Gage County Supervisors Meeting

By Don Schuller, Gage County Supervisor Regular meeting 2/22/23:Planning and Zoning Administrator Lisa Wiegand informed the board that the commission has finalized solar regulations. A public hearing with P & Z will be held at 7:00 PM on Tuesday, March 14th in the courthouse supervisor’s room.I believe the proposed regulations are too restrictive, hindering needed economic development. The county board will make the final decision following another public hearing. Please make your thoughts known. I want to hear from you.Public hearings will be held March 2nd, same location and time, for a commercial greenhouse and a swine feeding operation. This will be followed by a county public hearing.The board discussed township road grader operator shortages and cost of road graders. It has been questioned whether it would be more efficient to combine township road maintenance or switch to a different form of government in the county where the county maintains all of the roads. With this form of government there would no longer be seven supervisors. It would become a five-commissioner board. Gage County is one of 25 in the 93 counties in Nebraska to have a seven-supervisor board with the township board form of government. Gage County has 24 townships with 24 township boards, all overseen by the county board. This means there are 24 road graders with potentially 24 operators. These operators are employed part time. It is getting increasingly difficult to find part time operators.Eliminating township boards would eliminate local control, which is not popular. Another option would be to combine township boards for two or three townships. Combining townships would allow the board to hire a full time operator with salary and benefits. County Attorney Roger Harris was asked to research the legality of combining townships. The six miles by six miles township boundary and names would remain the same.Thursday evening the annual township boards meeting was conducted at the Beatrice Veteran’s Club. All but one township was represented.Supervisors Tiemann and Jurgens spoke at the gathering. Jurgens informed the township boards of the rock and gravel allotments. Questions were asked about county road conditions, as many are not happy with them. It was expressed that too much dirt has been bladed into the road making the roads difficult to travel in wet conditions. Additional rock has been applied, or will be in most cases, followed up with gravel this spring. Jurgens explained it is a process to gain more crown in the road and he believes conditions will improve.Tiemann and Jurgens described the county board’s discussion to consider ideas of eliminating township government or combining townships for better efficiency. Their intention was to express the willingness of the board to consider these ideas and not favor either one.There were no notable remarks from those present.Future discussions are expected.In the past township board members expressed a need for county attorney assistance with notification to landowners for road side tree/brush issues.The county attorney has completed an official notice to be sent to owners with land adjoining county and township roads NOT in compliance with state statute.The notice states that the landowner has 14 days to provide a plan to the county for corrective measures. If removal of the issue or a compliance plan is not developed, Gage County may then send a certified letter for the stated issue.If still no work or compliance plan is developed, Gage County will hire work completed and the cost will be reflected on taxes. Township board members expressed gratitude for this action.

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