting in partial closure of the east-west thoroughfare, and 31 with a declaration of certain items in county office’s inventory as surplus.
Clerical salaries for the upcoming fiscal year were discussed, as well; a 3% increase was batted around. The board voted to pay the remaining balance of the Judicial Center’s bond, roughly $810,000 not including interest; Supervisor Stunkel cast the only nay.
The afternoon was spent adjusting and reviewing the budget for the fiscal year.
The next supervisors’ meeting will take place after Labor Day, on September 13. As always, the meeting is open to all members of the community.
