BROKEN BOW – The Custer County Board of Supervisors met in regular session Tuesday morning (August 27) with a variety of items ahead on their agenda. District 3 Supervisor Barry Fox was the lone absence.
In Board of Equalization business, the board approved the levy allocation requests for all subdivisions for the upcoming fiscal year, pending only decisions later in the day’s business regarding the Corner Township. District 1 supervisor Anne Gibbons was the lone “no” vote, citing the desire for separate motions, more time to discuss, and that the budget is still pending. In addition to the townships themselves requests included, from the Custer County Ag Society: $184,230, from the Callaway Hospital: $40,800, and from the Douglas Grove Cemetery: $9,872.
Taking into account the $.15 limitation, all townships fall within the parameter. According to information before the supervisors Tuesday, Cliff Township sits the closest to the $.15 limit at 0.148929, while the Milburn Township sits on the other end of the spectrum at 0.008048.
Requests, levy amounts, valuations, and a $0.15 levy check can be seen in the document below.
The subject of support for the Seven Valleys Historical Society and the Custer County Historical Society came up for a decision next. Custer County’s ask was for $8,500 and Seven Valleys’ request was $8,000, both the same as years prior. After a motion made by Anne Gibbons and seconded by Sara Parliament to reduce both amounts of money by 1/3 failed, a motion by Dwain Bryner that was seconded by Lynn Longmore passed, (Bryner-Yes, Longmore-Yes, Parliament- No, Gibbons- No, Kleeb- Yes) approving full dollar amount support.
Curtis Stallbaumer, treasurer for the Wood River Township, came before the board with concerns regarding road maintenance. More specifically, Stallbaumer said the township is having trouble finding someone to operate their machine. In addition, he expressed to the board that they are having continued trouble filling seats on the township board and that a dissolving of the board (Similar to the recent Corner Township) might be necessary soon.
A discussion ensued where Stallbaumer stated that he feels the county does a good job on roads now, and doesn’t feel that that would suffer if responsibility was given to their crews. County Roads Superintendent Chris Jacobsen offered his input, which included that the county could take over the townships road work, but he would need to hire an additional employee which can be a hard task. Several supervisors expressed their concern with the dissolving of another township board, citing the control that is lost when that happens. A comparison was drawn between the recently-dissolved Corner Township which has 13 registered citizens and the Wood River Township with over 200 registered voters.
Stallbaumer said he would take points from the discussion back to his board and that they would re-evaluate keeping the board while relinquishing road work to the county as several other townships do already. A short general discussion followed about the concern of it “just being the beginning” of townships dissolving due to low interest in serving on boards from their citizens.
Armor coating bid talks continued in Tuesday’s meeting. Jacobsen told the board that the bid is high, and is higher than the bid that was rejected last year. Bidding out the armor coating project would allow the county roads crews to continue with their normally scheduled project, while doing armor coating themselves would require them to pause their new road construction. The board, besides an “abstain” vote from Gibbons, voted yes to rejecting the bid and allowing the roads department to negotiate within $50,000 of the estimate of what it would cost them to do themselves ($135,000).
A quitclaim deed to the Broken Bow Township for a 2.45 acre parcel (S3-T15-R21) just east of town of Highway 2 was formalized with Chairman Chip Blowers’ signature approved by the board.
The annual agreement for county employees who don’t utilize insurance through the county to take a $450 per month cash option was also approved.
Custer County Assessor Elise Taylor addressed the board regarding an ongoing project: locating and identifying all cemeteries within Custer County. Taylor said her list continues to grow with her research, with assistance from the Custer County Historical Society. The current list as of Tuesday morning of more than 70 cemeteries can be seen at the end of this story.
The regular Board of Supervisors meeting adjourned at 10:55 AM. The open meeting for the board acting on behalf of the Corner Township then began immediately.
An additional 1% of restricted funds authority was approved for the township for the fiscal year ahead. A preliminary levy allocation request totaling $5,503.92 was also approved. However, citing due claims and needed road improvements discussions began about the need for a town hall meeting ahead of increasing the levy.
The meeting on behalf of the Corner Township adjourned at 11:14 AM.
