Broken Bow City Council made decisions on several ‘new business’ items during Tuesday night’s meeting.
Council approved the use of up to $65,000 of KENO funds that the city has been accumulating. The funds have restrictions on what they can be used for, but in general their use is intended for ‘community betterment’.
Broken Bow City Administrator David Schmidt said that the city has $151,000 accumulated in total and said that he would like to use the approved funds for items like bulk mulch, flowers, improvements in the square area, repairs to the signs at Melham Park, and taking the city’s Christmas decorations to ‘the next level’ due to aging and broken items. He added that it has been several years since there has been a request to use KENO funds.
Ryan Kavan of JEO Consulting came before council, first with an update on the Eagle Crest subdivision project. He said that concrete is going down and that work will continue as weather allows, citing the possibility of rain throughout the remainder of the week. Kavan said that May 15 is a realistic ‘substantially complete’ date for the current portion of the work.
Kavan explained two different storm pipe change options for the project to council, before the $11,314.38 option was approved by council.
Library books and materials alike have been receiving more attention in recent years. In response, Library Director Megan Svoboda said that she, the library board, and Schmidt felt that the city’s library needed a more expanded collection development policy. More specifically, a better defined process for what happens when materials in the library are challenged.
The policy verbiage change that was approved by council Tuesday night both protects free speech and allows for materials found to be truly inappropriate to be removed rather than content that Schmidt said is complained about just because of a person disagreeing with its message.
In other library business, Kristine Moninger was re-appointed to the library board for a term ending in February of 2029.
Last year’s annual Tax Increment Financing report was approved by council. The 2024 report shows fourteen projects with estimated outstanding indebtedness of over $1.5 million.
Streets surrounding the city square were approved for closure from 6 AM to 4 PM on July 12th for a car show as well as 4 PM to 11:59 PM that same day for a beer garden and concert during crazy days. A temporary closing of five parking spaces for a Bruning Bank lunch event in front of their location on June 6 was also approved by council.
Council and the mayor were joined by City Attorney Jason White for a closed session to close Tuesday’s meeting. No action took place and the meeting was adjourned at its conclusion.
