Struggles to Find Staff and Equipment May Lead to Restructuring of Gage County Government

By Gordon HopkinsThe lack of equipment needed for road maintenance has become such an ordeal for some rural communities that it may lead to major changes in the makeup of some local governments. Gage County is one such community facing this possibility.The entire country is struggling with inflation, staffing shortages and supply chain issues. The impact on rural communities has meant delays in obtaining needed equipment. For example, as reported last week in FJN, communities in both Jefferson and Gage Counties have recently received grants for new ambulances, but even if ordered now, delivery of those ambulances are not expected for well over a year.The Gage County Board of Supervisors met on February 22, and discussed township road grader operator shortages as well as the cost of road graders.Supervisor Gary Lytle said, “I did have a township official that approached me and asked if the county would consider doing away with the township process and the county taking everything over under our highway department.”“The reasoning being the cost of equipment and the difficulty in getting grader operators and, you know, even supervisors,” said Lytle. “You struggle to get somebody to operate it, then you got a $300,000 piece of equipment out there that you have to replace every so many years.”Lytle added, “Some townships get behind on that. It just doesn't make sense for them to be out there buying quarter million dollar pieces of equipment.”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. According to Supervisor Don Schuller, “These operators are employed part time. It is getting increasingly difficult to find part time operators.”“I was thinking about this. Why not combine them?” asked Supervisor Emily Haxby. “You'd need less people, you would need less road graders, you'd still be able to keep up with those things. And then you would take basically, you'd have six townships instead of 24.”This would not actually change the townships but would combine the resources with Supervisor Erich Tieman noting, “Townships would work together.”Combining townships would allow the board to hire a full time operator with salary and benefits. County Attorney Roger Harris was asked by the board to research the legality of combining townships. The six-miles-by-six-miles township boundary and names would remain the same.Another possible approach is to switch to a different form of government in the county where the county maintains all of the roads. That would result in dramatic changes to the board.Schuller indicated, “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 of Nebraska to have a seven-supervisor board with the township board form of government.Schuller indicated, “Eliminating township boards would eliminate local control, which is not popular.”No action was taken at the meeting.

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