City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening. Welcome to this uh North Fork City Council meeting, December 15, 2025. At this time, I'd like to call the meeting to order and inform the public of the location of meetings act posted in the council chambers and accessible to members of the public. This time, we'd stand for a moment of silence and immediately followed by a pledge of allegiance. And while we're standing, um we had an officer injured in the line of duty. Uh he's recovering, but uh please keep him in your thoughts. 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.

Roll call, please. Granquist, here. Arns, here. Web here. McCarthy here. Beckman here. Jensen here. Langy here. Hildbrand here. Mayor here. I need so sorry. I need approval of the consent agenda, please. I'll be abstaining from this consent agenda for item 11. My brother sits on the connection project board. So moved. Second. Motion second. Any discussion? Please vote. All right. Need approval of F. Oh, sorry.

Voting in the affirmative. McCarthy Greenquist, Arns, Jensen, Langy, Hildebrand, Beckman. Abstaining. Web. Motion carries. You got to spit them out faster. We're in a hurry now. Approval of the full agenda, please. So move.

Second. We have a motion. Second. Any discussion? [snorts] Please call. All council members present voting in the affirmative. Motion carries. All right. So, under special presentations tonight, we have a presentation of the Nebraska Land Foundation 2025 Rising Star Award to the city of Northfor. And we have Courtney Dentinker here tonight to uh present that.

[clears throat]

Okay. Good evening, Mayor and Council. Courtney Dentlinger, uh, a resident here of North Fork at 1309 North 30th Street, uh, but also a member of the board of directors of the Nebraska Land Foundation. and it is my honor to be here with you this evening to present to the city of Northfor the Rising Star Award on behalf of the Nebraska Land Foundation for all of the work that you all have done on the riverfront property. Um this is a pretty prestigious award from the Nebraska Land Foundation. Uh and it's really a testament to tremendous amount of work that has gone in down in the riverfront. Uh I've been here to see all of that happen over a period of time. uh and the pride that it's really brought to the community and the amount of activity that I see down in that area is truly incredible. So with that, I'd like to present to you, Mr. Mayor.

All right.

Anybody else want to come up? We all took the meeting at the same time. [laughter] Congratulations. [applause] [applause] I'll set this back. It's quite an award. I I wish I could take credit for it, but I can't. I wasn't mayor at the time. U the last mayor before me obviously worked extremely hard for that, but before he started on it. Um this it was more of a citizens committee that had got together and worked on that. And we were fortunate to have a couple people here when they came down and gave us the award uh the other day. Lon Atwood and uh Joe Ferguson were both here and they were uh and I know Stan Stab was not here but uh he was big on that. But I remember back in '05 or ' 06, right around that time, I had just moved back to Norfork and I was doing some work on a project and I had met Lon Atwood and he had just been to San Antonio, I believe, and he came and told me, he goes, "We could turn this river into," and this before I was involved with the city at all. He goes, "I I think we can get this river turn this uh into a riverwalk down here." And I said, "You're crazy." I remember thinking that right away. And uh lo and behold, uh 20 years later, came to fruition. So anyway, that's one of those things where you feel like you're uh what do they say? You're standing on somebody's shoulders looking down, right? There's a lot of people that put a lot of work in that. So anyway, thank you so much for everybody who worked on that. And it's something I believe our community can truly enjoy. Even though I don't think we're all on the same side and how [clears throat] it got done, what how all went down, but I think everything's done now. We can all agree that it's a good thing for our community. So, all right, moving on. What's [clears throat] that? Anybody

else have anything to say or good? Good. Okay. [clears throat] Uh, move on to the regular agenda. I'm sorry. Moving on to item number 19, public hearing related action. We need a public hearing to receive the report and on findings and suggestions from the economic development citizen citizens advisory review committee as required by state status section 182715. Randy will lead us with that.

Yes, your honor. As you mentioned, this is a requirement [clears throat] of statutes. Any city that has an LB840 economic development program has to have a citizens advisory review committee and that committee is charged with reviewing the operation and functioning of the city's LB840 program and making any recommendations they see fit. The citizens on our car are Cindy Mororrow, Brandon Day, Chuck Olsen, Jan Einbar, and Kathy Atten. I serve as an exeicio non- voting member of the CARK. Uh the committee has been conducting their uh review sessions by email for the last year or so since we're in the winding down phase of the LB840 program. At the beginning of this review period, which was basically from May through October, we had two outstanding forgivable loans in from the LB840 program. One of those loans met the requirements to be forgiven during this period and was forgiven. That was the [snorts] neighbor works Nebraska Neighbor Works Northeast Nebraska revolving loan fund which was for the creation of a workforce housing program in Norfolk and the two-mile [clears throat] zoning jurisdiction. To meet its forgiveness requirements, they had to create 30 workforce housing units and then that loan was 99% forgiven and 99% of the interest paid refunded. that happened during this uh review period. We still have one uh revolving loan [clears throat] or forgivable loan outstanding and that's for the well the women's empowering lifeline and they had a $13,000

approximately I'll get you the exact number here $103,29 uh loan for the creation of a child care center. Their requirements are that they create uh 11 full-time equivalent positions and maintain those for two years, paying at least $15 per hour. Those positions have been created and were created by the end of December 24. there's a two your retention period and that retention period uh for an employee stop position stops when that uh position is vacant and then restarts when an uh the new employee is hired. So I expect they will meet their forgiveness criteria in 2027. the uh citizens of the LB840 program had a cash balance on October 31 of $10,936. Of that amount, $8,168 is interest on the Wells loan, which will be refunded when that loan is forgiven. Um the sense advisory review committee found that the economic development program was [clears throat] operating in compliance with the budget and voter approved economic development plan. I'd answer any questions. Yeah, Randy LB LB840 obviously is not being collected anymore um as far as being used as an economic development tool, but how long will we continue to have presentations or have the advisory committee on them?

Until the last loan is forgiven and when will that be? I expect that'll be 2027. Okay. So, you probably got three more of these, I would expect.

Okay. Any other discussion, questions? Any questions from the public? All right, seeing we'll close the hearing and move on to our regular agenda. On to number 20. Uh, consideration of ordinance number 5965, amendment section 24351 and 24-3352 of official city code to allow specific all-terrain vehicles to be defined as utility type vehicles for purposes of chapter 24. The ordinance includes language indicated that a utility type vehicle may also include all-terrain vehicles that shall have the following. A an original manufactured safety cage. B, original manufactured safety or seat belts, one for each passenger, C, an original manufactured steering wheel, and D is not less than 40 in 49 in uh in width.

So moved. Second. Okay, a motion second. Discussion, please. um for this. Chief, I believe you're [clears throat] you're on the clock. [laughter]

Good evening, mayor, council members. Um, this is an ordinance that changed to bring on the trail models of they look like UTVs, they act like UTVs, but they got a narrower wheel basease that puts them in the category under state statute as an ATV. Um, we've had numerous citizens come to the police station trying to license their vehicles and technically until this ordinance change, we can't license them to to ride on the street. So, [snorts] uh, I think this is a good compromise as far as to allow these particular vehicles in the same fashion as the regular UTVs.

All right. Chief, how [clears throat] how close is this then to the state statute? You know, one of the issues we had was just the the width in the in the way I believe. Correct. The definition don't have it right in front of me, but state statute UTV is 72 in or less. Um, the definition of your traditional four-wheeler type ATV is uh 50 in or less. So, this would bring in those 50-in trail models is what we're trying to um help people with. So, so the 49 in is just to allow the 50, right?

Okay. And to exclude any other ATVs that don't have a roll cage, seat belts, steering wheel, that type of Thank you for your work on this. Yep. Any other questions? Oh, up here for chief. None from Corey. I see

I want to say something. I wish we could we could look at this a little deeper and get an actual ATV and realize that they're that they're not made for 35 m an hour on a pavement road, but residential road, I don't see an issue with them. So, I wish we could revise this, but this is what the subcommittee had brought forward. So, um, at least at least we're making a step in the in the direction of legalizing more of these type of vehicles. So, okay. Thank you, Chief.

Anybody else have anything to say from the public or anything? All right. Seeing whether it's got short title, please. an ordinance of the city of Northfor, Nebraska to amend sections 24-351 and 24-352 of the official city code to allow specific all-terrain vehicles to be defined as utility type vehicles for purposes of article 11 of chapter 24 addressing allterrain vehicles and utility type vehicles to provide when this ordinance shall be in full force and effect and to provide for the publication of this ordinance in pamphlet form. All right, please vote. All council members voting in the affirmative. Ordinance number 5965 carries on first reading.

See no opposition. I would like to uh have a consideration of suspending rules. Second and third. Second. We motion second. Any discussion? I'd see none. Please vote.

All council members voting in the affirmative. Ordinance number 5965 carries on second and third. Well, Cory, it's chipping away one one vote at a time, huh? That's That's right. Okay. All right. On to item number 21. Consideration of approval to advertise for seal proposals for professional architectural and engineering design services for Tahazuka softball complex expansion project. I'll make a motion for consideration. Second. All right. We have a motion to second and Nate will be leading us in discussion.

Hello mayor and council. Good evening. [clears throat] Um this is a request for proposal for the Tahazuka softball complex um expansion. It's part of the master plan that we did in 2022 for Tahazuka. Um this is part of the LWCF grant match that we um applied for and and we were awarded. Um, this is for the first of those of a four- field complex and this will be the design work as part of phase A of this project. We'll also be looking at phase B, a second field and another phase of improving the road and connecting it to First Street and McKinley Avenue there. Um, so that'll be part of the um the proposal. Um, it's just an advertise um for proposals. will bring the um the um design firm that we choose um in January. So, is there any questions? Thanks, Nate. Any question from the public? Jim McKenzie, I just had a couple questions as I was reading the agenda. It talks about phase A being paid for by the LWCF grant and Kino match. It doesn't specifically say how phase B and phase C design are going to be paid for and how much we anticipate that to be and where that's going to come from in the budget. And then my my other question would be has there ever been a utilization study done on the fields that we have? I' I've talked to somebody who's heavily involved in softball in the community and there seems to be some

some concern that that maybe the fields that we have aren't utilized as well as they should be and if we've ever done kind of a utilization study and it would be nice to see that if we have. Thank you. Jim, would you support the cost of a utilization study for these fields? I guess it depends on whether we can do it internally or if it really needs to be done externally. If it was done externally, would you support that? Depends on what the cost is. I mean, yeah, generally, yes. If you're going to spend, you know, if I've heard these are the first two or four fields, and if they're going to cost half a million dollars a piece and you're going to spend $2 million on fields, then certainly it would make sense to make sure we're going to utilize [clears throat] those fields. Okay.

Yep. Um the the second phase um I I because it's a proposal, I didn't want to get into too much on costs, but we were going to fund that with the um COE dollars that we have coming in. Um that would be the proposal coming to you in January. And um Steve Rams could talk about the road project and I I believe it's some highway allocation funds for that. I don't know if you want to expand on that. And then um [clears throat] again that would be um brought to you in January. The exactly how everything would be funded and what the costs were. We may throw out those two if we if we don't find the dollars if we we feel that we we don't have it available. Um but so the final proposal will be for sure phase A. Um but we'll bring the full proposal to you in a month once we have a better idea on costs. Um, as far as usage, I've sat in in meetings with with ball with the ball clubs and um, we're trying to decide who gets to use it, the girls fast pitch or the adult softball league. We do this often. We do it often in tournaments. We have three overutilized fields there at the um at the Colar Complex. Um, in terms of um um numbers, I don't have any data to to give you. Um, but I do know that we spend a lot of time maintaining those fields and they are overused. The less you use a field, the the less work you have to put into it to to keep it up to up to um top notchotch. And we do get a lot of complaints for not being uh the quality. It's your your pitching mounds and your batters boxes, you do what you can to keep it um so it's a safe um surface. Um but we do get complaints about it. We do our best with what we have. we are overusing those fields. Um, just based on the conversations I've had and the complaints that we get, um, that's what I have available. I do not

have data that says X number of games or X number of people on the fields, but all right. Thank you. [snorts] All right. Any other discussion? All right. We have a motion to second. So, please vote. All council members voting in the affirmative. Motion carries.

All right. On to item number 22. Consideration of approval to advertise for sealed proposal for the construction of an outdoor mini pitchport project located at Liberty Bell Park. I'll make a motion for consideration. Second. All right, we have a motion to second. Nate's gonna lead the discussion, too. So,

okay. Um B's going to pull up uh the mini pitch in case anybody doesn't know what a mini pitch is. I had to learn myself. Um so, this is also an RFP. Um this is for the installation of a of a mini pitch at Liberty Belt Park. We're looking at installing it at the old pool location. Um this is part of a a donation. Um we do have a donation for this um in the amount of $125,000 plus a $50,000 grant from football for the world. Um the cost um and we also have some inind donation um which we're trying to secure um the cost of that through the RFP process. Um, and we don't know exactly how much, but we do have some se up to 75,000 remaining in the Liberty Bell project funds um to cover our costs. We don't believe it'll be any more than that. Um, but until we get hard dollars from the um from the donor and the and the installer, I we don't have a a solid number to give you, but we'll be able to give that to you in January when we bring the proposal back. Um, and again, we've been doing uh quite a bit at Liberty Bell, um, at Liberty Bell Park. That includes the pickle ball courts, which was donated by Mike Windgate, Brian Adams, and Tom Sheath. We've done the restroom, selters, the back stop is almost complete. Sidewalks, and the trees. The playground was also donated by Integrity Marketing Group and Premier Marketing. So to with this project, it'll be a total of approximately $675,000 in donations at Liberty Bell Park. Um and and in addition to that, we did receive a grant because of the improvements we were doing there for the master plan and that was 80,000. So a total of almost $755,000 in grants, donations, and partnerships at Liberty Bell. Um so this is an RFP. We'll have

more information when we bring that forward next month. Any questions?

Nate, I got to say I'm just glad to see that that park is actually being utilized for things. It it I think it's wonderful in that area because they they sure need something. Great. Thanks. [snorts]

All right. Still in discussion. Anybody else have anything? Any other comments? All right, we do have a motion second. So, please vote. All council members voting in the affirmative. Motion carries. I read this

this time. Uh, may I have a motion to go into close session for the protection of the public interest to hold a strategic or [clears throat] strategy session with respect of collective bargaining? I'll make the motion. Second. Please vote. [clears throat] All council members voting in the affirmative. Motion carries. All right, the motion carried. Again, this close session is for sole purpose of holding us session with respect of collective bargaining.

Hi, we're back.

All right. The only item discussed during the close session was a strategy session with respect to the collective bargaining. May I have a motion to come out of session? So move. Second. Please vote.

All council members voting in the affirmative. Motion carries. Ajourned.