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02/18/2007: "Debate over dilpidated building seems to ended in peace"

It looks like the turmoil over an abandoned building in downtown Crofton is on its way to being resolved, following the Monday, Feb. 12 meeting of the Crofton city council.
It appears an agreement between the building’s owner, former resident Dennis Mines, and Great Plains Communications, whose Crofton headquarters are located immediately north of the building, has been reached for Great Plains to purchase the property.
City attorney Dale Riesberg asked the council’s patience for the next three months as the purchase is completed. The agreemen will not only transfer ownership of the property to the phone company, but will set in motion activity that will result in the demolition of the building. Riesberg suggested the council table any action pertaining to the building to its May 2007 meeting, at which time, the matter will have been taken care of.

Also at the meeting, the council discussed the Civil Defense Director’s position, which it has been trying to fill in anticipation of current director Dave Zavadil’s resignation. One applicant for the job, Jamie Tramp, was at the meeting to discuss her interest and qualifications.
Mayor Wendell Strom indicated that Zavadil has agree to remain as a co-director, and would keep such responsibilities as issuing storm alerts and maintaining the radio contact with area storm watchers, as well as NOAA weather stations in Valley. He asked that another person share responsibilities with him and take on such duties as attending Civil Defense meetings, and organizing local weather watchers.
Councilman Steve Kuehler, who along with assistant fire chief Paul Schoenberner, have been attending area health organization meetings concerning potential pandemic illness outbreaks and preparations for such an onslaught of an ilness,most possibly the flu. Kuehler noted that with each meeting they attend, he coms home with volumes of forms he must fill out so preparations for local responses to widespread illness can be made.
“This (Civil Defense Director) job is not a very simple job anymore,” Kuehler noted.
The council decided to continue paying the $50 monthly retainer to Zavadil for his continued work, and will visit with Tramp about her interest in the job, as well as working to create a more defined roll for the position.
Sherri Custer-Ermels spoke with the council about the townhouse duplex that is for sale in the southern area of the city. The duplex was built a year ago by the Northeast Housing Initiative, based in Allen. The duplex, which is two full-size homes attached by garages, have had little interest, fording NEHI to relax some of the purchase requirements.
NEHI has reduced the price from the mid-$90s to $64,000 for oneof the units. The age-restriction requirement has also been lifted, and anyone, not just senior citizens as was the case before, can purchase the home.
Custer-Ermels, local realtor and who is handling the properties for NEHI, noted that in certain cases of income, a potential buyer may even get some financial assistance.
“There’s been a lot of bad publicity about the duplex,” Custer-Ermels stated. “Almost all of what’s being said about it is not true. I’ve had people tell me they heard there is no basement; but in fact, they each have a full basement unde them.” She added that if people have any intrest in the property, they owe it to themselves to take a look at it and see what is being offered.
In other discussion, Dan Leise, general manager of Cedar-Knox Public Power District, and Terry Thunker, Crofton, who is on the power district board of directors, appeared before the council to explain how certain rates were going to go up in the coming years.
When Nebraska Public Power District was operating the Crofton electric system, it gve the city a discount for street light operation, as high aas 33 percent of the retail cost. But NPPD turned the electrical system over to Cedar-Knox a few years ago.
Recently, Cedar-Knox had a rate consultant review their entire system, and one of the recommendations the consultant suggested the poer district do was phase out street light discounts.
“The thing is, some towns were getting big discounts, other towns small discounts and some towns no discountat all,” Leise stated. “We felt, in fairness to all our municipal customers, we’ll remove the discounts.”
Leise noted that Crofton’s discount amounts to a savings of around $3000. The city pays about $13,000 annually for street lights and power to them.
Starting in May, and then every January after that for the next seven years, Cedar-Knox will trim small portions off the discount until finally, the city will be paying full price for streets lights and power. This will take place in all the municipalities Cedar-Knox serves.
By making it a gradual descent, the city won’t have to take a large financial hit, but will be able to absorb the increase in costs slowly.
It was noted that NPPD, which supplies Cedar-Knox with the electricity it sells, recently projected that it will probably raise rates by four percent for each of the next five to six years.
The council voted to accept a bid of $16,169 for a 2007 F150 Ford 4x4 pickup, after reviewing six bids that were submitted. The winning bid, which was about $2000 lower than the next lowest bid, came from Robinson Motors, of Yankton.
Riesberg handed out surveys showing the 2.79 acres of land the city will annex near the Crofton Elevator. The property, which is part of the elevator’s property, needed to be annexed into the city limits when the elevator constructed grain storage bins on it. The annexation will be final next month when Riesberg completes work on the ordinance.
The council voted to trim the utility termination time by a month. Prior to its action, it took the city almost four months before it could terminate water and sewer service of those past due accounts. Now, the change cuts the time to 45 days.
The council also voted to purchase two new computers and monitors for the city clerk and police department. The computers will cost close to $1000 each by the time adequate memory and a sufficient monitors are added to the computer price, which was obtaind by clerk Nancy Foxhoven from local and online dealers.
The council instructed the maintenance men to take steps to remedy a drainage problem that exists at the sidewalk near the Magic Mirror business in downtown Crofton. Water draining from melting snow and ice in the parking lot behind People’s Grocery Store runws across the sidewalk and when it is cold enough, creates a large area of ice, which is quite dangerous to people walking there. Maintenance crews will install a drainage gutter that will allow the excess water to flow under the sidewalk and drain into the street.
The council approved monthly health insurance payments for city employees Larry Stallbaum and Mark Krepel. The city policy is to pay up to $500 for health insurance for city employees, and both men submitted policy payments under that figure.
Water and sewer superintendnet Leon Wakeley suggested that, instead of hiring two youths to serve as summer maintenance employees this coming summer, the city could hire one adult worker, whose eventual role would be to take over when Wakeley retires. He said he plans on retiring from his city position this coming fall, and having someone working with he and Stallbaum through the summer months would enable that person to better take over when Wakeley retires. The council agreed and plans to advertise for such a position, as well as swimming pool employees, which Foxhoven said she was planning on seeking in the coming weeks.