City Council - Regular Meeting

Columbus City Council meeting for June 15th 2026 will now come to order in Compliance with the open meeting act a copy of this act is posted in this meeting room madam clerk. Would you please call roll?

Bulkley here Alarcon bar here hamer here Jablonski here Lopez here Polanski here Roth Schilling here 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.

Oh, say can you see, by the dawn's early light, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming, Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,

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. If at any time anyone in our audience would like to address the council on any item on our agenda, we'd welcome you to come forward Give your name, your address, and we'd ask that you keep any comments to five minutes or less. All right. With that, we'll move on to the 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 consent status and considered in its normal sequence on the agenda. Item 4A, minutes of the June 1st, 2026 city council meeting. Item 4B, resolution number R26-82, authorizing payment of various improvement projects. Item 4C, finance department reports. And item 4D, payroll and bills on file. Mr. Mayor and council members, is there anything you would like to remove from the consent agenda?

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

We have a motion and a second to approve. Any discussion? Seeing none all those in favor signify by aye those opposed nay That wasn't part of the motion Motion passes. All right. Brings us up to reports of an update.

Item 9A is update of the Nebraska Department of Transportation Loop River South Bridges Project. Mr. Bogus?

They remain on their schedule, which is good. If you remember, we talked last how the piers, I'm sorry, last of the girders would be up by this time, and they are. So the girders are up. We're just doing some minor work on a north abutment and so forth. They've done some work on the approaches. They poured part of an approach already. Now it's time to do the decking. So they did a lot of deck, a lot of steel be coming in, a lot of tying of that steel. I think they projected their first deck pour maybe mid-July sometime. So, again, it's going on exactly as they had planned on their schedule.

Did they have some problems on the northbound where they had a traffic stop for quite a while?

No.

So they had that hump that we've talked about, that bump or whatever you want to call it that we talked about before. The DOT has been in a couple of times. They had some issues the first time. They had some machinery failure on the first time they tried to do it. And then the second time they tried to do it, they were getting asphalt out of Duncan, I believe, and that plant wasn't operable that day, so that was a little bit of an issue. And they still have some cleanup, probably doing it maybe soon here.

All right, any other questions for Mr. Bogus? Thank you. We'll move on to new business.

Item 13A is appointment of Anthony Cush as firefighter.

Council members, with your permission, the mayor wishes to submit the name of Anthony Cush for appointment to the position of firefighter. Per council rules, the two-week waiting period is waived for appointment of a paid firefighter. Mr. Cush was certified by the Civil Service Commission at their meeting held May 26, 2026. Anthony was born and raised in Columbus, Nebraska, where he graduated from Scotus Central High School. He earned his EMT license from Northeast Community College in 2023 and later attended Metropolitan Community College, earning a degree in paramedicine. Anthony has served as a paramedic and lab technician at CHI Health Clinic in Omaha and currently employed as a paramedic with Priority Medical Transport. Anthony is a volunteer for the Bellwood Rural Fire Department and an active member of the Knights of Columbus. Volunteers as a variety of community events. In his free time, he enjoys recreational sports, reading, and spending quality time with his friends and family. And Anthony looks forward to contributing to a team-oriented environment and the opportunity to serve his hometown and make a positive impact in the community. Council members, do I have a motion? So moved. Second.

We have a motion and a second to approve this appointment. Any comments? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by aye. Those opposed, nay. Motion passes. Now, Mr. Cush, we're not going to let you sit back there all by yourself. You need to come forward and introduce yourself and say hello to us, please. If they didn't tell you you'd have to do that, shame on them.

No, they kind of warned me. Yeah, my name's Anthony. You guys kind of got the gist of my background. Yeah, just really thankful and looking forward to serving the community and further my EMS and fire skills.

Item 13 B is comments from the mayor and city council members in compliance with the open meetings act no discussion may be held on this item Council members anyone this evening have any comments or anything to add I Have nothing to add this evening, so we will move on to Resolutions item 14 a resolution number r2 6-8 3 opposing the proposed railroad crossing closure located on 63rd Avenue on the west side of of Howard Boulevard and U.S. Highway 81.

Mr. Mayor, I move for the adoption of resolution number R26-83. Second.

We have a motion and a second to approve resolution R26-83. Can we just have a little comment on this because we're actually opposing something as it's brought forth, which is kind of a little different than what we normally do, but I think the public will understand when you... EXPLAIN, PLEASE.

YEAH, IT IS A LITTLE DIFFERENT. SHERRY AND I WERE DISCUSSING THAT AND WE WERE TRYING TO PUT THIS TOGETHER. SO HOW THIS CAME ABOUT IS, OF COURSE, AS YOU KNOW, WE'RE LOOKING AT, WE'RE DOING THE DESIGN PART OF THE INTERSECTION OF HOWARD-BOTELAR, WHICH IS HIGHWAY 81 AND 63rd. SO THE TRACKS, IF YOU CAN VISUALIZE THAT, IT'S OPPOSITE SIDE OF THE CASINO. SO IT'S TECHNICALLY THE WEST SIDE. SOME PEOPLE CALL IT THE SOUTH. IT'S THE WEST SIDE. THERE'S SOME TRACKS THERE. AND THE TRACKS THEMSELVES ARE OWNED BY UNI-PACIFIC ROAD ROAD THAT TRACKS THEMSELVES. BUT THE OPERATION IS NEBRASKA CENTRAL, BUT RIO GRANDE OWNS THE NEBRASKA CENTRAL. SO AS WE WERE DOING THE DESIGN, LOOKING AT HOW WE'RE GOING TO TIE IN THE TRACK CROSSING TO THE SIGNALIZATION THAT NEEDS TO BE DONE, THE RIO GRANDE SENT CORRESPONDENTS THROUGH THE NEBRASKA DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION, BECAUSE THAT'S WHO OVERSEES ALL THIS, ASKING THEM TO CONSIDER A PERMANENT CLOSURE OF THAT TRACK. Um, obviously with the items that I had listed there for obvious, all kinds of different reasons, it's, you know, there'd be, there's limited crossings over there. There'd be longer, you know, emergency response times, you know, it kind of cut people off there. It's an emergency route for if there's flooding or a failure on the levee, you know, all that stuff, um, comes into play. So, um, we just thought it would be best if we went specifically on record, uh, to be opposed against that. PLAQUE COUNTY, SO THE CITY OWNS PROPERTY OR HAS PROPERTY ON BOTH SIDES. THE CORPORATE LIMITS ARE ON THE SOUTH SIDE AND THE NORTH SIDE OR EAST WEST OR WHATEVER YOU WANT TO SAY. BUT THEN THEIR COUNTY ALSO HAS ROADS THERE TOO. SO THE COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS, THINK OF THE LAST MEETING OR THE MEETING PRIOR, WENT ON RECORD WITH THE RESOLUTION ALSO OPPOSING THAT. AND I WANT TO TAKE THAT RESOLUTION AND THE CITY'S RESOLUTION AND FORWARD THAT TO THE DOT TO BE ON RECORD THAT WE DID NOT WANT THAT CROSSING CLOSED.

Awesome. Any comments or questions for Mr. Bogus? Thank you for that explanation. Appreciate it. All right, we have a motion and a second. All those in favor, signify by aye. Those opposed, nay. Motion passes. Brings us up to ordinances on their first reading.

item 15 a ordinance number two six dash one two authorizing the mayor and city administrator to execute requests for deeds of Reconvance or partial deeds of Reconvance for real estate held as security from Quail Meadows, LLC Mr.. Mayor move the rules be suspended an ordinance number two six dash one to be read by number only second We have a motion in a second to suspend the rules and read ordinance number two six dash one two by number only any discussion I

We probably should have some clarification since we're releasing some security here and the public would probably really like to know why we would do that.

So we have an LB840 loan with Quail Meadows LLC. This is a development down by the transfer station. So we have, as you said, security on some of the lots, but they're under contract to sell. some of the lots, so we need to release those and then they will make their payment to us on the LB 840 as agreed. But we still have other security on other lots as well. Instead of coming back to the council every time they go to sell a lot, we did this on New Hope where the mayor and city administrator could release lots as they're sold to.

Any further questions or comments? Thank you for that explanation. All right, we have a motion and a second. All those in favor, signify by aye. Those opposed, nay.

Motion passes.

Ordinance number 26-12.

Mr. Mayor, move for the adoption of ordinance number 26-12. Second.

We have a motion and a second to adopt ordinance number 26-12. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by aye. Those opposed, nay. Motion passes.