City Council - Regular Meeting

I call this meeting the Chatham City Council Order.

Would you please join us in the Pledge of Allegiance? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. As required by Section 84-1412, Subsection A of the Nebraska Statutes, notice is hereby given that a copy of the Opens Meeting Act is posted for examination on the wall inside the door to the City Council Chambers. I'd like to welcome the guests we have this evening. Could we have a roll call, please?

George Klein?

Here.

Shane Shepper?

Here.

Mark Graves? Here. Kevin Alexie, absent. Clay Anderson?

Here. Do we have a motion for approval of the agenda?

I'll make a motion to approve the agenda. I'll second that.

Motion by Clay, seconded by Shane to approve the agenda. We have a roll call, please.

Graves? Yes. Anderson? Yes. Klein? Yes. Shepper?

Yes. You have a motion to approve the consent agenda? I'll move to approve the consent agenda.

I'll second.

Motion by Shane, second by Mark to approve the consent agenda, which includes minutes for the special and regular city council meeting held August 3rd, a monthly treasurer's report for July, and the water report for July, fire department membership update. There's currently 45 members Special designated licenses are numerous. One is Bean Broker Coffee House and Pub. Special designated license for Slim Days on September 19th on West 2nd Street. Chatham State College football games on September 3rd, 19th, and 26th. October 17th and 31st, November 14th. Niobrary Valley Vineyards for the Harvest Moonfall Festival at the Dallas County Fairgrounds on October 3rd. Wild's Bar and Grill, Back to School Bash at the Chatham Arts Center on August 22nd. NSCS, Nebraska State College System Board of Trustees reception of the Sandoz Center Chacoin Atrium on September 9th. Slim Days on September 19th on West 2nd Street. Hall of Fame banquet at the CSC Student Center Ballroom on September 25th. Dr. Kupper's inauguration reception at the CSC Chacoin Center Arena on October 9th. Shatton State Foundation Annual Dinner at the CSC Student Center Ballroom on October 9th, and Distinguished Alumni Banquet at CSC Student Center Ballroom on October 30th. Any questions about any of those things that are in the consent agenda? If not, could we have a roll call, please?

Graves? Yes. Anderson?

Yes.

Klein? Yes. Shepard?

Yes. First thing on the agenda, John Reed, Northwest Nebraska Development Corporation.

Well, hi, everybody.

Good news is we got some rain. The bad news is I got a four-pager tonight, so... I'm gonna put you through it. We co-hosted on the fourth an event with Six Regions One Nebraska. That's their traveling road show. It was a really good meeting. She had two presenters that didn't show up, but the discussion after The presenter that did show up was really good. We ended up getting a good hour and a half out of that meeting. We had a lot of people from outside our local region that showed up, so good discussion starts at the end of that meeting. And then on the 11th, we hosted our first Workforce and Housing Development Roundtable at the same conference room. What we're doing is six regions, one Nebraska, has an agenda for three major municipalities, and those municipalities are then hosting their own individual events based on what we have identified as the needs for that community. So for us, we brought in Five Rule Planning, Make My Move, the State of Nebraska Certified Apprenticeship Program, and we also had a presentation from Valerie Beal, who just finished a housing project, real small housing project in Gordon. We had really good turnout for that. We had 25, we had 17 in the room and eight online. We had eight to 10, a couple of people jumped in and out. So really good turnout, really good online turnout. And I think we're gonna be doing more, at least one more of these before the end of the year. Since this meeting we've had expressions of interest from a state agency. The Department of Labor would like to come to Chadron and do an event. They're talking about a half-day event focused strictly on workforce development and I got an inquiry Thursday evening from a person representing a local child care organization that wants to have an event sometime before the end year as well. So it looks like a lot of the discussion that we're bringing to the forefront is resulting in action locally, which is really what we want to see. We want these discussions to go on and we really want these people to understand that we have the facilities here to bring people in and have these kind of events and I think it went really well. So Got that to look forward to throughout the rest of the year. Our social media efforts have seen some very good progress. Our Facebook page has gone from 17 followers when I started in January, we're up to 331 as of right now. Every time I check our Facebook page or go to make a post, there's always two or three new followers on our page, which means that our visibility is being raised considerably. That's the result of Our efforts in conjunction with Travel and Tourism, with Gabby at the Chamber, we all work together. Six regions, one Nebraska helps us as well. But the bottom line is we're really starting to feed off of each other's posts and interactions and that's helping us dramatically. Anything that I put up now through our Facebook page is going to go directly to our Website and in DC's website to help increase traffic there as well so if I put a article up like for example if we put up a when we put up the article for our Spotlight on the good life for the museum that article goes in it's well presented created by and then the link to read the article goes to our website. So we get the traffic coming and going. It's a really good system that we're using. And it really helps us with what's called top of response on Google. So if somebody wants to Google this region and find out what's going on here, we're always gonna consistently in the top five of that response. And that's partially due to the result of our traffic. I'm currently in works with Golden Shovel to create an Upcoming Events tab on our Facebook. Right now, for some reason, we don't really have a lot of events on our website. We can partner with the other people that we work with for events. They'll help us, like I said, and we help them. But we don't have anything like that on our website. So we're gonna add that to our website. and see if that can help drive a little bit more traffic. But overall, I think our social media efforts have gone really well this year. We're doing really good and GSA is a big part of that. Excuse me. So right now we still have two loan opportunities that are Still circling the effort and they haven't really committed yet and we had one new one last week that looks very promising. And that's an existing customer that wants to buy a new business. So we hope we're able to work with him before the end of the year. We also have begun very preliminary high-level discussions with a local NLD regarding a possible new childcare facility here in Chadron. These are very early stages, but it looks very promising. If we can make this effort work, it will help dramatically with our childcare shortage. Housing efforts are also making progress. Our recent sessions with PAD have sparked a lot of interest and discussion. I get calls three or four a week now, people talking about housing, wanting to know what can be done about housing. There's a lot of momentum starting to build around housing. Ultimately, we'll be able to present an environment that is attractive to developers and residents in need of affordable housing solutions. In the future, if we follow through with these efforts, housing, childcare, and increased visibility will help create an attractive economic environment for new investment and economic growth in our region. This month I want to raise awareness around a new grant opportunity I'm going to be pursuing. The USDA has a grant available to help upgrade and repair well water and septic systems that looks like a great opportunity for our rural residents outside of the city and water sewer service. So even though there's only a few, my research shows we have maybe two or three septic tanks still within the city limits, but this grant opportunity, this is a really a really strong and well-funded grant that had to be re-extended because they didn't get enough applicants for it last year. So there's about $6 million sitting in this fund. My goal is to get us registered as the administrating agency and try to get this money into the community as quickly as possible. I took a class this morning on grant writing. It's not gonna be quite as simple a process as I thought it might be, but if we can get it through and get it done, it's gonna be really good for the community. So I'm hoping we get maybe $250,000, $300,000 out of it would be really good for us. And I also want to remind everyone that there's also some very low interest disaster relief loans available through the SBA. That's for brick and mortar businesses as well as farming and rural. those disaster we qualify for those because we are adjacent to the identified disaster counties so if anybody has any questions about that come see me happy to explain it and happy to help get any applications in that we can that I think it's a really good opportunity somebody has been impacted by drought and fire Let's see. Regarding general administration efforts, I have completed review and updates on our employee handbook. And now I'm gonna start working on our loan program procedures. That's gonna be most of my attention after we get through the bulk of these summer efforts. It's not as complex and it's not as pressing an issue right now, but there are some things about the way we've been administering our loan program that are gonna need to be addressed officially through my board. I've also been invited to speak at the Cost of Freedom event in Crawford on September 12th. We helped with this event in the early stages. I did one of their business awareness flyers that I did for CSC early on. And I'm going to go speak at a missing man table that's part of their, that ceremony's going on for like four days. It's gonna be really big for them too. So that's a good chance for us to go show some support for our sister community in Crawford. And NDC is having a very successful 2026 and I wanna thank the council and the public for its continued support as we move forward. We've got a lot going on. Any questions?

Talk a little bit more about that water and sewer thing. Sure. You said there was only a couple septics?

Yeah. My understanding in the city is most city residents are on city water and on city sewer.

All of Hidden Valley has septic tanks. Yeah. So... Quite a few homes out there.

Yeah, that's great. So the way this is going to work is if you're on a septic system that needs repair or needs upgrade to modernization, you're going to qualify for this program. And it's a first come, first serve. Once they get the funds obligated, they're gone. But like I said, I see it as a good opportunity because nobody took advantage of it last year. I mean, they had to reissue their request because they didn't get enough respondents. And there's a lot of money sitting in that account. I'd sure love to see us get, like I said, a quarter million, 300,000. And then the way it'll work is, and it has to be run through a nonprofit. So NNDC, I would imagine, would partner with the city in some way. I don't know how they're gonna disperse the funds, but ultimately we're gonna have not low interest loans, but actual grant money. to help make these changes. So if we can get it, the window closes at the end of September. I have a final consultative call with a lady from the USDA on Thursday. It's basically a question and answer period of about 15 minutes, and then I can start the grant application. First grant I've ever done, I want to do it because I've never done it. So it's a good learning opportunity too.

Are any of these funds retroactive?

No, I don't think they'd be retroactive because they didn't give any out, you know, particularly in our region. So nothing in the verbiage that I've read so far says they'd be retroactive, no.

Someone last month replaced their drain field or their septic or whatever, if that would be covered, but it's something going forward.

My position is all they can do is say no. From what I see, I don't think it does, but there's no reason not to apply.

Your own septic. Yeah, it's replaced mine. And he just did his field test.

That's awesome.

I just got to think.

Is it for brand new installation?

Yeah, sure, yeah. Repair and upgrade is how it's structured now, but that's the verbiage I read, I should say, says... upgrade and repair. I don't know why it wouldn't be new construction, but again, that doesn't hurt to ask. I mean, it's federal money.

Is it only in city limits or city, the city?

No, that's the other aspect of it, too. When I first started looking into this, I didn't realize. I assumed we didn't have any septic or well within the city, but we found out we did have a couple. But the reason I went for it was for local residents outside of the city limits, and they still qualify. That's primarily what it's geared for, is for rural residents that aren't, currently on municipal services so this is an opportunity for if we can raise awareness we can get people outside city limits more rural customers involved in it as well i think it's a good really good opportunity for a lot of people and again i see it as economic development in a way because the the the more modern our services are the better the better we more attractive we are as a community way you look at it new construction is an upgrade right right yeah I mean my way yeah I'd certainly go after it I have no reason not to certainly go after it is anybody building new septic really well okay yeah that's good to know yeah yeah let's get it let's see if I can get it I don't want to talk it too much because if I don't get it then I know we get people excited if we don't get it, but I'd sure like to get it. I think we got a good chance, particularly if they're having a hard time getting people to take their money. I'm kind of in the same situation. We've got money to lend. We've got grant money for childcare and stuff. We can't give it away. We're just not getting the applicants.

So in your pre-application work, is it... Did you conclude that it's need-based or they don't care?

You have to be able to demonstrate the need. You're certainly going to have to demonstrate that you've got a written estimate.

You've got everything else covered, but you don't have money for...

Septic system. Exactly. So your septic's in need of repair. You're a rural resident. You haven't, for whatever reason, your income isn't where it needed to be this year. You don't have the funding to do it. This is a grant program to make sure that it gets done and make sure it gets done right. That's their motivation here. I think it's cool. I'll take it if we can get it. Once, if we get it approved, yeah. Yeah, as it stands right now, it's going to be, the way the posting is written, it says it has to be administered through a, quote, a local nonprofit entity. So we would qualify for that, but I would assume there's going to have to be some type of partnership with the city to administer the funds. I don't know. We'll have to, once we get there, if they've got $300,000 to give me, we'll figure it out.

Is there administration fees that are going to be included in that grant?

Not that I can see.

No, I think it's, I think what they're counting for us for doing the additional cost on those. I mean, there's always a cost when you do pass through funds and everything else, you know, not only our staff and people that are doing that kind of stuff, we need to make sure that we're asking for those funds. to help cover some of our costs, too.

Well, keep in mind, I don't know that the city is going to have to be involved yet. I'm thinking, based on what I've seen in other, like the way we run the LBA 40 program, that kind of thing. From what I've seen in the past, it usually has to, there has to be some type of partnership with the local municipality if we're working within the city limits. There's got to be some kind of cooperation and coordination. I don't know what that looks like yet. As I was saying, this is the first grant I've gone after, so I don't know what it's going to look like. But to me, it seems like none of those hurdles would be insurmountable if we had money to give out to help people. I think we'd be able to figure it out. I just don't know what it would look like. What are you thinking, George? It sounds like a good deal, I think.

Yeah.

Well, I'm thinking that it only relates to people in regard to the city if they had a decrepit septic system and it needed to be replaced so that the city involvement in something like that, I think, would just be permitting, yeah, and making sure it's done according to... and for those outside the city limits, you'd probably be talking to the county.

I think my confusion lies in the fact that from what my research shows that NNDC, as far as I can see, has never individually and independently administered a grant. That's one of the things that we talk about all the time. We have matching funds for loans. We refer people to grant programs. We can help you fill out your grants, that kind of thing. But I don't see that we've ever, as an independent entity, administered a grant. So that's the part that I'm still a little gray on. Anything else? Thanks. Okay, thanks, guys.

Okay, next on the agenda is ordinance number 1449, second reading. Ordinance number 1449 is before the council for a second reading. Please read ordinance number 1449 by title.

An ordinance to adopt the 2026-2027 budget statement to be termed the annual appropriations bill to appropriate sums for necessary expenses and liabilities, directing the publication of this ordinance and prescribing the time when this ordinance shall be in full force and effect.

Okay, discussion. We've got to have some discussion. And it is closely tied together with the budget. And of course the big question on the horizon is what's our tax rate gonna be? We did receive The valuation for the city, total taxable value is $372,707,407. And the prior year was $342,890,580. Our growth value was $1,514,920, and if I interpret those things correctly, I take the current one, subtract the prior year, and subtract the growth, our assessed valuation increased on the same properties. went up by 28 million, which is about eight and a quarter percent community-wide. I think this was a year for residential increases and not commercial. The county assessor tends to, and there could be some variations to that. One year they'll do commercial and the next two they do residential. They do that to bring it in compliance with the state law that it has to be taxed, assessed at a certain level of what the sales are. I always term that as the valuations chase the sales to try to get up to that level. If anybody has a different opinion about how that works, let me know. So in the budget, which are we getting to?

It's close to what you kind of estimated too, wasn't it, Tom?

Yeah, as far as what we estimated for that, when Michelle and I met this last week, the numbers that we had estimated for that, we felt it was close enough to those numbers that we asked for, was that we stayed with the same numbers of the the $1,427,192. That will actually lower the mill levy based off of that information. Last year we had a growth rate of 3.03. This year our growth rate is only going to be 2.44. So we feel that that is adequate. So the mill levy will actually go down with what we actually have here unless the council decides that they would like to maintain the mill levy and then that would add some extra dollars into the funds

The property tax ad valorem that's in the budget, like Tom mentioned, was $1,427,192.93, and the last year's was $1,330,242. which is a 7.29% increase, which is slightly less than 1% of that previous figure that I gave you. And that's why Tom mentioned that the mill levy will actually decrease ever so slightly. But your taxes will go up. If if you had if you had an increase on your property if they stayed the same you'll benefit actually a couple dollars But the things that it received an increase I looked at that in my home, I'm probably going to be looking at An extra four or five hundred dollars and $40 a month. So any other questions, comments about what we're looking at?

What is the mill levy right now?

0.39 something, something, something.

I think Michelle's got the actual numbers in front of her on the mill levy itself I don't have the actual from last year but the property tax requests for this year, for 26-27, ends up being a mill levy rate of 3.86794. And so the 25-26 mill levy is about a hundredth higher, .3976, something like that. It's pretty close, but it did go down. The request, the actual property tax request is $1,441,000 because they have us add in a treasurer fee, and that's part of our request, but of that we wouldn't get all of that. So... That's it in a nutshell. However, I wanted to point out that the property tax request that we are filing for this year does require us to go to the postcard joint meeting.

You said we will have to?

Yes.

I thought you said we didn't have to earlier.

No. In order to avoid that meeting, our levy would have to go down to 1.36 million. So before I fill out the questionnaire from the treasurer, I need to let you know that the 1.44 requires us to go to the joint meeting and if you don't want to do that then i'll have to change things around a bit in the conference In June that I went to the finance and clerks conference, the state auditor gave a budget update and he said that this year it's not required to go to the pink postcard meeting, but next year they're gonna make it required for everybody whether or not you surpass that limitation or not. So that's what he said. Whether they enforce that or not, I don't know. But he did say that they were going to make it required to go to the joint meeting in future years.

Well, if we've got to go to the bank postcards, we've got to go to the bank postcards.

When's that meeting?

They haven't said it yet. Yeah, they haven't said it yet.

I tried to find it out. I got transferred to all forms of offices in the county today. But yeah, they haven't said it yet.

Okay. Anyone else have any other comments? This is our second reading, and so there'll be one more coming, but... unless somebody buys the lottery ticket and wins the lottery that we can donate it all to the city and we can change this. Okay, ordinance number 1449 has been read by title on its second reading. The third and final reading of ordinance number 1449 will be on September 8th, 2026. which is a really late date for the first meeting of the month. But because Labor Day is the latest it can ever be. Oh, now that we closed this hearing, Michelle, on page 40 in the aquatic center, that first column, total operating expenses is not totaled correctly. It only picks up the last item. And then I wondered, in the budget, you have zero as far as building maintenance expense, special equipment maintenance expense, and plant maintenance expense.

Yeah. The narrative points you to fund 45. 4-4, 4-10.

Tom, I think you kind of explained that last time. Right. How those are going to be coming out of that other.

Be coming out of the account 45 for those expenses. All right.

How would that relate to our reimbursement with the college if we don't show those operating expenses?

When we do our spreadsheet for the college, we pull everything in because there's things that don't show up in the plan 43 anyway. Like our water usage, we pull that from another line item anyway. And we have a whole other spreadsheet that we give Carrie Gadswick. So we'll just pull those back in from fund 45.

Fund 45 is on page 61. And you'll see there three new accounts, building maintenance, special equipment.

George, we take things out. that they won't pay for anyway. That's why we have a separate spreadsheet that we give to the college when I meet with her every June.

Okay, answer that, I forgot. I don't know if there's room to make any notations on that, but you might want to, I don't know. If in those lines that say that the existing line and over there on the budget request, if you can notice, see fund 45. I think if you put that kind of verbiage in there, it won't mess up your formulas.

Okay.

You can try it.

I can do it.

but I should remember that, but I, I like to think I remember everything, but I don't. Okay, I guess we already concluded that. Board members. Okay, we've concluded ordinance number 1449. Ordinance number 1450 is before the council for its second reading. Please read ordinance number 1450 by title.

ordinance to establish the amount of certain fees and taxes charged by the city of Chatham for various services including but not limited to building in use zoning library occupation licensing and pet licensing water sewer and drainage systems and facility of the city for residential users and commercial users including industrial users of the city of Chatham for the 2026-2027 fiscal year to provide for the repeal of conflicting ordinances to provide for an effective date.

Okay, I believe we have the same information, but Janet, if you could help us out.

The only change that was made between the first reading and this reading is on page eight. And that corresponds to your next ordinance that we're going to be talking about with the sewer utility fees. The sewer tap fee determined by ordinance, we're suggesting that that be 10-5. And that will be for sanitary sewer district number 70, which is at 6th and Linden, and sanitary sewer district number 71, which is Cedar Buttes. And like I said, that will tie into the next ordinance that we'll be talking about.

Are we also going to do something out by?

Domino's? Yeah. Domino's is sixth in Linden. Oh. That's number 70. Gotcha.

Okay. For the information of the public, what is being changed other than the item that Janet mentioned is a red on the carousel hanger goes from $150 a month to $175 a month. Saturday burials has changed to same charge all day. So morning service is the same as the present afternoon service on Saturday, which is $500. Page six is the next one. Then page six, running for city council application fee is 1% of the council member's annual salary. And then the... The ouchy thing is, uh, um, franchise fees for electricity, water, and wastewater electricity being raised from 13.5% to 14% of gross revenues and water raised from 12% to 14% of gross revenues and wastewater too. water and wastewater and sewer utility fees the sewer connection tap fee not to be confused with the new districts tap fee yes that goes from $450 to $500 correct And usage charge base unit fee goes from $34.65 to $36.40 per month. And multiple units, first unit is the same as the Single family dwelling and then additional units go from $29.15 to $30.60. And consumption fee goes from the base fee of $1.21 per 100 cubic feet of water used to $1.27. And that's used in excess, that's based on excess of 800 cubic feet on a monthly. And each year the city runs a December, February usage when you're not watering any, watering outside to get a base of what you use because it would be hard to calculate each month in changing it. And commercial wastewater hauler minimum dumping fee goes from $22. To $23 and that covers 0 to 100 gallons and over 100 gallons. Goes from $44 to $46. And all of those charges are an increase of 5%. And that's everything that I see in red, correct?

On that sewer tap fee, the $500, is that going to be enough?

For just a regular tap fee on an older district? Right. It's what we've been kind of going up, $50 every few years. I mean, we could increase that if you think we should, but... Well, in other areas, I've been in the... the sewer tap fees and the water tap fees are significantly... Well, I can tell you that when we started increasing this sewer tap fee, it was $25, which was ridiculous. And so we have been incrementally increasing it.

So... Is on what page nine is the water tap fees?

Yeah, water tap fees are... suggested increasing those next year in 2728's budget.

Well, I view that maybe keeping it at that level kind of a reason for people to maybe build something new on an existing vacant lot to kind of instead of having the town sit here with a lot of vacant lots around it's be nice to get a new home on some of those

And that was a question I kind of had. Because the two districts, sewer districts, you have one that's going to be business operated, so they have a $10,500 tap fee, but they're going to be generating revenue. And in the other sewer district, it's homes. Do you think that that tap fee could be a deterrent for people building in that area?

In the residential district? Yes. Um, the one person that's already come in and talked to me about building up there. Um, and I told him that it was going to be at the time we were talking 10,000, but I said, I don't know if it's going to stay at 10,000. I said, it could go to 12. He did not say anything at all that that was going to be familiar with the Shane's in construction dealt with that a lot more.

Is that reasonable?

A lot of municipalities, when they put the infrastructure in, they try to recoup a certain percentage of the overall cost of that infrastructure, not 100%, just a certain percentage of that. So I would say that would be adequate.

And that's what we're doing here, trying to recoup.

Yes, we're trying to recoup. And I was going to discuss this when we get to the actual ordinance. But that's OK. We can discuss it now. where we got this from, where we got the 10-5. And Tom and I talked at length. We're trying to recoup just less than 50% of what the district costs the city. We're recouping almost 48%. if we go with this 10-5. On the commercial lots, there's only three lots to collect this tap fee from. On the residential lots, there's six. And it just so happened that they both came out at 48% at 10-5. So that's where we got this. We could have gone more. I mean, I did 50, I did 55, I did 60, and it was anywhere from $10,500 to $12,000, roughly. And Tom felt pretty strongly that he'd like to keep it under the 50%, showing the community that the city's got some skin in the game. I mean, we're trying to add to our tax base. That's you know what the city is giving the community as an incentive is over 50% of Putting in these sanitary sewer districts.

No makes sense.

I think thank you for that explanation Yeah, like I said, I was gonna do it when we actually got to the ordinance, but this is okay Any other questions or comments

Ordinance number 1450 has been read by title on its second reading. The third and final reading of ordinance number 1450 will be on September 8th, 2026. Okay, moving on to item E on the agenda. Someone care to introduce ordinance number 1451?

I can introduce ordinance 1451 to establish water and sanitary tapping fees.

Ordinance number 1451 has been introduced. Please read ordinance number 1451 by title.

In ordinance to amend Chapter 3, Business Regulations, Article 4, Plumbing and Drain Laying of the Municipal Code of the City of Chatham, Nebraska, to enact Section 3-418, Water and Sanitary Sewer Tapping Fees, establishing water and sanitary sewer tapping fees, providing for the payment of such fees prior to connection to the municipal water and or sanitary sewer system, providing for the administration of such fees, repealing all ordinances or parts of ordinances in conflict therewith, and providing for an effective date.

Okay, the next thing, do we want to suspend the rules about three readings? If you do, you can...

Make a motion. I'll move the motion. Move the motion that the statutory rules in regard to the passage and adoption of ordinance number 1441 be suspended so that the ordinance number 1451 might be introduced, approved, and passed at the same meeting.

Can we get a second?

I'll second.

Okay, I had a motion by Shane and a second by Mark. Is there any discussion?

I asked my question previously, I guess.

Yeah, I think this is a... And the reason we want to get it done in one reading is...

So that when you pass your ordinance on the fee ordinance, this is already in place so that we can have it by resolution in the Fee Ordinance, or have it already in the Fee Ordinance so that everything follows in the proper order of things. I have to really thank Katie on this one. She found this all of this ordinance language and then Adam looked at it and we all said, hey, this really looks good. But she found this language and it's exactly what we were hoping to achieve. I think it does exactly what we all talked about.

Okay, so now we will have roll call on the suspension of the rules.

Graves? Yes. Anderson?

Yes.

Klein?

Yes.

Shepherd?

Yes. I declare that the statutory rules in regard to the passage and adoption of ordinance number 1451 be suspended so that ordinance number 1451 may be approved and passed at the same meeting. Okay, now we're going into final passage of ordinance number 1451.

I move for the final passage of Ordinance of Number 1451. I'll second.

Motion by Shane, seconded by Mark for final passage of Ordinance Number 1451. Is there any discussion? Maybe I should say additional discussion.

So, Janet, those on that District 71, those new residential lots, the city owns those empty lots?

The city owns all of them, but two.

Is there any way we could create an incentive? I know there's other municipalities, they give those lots away as long as homes are built.

Well, the first things the city has to do is we can't even offer them for sale yet. We have to have them appraised to get a price tag on them. And there are a couple of them that don't have street in front of them, so we can't even offer them for sale. So our first step is, like I said, is to get the property appraised. And at that time, once we know what they're worth, in the appraisal process, then that would be the time that I would think you would want to have this conversation. Okay. So, but that's what we have to start. That's where we have to start. Like I said, we can't even offer property or put property up for sale until after we go through that process. So we have to hire an appraiser to start that. I don't know, it's not online yet, but I don't know how much the lot right next to Dunbar's sold for yet, because it's not online yet. But once it is, then that appraisal process can start, in my opinion, because our lot is just slightly smaller than that lot, so they would have a good, light comparison to do that appraisal.

I'm just trying to think of other ways we could help make it easier, especially with that $10,500 tapping fee.

But you've got to realize that whoever's going to buy that lot is not going to put a small house on it, probably. We're talking somebody that's going to probably build a $300,000 plus home on that piece of property. Oh, Adam is mouthing to me $500,000.

I was going to say, too.

Okay, and so is Shane. So we're talking a pretty good-sized home. Any other questions? Thank you.

ORDINANCE NUMBER 1451 HAS BEEN READ BY TITLE AND MOVED FOR PASSAGE. THE QUESTION IS, SHALL ORDINANCE NUMBER 1451 OF THE CITY OF SHADOW, NEBRASKA FINALLY PASS? COULD WE HAVE A ROLL CALL, PLEASE?

BRAVES? YES. ANDERSON?

YES.

KLEIN?

YES.

SHEPHERD?

YES. ORDINANCE NUMBER 1451 IS HEREBY PASSED AND ADOPTED. to introduce resolution 2026-70 and move force approval i'll second motion by shane seconded by clay for resolution number 2026-70 which is to approve the request for a state aid project application form for fiscal year 2027 projects for the shadow municipal airports Any discussion?

I'll talk for a little bit, and Janet will make sure that I talk properly. This is on runway 21 on the hammer head at the end of it. We're needing to put in some new lighting just for safety reasons itself, not only for the planes, but also for our snow removal equipment as well. What the engineers have come up with the estimate is $182,000. We believe that we will be eligible for $163,800 from state funding. The remaining $18,200 is going to be coming out of the airport's system improvements, which will allow us to have approximately $11,800 left to finish off any other projects. projects such as some concrete or anything else that's out there. We budgeted for this year's budget unit was $30,000. So we're not asking for any additional funds. This is just an opportunity where the state is able to help us out with this particular funding.

And these estimates do include the engineering and administration as the way I read the summary.

Yep. Approximately $41,000 for engineering. A quarter of the... Oh, yeah. It's just like our SRE building. Right. But you look at the documents that they have to produce... Is pretty extensive when you're dealing with any kind of state and or federal government?

Yes So that's just this little loop in the picture it's just this little loop at the very end yes, okay Any other questions if not could we have roll call please I

Graves? Yes. Anderson?

Yes.

Klein? Yes.

Jefford? Yes. Introduce resolution 2026-71 and move for its approval.

I'll second that.

Motion by Shane, second by Mark for resolution 2026-71, which is to approve progress estimate number one to KO Wood and Company LLC for the construction of the snow removal equipment, otherwise referred to as the SRE building, access drive and approach at the Chatham Municipal Airport.

and i'll talk again for that if that's acceptable to you mayor what it is basically is kale wood is just asking for that first estimate of that thirty seven thousand seven hundred sixteen dollars and seventy two cents for the materials that they've already gotten with uh projects supposed to be beginned this week is what they're estimating is that correct janet correct um where they're going to start moving some dirt and such and start moving the mobilization for this particular project

So are those materials out there at the airport?

No, that's in their yards. That's in their yards. And it was verified.

In a mischievous sort of way, I was explaining this to Emily. I said, they could get paid for this, use it on some other project, and then...

They have to produce documents to our engineers to let them know.

They have to produce invoices and everything like that. This is actually for the doors. And they had to put down money to get the doors ordered. And they're pretty big doors. So they're not going to use them just on anybody else's garage. But yeah. But they have to start scarifying the site and moving dirt and everything this week.

OK. Any other questions? If not, could we have roll call, please?

Graves? Yes. Anderson?

Yes.

Klein?

Yes.

Shepard?

Yes.

I'll introduce resolution 2026-72 and move for its approval.

I'll second.

motion by mark seconded by clay resolution 2026-72 which is to approve contractors application for payment number one to infinity construction inc for the east sixth street cedar street to spruce street improvement project

Okay, this is pay estimate number one for $122,822.65. Actually, this project is now done. They opened the street up on last Tuesday, several days, actually almost a week ahead of schedule. If you haven't driven the street yet... You need to. It's wonderful. The transition off of Cedar Street is very smooth. You don't even know that it wasn't constructed at the same time, which usually there's some kind of transition. Right. Very, very well done project. The residents in the area are very pleased. I was sitting there waiting for the construction meeting to begin and I'm in Dustin's pickup and I said, I wonder when they're going to crack seal. And he said, it's already done. I said, no, it's not. He said, yes, it is. And I says, well, there aren't any slobbers anywhere. You know, when they dribble the tar everywhere and they overfill and they... none of that it is the cleanest nicest crack seal i've ever seen but it's a very very well completed project and we're very very happy with this project so i'm sure we will have our final payout pay estimate number two and final at our next meeting Very, very nice job.

I saw it too. It's a nice, nice job. And as far as all the homeowners up there said they were easy to get along with and being ahead of schedule even.

Yeah, very nice. They said they'd be done before school started. They were, which was very, very nice. Yeah.

Any other questions or comments? Could we have a roll call, please?

Graves? Yes. Anderson?

Yes.

Klein?

Yes. Shepard? Yes. We won't disclose when the drag race is taking place.

Leave rubber marks on it.

I'll introduce resolution 2026-73 and move for its approval.

I'll second that.

Motion by Shane, seconded by Mark for resolution 2026-73, which is to approve contractor's application for payment number two to K.L. Wood and Company for the 4th Street water main replacement project.

Uh, towards the utility superintendent for a city. Um, 1590 South Maple. Um, yeah, so that total amount will be $111,930.90. Uh, the waterline part of this is all done. Um, they're just doing touch-up stuff on the outside and then, like, on grounds and then, um, concrete work now. So.

Has anybody been past it? I've looked at it a little bit, but I can't look too much when I'm driving.

It's kind of a congested street right there, right now. So it's kind of hard to, unless you actually stop and get out and look, it's kind of tough to look as you're going by.

But the water is in and flowing, right? Yes. Yep. I don't imagine they reported to you without any problems that they ran into?

Yeah, I was there for most of them, that they had little issues here and there. But, yeah, we got those resolved.

And you were there to make sure they hooked up the lines correctly?

Yeah, we were on there. We were there for most of the tie-in stuff.

Yep. Okay, any other questions? If not.

You had that question, so if we had that problem in the past, they tied it in wrong.

We have a roll call, please.

Graves? Yes. Anderson?

Yes.

Klein? Yes.

Shepard?

Yes. I'll introduce resolution 2026-74 and move for its approval.

Second that.

Motion by Clay, second by Shane for resolution number 2026-74, which is to approve contractor's application for payment number two to Bittner Construction for the water main replacement project on Ann Street.

Yeah, and so this is just for that 300 block of AM. We still have the 200 block to do yet. So that total amount right now is going to be $100,314.59. That's went really well. There's been a few issues here and there that they've come across, but they've gotten those resolved and some service line issues. Where they had to fix things and go a little further than what they wanted to, but... It had to be done, so other than that, it's been pretty smooth over there.

Any other questions? If not, then could we have a roll call, please?

Graves? Yes. Anderson?

Yes.

Klein?

Yes.

Shepard?

Yes. Item number K on the agenda.

I'll introduce resolution 2026-75, move for its approval.

Second that.

Motion by Shane, second by Mark for resolution 2026-75, which is to approve the Chatham State College and City of Chatham Police Department interlocal agreement for facilities use.

Evening, Mayor, City Council members. Rick Hickstein, representing the Chatham Police Department, located at 125 Main Street here in Chatham, Nebraska. Dr. Watto with the Criminal Justice Department brought this to me. They've got a vacant building up there, I believe Brooks Hall, that's due for demolition coming up relatively soon. But in the meantime, while it's still there, he offered up using that building as training for law enforcement. Sounds like the State Patrol is doing the same thing we are with partnering with them to use a building with actual... We can go in and building clear, if you will, active shooter-type training, domestic violence-type calls. So we'd like to have this agreement approved so that we can work with the college to get that done. It's a rare opportunity to actually have a space to train in. So it's a good opportunity for my staff.

Sounds great.

Yeah. No, it's a win for us, absolutely.

How long do you think? How many years will it be? One year or two, three?

I think we'll have it for this year. I'm not going to pretend to try to plan out what the college will do with that. When they'll tear it down.

I always, as a builder, when a building gets torn down, it's sad to me to see the history of that. But I guess college has to do what they have to do.

They do. I think if you look at it right now, the bottom windows are already torn out of it and boarded up. So they're starting to prep for it. So I'm sure it's about a year that we'll get use out of it. But it's a nice opportunity for the guys and gals of the department to be able to do something like that in.

Any other questions? If not, roll call, please.

Graves? Yes. Anderson?

Yes.

Klein?

Yes.

Shepard?

Yes. Okay. September is the end of a fiscal year for the city, and we always have year-end bills to take care of. So the city staff is recommending a special meeting be held on September 30th to approve the bills that they prepare to end the year. And they have suggested on about 4.30 on that. Don't anticipate a lot of questions. But if we ask questions, we'll deal with it.

What date was that?

September 30th.

It's a Wednesday.

I make a motion that we schedule a special meeting on September 30th to approve year-end fiscal year claims. I'll second. Motion by me, seconded by Clay. Could we have roll call, please?

Graves? Yes. Anderson?

Yes.

Klein?

Yes.

Shepard? Yes.

I make a motion to approve the claims that are presented in our packet. I'll second that. Motion by me, seconded by Shane for the claims. I want to make a couple comments going over the bills. At Axon Enterprises, it says in-car camera system. It was seven of them, according to what I read on the invoice. And Blue Logic was an annual renewal of 21 times $52.40.

Please report. Blue Logic is the training platform that we use at the police department. It's a software, basically, and those are the, for $52 a year, I can go in as a supervisor, assign scenario-based training to my staff. It maps it out, so... We talked about school shootings earlier. So if we want to train in active shooter training, I can set it up. And actually, this platform allows us to use an actual map of Chatham High School or of the primary school. And the officers have to go through the scenario, put X's on where they would park, where they would make entry, and then it asks policy questions. So we use this on and off throughout the year for the staff, not only for the officers, but also for the dispatchers and how they dispatch things out as well. Fairly cheap training for the price, I mean, 52 bucks.

And the previous one, are we replacing old in-car systems?

No, that's a contract we have with Axon for the current cameras that we have in the cars. It's not a replacement.

That's an annual fee? That is correct. They... maintain them for everything that can go wrong?

Correct yes and then we have they have to get installed when we outfit the car they get taken out and then put into the new car so like the last the truck that we got we took the old camera out and then had the installers put that one in. Also for our body cameras as well. We have a contract for that as well.

So we never really own those things. No No, it's technology.

I don't know.

How do they need to be replaced?

So like our body cameras back in May We actually it within the contract two and a half years into the contract. They refresh them Also, they send you brand new equipment you send the old equipment in. Oh, so they give you a new halfway through and

well i like no stuff absolutely um be curious not judgmental george yeah i'm curious don't make a bad joke about curious george what whitman said that um i just wanted to note under ko wood that takes care of that um The amount is $149,000 and some dollars. That takes care of both the airport deal of $37,000 and then the water project for $111,000, almost $112,000. And then that deductible and insurance claim related to a sewer backup, which the total cost was $9,809.90. We had to stand the deductible of $5,000. And in Sunset Law Enforcement, it says PD firearm, but I believe that the way I read the invoice, it's for shells, 240 boxes of them at $11.80.

That's 12,000 rounds of 9mm handgun ammunition for training purposes. When you consider that I've got 12 full-time law enforcement officers within my department, you can do the math. It's not really that many, but it seems like a lot. Sunset is a law enforcement distributor. We order it from them, they ship it to us for free. So it's an all-inclusive price.

That's really the only comment I had. I was really wondering about the weed control chemicals. Is that something that we will use a lot yet this year, or did we get those some before?

Well, it's weed control, but it's also mosquito control because they're by the larvae side. tablets now while they're still available. And then come January, December, he'll start throwing them out in the areas that we need them. So he gets stocked up for those things. But then, yes, there is also Roundup Pro and Confront. And I think he's got some Super Trimax on those invoices, if I remember correctly. All of those items are being used for the end of the season type stuff. And if he doesn't get them used, then obviously he's got a warm spot to keep them so that we can utilize them for next year.

And a lot of times if we don't buy them now, they're not available in the spring.

Especially the larvicide, the mosquito control stuff.

Okay. Could we have roll call, please?

Graves? Yes. Anderson?

Yes.

Klein?

Yes. Shepard? Yes. I'd like to introduce resolution number 2026-76 to excuse Kevin Alexie from this council meeting. He had training to go through in Wyoming, he stated. I'll second that. Motion by me, seconded by Shane, to excuse Kevin. Could we have roll call, please?

Graves? Yes. Anderson?

Yes.

Klein?

Yes. Shepard? Yes. Public comment. Anyone wishing to address the council on a matter not on this agenda may now do so. Individuals are allowed a total of three minutes to speak.

Now, I'm Carolyn Brennan, 800 Main Street. I'd like to know what our ordinances are, the rules of the road or whatever for these electric scooters. I saw one a week ago yesterday. I see this kid going up and down Main Street a lot. And that particular Sunday afternoon, he was going on the left side of the street, and then he was on the right side of the street, and then the left side of the street, back and forth. There was a car in front of me that had his foot on the brake, not knowing which way he was going. When he got to Common Sense, he zipped through Common Sense and got across the highway. And before I could get around onto the highway, he was way down at Safeway parking lot on the sidewalk. and he was flying. I could see him just about over the hill out by Ace Hardware, and I finally found he went around the corner behind Ace Hardware. I see him a lot. This morning, I didn't, thank God it didn't happen, There was a kid coming from on 8th Street on an electric scooter. He was in the middle of the intersection. There was a car coming from the south that couldn't have been two car lengths away from him. Another one was coming from the north. He was making a right-hand turn. So I assume the kid thought, OK, I can go, but didn't see the one in the south coming north. I've seen a kid on a bicycle hit by a semi years ago. And I don't want to see a kid around town here get hit. There's got to be some kind of control. The one this morning didn't have a helmet on. I don't think a helmet would help them anyway. But I just wanted to know what the rules of the road are for those. And not just the scooters, bicycles too. You don't see a lot of kids riding the bicycles. I saw a lot of them on scooters this summer. And one girl went by and she looked at me the whole time she went a half a block. Just kept looking at me like she could have hit a hole in the street and gone over. And I just think we need to watch those. I've had other three or four people say, oh, that guy, he turned a U-turn right in front of me. I just about hit him. Oh, that was my granddaughter. I've had a couple other people that have said that. those little suckers pop out of nowhere and I'd be the, I can see a couple of people that might miss them and then accidentally hit them and I hate to see that happen. So I don't know what the rules are.

Well thank you for your comments and it's been a, topic of discussion at the agenda meetings and probably other meetings about it. And just this evening, coming out of my office, instead of being on the street, they were on my sidewalk. The young girl did slow up when she saw me, but she was going a pretty good click down the sidewalk. But we appreciate your comments.

Come over by Wilson Park and watch them over there. Yeah, go-karts, everything, anyway. Nelson Stevens, 402 West 8th Street. I was at the last meeting and caught the conversation about the license plate cameras, and I want to be on the other side. I appreciate those that were against the system. That was, after I researched it, I hadn't really looked into these, and the name of that company comes up pretty regularly, Pro and Con. But I am for the license plate. the city maintaining some type of license plate camera system as is used now because I think that's a valuable tool to catch people. People can be so elusive and I appreciate the job law enforcement does A lot of times it's thankless, and I really support them in using these tools reasonably. If it ever gets out of hand and comes to mind, then there needs to be a mechanism in place that might be a joint law enforcement and committee of citizens. that oversees this would be a nice compromise. And the company that's been mentioned most often, I don't know if they're the only one. I don't believe they are. So maybe at some point in the future an alternate company if this one gets a bad reputation or goes out of business. But I am for the use of those readers. I think they're a good deterrent or can be used as a tool.

Thank you for your comments.

Okay city manager report Thank You mayor I just wanted to mention it to the council and then also to the citizens of Chatham we're having a program here on September 2nd and 3rd since we're not going to have another meeting before then in which it's called the community partnership program it is a program that we're going to have our National Guard representatives here and in our community and We're going to be doing a wreath laying. We're going to have several meetings with different community members that will be invited. Then we're going to have some different opportunities for them. They're going to finish up on Thursday, the September 3rd, where they're going to be down at the Legion. We're going to have Major General Craig Strong. Is that correct, Kelsey? Yes. Which will be here to represent. And it's a way to... have just a collaboration with what the National Guard does mean to our community, what they do for our area, what they do for the state, and then what they also do for the nation as well. So I'd encourage anybody. We are trying to get the information out to everybody. It's on the website. It's one of those things that if you have an opportunity to come and just participate or just see what they're all about, I'd encourage everyone and anyone to come out to see what they have to offer and just ask a lot of questions. That's what they're here for. It's a celebration slash information slash workshop. whatever else it needs to be for those two days. So I just encourage everybody to do that. And then just wanted to also just put one more thing out there for our citizens. With the use of our community service officer, he's been going around and doing a lot of things, trying to just help everybody to understand what the expectations are, what the ordinance state, as far as weed, trees, different things throughout the whole thing. I think it's been very, very successful. I want to also just stress to everybody that it's not a ticket-catching type thing. It's a way of just informing our public. This is what the standards are set, and if they see something that we maybe need to change or switch around, I'd encourage the public to come in and talk to the council, talk to the city staff, let us know what we need to be working on too, because it needs to be both ways. The communications needs to be just opened up. And I think for as far as our staff itself, it's been very, very good because we are digging into those things. And we'll be expanding more things as Mike gets more comfortable in his position and what's being responsible for. So I just wanted to thank everybody for cooperating with us on all those things. I believe he sent out in excess of, what, 300 now? letters that he's talked to different people um and it's just a basic way like i said it's to let everybody know what's what the expectations are that's what the ordinance are stating and it's just a way for everybody to be on the same page and i just wanted to appreciate everybody that's been very receptive to it on on all the things that we've talked about it actually has helped us as a city too to make sure that we're following what we are asking our public to do. And we are. It's just sometimes we can't get to everything like we see all the time, too. I know Mike's pointed out several things to the parks and cemetery guys on some of the different things, and it is just one of those things that we're trying to let everybody know. So I appreciate that, and that's all I have for tonight.

Council closing comments. We'll start with Mark.

I guess I really don't have too much. I drive by this sign multiple times a day, and I glance at it and never really think much about it. But it's in a citizen's yard, and I got to thinking about it. It seems pretty profound to me today for some reason, but it says... Truth builds democracy, misinformation destroys it. And I got to thinking about that as much social media and other media types that we have. And at the bottom of the sign, it says research and think. So I think if we can all be critical thinkers and think for ourselves and not take everything at face value, I think that'll make us stronger, a better community. That's all I have.

I'll just add on to what Mark said just a little bit. Part of doing the research is looking at other people's differing opinions and perspectives and not just looking for confirmation bias as you research any topic. Be safe as the school year gets started. That's all I've got.

Okay, well this Thursday is Bands on Bordeaux. It's kind of the welcoming back of the Chatham State College students and I got a little challenge for the council members. I got some name tags for you. I think it'd be a nice idea if we stood by the gate. I'm going to be working one of the gates at 9 30 or 7 30. But we could be behind the people that attach the wristbands and just welcome the people out of towners to Chadron. I think it'd be kind of nice. I plan to do that. So it'd be a challenge to you. I'm going to mention Dawes County Museum. has a special program that's right at the museum right now. It's called SPARC, Places of Innovation, and it's here until September 11th, so I need to take advantage of it and go out and see it. before it departs town and I had on my list the National Guard partnership thing, and I have to do a little talk a couple times. If any National Guard members have something, some story that they want to tell me, good or bad, let me know. I'll probably leave out the bad stuff, but I appreciate knowing it, that maybe I could use in my five or six minutes. And then Crawford on September 8th, they have the escort from Whitney to Crawford for the traveling wall from Vietnam and other activities scheduled from September 9th through the 13th. I think most of us should probably get over there and try to support Crawford in this endeavor. And my personal Emily and I's condolences to Keith Spencer and his family and the death of his wife Nita. I was thinking when Emily and I came here and I talked to Keith and then he took us out to dinner at the chuck wagon and so Nita was except for maybe someone in the motel or registered to stay and I couldn't tell you their names but Nita would have been the second person I met in Chadron. Keith would have been the first one and then After dinner, took us over to his house and Bevan Bump and Maxine were there. That's back in 1981. And then I wanted to mention I've kind of done a little more work trying to get people to do some weed control. I had a little success with the corner of 3rd and Lake, both properties. east and west of the intersection there. So I like to get the weeds out of the streets. I think, and maybe it's just me, but when I drive into town and I see those growing there, I think this town doesn't really care. When we lived in liberal Kansas, we had kind of similar discussions. It would have been on the Chamber of Commerce. And without it, everyone, when they went from Liberal Kansas to Wichita, you went through Pratt, Kansas. And they said, how does that community get everybody that lives on Main Street to make it look nice? And I probably should call and ask Pratt if they're still continuing that and how they do that.

Well, I think you guys said almost everything I had to say. Challenge accepted, George. I'll have my name tag on.

Okay.

And I would also like to wish Mark a happy birthday tomorrow. 29 and Janet a happy belated birthday from yesterday, so they're 30 So other than that I didn't have a whole lot so Thank you I make a motion we adjourn I'll second that Wish my me second by Shane Could we have a roll call please?

Graves? Yes. Anderson? Yes. Klein? Yes. Shepard?

Yes.