Gage County Newsletter

By Don Schuller 9/16/24 Committee MeetingPlanning and Zoning Administrator Lisa Wiegand told the board the Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) will be conducting three public hearings on Sept 24, 7:00 pm, Supervisors room, second floor of the courthouse. These are to address special use permit applications for a small solar array and two communication towers.Sheriff Gustafson informed us that the Hope Wymore facility is closing October first. Most of the occupants will be moved to the Hope facility in Plattsmouth.To facilitate applying for grants, Highway Superintendent Mark Kuhnke will be gathering information and conducting traffic counts on roads planned to be overlayed or converted from gravel to hard surface. The Virginia road, 162nd, is on the list. Priority projects to convert include Hickory Road to Highway 103 and the road on the west side of Adams between the blacktop and Highway 41. I will continue to pursue hard surfacing the three miles of gravel road south of Highway 4 past Virginia.The board does not know how the recent passing of legislation to reduce property taxes will affect progress on these projects or other infrastructure improvements. Personally, I fear the results will be negative and make it more difficult to accomplish. If the governor and those in support of eliminating inheritance tax are successful, we will suffer the consequences.Kuhnke presented us with a spreadsheet of the landowners who have been notified of trees and shrubs needing to be removed in the county easements. This allows the board to see progress. Kuhnke was told to provide the board with an update once a month. Presently the landowners are being contacted by phone rather than sending letters. Board of Supervisors Budget Hearing for Budget Year 2024-25Chairman Tiemann stated the tax asking will be going up by 1.4846%, to $11,217,823. A $164,000 increase from last year. Tiemann pointed out the board reduced the tax request in the previous two budgets. A big item in this budget is a proposed transfer out of inheritance funds for year 2024-25. It makes the budget look larger when money is borrowed out of inheritance funds and then paid back in the same year. This is the money that will cover the grants we are expecting. We have to budget for these. The grant money doesn’t come before a project is started. We have to have the money to start the project, and then, when the grant comes in, we put the money back into inheritance. It’s the same as borrowing the money from a lender, Tiemann explained.Expenses have increased by more than the 1.4846%, but with having trimmed down on people, insurance, etc., there are savings to prevent the county from increasing the tax asking even more.There were no comments from the public. 9/18/24 Regular MeetingBuildings and Grounds manager Dave Jones reported Masonry Construction is working on the east side of the courthouse with cleaning and patching mortar joints. Remodeling in the supervisor’s room is in progress.Chairman Tiemann said discussion is ongoing to appoint a P & Z commissioner. Due to recent changes to the appointment process, applications have been taken. Current commissioner Jeff Argo’s three-year term has expired. He continues to serve until the board moves forward with the new procedure. New policy opens the door for interested people to apply rather than an automatic re-appointment of the incumbent. Argo has applied.Highway Superintendent Kuhnke said construction on the east Pickrell bridge is making good progress. The walls and the deck will be poured at the end of the week. They are at 30 working days by the end of the week. The contract gives them 60 working days. If things continue to go well the project could be finished a week early.Gage County Tourism Director Dakota Hurly (https://www.visitbeatrice.com/) and the Great Plains Welsh Heritage Centre Museum (https://greatplainswelsh.org/index.html) President Qwen Colgrove, reported to the board that the Heritage Center is in need of more space. She said it is one-of-a-kind attraction about Welsh settlement in the United States. Last year, the National Festival of North America was held in Lincoln. This brought visitors to the Homestead National Historic Park and to the Welsh museum. The museum includes items from Wales, Canada, and throughout the United States. The existing building has run out of space. They need to expand by 2,200 square feet. I encourage people to visit the museum. You will see how full it is. It is very well organized and items are neatly displayed. It would be a big improvement to expand.Colgrove requested a tourism grant of $25,000. The expansion project is estimated to cost $175,000. The Welsh have raised nearly $70,000 for the project. Hurley said the attraction brings tourism to the area. Supervisor Lytle stated the attraction is remarkable and a good recipient for lodging tax revenue support. These funds are set aside to be used only to enhance and promote tourism in the county. I made the motion to approve the $25,000 grant, seconded by Lytle. Motion approved 7 – 0.A separate project, the Heritage Inn across the street, had a ribbon-cutting on Thursday Sept. 26 at 11:30 am with an open house to follow. The Inn and museum enhance each other with the Inn providing lodging for visitors. I am very proud of the people who made this all happen, including Qwen Colgrove’s leadership and many other volunteers at the museum, and Rebecca Cherney for believing in Wymore and investing her own funds to build the Heritage Inn (https://wymoreheritageinn.com/). It takes a lot of work and money to make it happen. It is great for Wymore and Gage County.Public Hearing for Support or Opposition to the 1-& 6-year PlanThe new one-and-six-year road plan was approved unanimously. It includes an ongoing bridge replacement project east of Pickrell. The Christ Lutheran and Odell blacktop overlay are big items for which grants have been received. Twelve culverts are slated for replacement. Repair work will be done on the Rockford Road, depending on budget funding. This is to be a state assisted mill and overlay project. We are waiting on the state to proceed.The board unanimously approved a resolution setting the 2024-25 tax request at a different rate than 2023-24. Also approved unanimously was the resolution adopting the County Budget for fiscal year 2024-25 with an increase of 1.4846%. Chairman Tiemann said “Our costs are up more than the 1.4846% increase. The way we have done this is watching what we spend, how we do things, how we operate. We’ve been very aggressive the last several years in mill and overlays, structure replacements, and bridge replacements through grants and leveraging grant money.”Motion by Supervisor Jurgens, seconded by Supervisor Lytle, to approve the reinstatement of the abandoned pioneer Pleasant Hill Cemetery in Paddock Township to active was approved unanimously. The county funds the mowing and maintenance on all abandoned cemeteries. Pleasant Hill will now be maintained by the cemetery’s association.The board voted unanimously to approve a draft Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), created by County Attorney Harris, between the Kansas counties of Marshall and Washington. Highway Superintendent Kuhnke explained that the county has had an MOU with Marshall County for years but not with Washington. Marshall shares six bridges with Gage, while Washington has one. The MOU states inspection and maintenance will be shared equally. Including any major rebuilding or replacement projects will be accomplished following state statutes of both states in the bidding process. The MOU’s will be sent to each Kansas county for review. The agreement is not final until approved by those counties.Nextlink Regional Director Aaron Clark addressed the board about their rural broadband project funded partially by the 4.3-million-dollar subsidy from the county, provided by the American Rescue Plan Act. Clark said Nextlink is now serving 983 with nearly 100 more to be added. The company has used additional grants and their own funds to work on contracts with Cortland and Clatonia. Supervisor Haxby pointed out that once those communities are served, every village in Gage County will eventually have access to fiber. Clark said grants have been received to have fiber in some of the other villages, including Barneston.Senator Dorn spoke to the board. He commended the board for the efforts made to bring fiber to the county. Dorn gave a brief explanation of how property tax relief is set up. He stated it is confusing. I agree with that. This highlights the portions of the county meetings I feel are most relevant to my constituents. Use the link below to view the actual minutes and hear audio of the board meeting, when posted.

Football Action

Caveat Lector

Related Articles

At Last, Dangerous Visions

Sentinels

Caveat Lector

Obituary for a Godfather