City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening. Welcome to the city Northfor city council meeting February 2nd, 2026. Like to call this meeting to order and inform the public of the location of the open meetings act posted in the council chamber and accessible to members of the public. At this moment, we're going to have a moment of silence and then we'll um follow by 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. Roll call, please. Granquist,

here. Arns, here. Webb, here. McCarthy, here. Beckman, here. Jensen, here. Langy, here. Elder Brand here. Mayor, I'm here. Uh, we need uh recommended actions. Approval of the consent agenda, please. No, we've got public.

Oh, I'm sorry. I skipped one. Public comment period. Uh, public comment opportunities provided during the first regular section scheduled city uh city council meeting of each month. And just as a reminder with the public comment, no action can be taken at this time. So, we won't be responding, but you're welcome to come up and speak. So, anybody at this time want to come up forward, please feel free to Jim McKenzie. Jim McKenzie. Um, I'm going to read to you the letter that I put in the newspaper recently and expand on it for anybody who doesn't get the newspaper. How much taxes are enough for the city of Norfolk? City Council will soon be voting on a new lease agreement with NPPD that will increase the lease fee on everyone's electric bill from 12% to 12.5% with the option to increase it up to 14%. You can see this lease payment aka city electricity tax as a separate line on the back of your NPPD bill. It's a percentage of revenue just like a sales tax. It's pure income to the city because NPPD maintains the system. This city electricity tax used to be 10%. 12% with a 2% rebate. Then around 2005 it went to 12%. And now we have a path to 14%. Some will say the initial half percent increase will add less than a dollar to the average residential bill. But the

reality is all of these taxes and increases add up to a huge burden. the addition of the increased 12 in addition to the 12.5% city electricity tax, the city also adds a 2% sales tax for a total city tax of 14.5% on everyone's electricity bill. Then the state adds another 5.5% state sales tax plus a 5% gross revenue tax that is given to the city, schools, and county. And [clears throat] because of how these fees are calculated and compounded, they add almost 30% in additional taxes onto citizens electricity bill. The proposed new lease will also require other taxup supported agencies, schools, college, and others to start paying the city electricity tax in 2028. They were previously exempt. Why make them pay it now? And how will they afford it? raise taxes again. I suppose the city already receives increases in their electricity tax every time NPPD raises rates because the city tax is based on NPPD rates. The city will take in approximately $225,000 more electricity more electricity tax than it did two years ago due to NPPD rate increases over the past two years without even factoring in the new rate increase. City of Norfolk general fund property taxes have increased from $1,981,000 to $6,57,000 over the past 10 years. They more than tripled while inflation only increased 36% according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. City debt has also increased from around 21 million to almost 70 million in a short five years according to the recent city budget.

It's time to start looking at our spending problem instead of always increasing taxes. The outlook is not favorable. The city's long-term financial plan shows a projected general fund property tax increase of $2.6 million in the upcoming fiscal year starting in October, less than eight months away. That is significantly more than the entire general fund property tax budget for the city in 201516 and it will require massive property tax increases. Sales tax increases are not going to cover it. In fact, sales tax decreased by $129,000 in the most recent month. Even if sales tax increased by 4%, which is probably a best case scenario, it will only bring in around $500,000, leaving the city budget short by a staggering $2.1 million. We cannot tax our way out of this situation. It's taken years to get into this predicament, and it's going to take serious structural reforms to the city's budget to resolve. I've not heard of any work taking place so far this fiscal year to work on this. I urge you to start immediately. Thank you. All right. Anybody else have anything to say? Free tune right now.

All right. See not move to recommend an action. I need approval of the consent agenda. I'll make a motion to approve the consent agenda. Second. Have a motion. Second. Please vote.

All council members voting in the affirmative. Motion carries. All right. On to item number seven. Approval of the full agenda. Please. I'll make a motion for approval. Second. We have a motion to second. Please vote.

[clears throat] All council members voting in the affirmative. Motion carries.

All right, that moves us on to the special presentations this evening. Item number 24, we have a presentation on the 2025 Northfor Madison County Housing Study. All right. Good evening, council. Very nice to see all of you again. Uh my name is Keith Carl. I'm a community planner with Hannah Keelin Associates, a community planning research consulting firm based out of uh Lincoln, Nebraska. Um, our firm was contacted uh by the negat uh Norfor Housing Agency on uh a project involving an update to the uh Madison County housing study which was completed in uh July of 2019. Uh this was a Madison County housing study that involved uh specific emphasis on the city of Norfor. So it was kind of you know the title of it is city of Norfork in Madison County, Nebraska housing study and affordable housing strategies. Um, we had a really good uh housing steering committee that was formed uh from members of the Northfor Housing Agency, Northwest Northeast Nebraska, um, Neighborworks Northeast Nebraska, sorry about that. um and a couple other economic development organizations. Uh representatives from each of the communities within the county uh provided us with invaluable information as to um information regarding current housing conditions throughout each of the communities and throughout the county. So the housing study was completed. We just had a good steering committee meeting here uh within the previous hour uh talking about the results uh of the final study. So the study's broken out into three sections. We kind of just have an introduction talking about um a little bit about why we're doing the housing study, what the goals are of the housing study, and just

kind of gives you an introduction to the county and you know, some of the issues that are being experienced as it relates to housing within the county. Uh section two is kind of the um collection of all of our uh statistical data, our survey data. Um you know, everything dealing with population, income, economic and housing data through the US Census, uh through the American Community Survey estimates, um Department of Labor, Department of Economic Development, um annual population estimates from the census. you know, we're taking a look at a number of different sources uh to be able to come up with kind of a a reasonable um projection of population over a 5-year period. Uh you know, taking a look at population, projection of households, projection of household incomes, and things of that nature. Uh we did have a survey process that was part of this. We did have a couple of uh countywide and communitywide surveys that were uh that were distributed. And uh the numbers on the communitywide survey were better than the ones that we uh that we collected from the 2019 study. So um you know, city of Northfor had more participants in that survey. Madison County as a whole had more participants in that survey. Uh so it allowed us to see you know the uh the trend of um housing issues, housing costs, you know barriers to obtaining affordable housing and uh you know what are some of the desires as it relates to housing construction or housing rehabilitation within the county and within each of the communities. Um so we had a lot of that data. Uh that's part of the study. Um, we do take a look at, you know, housing unit target demand information where if, uh, a community is looking to alleviate a certain percentage of some of the most critical housing issues, you know, be it cost burden issues, be it a vacancy deficiency issue, um, you know, just and just the natural influx of new households uh, into the community, you know, what is what is the demand for housing uh, both owner housing and rental housing over the next 5 years? Um, what kind of price product or price point does that play into? what kind of

uh pop what population sector does that play into? Um and then um the amount of acres of land needed to be able to uh meet the demands uh that are identified within the housing study. Um then all that information is put together. Uh there's a section in there also that talks about uh housing development and preservation initiatives, which is basically the culmination of all of our survey results, all of our statistical data, all of our meetings, and everything we put together into a series of goals that allow a community or allow the county as a whole to be able to um create new housing units. Allows them to be able to rehabilitate existing housing units to put them back on the market. uh you know to increase the tax base and increase the desiraability of the county and each community uh as it relates to you know attracting new residents as it relates to having choice of housing within your community. Um so we make a lot of recommendations regarding um the available partnerships within the community and within uh within the community of Northfor and within Madison County. Um, you guys are a u an example for most larger communities in Nebraska in the sense that you have, you know, Neighbor Works, you have Habitat for Humanity, you have, you know, uh, behavioral health corporations, you have economic development corporations, you have a housing authority, you have a lot of different sources that can tap into a variety of different buckets of money available throughout the state, throughout the United States as well, uh, to be able to, uh, promote housing development. velment, promote housing rehabilitation within your community. And so we outlined some different um objectives or initiatives uh to be able to do that, you know, for each community and the county as a whole. Um we want our ser our study to be one that [snorts] is implemented by each community. uh you know that we we kind of have our housing studies set up as you know we can give you all the data that we want but then here's how you're going to use it or how here's how it can

be used and for the different uh funding sources that are available you know local state and federal that can um help buy down the cost of a project whether it's you know a single entity funding uh funding mechanism or maybe you have a series of grant dollars that are pulled together to buy down the cost of a much larger housing project for example um there's components in the study that tell you how to do that. And then uh probably most important component of those initiatives is the action plan. You know, we have a five-year housing action plan uh broken out by Madison County, also the city of Madison, but also the city of Norfor. You know, taking a look at the at the two largest communities um as it relates to, you know, the city of Norfor. There's, you know, definitely a need for um affordable, both affordable and market rate housing, uh, you know, for owner housing, rental housing, your senior populations, your special populations, as well as a demand for housing to be um either moderately or sorry, moderately or substantially rehabilitated or in some cases demolished and replaced with something that, you know, is is uh more complimentary to your housing market. Um, so there's a a laundry list of different projects that we feel um, you know, based upon our our target demand information, projects that we feel would be a best fit for the community. Um, you know, and and if if the numbers are blown out of the water by a series of large projects, it's not going to hurt our feelings at all. We're just giving you a a forecast based upon, you know, population projections and based upon um allevi alleviating a certain percentage of housing issues that currently exist within the community and within the county. Um all of our raw number information from the surveys is part of the study. All of our um all the tables that we've done information on, you know, for trends and projections are all part of the study. And we also have an appendix in there that identifies the local, state, and federal funding sources uh that are most popular uh for

communities and counties of comparable size that uh that can be tapped into by your local agencies to buy down the cost of a housing project. So, it's it's a uh it's a very thorough report. Uh a little more condensed than the last report, but you know, we still had a lot of good input from uh the housing steering committee that was put together. you know, they gave us good guidance and good feedback on um on some of our data and uh you know, we were really pleased with that process. So, we uh we consider this a successful process and uh I'd be willing to answer any questions or comments you might have regarding um anything within that study or anything about moving forward. So what is your recommendation for a life of this study before we redo it again? Now

so the projections within the study are on a 5-year timeline. So from now to 2031 at which point then it's it would be recommended to update that you know be it for city of Northfor or for Madison County. Um we've had a really good relationship with Northfor Housing Agency. We have a a rather extensive history with them in terms of putting together um housing studies for the city of Norfor and for Madison County. Um we did a uh I mentioned the 2019 countywide housing study that we did. Um we also did an update in 2021 for the city of Northfor right before all the annexation took place. And back in 2014, we did a community housing study for Northfor and also took a uh did an analysis of impediments to um affordable housing in the community, which is good for, you know, federal grant dollars and a good for, you know, consolidated plan efforts in the region. So, uh we've had a really good relationship with Northfor Housing Agency and, you know, we trust when that time comes that we'll we'll keep in contact and hopefully update it again in 2031. Well, that I was just concerned. I was going this it's a living in growing document all the time depending on what your economic conditions around the community dictate and what you know may or may not occur within the next

sure three

and and we understand you know economics are ever evolving. Housing development projects are uh you know popping up left and right. I mean, we when we did the 2021 housing study for Norfor between then and then coming back to the community now, it's like we were kind of blown away with the number of housing units that were created in the community. So, you know, you you guys you're I I got to give it up for you. You guys have done a very fantastic job in putting housing in the ground. Um I know sometimes it's like when you build a lot of housing and it becomes full right away, like you you'll probably see in the study like, well, why is our vacancy rate still so low? It's like, well, you know, you're building housing, but at the same time, that housing is becoming occupied so quickly. You're kind of like a doughnut shop running out of donuts at 7 in the morning, you know. Um, and that's not a bad thing either. I mean, it just shows how desirable your community is for residency and, you know, kind of how the other communities of the county reflect on that.

Thank you. You're welcome. as far as baseline understanding of the the housing study you've submitted, who within staff is working with them. Um, so we can we have questions from council during the week. Uh, we've got different boards that, you know, they're going to have questions coming up about the conclusion of the study. What do we do for that?

Well, that would be me, Rita Heinman. Um, you know, this was my first study that I've been involved with and so I learned a lot through the process and I'm thankful to Hannah Keelin for kind of guiding me as we went through. But yeah, I think I have a better understanding of it now going through the process than I did when it all started. Okay. So, all right. Thank you. Any questions? Any further questions?

Thank you. Thank you for presentation. Thank you for your time. Uh I remember we did this uh 19 last time you guys were here all the big study and I'll be honest with you, I didn't think it was needed at the time. I remember being one of the people that was not in favor of having the housing study done and I was wrong. um it put together a big a good example of what we needed and uh it uh kind of kicked off a lot of construction within our community. So appreciate that. Thank you.

Yeah. Right. And if there's any other questions or comments above and beyond this meeting too, um, our staff's more than happy to get those answered for you or, you know, if there's any other information from the study you kind of want filtered out, you know, um, either let Rita know or let us know. We'll get you taken care of. Yeah, I'm sure you'll be you will be. Yeah, we'll have some questions and we'll be back with you. So, right. And I think there's some members we've got some different committees that'll be looking for some information also. So, Okay. Yep. Sounds good. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Oh, uh, the public can speak on this as well. So, if you have anything you want to come forward with, please do so now. Going once, twice. It's old. All right, we're on to the uh public heating hearing and related actions. Item number 25, we have a public hearing concerning the activities of the Northeast Nebraska Economic Development for the Community Development Block Grant, CDBG, and to give citizens the opportunity to be heard regarding the downtown revitalization DTR grant 23-DR-00008. Zack Fischer will be coming forward. I better adjust this a little bit. I'm a little bit shorter. Okay. So, yeah, it's the second uh public reading of this. So, it's one of the requirements of for the CDBG to come up and and read kind of give a little update on the progress that we're going with it. So, um, the city of Northwork was awarded CDBG downtown revitalization funds, 435,000, of which 310,000 were used for facade improvements in Northfor, Nebraska, Madison County. 90,000 were used for public improvements in the downtown Norfolk area. Uh, 25,000 was awarded for grant administration. 10,000 was awarded for construction management. The city of Norfork is providing the match, the required match of $332,500 in the DTR project activities. Uh project activities include facade improvements to local businesses located

in the downtown area and construction of ADA compliant midblock crossings. To date, $107,4918 have been used for commercial rehabilitation. $3,675 has been used for construction management and $20,260.89 has been used for general administration of the grant. No persons, businesses, or farms were displaced as a result of the CDBG activities. If you have any questions about anything pertaining to uh this grant, I would be more than happy to answer them. How do how do they apply for the facade improvements?

Um well, so there is the the application that within the downtown area they would fill out. Um they take it to Candace who then generally forwards it on to us. We do all the research into it that we need to and then we bounce it back to the downtown uh committee which then approves the application. Thank you. You said you've awarded 107,000 so far. Uh that is so much of what we've awarded. Yeah. For the for the down improvement part of it. Yes. Of the of the 310,000. Of the 310. Okay. Yeah. How many applications have you received from the downtown?

We've we've had 14 applications through the course of it. Um four of them have kind of backed away from it for various reasons. Um, eight of the projects are complete right now and kind of in the draw down stage or have already been finished up like that and we have two that are currently doing work. Okay. There is still a relatively uh decent amount of money left in the grant. So, we probably will be submitting for um an extension here very soon so we have more opportunities for more businesses to take part in it.

When is that deadline by? I just received an email from DED the other day saying that we probably be looking to submit for the extension around March, middle of March. Um the current contract is set to end in May. Okay. But it's not uncommon for extensions to happen pretty frequently. There's other communities that have had like five extensions. Right. Right. So Okay. With this large amount of money left that's still available, I think it'll be pretty easy for to get an extension. So, okay, Zach, where do they go to get the application? Uh, that would go is it through the city website? Yeah. Okay. Thank you.

I've had a few few calls and questions. Is Is there a 50-50 match for them or There is a 50-50 match um up to 25,000. So, they can receive up to 25,000. Okay. A lot of the projects that we've had have been kind of smaller amounts things where we've had like awnings replaced on a building. Um, Nofo Pizza had their little circular window that had some damage to it. So, they got that replaced on there. And we've only had a few projects that actually reached up to the 25,000 that they got.

Chim a little bit. Uh yeah, NED's been a great partner. They do a great job in helping us facilitate and administer this grant program. Um the application can be found on our website under projects. Um if you go there, there's a downtown revitalization area that is very informative and it it lays out all of the specifications um and rules around this grant program. And then it has a a link right there to the application. Uh, also just wanted to thank all of the staff that contribute to this. I know it's it's one of our um grants that um when you whenever you are granting money to uh a private business, um we we need to make sure that we have all of the the boxes checked to ensure that um we're in compliance with the the federal regulations as it relates to CDBG. So appreciate all the staff that contribute to this and admin and finance and legal. And then just also click clarification on this. This grant's awesome because the match actually comes from our downtown business owners. And so when they put in that onetoone match, when they put in that that shared cost for the overall project, that's what's helping us achieve our grant match for this. So, it's a it's a creative way to do it and appreciate Ned's um guidance. So, just wanted to add that.

Right. Any other questions for Zach? I I was just asking we have a couple questions here silently, but how how do people how do we get this in front of downtown owners rather than having them try to hear about it? Um I mean, do you is there is there some sort of way down Yeah. Sorry, Candace. I didn't know who could answer this, but is there are we are we reaching out to downtown businesses, encourage them to to use this because it seems like it's a obviously a good thing to improve the frontage of their businesses.

Yeah. Um we we're kind of running into some of the same situations in some of the other bigger communities. Um Columbus and Fremont both have the same type of situation going on right now. Um, Columbus is doing pretty well, kind of like we are as far as getting numbers like that. Fremont has been a little bit lighter. They haven't really been able to get as many coming in. Um, so we've even discussed the potential of going to say down there and literally going into the businesses within that area and kind of talking to them. Um, that might be something that we might be thinking of wanting to do here too because I think a lot of times they just don't really know understand the program as much and how much benefit it can be for them. So if they're not really hearing about it then then they're not doing it. But I think if they get a little bit more information maybe we can get a lot more.

Yeah. We just got to get creative with how we're going to market it and keep getting What are the stipulations? I mean is there is the building have to be original or is it original? How does that work with the with this grant? So as far as facade improvements,

right? So uh part of it is we have to get approval from Shipo, which is a state historic preservation. Um and they can be very very sticklers on wanting to to take it back to um to very original. So there's a lot of back and forth and stuff on some of the some of the projects that they want to do. got a B approval. There's certain windows that they're going to have to do. There's um if you have like brick, old brick, you can't paint over the brick to modify it. That's been kind of one of the things that's been a little bit harder on some of the projects because some people want to paint the brick and Shipo says absolutely not. So, they can't be approved. And if they can't get that through approval, then they can't do their project. Okay. Any questions for Zach or Candace while they're here? This is a public hearing. Anybody from the public have some questions for them? All right. Thanks, Zach. Thank you.

Seeing none, we will close the hearing and move on to our regular agenda. Item number 26 of the regular agenda, consideration of approval of a lease agreement with Behavior Health Specialties, Inc. for office space at 900 West Northfor Avenue, Sweet B, to re relocate displaced police division staff during construction of the police division improvements. I'll be abstaining from this. I sat on the board of behavioral health. So, okay. I'll make a motion for consideration of approval. Second. All right, we have a motion second and Steve will be leading this in discussion.

Yeah, mayor and councel as the mayor read. Um what's before you here is a lease agreement with behavioral health services to rent the facility over here on North Fork Avenue. Uh I think it's right on uh between 9th and 10th. Um lease agreement is for 18 months. Uh $3,125 per month. Uh the we'll be leasing approximately 29% 29 30% of the available space or the space of the facility. Uh it is a single meter for utilities. So we'll cost share those utilities. Um not exactly sure that's going to be something south of of 500 a month. I think 350 400 a month. Um the cost of this is built into the project the overall project budget of 9.2 million. Um as we were going through the project uh and the the cost of the project kept growing there towards the end at least the engineers estimate kept growing. Um we did you know talk internally uh with the police department. They were they were going to try and grit their teeth and and get through it as best they could and and potentially we're going to find some uh an office or two to do or an office or two here to swing some folks to. Um, in the end, as con as construction started and we sat down and looked at the potential sequencing um to try and keep the owner owner in there and as some of the exterior construction started, they realized just the the interference that heavy demo would be doing inside the facility. Uh, talking to the the the chief, he was very desirable of getting his staff out of that environment. uh they're already uh living on top of each other, working on top of each other in there. It's a very stressed environment as it is, and adding this to it uh wasn't going to

make it any easier in there. So, again, I've I've done several hundred million dollars worth of vertical construction. Uh most of that has had swing space involved with it. So, I was very very familiar with potential need and made sure that it was built into the budget should it be needed for the space. Any questions? I guess two two for me. Um, you know, as far as what 55K, I'm guessing 56K you said roughly over the course of aging. Okay. So, I mean, as an elected official, I mean, the one of the main things is public safety. So, is this going to ensure that our, you know, police department is operating in a capacity that ensures that our public safety does not diminish under the construction of the building?

I, you know, is this this will help them keep at the t the same par that they're at? I would say it's probably going to improve their improve them. It's going to separate them a little bit from the rest of the from the first four staff, but yes, I I think this would actually be an improvement in terms of the work environment. Um, so you Brian and Mike have been very favorable uh for this. Yeah, I talked to Chief about it. He said, you know, that it's hard to hear their phone and when they're on the phone and whatnot. And then the other thing was is will this help with the construction time frame because the company now doesn't have to worry about moving people, building spare wall, you know, building walls.

I expect there's a potential for some time savings on this. Um, you know, we do have built into the contract as a function of anticipating, you know, uh, owner occupancy during during phases of the construction. We do have, I think, 10 grand built into the to the contract as an allowance. That was so that as we're moving space to space, uh, any damage that we would do, we'd be responsible for. So, there's 10 grand there. We would be able to salvage that 10 grand. Um, again, it's it's it's hard to say, you know, exactly what's going to happen between now and the end of the project. Um, it's it's it's very possible uh that we could be out of there two to, you know, maybe a couple months early as a function of this. The the lease agreement does have a 30-day. it it's going to be pretty easy as we reach the end of the project and enter that finishing stage and are moving in furnishings. We'll we'll know 60 to 90 days out what we're what we're going to be hitting. So, if we need to um issue a 30-day notice of termination of lease, we you know I we'll certainly be able to do that.

Go ahead. No, you're fine. How much of the police department will be moving? Um I would I do you know [cough and clears throat] got an email from Chief Tai with some of these questions or talking.

I would add prior to prior to going there, Ly, I would add we're not going to go in there and do any any we're going to move into the space as is. Uh we will do we will run some communications. Uh it's a drop down ceiling, so very efficient for us to run communications. Uh we'll run it as efficient as we can using our own labor. Um, but you know, we're not going to go in there and move walls or add walls or do anything like that. It's we're going to move in and occupy it pretty much as it is. 12 upstairs staff lilet operations manager for the city. 12 upstairs staff would relocate. These would include investigation division and the detectives, police administration, and support functions such as uh property and evidence functions. These positions routinely conduct interviews with victim victims, witnesses, and suspects, coordinating case files and follow-up, handle sensitive records, and perform focused work that requires consistent phone/computer access and quiets workspace.

Well, um, will it be anything that the public would have to know to go to the other building instead of going to the police station? For instance, I'm just going to say like dog licenses. You go to the police station for that. Would [clears throat] that be switched over so people would have to know to go to the new building? I suspect that if somebody has a drop in question there just it allows for some signage to be placed out there. Yes, there will be some public access to to this facility. But uh for the the general citizen that has a question probably locate go to the primary location now and could be redirected to the alternative location should the need arise. Okay. Thank you. Yep. Any any other questions?

Thank you. Thanks L. Thanks Steve. Any questions from the public regarding this this information or this uh particular topic? All right. Seeing none, I we have a motion to second. Any other [clears throat] discussion? If not, please vote. [snorts] Voting in the affirmative. McCarthy, Granquist, Arns, Jensen, Langy, Hildebrand, Beckman abstaining. Web. Motion carries.

Right. On to item number 27. Consideration of approval award a contract to Reutens Construction Inc. for the West Plant Reaction Basin uh 20x 24 pipe connection project for an amount of $438,127. I'll offer for consideration the approval of an award to contract Rutens Construction. Chad. Oh, sorry. Go ahead. We have a second. Motion second. Okay, Chad's going to come up and lead discussion. [clears throat]

Uh, good evening, Mayor Councel. So, uh, in your packet there is the, uh, bid award from, uh, Reutens Construction for the, uh, project, the two projects at the Westwater treatment plant. Um, as we said, it came in at $439,000 or $38,127. And there's two small projects going on at the Westwater plant. The first one is we're going to tie together the zone 2 and the zone one pressure piping outside on the north side of the plant with a pressure reducing valve. And what that does in the event of a failure on the zone one side of pumping, so if we lose our high service pumps, this bypass here will allow us to pump from zone two into zone one to keep North Fork pressurized. um very efficient way to do this this connection and it gives us that redundancy that we're always trying to keep within the system. And then the second portion of this project is the the airator bypass. So in the 2008 master plan, it showed the the need for another bypass connection out of the aeration and this will tie into the bypass pumping on the or piping on the west side. This will allow that basin to have the flow capacity of 4.8 8 or 4 14.5 million gallons of water. Right now we're at 11.4 million. So this is recommended by the master plan along with the state of Nebraska for this connection. So um with the con the construction estimate for this project was I have it right here. Oh it came in at uh $457,171. So, we're about a little bit shy of $20,000 [snorts] less than that construction estimate. So, I think we got a very good bid tab from Reutens Construction. Again, we only had a single source bid coming in because that was the only bid that we received, but we feel very confident in the bid and

the performance that Rutens will perform. So, we're looking for approval. So, Chad, you said the state of Nebraska came forward said recommended this and in 2008 it went into our master plan. So, about what time frame? So, when we had the uh the well 13 put in Yeah. um in 2003. Okay. That's what triggered this that that's what triggered this this bypass. Okay. I was wondering cuz like why why didn't we do this years before?

Yeah. So so there was some the study on the the aquifer at one point we thought we were maxed out with the current well 13. So in 2003 we didn't put this bypass assembly in on the reaction basin. After some studies been done over the last couple of years improved modeling and stuff that allowed us to put well 14 in. And then that's what's asking for this bypass connection. You said 2003, right? 2003 is when well 13 came in, right? And that's what Okay. And and so with the new well 14, this is requiring that that the state had identified back in 2003. So then 2008 went in the master plan and then it got in the capital improvement plan and now it's coming forward. So it Okay. All right. That is correct.

All right. Thank you, Mayor Council. I think it's worth noting here. We've Chad's been bringing multiple projects into us here over the last oh 12 12 18 months or so and um um I think his staff deserve a lot of recognition for the work they've done. Uh in total we've saved about $2.2 million across all of these projects you've seen him bring in. and uh again between him and his staff um you know providing some services and really bringing their thinking cap to the table um you know they've been able to save save the users $2.2 million. So thank you Chad. Yep. And your staff. Thank you.

Any other questions? Yeah. Just real quick, you say you only have one bid. What's the Where do we share this information when you're have these projects and you want people to bid them? Where's where can they find the information sitting? Um, we use I mean it goes out into what's the program you guys use for the bid access or with engineering when we bid them? Yeah. Yeah. When we advertise them

when we bid them we we maintain a list of of biders. So it depends on who it is. If it goes through a consultant like an Olsson's or JO HDR a lot of times they have an internal bidding system. Um there's a two or three of them that are very very popular. Quest uh CDN is one of them. Um, internally we don't we don't have a bidding system like that. So we'll send it out to there's two or three bid houses. Sous City has a bid house. Omaha has a bid house. I can remember Grand Island does. Lincoln does. So we'll send them to those bid houses and then we advertise them locally in the newspaper. Thank you.

Would it be good for us to get something internally where we can send bids out? I I you know if if uh we maintain a even a half of the workload that we've seen in the last few years yes I think so uh we have been looking at a variety of softwares uh for the accounting side and project management side some of those do have an internal bid bid component to them and I think that would be worth worth looking at uh so do I yeah okay let us know what that would what you think that's gonna I'm yeah you know how what that would Well, we're we're working on we we've interviewed a couple companies uh just very preliminarily, but it's something we can bring to the budget process. Yeah,

that I think would open it up a little more. So, okay. Any other questions here? [snorts] Any qu questions from the audience for Chad while he's up here? All right. Great. Thank you. Thanks, Chad. All right. We're still on item number 27. We have a motion to second and I see discussion is done. So, go ahead and vote. [snorts] [clears throat] All council members present voting in the affirmative. Motion carries.

Okay, we're on to item number 28. Consideration approval of grant agreement between the United States Department of Transportation and the Nebraska Department of Transportation to receive build grant for the local intermodel network connection on LINC Norffor on behalf of the city of Norfork. All for consideration. Second. We have a motion. Second. Can Steve, can you explain what I just read?

Yeah, mayor. This is this is really an admin part kind of part of the administration that's going on behind the grant process right now to get that to get that moving. Um this document kind of goes through several terms terms and definitions and describes uh several individuals that are going to be involved in the project and um the DOT just asks that um we sign sign off on this. It does there's a scope of work very very generic in terms of the scope of work. There's there's actually more more there that's going to get done and you'll see here it doesn't really talk about drainage in there. there'll be some a substantial conversation and uh process around drainage in those corridors. Um but again, it's it's a an administrative part of the grant process for the DOT and they asked that uh before they could continue to move that process forward. We would need to provide this. I do apologize. I see it's got Josh Moaning in here. Mayor, as the signature, we'd want to be sure we have that chain tow. So, my apologies for not catching that. If there's questions, I can I can you can sign. I mean,

I can I can attempt to answer. Probably mess up your application, but [laughter] All right. Any questions for Steve? [clears throat] Any questions from the audience for Steve? We're in the middle of it. All right. Seeing none, we have a motion to second. So, please vote. [snorts] All [snorts] council members voting in the affirmative. Motion carries.

On item number 29, which I assume 29 and 30 are a reason why a lot of people are here this evening. On a 29, consideration of approval award a contract to model electric for the illuminating of the Riverpoint District project for an amount of $577,873. I'll offer for consideration the approval to award a contract to model electric. I'll give. [clears throat] All right. I have a motion second. Um, Steve or Candace, I suppose, will be leading us this.

Yeah, we'll tag team it. Val, will you pull up page 358 of the council agenda packet? [snorts] Thank you. As Val's pulling this up, so we're excited to deliver to you um two very large projects that will um really roll out the civic and community center financing fund for the rest of this meeting. we'll call it CCCFF grant that was awarded to the city of Northfor in partnership with the the Riverpoint Creative District. So, if you remember in 2024, the state of Nebraska designated this particular set of funds to communities that had creative districts. And as we worked together to roll out a project, we needed to find commonalities within the strategic plan of that creative district and the downtown. And thankfully, we had done a recent survey of the downtown. And within that, we found lighting and wayfinding as those components. So, these are the projects that are before you tonight. Um this one in particular that will be um that model electric bid on um includes [clears throat] six intersections that will be lit with fesune lighting. Four of those intersections are there on Northfork Avenue as you can see on second, 3rd, fourth, and fifth street. And then you'll see two more intersections to the north on Brash Street. Third and brush and then second and brush. And then what you see going down Third Street and then over on Brush and then north again to connect to the Giri Bridge is what we're calling corridor lighting and that's also going to be Festoon lighting that will be draped across the road forming a path from the river to the downtown district. So when we approached the state of Nebraska with this project, what we wanted to do and what we hope to

accomplish is to provide a connection between the investments in the river and our downtown district and bringing people back and forth through that. And so thankfully they accepted our vision and um thought it was a good idea. The grant match was they they allowed us to use projects that we were doing within the Johnson Park redevelopment project. So that water feature that you see there, the picnic structures, that nature park, um the lighting that you see along the trail system, that was our matching dollars that we used to help um acquire these funds. And so those dollar those projects um the city used private donations. So I thank all of the community members and businesses that donated to those projects. They helped make this project possible as well as Kino funds. So, thank you to everyone who plays Kino. There a couple in the audience. Uh, so that's kind of the background on on that and how it was funded. And so, we're just we're very excited to deliver this project to you. Um, and I would answer any qu I'm thrilled that both of these bids um are being presented to local companies. Um, I think that makes it even more special and they've just been incredible to work with. So, Steve, do you have anything to add above and beyond that?

Well, I think I I just point out and it's in the write up in the agenda packets. Um, for this project, uh, the the bid was $577,873. The project is being paid $536,919 in CCCF and 40,954 from the vehicle parking district. I I think it's I mean I know you touched on it but I think it's important to talk about this. This 1.2 million that you received through this uh CCFF grant would not have been possible. You want to leverage funds that were already being spent on the Johnson improvement project. Correct.

So basically that's essentially what would happen here. people they took funds that were already being spent like it or not because there's people here that like to you know like we don't but like it or not the the funds were then utilized as our matching point for this grant. Uh my question on the practical side of things is you know a lot of people are frustrated with the down downtown lighting is not being somewhat um safe and we hear that a lot like it's dark down there. Will this help light those intersections up for people you know that that that have a concern with that? So there's a level of practicality to what we're doing here. You know, besides just the aesthetics,

there are certainly there is certainly some lighting of those intersections that would occur from this. Um what's going to happen here is that the the old signal poles that are still sticking 10 12 feet up into the air from when we took the signals down. Those those the remaining portion of those signal poles will come down. There'll be new poles that replace those. Uh they'll be I believe powder powder coated black. Um the lights will be hung at about 22 feet. We can't get any lower. You know, there'll be a little bit of dip in the intersections. They can't get any lower than 18 ft. [clears throat] So it'll be a a reasonably low light. Uh and you know, even though they're fastune lighting, uh yeah, they're still going to provide a lighting increase to to those intersections.

Yeah, that was my question. And I think there's a level of practicality to it also, not just Yeah. So, it's doing five intersections essentially or I guess six intersections, right? Yep. Yep. And then um Okay, Candace, who who's responsible for the maintenance or if something breaks, which which entity is available for that?

Yeah, so we've had uh a couple of different conversations. Um and the VPD is assuming the responsibility for the maintenance. So these this and the and the next item will both become city assets, but those city assets are going to be captured under the vehicle parking district and they um are already in the mode of maintaining the existing enhancements that you see within the downtown district and they help. So if if a oh Lyall just walked in, but if a light pole gets hit in the downtown district, the vehicle parking district helps facilitate the payment of that light pole um or any kind of um if an insurance claim is made.

Any other questions for me?

Questions for Candace? Any questions from the public? Candace here forward now. Sorry, [clears throat] my mic off. Jim McKenzie, I don't really care if the downtown wants an archway sign or the decorative lighting, but what I do care about is how it affects the city budget, which we know is in trouble. um which in turn affects citizens budgets. But the funding of this project was a source of frustration to me. The $78,830 between these two projects, the lighting and the signage, uh which is shown coming from the vehicle parking district tax really in a roundabout way comes from the limited city repair budget, better known city street repair budget, better known as CHAF. And here's how the shell game of moving city money around works. In 2023, the city street repair budget was used to pay $286,000 worth of downtown parking lot repairs. Downtown parking lot repair and maintenance has traditionally always been the responsibility of the vehicle parking district. That is why the vehicle parking district was created. This is from the city website desri des describing the off- streetet vehicle parking district. The off- streetet vehicle parking district number one is a special taxing district encompassing the downtown northwork area created for the purpose of providing and maintaining off- streetet parking lots for employees and customers of downtown businesses. The vehicle parking district budget in 2023 had a balance of over $200,000 and annual property tax revenues of over $100,000 a year. It could have easily

have paid for the parking lot repairs for which it was created. But that was not the case. City officials decided to use our very limited street repair money instead and let the vehicle parking district use their money for something else. That something else is partially this sign and decorative lighting project. That $286,000 of street repair money could have been used to improve and repair our streets which are desperately in need. Instead, the citizens had to approve a sales tax increase to pay for street repairs. This shell game of shifting city money and responsibility around is one reason there is a huge lack of trust in the how the city operates. Using street repair money to fix downtown parking lots freed up vehicle parking district money to be spent on this project. I'm also concerned about the long-term ongoing costs. Uh we heard that the VPD is going to pay for it, but as we see how money gets shifted around, I I don't have a lot of faith in that happening. Um insurance costs, I'm sure the city's going to have to ensure this. If you get a hail storm or a windstorm that rips it all down, you've got to insure it. I don't know what the cost of insurance is going to be on it, but that's going to be on the city budget as well, unless you're going to make the VPD pay for that. But that's what my comment was. Thank you.

All right. Anybody else? Any comment.

Anybody from council? I if I'm not mistaken when just to elaborate what Jim said there when we sold the Kensington the parking lot went with the building the parking lot was valued at $220ome $214,000. So when the check was made out to Norfolk Housing for the sale of that property VPD got zero for their lot if I am correct on that. So, in exchange for the purchase price for the Kensington and the VPD getting zero, I think the improvements were made.

That is correct, Councilman Webb. Okay. Any more discussion? Right. Seeing none, please vote. All council members voting in the affirmative. Motion carries. All right. On to number 30. Consideration [clears throat] approval to award a contract to Hub Construction Nebraska LLC for the downtown gateway sign project for the amount of $615,489. So move your honor.

Second. We have a motion to second lease discussion here.

Thanks, Val. Val's pulling up um page 370 of your council packets. And so this is a rendering of the downtown sign, that gateway sign. Um Huff Construction is actually the um proposed business that would be taking this project on and they're working in conjunction with Love Signs. So again, uh, two companies that, um, are local here who have, I think, done a really great job of coming to the table and working with staff to, um, make this project within our budget, which Steve will share a little bit about, um, in the next agenda item. But [clears throat] any questions for me on the sign? reiterate all the CCCFF stuff I said before, but that that really captures both of these projects.

Candace, when is this set to take place for the sign to go up? Well, I would love to see it in place by July. end of July is kind of what yeah they would start the process tomorrow

with a uh end of June substantial completion end of July final completion. All right, Candace, [clears throat] is all the neighbors aware that this is going up? Like the gas station? Have we stopped and talked to them and showed them what's going up just so there's nothing?

Um, not on this side of it. This one has been publicized, I think, quite a bit. With the lighting component of the project, we did send out information and letters to all of the neighbors that that corridor lighting and the intersection lighting um would be in front of just because we wanted to make sure that we gave them an opportunity to provide input for new added lighting that would be outside of their homes or or businesses in that respect. We knew that there was some residential components on that end of the project.

Okay. Thank you. I'd point out since since Candace has this the the the existing street lights here will be coming down. Uh that overhead circuit that you see up there going across [clears throat] the street that comes down. Um there's the one the one sign or the one street light right there on the south side by the library. Um that will not be replaced the street lighting. Uh we've added double heads to the top of the of the Riverpoint District sign. So, there's two heads on the south side and two heads on the north side. Those will be replacing those midblock street lights. Um, as a function of taking down the overhead circuitry, we'll also be taking on the north side. We'll be taking the pole down on the west corner and on the east corner. NPD will be doing all that work at no cost. Uh, and they'll be demoing the existing footings. uh built into the project are um new footings on the east corner, west corner, and then on the on the uh um Feston lighting project, there are two street lights uh on Brash Avenue that will be re relocated over here onto the corners that west corner and east corner. Oh, I think something worth mentioning and something that we've had conversations internally is we we really hope this will achieve some traffic calming as people enter the downtown district. That naturally um as they're entering this, there will be a slow a slowdown as they move into that more densely um populated area of the community. So, Okay.

All right. Any other questions? Questions for the public? All right. Oh, well, we just Sorry. Come on forward. Got to be quick. Oh, sorry.

Hey, I start vacation as soon as this is over, so I'll be quick. Um uh it's Pastor Tai and uh one of the things I just want to commend for taking on these projects and thanking those in the city who have been involved in it. Um previous place where I lived, I was a part of revitalizing or trying to revitalize our downtown district and the city council was very adverse. Uh and some people were uh in the public were also adverse to taking those risks. when I went to visit a few years later um a lot of the businesses were run down and the frustration was they were not attracting uh younger clientele or younger citizens to stay um in that particular community as well as businesses to come in and to invest in it. So on the flip side moving to Nebraska seeing you guys as a as a community taking on this risk to beautify and to have these kind of districts does leave an impact. So I was talking with one of the city employees. It's like tale of two cities where one was being riskaverse and not making these kinds of moves versus being in one who is doing that. Uh so making this a place where it is desirable uh to live to invite people to visit. Um I had some friends where I said you can you can surf in Northfor and they said no you're joking. And I'm like no really you can. and showing them um this has really instigated other conversations way beyond uh Nebraska as well. So I just want to say thank you for taking on this risk. Thank you for putting up with public criticism on in doing so um as well. U but this is definitely worthwhile project. So I commend you for it. Mayor and council, I would point out uh we did receive three bids on this one. The bid tab was included in the uh agenda packet. Um, one one was 643,320.

A second bid was 925,729. Low bid was 615,489. Um, we evaluated the bids and are recommending an award to the low bidder huff construction of of Northfor. Subsequent to awarding the bid uh to get the project in budget, we did some work with the low bidder and love signs um one of their subs. And the next item on the agenda would be a a change order, a decreased change order of $80,300 um which would modify the contract to $535,189. in the project is paid with that 535,189 is majority CCF uh the 497,313 in CC CFF and 37876 in vehicle parking district.

Thanks Steve. Go ahead and do this first. Cara Wanderer Gastra. Um, what else do you need to know? That's all I have to say. I'm a resident of Northfor. I'm the director of Northfor's Creative District in downtown. And I just wanted to get up and say thank you to all of you uh for uh voting on the lighting bid and hopefully this bid will go the same way. Um I know you guys hear a lot of things. I fortunately get to always hear the great things about our community, right? I give tours. Um we give bus tours. Uh I'm down at farmers market every Saturday and I get to hear people's excitement about downtown. Um one of the things I was thinking about was we had a a holiday art market, right? We had 40 artists in a downtown storefront over Christmas. And one of the greatest things about that time was having families come in and people who grew up here saying how much they love Northfor, how proud their parents were um when their kids were talking about the hometown, right? Um this is the things that make people say that, right? This is like my town that I live in now in Colorado, whatever. People um feel it, they see it. I wish you guys got to hear that more. maybe come and hang out with me at farmers market because it's I mean literally we were at a meeting recently and uh a lady told us she moved here because of downtown, [clears throat] right? Her and her family were moving. They chose Norfor. I'm sure they had other options. It wasn't the only reason, but the reason Norfor won was because of downtown. So, I just want to get up and say thank you to you guys for that. And I also want to say that Norfor is leading the way, right? Norfor's creative district is leading the way of what a creative district in Nebraska looks like. there's

now 37. Um, and also with the CCFFF grants right now, um, we are asking the state to again, uh, give preference to creative districts so that we have this, uh, CCFF grants going, um, in with these partnerships. And so, thank you for helping lead the way. And I love how we're bringing in these state dollars to Norfor and then they're going to local companies, right? Um, that's great that all these bids are going uh to these local firms and I'm glad they were able to bid on it and uh receive the grant receive the bids. I hope you vote that way. Thank you very much. Thank you. Anybody else want to comment? Council, anything else to add? All right. Got a motion to second on the Please vote. All council members voting in the affirmative. Motion carries. Okay. On to item number 31. Consideration approval of change order number one with Huff Construction Nebraska LLC for the downtown gateway sign project resulting in a net decrease of $80,300. Move

for approval. Second.

Motion second. Steve will lead us in discussion. Mayor and council. After opening bids, we met with the uh low bidder house construction and asked them to pull in their sign sub. I love signs. We had a couple very productive meetings. Um and they were able to develop $80,300 in uh cost reductions. Uh Huff Construction specifically uh lowered their um their general construction fee by $35,000. And then um working with love signs there were some actual value engineering. You know a lot of times value engineering um gets a negative connotation uh more associated with cheapening cheapening the project. In this particular case that that's not the way this worked. Um the design or the bid documents were a design intent. Uh the contractors generally bid them based on what they saw in the documents. Um but after the after the fact working with both the design team uh the contractor and their subs uh worked through kind of the means and methods components of the of the bid documents and there were areas where love sign specifically was able to bring other materials of equal quality uh to the to the table. They just didn't specifically meet what the designers had in their design intent documents. Again, uh there's no no cheapening of the overall project is a very um very sound um changes in in a a couple materials. Um so I I would recommend award or approval of the change order to move that project forward.

Any questions on this net decrease change order? I don't have any questions, just comments. I think, you know, we need to give credit to Steve for doing some extra work on that. And then also to Huff Construction and Love Signs. It's something they didn't have to do, but they did. And so I would say thank you for that because every every dollar counts. Appreciate it. Right. Anyone else? More comments? All right, seeing none, please vote.

All council members voting in the affirmative. Motion carries. We are adjourned at 6:40 p.m.