Supervisors discuss postcard mailing

Holt County Supervisors tackled several topics during a regular meeting, May 31, in the supervisors’ room at the Holt County Courthouse in O’Neill.

A quick discussion was held about watering of roads. Chairman Bill Tielke mentioned that people are watering their roads with sprinklers. He instructed county clerk, Cathy Pavel, to send a notice out to inform the public that it is against the law to saturate any road: including the use of all sprinklers; it is not limited to just irrigation end guns.

The next item on the agenda was selecting a print company for postcard production.

Pavel told supervisors if any school, district, college or county raises its levy more than 2.5% for growth, the county must inform the public, to allow for a public hearing. The clerk said the turn-around time to produce the cards would be short. She suggested using the Nebraska Department of Administrative Services, which is the state printing company, since it would have everything on hand in case postcards need to be sent out.

Tielke asked how often would postcards need sent.

Pavel said, “It would be a yearly thing if the levy goes over that 2.5% growth.”

Pavel also pointed out that Holt County is responsible for sending out post cards if the levy were to go up, even for a school district.

Supervisor Doug Frahm, mentioned he has read up on LB1250, the “Postcard Bill”.

“Big cities were getting casinos hadn’t raised their taxes to build the parking lots … People were not being notified, so a state senator said we need to send postcards to notify the people,” Frahm said.

Use of a local company was mentioned, but Pavel said the post cards would have a five-day turn around, which would be tough for the bulk rate of about 13,000 postcards that would be needed. Pavel thought the NDAS would charge about 50 cents per postcard without mailing.

Supervisor Darrin Paxton made a motion to designate the NDAS as the print company for postcard production and Frahm seconded the motion. The remainder of the board voted in favor.

Employee health screenings were discussed. Pavel explained that in previous years, insurance would cover blood draws for employees. However, the company that Meritain Health used to partner with went bankrupt. Last year, Pavel approached the board about paying for screenings.

“It was probably money ahead for us because they do catch things that aren’t always noticeable,” Pavel said.

A blood draw and health screening would run $75 per employee. County employees would be responsible for any extra screenings received. In the past, Pavel said around 80 employees have participated.

Supervisors discussed sending out a letter or notification letting employees know what dates screenins would be available. Pavel said she would need to contact the hospital to see if employees would pay the bill upfront and be reimbursed from the county or if the county would pay one big bill.

More information is needed on the screenings and the item was tabled until a later meeting.

Five tracts of land were on the county zoning approval list. Butterfield made the motion to approve all five tracts and Paxton seconded the motion.

Frahm brought up a question he had from one of his operators.

If a landowner’s tree falls on the road, is it the landowners’ responsibility to clean the tree off the road?

The board mentioned that this has been an ongoing question of who’s responsibility the trees are.

“While they are standing and growing, they are the landowner’s property. Once they fall on the road, it is county’s property. Otherwise, Holt County could be liable if someone got hurt by the hazard in the road,” Tielke said.

There was a twenty minute break while the supervisors waited for Gary Connot, county highway superintendent, to arrive since there were some adjustments on the meeting agenda.

Connot presented a right-of-way permit for Three River Communications, for fiber cable, to provide new service to the west edge of O’Neill. Keyes made a motion for the ROW permit for Three River Communications and Paxton seconded the motion. The remainder of the board voted yes.

Connot talked about storm damages and an infrastructure grant application. He said that Holt County has received more Federal Emergency Management Agency money.

“Previous to this budget year, we have only received about $700,000 through the FEMA pot of money. This budget year, we got another $1.878 million dollars. Based on amounts and how things are going, we anticipate another $1.5 million in FEMA reimbursements,” Connot said.

In total, Holt County has received $4.8 million in reimbursements.

Connot informed the board he received notification by email to participate in a National Association of Counties survey request and regional transportation grant. He said he let them know the county is interested. He was asked the three most important needs for the county, which he replied were road construction, road resurfacing - asphalt and bridge construction. The next question asked the three challenges for Holt County and he responded with access to products or equipment, the interdepartmental lack of initiation in lack of planning or engineers and technical assistance for grants.

Connot presented projects crews have been working on and progress of each. He also presented several culvert requests and the June newsletter.

The meeting adjourned until the next meeting on Wednesday, June 15, with the board of equalization meeting beginning at 9a.m., and the supervisors meeting starting at 9:15 a.m.