City Council - Regular Meeting

The Columbus City Council meeting for May 4th, 2026 will now come to order. In compliance with the open meeting act, a current copy of this act is posted in this meeting room. Madame clerk, would you please call roll? Bley here. Olone here. Bar here. He here. Jablonsky here. Lopez here. Palinsky here. Roth here. Schilling here. Mayor Bley, the role has been called. Thank you, Mr. Council President.

Our father, thank you for the opportunity to serve our fellow citizens. Please give us your wisdom and guidance to make the proper decisions entrusted to this governmental body. May our conduct show respect, honor, and courtesy to each other as well as to all our citizens. Amen.

Amen. Oh, can you see by the dawn early light, what so proud our flag was still there. Oh, say does that star spangle banner yet way. Oh, the land of the free and the brave. 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. Good evening. I welcome everyone to tonight's council meeting. It's nice to see a rather full house. We very seldom have these many guests. If at any time during the this evening you want to come forward and speak to any agenda item, we'd ask that you please do so. Give your name, your address, and then we'd ask that you keep any comments to 5 minutes or less. All right, with that, we'll move on to our consent agenda.

Item four, consent agenda. The following items are considered to be routine by the city council and will be enacted by one motion. There will be no separate discussion of these items unless a city council member or citizen requests in which event the item will be removed from the consent agenda and considered in its normal sequence on the agenda. Item 4 A, minutes of the April 20th, 2026 city council meeting. Item 4 B, minutes of the April 20th, 2026 Community Development Agency meeting. Item 4 C, resolution number R26-62, authorizing payment of various improvement projects. And item 4 D, payroll and bills on file. Mr. Mayor and council, is there anything you would like removed from the consent agenda?

Mr. Mayor, I move the items on the consent agenda be approved as presented.

Second. We have a motion and a second to approve. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by I. Those opposed, nay. Motion passes. Brings us up to special presentations this evening. I do have a pro proclamation that I would like to read. This evening's procla proclamation. Whereas the office of the professional municipal clerk is a timehonored and vital part of local government exists throughout the world. And whereas the office of the professional municipal clerk is the oldest among public servants. And whereas the office of the professional municipal clerk provides the professional link between the citizens, the govern local governing bodies and agencies of government at all levels. And whereas the professional municipal clerk has pledged to be ever mindful of their neutrality and impartiality, rendering equal service to all. And whereas the professional municipal clerk serves as the information center on functions of local government and community. And whereas professional municipal clerks continually strive to improve the administration of the affairs of the office of the professional municipal clerk through participation in education programs, seminars, workshops, and annual meetings of their state, provincial, county, and international professional organizations. Therefore, it is most appropriate that we recognize the accomplishments of the office of the professional municipal clerk. Now therefore, I, James B. Balkley, the mayor of the city of Columbus, Nebraska, do hereby recognize the week of May 3rd through May 9th, 2026

as Professional Municipal Clerk's Week, and further extend appreciation to our local professional municipal clerk and her staff and all the municipal clerks for the vital services they perform and their exemplary dedication to the communities they represent. With that, I'd like to give a hand to our professional municipal COURT and you can pay me later. Okay, that's all right. No, we will now move on to reports of city offices.

Item 9A is the Columbus and focus with the public safety leadership team. Chief Streer is going to present. Hello, Brent Streker with the Columbus Police Department. Um, we do we meet weekly as we had kind of mentioned. It's it's the JCC, the fire department, and the police department. Uh, the police chief, the fire chief, and and the director of the JCC. Um, some of this is going to be a little bit of review from when Chief Gray presented. And of course, we have all these people here when I'm presenting and he's conveniently out of town and and Rachel had her baby, so seems conspiratorial, but okay. Um, you know, in in in a nutshell, what we want to do is bring our departments together. Um, you know, the fire department's in a different building, the the JCC's in a different building. The only time we talk to each other is is on a scene or or radio traffic. So, we're trying to to build relationships between these departments that uh you know sometimes get strained because of the stress of a situation or something like that. So, we're working we're working to try to bring that uh together and as as we work together we will bring a better service to the community. Um these accomplishments are are you know some things that are still being worked upon the water then ice rescue um we're still working on that with the fire department. the police department is um and we are still working with our radio communication expectations. Um there's times when the stress of a situation kind of call it kind of has uh you know the the language on the on the radio gets kind of tur and so we're working really hard to keep that from happening and and part of that is like I said bringing these departments together so we understand each other's jobs. Um, I've been to dispatch many times and I, you know, dispatch was in the building at the police department and I can tell

you there's no way there's no way I could do it. There's so much going on in there and so many things on a 911, you know, you have an accident and and it's and it's constant phone. So, I would 100% struggle with that. Um, we are still working on on our uh Mayday, which is a firefighter down and our shots fired policies. Um, we want to have it clear for dispatch and I mean the police department obviously it's it's clear but you know as far as if we have shots fire call we want dispatch to be able to know who need who needs to be notified in those types of situations. Um you know and we did do the training and the employees on media relations. Uh we would like to hold an open house. Uh that's been brought up. Uh, we're working on our on a tour request button on our on our web page and I also have contacted a couple of companies about doing a virtual tour where you can kind of like when they're selling a house and you can just kind of move through the through the building. If we put that on our on our website specifically, um, there's some things that can be seen that can't be seen if you take a regular tour, you know, our evidence areas and some things like that where we will not allow the public to come through, but they could see it in that in that instance. Um, okay. And then, uh, JCC, they, oops, they are still in the process of working on these things is what I was told. Um, they're they're working on, you know, their pre-employment testing, uh, with the remote proctoring. Uh, they're constantly going through the department policies, it appears, uh, that they want to make sure that they have theirs up to date and ready to go. Uh at the police department, we like I had mentioned or has was mentioned

before, we have I there's three committees. We have a uniform committee. I kind of felt like our uniforms had gotten a little bit um not uniform and we had a lot of different patches and a lot of different flags and you know and this team was wearing this and this team was wearing that and and I really want to bring us back to to where we look generally. the same because I think that's what uniform means. So, uh they're nearly completed with their work on that policy review. Uh they're continuing to work on our policies. They will continue to work on them. Um even when they get through all the policies, we'll probably take a break and then come back to them because I think we have to constantly be looking at our policies at at the police department. As things change, we also need to uh and our street strategic planning committee just met uh for the first time a couple weeks ago. have another meeting set up working on a SWAT analysis so that we know what we're going to need to work on in the future. Our K9 officers in Grand Island training and we're still working on computer upgrades and patrol cars. Uh I think trends were asked for. So um these are some trends with the police department. Uh this is traffic stops by month. Um 2025 and then 2026. Uh, as you can see, a lot of times January, February, March, April, there's a kind of a and then we'll have a continue to have an upswing through the summer because there's a lot of activity, a lot of cars out. There's also something that people don't know much about is that's called serious violation weather. When it's blizzarding, it's got to be a serious violation before we get out of our car, stop that. So, we want to make sure that we uh are enforcing these these laws as we go. But uh we will also you know see an uptick as as far as that goes as the months get warmer. Um if you if you notice 2022 we can't go before 2022

because of our our movement of our our files to this new system then and that year and so 2022 2023 2024 and 2025 we had a continuous rise in in traffic stops. Um I that's something I want to see. Uh we are we are working very hard on traffic light enforcement. I know that that is a huge thing in Columbus and and almost everywhere I go somebody asks what we're doing. We had a selective this morning involving marked and unmarked cars. Um so we will continue to work on that. I know there's another one Thursday morning. So be warned that we are we are looking at that. Um and then our calls for service by month. Um, you know, you can see again then in uh 2025 there's this that kind of that uptick. This year we've had a had a you know, it's kind of trended down. Um, but you know, as we move through the year that will probably come up again and then by by year um and and I and you know, so why do we have more calls of service? Why do we have more traffic stops? I think a lot of that can be attributed to as you increase your population, those things are going to increase because, you know, there's there's more houses, more cars, more um people, and these things will continue to get larger, I think, as our population grows. I I don't see any other way. Yes.

Have your calls increased since we've had the casino, you know? No. Um I mean, I I Yes, as you look at that, but I can't say that it's because of the casino at all. They handle a lot of things by themselves out there. They do a really good job of that. You know, we really expected to see a whole bunch of different things, you know, out there that we have not seen. So, we we were prep we had prepped for it. We were ready to go and it just didn't really materialize. Great.

So, uh, Columbus Fire Department, uh, completed their final inspection of the new ambulance, uh, that was ordered in 2023. They're working through issues with the new national reporting system, uh, and state DHS requirements. Uh, firefighter paramedic Tom Ratchy is working with a handsonly CPR CPR program for the high schools. He's taught at Lake View and in the process of scheduling with CHS and Scotas, which is a great thing. The more people we have out there knowing CPR, I think is is better. Um, you know, it might be me someday that I need somebody to do CPR. Uh, Chief Gray and Mayor Bokeley attended a VIP event hosted by Nebraska Task Force One. Uh, saw the abilities of the team and what our personnel learning through that experience.

Uh, this is their trends. Um, and you can see that their call volume, you know, by year, um, has has gone up 2025. Um, and it kind of breaks down those different areas there. We will continue to strengthen our inter departmental coordination and trust. You know, we will we we I like I said, we really want to be able to work together, the the three departments, because we often times work very closely together on calls. Um, we want to make sure that we our response is consistent and that we're ready at all times to to respond to anything. Um, one of the things that I wanted to see at the police department was our call response time to come down. Um, and part of it, you know, a culture thing. Uh, I can remember seeing officers get dispatched and they might sit in the squad room for a couple minutes before they go and I'm like, you know, I was a sergeant, but now that I'm in a different position, I want to make sure that that's not happening. and as soon as that call comes out that we're giving the public what they need. Um, and those were not emergency calls. Those were calls that, you know, maybe a broken window or something and they didn't feel like they needed to get to right away. But I think we need to treat them all the same. Any questions?

I would just make the comment to the general public because it's been brought up a few different times to me in case they don't know what JCC means. That is our joint communications center or in layman's terms the 911 unit that's operated jointly by Columbus and PL County. Sorry about that. I made that clear. Any other questions for Chief Streer? All right. With that, thank you very much.

Item 9B is the reveal of the new city seal. Before we go any further, we're going to invite someone to come on up, introduce herself, and let us ask her some questions and visit about what she's provided for us. Hello. Hello. Do you just want to introduce yourself and maybe explain why you um submitted and what your intent was behind your logo? My name is Jennifer Dilla. Um and then I'm so sorry. You're good. You're fine. Relax. Take a deep breath and relax. Um, so you just wanted me to explain this?

Yeah, I think just introduce yourself and explain what you put together for us.

Okay. So, yeah, my name is Jennifer Davilla. I am born and raised from in Columbus. Um, for this seal, my plan was really to incorporate how I envisioned Columbus growing up. So, I really thought putting the bridge was a big part of Columbus growing up in the river as well. Um, also, I mean, Nebraska is known for corn, so I just know for Columbus, whichever way, you know, my parents would go, it was always boring looking out the window, seeing the corn fields. But um and then I really, you know, we're just a growing city. So I really love the city power and progress. And I was actually told to when I came to do the interview how that quote came about as well that Columbus decided to do kind of the same thing about the seal, kind of see, you know, who could come up with something a good slogan. And um I was told that a seventh grader is the one that came up with it. And I thought that was really neat as well. and amazing like you know it's great to be a part of something like this of Columbus. So

well Jennifer we thank you for your time and your effort and for developing this for us. Uh do you want to introduce who's who came with you? Yeah so I brought along um my family. So my mom who's the person that really motivates me to do things and step out of my comfort zone and my brother and his girlfriend came and then my son and my boyfriend are here. Well great. We thank you very much for the time and the effort for developing this for for our community. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

All right, we will move on to reports of council committees. Item 10A is the public property safety and works committee of May 4th, 2026. Item 10 A1 is a permanent sidewalk easement located in part of lot 8, block 4, Evanlon addition to the city of Columbus, Plaque County, Nebraska, 33rd Avenue and 21st Street. The committee recommends approval. Mr. Mayor, I move this report be adopted. Second. We have a motion and a second to adopt this committee report. Any discussion?

Seeing none, all those in favor signify by I. Those opposed, nay. Motion passes. Item 10 A2, drainage easement located in the south half of the northeast quarter of section 11 township 17 north range one west of the 6th PM Plaque County, Nebraska, west of Greyhawk Place, Culdeac. The committee recommends approval. Excuse me. Mr. Mayor, report be adopted. Second. We have a motion and a second to adopt this committee report. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by I. Those opposed, nay.

Motion passes. Item 10 A3, amend city code section 50.35 to add regulations regarding handling of solid waste. The committee recommends approval. Mr. Mayor, I move this report be adopted. Second. We have a motion and a second to adopt this committee report. Uh, Tara, would you want to just give a brief explanation, please?

Sure. Um, presently the city doesn't have any regulations regarding the disposal of solid waste on private property within the city of Columbus. So this um regulation if added and approved would require the periodic removal of solid waste from properties either by the property owner or through a licensed solid waste hauler. So for most of us we already have a trash service at our home that picks up trash periodically. some people do not and those people have caused some issues in town and we need a way to address those issues so they aren't creating nuisances for their neighborhood. Um,

so bluntly put, the bad apple spoils it for the rest of everybody else. And because there are those who don't want to do anything, we have to come up with something that we can then enforce uh for the public that doesn't understand that is if you would have a neighbor that has an issue and you call the police. Well, if there's no ordinance on the books to address what is sitting there, all the police or community development officer or whoever, all they can do is say, "Would you please clean that up?" or give them a, you know, give them a a warning or a tag it or whatever. But if we develop an ordinance, then we can also levy some fines and force some issues. So that's what we're doing. Any comments? Any questions? Um yes. Okay. Um the periodic uh pickup is one week and uh there are there are a number of people that have their trash picked up bi-weekly every two weeks. Uh I don't agree with the one week periodic uh removal.

Okay. Um, anybody feel differently? Uh, I think the comment was made during the committee meeting. I guess that the the thought was the haulers work off weekly pickups. I I don't know. I mean, I know I get picked up every week. I um and you know, this is something that can be looked at. If down the road there there's something that we want to adjust or amend, it can come back to us. I think the point is we've got to have something out there that says this that we have some enforcement we can do. That's the point behind it. All right. Any other comments or questions? All right. We have a motion and a second. All those in favor signify by I. Those opposed, nay.

Motion passes. Item 10 A4, proposed changes to parking restrictions for streets and avenues located in the downtown area. The downtown business improvement district and the committee recommend approval. I move that the report be adopted. Second. We have a motion and a second to adopt this committee report. Any discussion? And again, uh, Tara, I would ask if you'd just give a brief explanation of what we've got here, please.

Sure. There is presently a 24-hour parking limit everywhere in downtown and in certain areas um primarily well 13th, 14th, 25th, 26th, 27th Avenue between those streets um is an additional restriction of 2hour parking. There's recently been conversation um and some complaints about the parking and um complaints around that. So, the B held a meeting a few weeks ago and had extensive conversation about the parking regulations downtown and heard lots of comments um staying the same um changing to 24-hour everywhere, removing the 2-hour limit everywhere. And what they landed on was somewhere in the middle a compromise of keeping the 2hour limits on the streets where they exist today and removing them which would revert to 24hour on the avenues. Um, so think I guess the the thinking is that everywhere within a short distance there would be a short-term parking and a more long-term parking option in that particular zone of downtown. Um the other part of this resolution is related to parking restrictions so that the street department can sweep regularly downtown and remove snow when there is snow. So that is just related to Tuesdays from 2 am to 5:00 am for the streeting or street sweeping

street sweeping um on Tuesdays year round and then seasonally from that same 2 am to 5:00 a.m. November 1st through March 31st if there is snow or snow forecasted in that time period that people not park only on 27th Avenue between 12th and 13th, 28th Avenue between 12th and 13th and 13th Street from 23rd to 30th Avenue. All right. Any uh comments from council members?

Quick question. Would this change have been eliminated had there been more consistent enforcement of the existing policy? I I can't answer that. I mean, I What's your definition of consistent?

And how do we know it hasn't been looked at over the years? Well, I asked a question earlier about how many tickets had been uh given on parking issues. And I'm sorry that that came up at the late date, but I maybe you can answer chief

a little bit. I can't I can't answer exact exact numbers. Um, I will tell you that as far as generally speaking, parking tickets, there there have been a number of them, um, overtime parking or uh, parking facing traffic or some things like that. As far as downtown parking, I can't say that there's been, you know, in the last few months, I know that there's been a warning. Um, but I can't give you exact numbers on that, but I will tell you that we do enforce parking and and usually it's when someone calls it in. It's an on call enforcement and in essence,

uh, in as far as the overtime parking, yes. Uh if you're driving down the street and you see somebody parked um you know blocking a an alley or something like that they fire hydrant then or or a handicap um we'll we'll respond to that as we see them also. Um but as far as overtime parked that's usually a call. It's really hard to to know without getting the call. So, so in essence, we don't mark cars or we don't uh used to go back used to put chalk on tires and do other things like that, too. That that's still done, but it'll be upon a call. We're not going to walk down the street and, you know, at 2:00,

okay, and hit all those. But if if somebody calls and says it was there, we'll it's called mark and tag. You know, we'll put a tag on it and we'll mark the tires and then we'll see if it moves. Thank you. And the two-hour restriction is still going to remain from 8 to 6,

right? Same hours as it exists today. And I think for the general public's knowledge, this this discussion was held in the uh the public property safety committee prior to our council meeting and we had multiple uh guests that came forward and gave their uh their thoughts on what what you know needed to happen and their their belief and they were all business owners and and people from this general area. You know, hey, it's kind of like the trash thing. things. There hasn't really been an issue until all of a sudden there happened to be an issue. And uh you know because of that we've had to make some changes and and look at what we can do to uh to make things work a little better. And you know everybody that has been has come forward has been willing to say what we're trying is a good compromise. Does it solve everything? No. That's why it's called a compromise. you know that means some little here and a little there and we all try to get along and that's probably the biggest comment I could make of the evening. We all try to get along and see what we can do and work through this. So any other comments? Anyone in the audience want to add anything that has not been said here or in our other committee meeting? You're certainly welcome if you want to. And if you don't want to, you're certainly welcome not to. All right, we have a motion and a second. All those in favor, please signify by I. Those opposed, nay. Motion passes. All right, we move on to new business. Item 13A, appointment of Margaret Pegs Lazarski to the Civil Service Commission, filling an unexpired term until April of 2029. Council, with your permission, the mayor

wishes to submit the following name for the consideration appointment at the May 4th, 2026 city council meeting per city council rules. Peg Sar Sazarski is a retired English and speech instructor, a career path influenced by her father who served as a school superintendent and her mother, a teacher. She began her career at Lake View High School where she taught for 36 years, followed by 13 years at Central Community College. Although she has retired from full-time teaching, she continues to stay active in the classroom and as a substitute teacher. Peg has won local, state, and national teaching awards. However, she considers her greatest achievements to be the moments when her former students thank her for making a meaningful difference in their lives. She has helped them develop skills in public speaking, writing, strong memos and essays, and even overcoming addictions. Peg is currently active in Bible study group, book club, card club, and church work, and serves as a co-chairperson on the United Ways education committee. She and her husband reside in Columbus and have four adult children and 10 grandchildren. Peg is honored to be able to continue serving the community as a member of civil service commission council. Is there a

mayor? I move for the appointment of Peg Slarski to the civil service commission. Second. We have have a motion and a second to approve. All those in favor signify by I. Those opposed, nay.

Motion passes. Thank you, councel. Item 13B, application from 23rd West LLC doing business as Bose West Sports Bar to add a secondary catering license to ex the existing retail class C liquor license at 372023rd Street. Mr. Mayor, I move I make a motion to recommend to the Nebraska Liquor Control Commission approval of the addition of a catering license to the existing class C liquor license for 23rd West LLC. Second. We have a motion and a second to approve. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by I. Those opposed, nay.

Motion passes. Item 13 C quote from Wimhof Refrigeration Incorporated in the amount of $17,383.72 for air conditioning unit for the Quail Run Pro Shop. This is reallocated funds if approved from CIP26-07. Mr. Mayor move the re reallocation of funds be approved and the quote from Wimhof Refrigeration Incorporated for air conditioning unit be accepted. Second.

I have a motion and a second to approve. Any discussion? I just have one question, you know. Um, would this unit possibly be able to be retrofitted in two to three years or four years? I I know it would probably depend on the condition, but if you know, if there was an expansion or a building done, you know, would this be able to be part of that? It's a good question and I don't have an answer for you right now, but I can find out.

Well, you know, and that's fine. And I just I mean I we know there's discussions about doing more and we all always want to think about how are we spending today's money for what might happen tomorrow and ob without question they need an air conditioner. Yes. And this is going to sufficiently uh keep the space comfortable where the old units did not absolutely not hesit you know no hesitation on my part of the need. I was just asking the question for future future possibilities. All right any other questions? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by I. Those opposed, nay. Motion passes.

Item 13D, quote from CDW government in the total amount of $49,97.62 for the Microsoft 365 mailbox licenses. Mr. Mayor, I move the quote from CDW government for Microsoft 365 mailbox license be accepted. Second. We have a motion and a second to accept. Any discussion? Is is there an idea of how much we're saving by going to this? I know it said

Yeah, we brought it forward um last time and I don't my memory on it isn't great, but I feel like it was between 15 and $20,000 savings as opposed to renewing what we have and having to update everything. Um, but that there's a full memo on file that has all those numbers and all the comparisons from last time it was brought forward. Okay. Thank you. And we're all all of us staff are really excited to get 365 and SharePoint and all the updated technology. It will be a great improvement for us.

All right, we have a motion and a second. All those in favor signify by I. Those opposed, nay. Motion passes. Item 13E, quote from HydroClean LLC in the amount of $42,515.93 for storm sewer cleaning. This is CIP21-96. Mr. Mayor, I move the quote from Hydro Clean for storm sewer cleaning be accepted. Second. Second. We have a motion and a second to approve this quote. Any discussion? Seeing none. All those in favor signify by I. Those opposed, nay.

Motion passes. Item 13F, comments from the mayor and city council members in compliance with the open meetings act. No discussion may be held on this item. Any council members with comments this evening? Yes, sir.

Yeah. I'd like to invite everybody to the National Day of Prayer which is coming up this Thursday. Uh I've had opportunity to be part of the program and it's going to be going to be fantastic. Got almost all the school kids. We got a group of kids that be from second to sixth grade about a hundred of them going to be part of the program. Uh the high school is going to have their program middle school and then the vertical voices got 50 about 50 people singing on that. So, it's going to be going to be fantastic. All right, sounds awesome. Any other comments? That was what I was going to mention. You didn't mentioned it much better than I would have. I was just going to say what? Come on down to Frankfurt Square Thursday night at 6:30.

All right, we'll move on to resolutions. Item 14A, resolution number R26-63, approving the permanent sidewalk easement located at 33rd Avenue and 21st Street. Mr. Mr. Mayor, I move that resolution number R 626-63 be adopted. Second.

Have a motion and a second to adopt resolution number R26-63. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by I. Those opposed, nay. Motion passes. Item 14B, resolution number R26-64, approving the drainage easement located west of Greyhawk Place Culdeac. Mr. Mayor, move resolution number R26-64 be adopted. Second.

We have a motion and a second to approve resolution R26-64. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by I. Those opposed, nay. Motion passes. Item 14 C, resolution number R26-65, reestablishing and updating parking restrictions for streets and avenues located in the downtown area. Mr. Mayor, I move resolution number R26-65 be adopted. Second.

We have a motion and a second to adopt resolution number R26-65. Any discussion? I just want to echo what the mayor said. I there's no perfect solution to this problem. Um unfortunately it's been brought up because of uh individuals that are um having difficulty getting along and and I I think we just have to wait and see where it goes. Um and I think the uh police department has been very gracious in just handing out warnings instead of parking uh tickets uh to make this their point. But uh you know gosh the old days everybody got along. It's just just just a terrible world we're living in now. Nobody nobody wants to talk to each other the neighbors and um it's very disappointing uh that we have to come down to having to really look at these things and and putting the the bl the the burden on our shoulders to make it work. And so we're not going to, you know, we're not going to be the good guys, especially when someone gets a ticket, but it's our job to do it. And I think uh the B came up with a good resolution or a compromise. And I think hopefully it it'll work. All right, we have a motion and a second. All those in favor signify by I. Those opposed, nay.

Motion passes. Item 14D, resolution R26-66, approving the first amendment to the fire and emergency medical services agreement with the Columbus Fire Rural Fire Protection District. Mr. Mayor, I move for the adoption of resolution number R26-6. Second. We have a motion and a second to adopt resolution number R26-66. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by I. Are those opposed? N.

Motion passes. Item 14E, resolution number R26-67, approving the change order number one to the construction contract with Wretchens Construction Incorporated in the amount of 17,854.85 for change proposal requests 1 through5 for the Northwell number 20. C this is CIP25-67. Mr. Mayor, I move that resolution number R26-67 be adopted. Second.

We have a motion and a second to adopt resolution number two R26-67. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by I. Those opposed, nay. Motion passes. Item 14F, resolution number R26-68, approving the professional services agreement with HDR Engineering Incorporated in the amount of $80,400 for water treatment plant pilot study for the water division. This is reallocated funds if approved from CIP25-67.

Mr. Mayor, I move the reallocation of funds be approved and resolution number R26-68 be adopted. Second. We have a motion and a second to adopt resolution number R26-68. Any discussion? Can we just have a quick uh explanation of what we're studying?

This is a pilot program in conjunction with the sand filtration system that we're looking to put in at the north plant and as well as the south plant. We'll do the south plant first and then we're looking at that'll help us with design and cost and we'll know what we need to do for sure in this process. So, it's just a small pilot program that our guys will run and we'll work with HDR uh to keep the cost down. We'll do the testing everything in house which also serves as training for our staff as well. And I think we're going to look at doing both plants just so we have a a pilot program so we know what we need for the project.

And is most of what we're looking at manganesees or pronounce it however you want. This will address our iron manganesees for the most part. Okay. Which we have high iron or maganesees in the wells

both south and north. I I do remember in our, you know, long-term expansion and and dollars that were going to be spent over the next few years for our water system that this was being discussed. So, all right. I have a motion and a second. All those in favor signify by I. Those opposed, nay. Item 14G, resolution number R26-69, approving the grant agreement with Nebraska Emergency Management Agency and an amount not to exceed $142,500 or 75% of allowable cost, whichever is less, for the Columbus Area Regional Flood Mitigation Assessment and authorizing city engineer Rick Bogus as the authorized representative to sign. This is CIP20-3.

Mr. Mayor, I move that resolution number R26-69 be adopted. Second. We have a motion and a second to adopt resolution number R26-69. Any discussion? Is this Are we looking at flood plane here? Yeah. So, this is flood mitigation. So, this will be anything from uh to Columbus west down the loop river. So, even into Nance County through PL County and Nance County. And it'll be both physical items and non-physical items. There might be some communication things we can do, some code things that can be done besides the physical way for flood mitigation. Okay. But not flood plane designation.

No, this is not flood plane designation. Flood plane designation being changed and apparently that's not happening by hopefully the word flood in here kind of the public sees that they might get a little excited. That is forthcoming. Councilman, I know. I'm just Thank you.

All right, we have a motion and a second. All those in favor signify by I. Those opposed, nay. Motion passes. Brings us up to ordinances on their first reading. Item 15A, ordinance number 26-08, amending city code section 50.35 to add regulations regarding handling of solid waste. No motion is necessary. This is a first reading. All right. No motion necessary with that meeting adjourned. So if