City Council - Regular Meeting

I'd like to call this meeting to order and inform the public of the location of the Opens Meeting Act posted in the council chambers and accessible to members of the public. At this time, we'll have a moment of silence followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. All right, this time we'll have a public, what's that? Oh, sorry, roll call.

Greenquist?

Here.

Arns?

Here.

Webb?

Here.

McCarthy?

Here.

Beckman? Here. Jensen?

Here.

Lange? Here. Hildebrand? Here. Mayer?

I am here. Got a little excited about open mic night, so anyway. We will allow for public comment at this time. When you come up, please sign in, and then we'll be timing you. We'll try to keep on top of that tonight, five minutes per question. And then if we interrupt you, you can continue talking. So anyway, if anybody would like to come forward, now's the time to do it.

I'm going to read, so interrupt me if you have questions, because I did write something that I wanted to present to you guys today. For those that may not know who I am, I've always had an eagerness for the betterment of our community, past, present, and future. I observed, I've collaborated, been active in community projects, investing in the people of Norfolk. It's who I am, it's my passion. I've stood here before asking and describing ways to better Norfolk, and here I am again. I actually had recently the opportunity to read several insightful books on city government that explore shifts in organizational dynamics and governance from past to present. It presents cities as interconnected systems where the environment directly impacts and influences behavior and the activity. Our community is growing, and I want to be that voice that I hope others will join in, which is showing our commitment to the betterment of what Norfolk stands for. A healthy community will have doubters, what some of these books call the vocal minority, and some to the extent they are called civic bullies. Grasping at straws when something might go a little sideways to do the aha, got you. It's time to stand together against that counterproductive mindset. I want to make it clear there's a very distinct difference between civic bullies and those who want to share a varying perspective to demonstrate a need to look at something differently. Those who engage in a conversation on perspectives As much as they differ, we'll come together to find a solution. The opposite side just sees that moment, having no real solutions, no conversations for change. As a therapist, I'm always looking at perspectives, bettering lives, and understanding there is always a learning opportunity. The learning opportunity of this situation, we need to stand up and break that cycle of problem-focused concerns without corresponding proposals. We are the advocators, the solution-focused voices, the constructive participants. The other side will always exist, but their voice is only heard when no one else is willing to talk. The goal is not to out-shout them. The goal is to get the rest of the community to say something. When the majority finds its voice, the opposite loses theirs. We don't have to fight them. We just need to encourage each other to speak up. I'm here today to start that trend. I read an article that gave me a great idea that maybe we can bring to Norfolk. In Great Bend, Kansas, it's a town of 15,000 people. When the civic bullies, that's where this article came from, that's what they're called, it was just 15,000 people. They created a thing called the Positive Social Response Team. They jump in with positive and supportive comments. Sounds like a great opportunity to grasp in Norfolk. Creating the majority group, giving it a name. I thought of Nova, I like volleyball, supernovas, hey. Norfolk's opportunity for vision and action. I'm all for anything. To demonstrate how great Norfolk is, the following May activities were made possible through coordinated community collaboration with engagement from local partners, volunteers, community members, service providers, city leadership, including staff and city council, These efforts demonstrate the impact of working in alignment towards shared solutions and community priorities. Just recently there was a discussion post, this is number one, on the Columbus, Nebraska page. Pros and cons of having a public campground in Pawnee Park. For instance, we love visiting Tahazuka Park with 180 acre recreational area in Norfolk. It offers year-round camping, trout stock, lagoon, beautiful water fountains, sports fields, eastern trailhead of the Cowboy Trail. I think it would be beneficial for the city of Columbus to have a location in the park for visitors. Number two, a family, close friends of ours actually, I saw it on a Facebook post, a family biked 14.6 miles in Norfolk as a family, picked up some fun bike rips downtown at Norfolk Bike, got some ice cream at Poppin' Delights, enjoyed that ice cream at River Point Square, took a trail around the Whitewater Park, rested at the Nature's Playground at Johnson's Park, took the Cowboy Trail all the way home through Skyview. Norfolk has so much to offer, and we had the best evening. Number three, and I'm not going to read all of them, I promise. Nebraska Rod and Customs Association 33rd annual event was May 30th. It brought 450 vehicles to Norfolk that are at least 30 years old. That registration maxed out within nine hours. That shows something about Norfolk. Recreational baseball, 38 teams this year, nine on a team, figure 12, over 450 kids. You have three parents coaching, you have 100 active parents in this community. This would not have happened without those who stepped up to run this league, the volunteer parents, and Parks and Rec Division for making Taha what it is. Norfolk YMCA, where 535 kids were signed up for soccer alone. Coaches, again. The why wouldn't happen if we didn't have the community that we do. Norfolk Area Big Give once showed again the generosity of the Norfolk Area community raising $188,022 for 28 local nonprofit organizations. Brought in 1,104 donations from supporters of Norfolk and surrounding communities. Fantasy Drone Fest, it was a free event of food vendors, music, drone show.

For those that don't know, did you know that a large-scale production of 1,000-plus drones, which was there, roughly cost between $120,000 and $500,000-plus?

Hey, Sasha, your five minutes are up.

Can I say one last thing as a closing statement?

If we start doing that, yeah, sorry. But you had a nice job. It was very nice to hear from you. Anyone else?

Oh, it's probably been a year already since some lady pegged that nice, pretty iron fence we have there by Burger King on Engerman. Still hasn't been fixed. Why? And you cannot tell me that I would think it would be your councilman's jobs to be, you know, your areas. I think last year somebody said that before some, you know, on high yards and sloppy yards, stuff like that, the city won't do anything until somebody complains. Now I would think that might be part of the councilman's job to throw a complaint in there once in a while on some of these yards that are grass that are a foot and a half high and solid dandelions and stuff. Everybody's pushing for beautification of this city and stuff like that. I would think that would be a hell of a good place to start. And you can't tell me that you guys are not on a certain street or on these streets every day or at least once a week. That's awful.

Mayor and Council, I will address the damaged fencing over there on that by Burger King on Benjamin Avenue. So directly after that, first thing we had to do was engage with... Our operations manager and insurance companies, they did their thing. We also hired an engineer to design the repair. That got done towards the end of winter. Following that, we went out and got three quotes. We've received those quotes. We have engaged probably in the last month or so, I think early May, we engaged the low quote to repair that. So that is all underway on that repair. All right, thank you.

It's taken long enough.

Anyone else? Again, thanks for coming up. Okay. Late riser there.

I'll be very brief. I'm not a red light runner, but is there any way the stoplight at Riverside and Benjamin, we can get that yellow just a little bit longer? That's a quick yellow. That's all I'm going to say.

Steve, could you just state your name for us, please?

I'm sorry. My name is Steve Sihai.

Thank you. Steve, we'll take a look at that. Is it northbound, southbound, eastbound, westbound? East-west. It's east-west, okay. We'll take a look at it. Thank you. Thank you.

I just want to add a little bit to what Sasha was saying. There's a number, like on council, I'm always digging at numbers, and average household median income had never really told me the true story of Norfolk. So I found a number, and I've shared it with some people, but look up per capita income of Norfolk, Nebraska. It speaks to the amenities that we have in our community. It speaks to our YMCA. Norfolk's in the top 10, and per capita income doesn't speak to income inequality or It doesn't hit a lot of metrics, but it does take the average income and divide it through every citizen, I think even kids in your community. Norfolk rates in the top 10 in the state. So what that tells me is it's a large reason why we have the things we have in this community. We have a lot of people that give a lot of money to do things that we have here. So if you get a chance, look up per capita income in Norfolk.

All right. Again, thanks for coming up and speaking and stating your points and talking to us this evening. We'll be moving on if that's everybody. All right. Okay. I'm moving to a regular action. I need approval of consent agenda.

So moved.

Second. We have a motion to second. Please vote.

All council members voting in the affirmative. Motion carries.

All right. Can I get approval of the full agenda moving item number 24 to top of the regular hearing, so above 14.

I'll make a motion to approve the regular agenda with item 24 being the first.

Second.

Okay, we have a motion and a second. Please vote.

All council members voting in the affirmative. Motion carries.

All right. So on to special presentations. This week we'll be reading one this evening, and it's Language Access Week. Whereas founded in 2016, World Speaks' mission is to ensure that every person in our community has equal access to critical and vital information, resources, community engagement, and belonging no matter what language they speak. and whereas the City of Norfolk is committed to advancing this mission by developing and implementing a language access plan to promote inclusive communication across all city services and departments, and whereas Norfolk, Nebraska is home to a growing and diverse population, including a significant number of residents from immigrant and refugee backgrounds, as of the latest data, approximately 15.5% norfolk's population identifies as hispanic or latino and many households speak a language other than english at home these multilingual community members contribute significantly to norfolk's workforce culture and economy norfolk's vibrant community includes newcomers from mexico cuba guatemala south sudan and vietnam each enriching the city's civic and cultural life and whereas Norfolk Public Schools serves a student body where over 25 languages are spoken at home. English language learners, or ELLS, represent more than 15% of the district's enrollment, highlighting the importance of accessible communication and culturally responsive services in both education and local government. The district has implemented bilingual outreach and support programs to ensure equitable access to education for students and engagement for families and whereas the city of Norfolk recognize the value and necessity of language access in building a safe, inclusive, and informed community. Bridging language barriers is essential to ensure that every resident can engage fully with public services, participate in civic life, and access critical information, particularly in areas such as healthcare, public safety, and education, and whereas Through collaborative efforts with schools, health providers, business, and community organizations, Norfolk is fostering a welcoming environment that promotes equity and inclusion for all. Now, therefore, I, Shane Claussen, along with the City Council of the City of Norfolk, Nebraska, do hereby proclaim the week of June 8-12, 2026 as Language Access Week in the City of Norfolk, and we encourage all residents, organizations, and public institutions to join in recognizing the importance of language access to support efforts that foster inclusion and equity in our community. Put a whole lot of language into that, I'll tell you that. All right, who's here to come forward?

I'm just going to speak real quick if that's okay.

Okay, sounds good. They'll have to write my name and everything too. I'll keep it short this time. Last time I did it in Spanish, so I'll keep it short in English so you guys have time to do anything else. Good evening, Mayor Shane, city council members and staff. My name is Gustavo Magana. I'm the HR specialist and language navigator for the city of Norfolk. I would like to take a moment to recognize Language Access Week, June 8th through the 12th, 2026, and its theme, Language Access Makes Us Better Neighbors. Language access is about making sure everybody in our community can understand, be understood, regardless of the language we spoke. Their literacy level and age, it ensures people can access important information, city services, healthcare, education, and opportunities in a way that is meaningful to them. We all see negative comments and social media posts that can create division and make people feel unwelcome. I want to take this opportunity to remind our community that Norfolk is a welcoming city. We are stronger when we choose understanding over assumptions and conversation over division. Our community continues to grow and change, and with that growth comes opportunity for us to become better neighbors to one another. Sometimes it all takes is a conversation, a smile, or in an effort to learn about someone else's culture or experience. So tonight, I want to encourage Mayor Shane, city council members, and city staff to go out and talk to those neighbors. Get to know them, learn their stories. You may find you have more in common than you think. Thank you for supporting Language Access Week and for continuing to help make Norfolk a welcoming place for everyone. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Okay, on to our So I'm not going to... Okay, we'll start with public hearings and related action. Need to open a public hearing at the request of LJL Properties LLC to consider a zoning change from I-1 Light Industrial District to C-2 Central Business District on property addressed at 1715 West Norfolk Avenue. And in doing so, I'd like to, are we going to try to open 16?

Oh, no, that's, this is a zone change. Okay. Then we'll do it. Okay.

Sounds good. All right. Any discussion? And Val will be leading us with that.

Yes. So 715 West Norfolk, I have highlighted up here. It is one of the attached buildings on the south side of West Norfolk Avenue between 7th and 8th. And, um, They are requesting this to become C2, mainly because they would like, it's a two-story building, they'd like to do residential apartments above, which is outright permitted in C2 on the second story above, remain commercial on the ground floor, and it does fill up the lot completely, so it actually fits C2 zoning better because they don't have any place for on-property, on-site parking either. There's any questions.

So how many, how many residents could live up there?

That one, I'm not sure.

Where would they park?

They'd have to use one of like the VPD public parking lots or somewhere on the side streets that allows parking.

Any other discussion? Okay, can I have the Planning Commission report, please?

The Norfolk Planning Commission held a public hearing on May 19th, 2026 to consider a zoning change from I-1 Light Industrial District to C-2 Central Business District on property addressed as 715 West Norfolk Avenue. The Planning Commission recommends approval of the request with a 7-0 vote.

All right, this time we'll close the hearing and move on to item number 15. Consideration ordinance number 59 87 approving the zoning change from I won light industrial district The c2 central business district on the property addressed at 715 West Norfolk Avenue I'll make a motion for consideration of ordinance number 59 87 Second probably a motion second so we're going to discussion again Val direct this towards you if there's any questions for her All right, none from the council. Anybody from the audience have any questions for us listening on this property? All right, seeing none, please vote. Short title. I'm sorry, short title, please.

An ordinance of the City of Norfolk, Madison County, Nebraska, amending the zoning district map of the City of Norfolk, Nebraska, providing when this ordinance shall be in full force and effect, and providing for the publication of this ordinance in pamphlet form.

Now you can vote.

All council members voting in the affirmative, ordinance number 5987 carries on first reading.

Hearing no opposition, I suggest we suspend the rules and pass this ordinance on second and third.

Second.

All right, we have a motion and a second. Any discussion, please? All right, seeing no further discussion, please vote.

All council members voting in the affirmative, ordinance number 5987 carries on second and third.

All right, on to item number 16, we're going to open a public hearing for, at this time I'm going to ask to open it for 16, 18, and 20 after the motion is approved. And so we will open this public hearing for 16, 18, and 20.

And you'll be... Yeah, so first we need a motion to adjourn as mayor and council and convene as the board of equalization.

So moved.

Second.

All right, please vote.

All council members voting in the affirmative, motion carries. Okay, so before you this evening are three miscellaneous special assessments for consideration. So the public hearing for number 16, the first assessment pertains to the property located at 310 North 14th Street. In October 2024, the city's code compliance officer received complaints regarding an overgrown and unmaintained yard. After the property owner failed to bring the property into compliance as required by city code, the street division mowed the property at a cost of $450. The city did receive a partial payment of $225 in May 2025. However, no additional payments have been made, leaving a total cost of $225. For public hearing number 18, the second assessment involves the property located at 2302 Fairview Drive. Similar to the first property, the city incurred mowing costs in July of 2025 due to an unmaintained yard. In addition, the street division incurred costs of an additional $274.43 to secure and board up the structure because of safety concerns. The property has been yellow tagged by the planning department due to disrepair of the structure and is currently undergoing foreclosure proceedings. It should also be noted that all certified mailing notices sent to the property order regarding these assessments have been returned to the city marked as refused. The last property pertains to located at 311 South 8th Street. So the structure was formally red tagged in April 2024 after being deemed unsafe and unfit for occupancy in 2019 and was subsequently demolished in 2025 at a cost of $24,010.10. The property owner was billed for the demolition cost, but no payments have been received to date. In addition, the city has incurred two separate additional mowing expenses for the property since the demolition. So following adoption of the resolution levying these special assessments, liens will be filed against the properties and interest will accrue in the same manner of other special assessments. The process is the City of Norfolk's customary method for recovering these costs and all procedures have been conducted in accordance with applicable state statutes. Be happy to answer any questions you have.

How many notices do they send out before they?

So we actually invoice monthly. So when we started the invoices in 2024, they would receive invoices monthly from then. We did notify them in January via certified mailings for all these properties that if they did not pay by the end of February, they would be assessed, which is now coming due.

Thank you.

Any other discussion? As the Board of Equalization, any other discussion? Okay, seeing none, we'll close the hearing. I need a motion to adjourn as the Board of Equalization and reconvene as Mayor and Council.

So moved, Your Honor. Second.

All right, we have a motion and a second. Please vote.

All council members voting in the affirmative, motion carries.

All right, that brings us to item number 17, consideration of resolution number 2026-14, leveling a special assessment in the amount of $225 on a property at 310 North 14th Street, Norfolk, Nebraska, for mowing costs.

I would move for approval of resolution number 2026-14. Second.

We have a motion to second. Any discussion? Anyone here?

All right. I do have a question, maybe geared a little bit towards Kylie on this. So we assess this amount now. So let's say it continues another year from now. Do we have to bring this back up again, or can we add to this bill?

So, like, if more costs incur?

Correct.

I think we would do an additional lien. For now, this is the only leaning question. I don't know if they paid, if we have to do additional, if more costs incur.

Any other discussion or questions? All right, seeing none, please vote.

All council members voting in the affirmative, Resolution 2026-14 is adopted.

Okay, that moves us to item number 19. Consideration of resolution number 2026-15, leveling a special assessment in the amount of $644.43 on a property at 2302 Fairview Drive, Norfolk, Nebraska for mowing costs.

Go ahead and move consideration of resolution 2026-14. 15. 15, excuse me. Second.

All right, we have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Seeing no discussion from council, anybody from the public have anything? All right. Seeing none, please vote.

All council members voting in the affirmative, resolution 2026-15 is adopted.

All right, now move to item number 21, consideration of resolution number 2026-16, leveling a special assessment in the amount of $24,970.10 on the property at 311 South 8th Street, Norfolk, Nebraska, for demolition of the structure.

I move for consideration of resolution number 2026-16. Second.

All right, we have a motion to second, and we'll go into discussion. Seeing no discussion from the council, I'm going to ask the member of the public this evening if they have anything they want to come up and talk about about this item. All right, seeing none, please vote.

All council members voting in the affirmative, resolution 2026-16 is adopted.

All right, that brings us to our regular agenda. And as voted earlier, we're moving to item number 24 to the front. So that will be consideration of resolution 2026-19, authorizing submittal of the blight and substandard determination study for the South Norfolk redevelopment area to the Planning Commission for review and recommendation.

I would move resolution number 2026-19. Second.

All right, we have motion to second, and we will be having discussion this evening.

Six o'clock on the nose. You guys are good. You guys are good. Appreciate you moving that up, though. Thank you very much for that. Good evening. My name is Keith Carl. I'm a community planner with Hannah Keelan Associates, a community planning research consulting firm based out of Lincoln, Nebraska. We were contracted to perform a blight and substandard determination study and analysis on an area, approximately 110 acres, located to the west of South First Street and south of the railroad corridor. The study, I think, has been in your possession since probably about September or so, or we've had it completed since then. So we did a pretty good analysis of it back then and open to any questions or comments. But just real quick, some of the findings that we had were an analysis of structural conditions, looking at public infrastructure, streets, sidewalks, and public utilities, advanced age of structure, uh, the availability or lack thereof of affordable housing within the neighborhood. Um, those were just a couple of the components that we took a look at and basically things that, you know, would affect the health, safety and welfare of residents within that area. So, um, the blight study basically concluded that yes, there are conditions based upon the Nebraska community development law that this area does meet, um, you know, blight and substandard factors, um, again, as per community development law. So, um, It would be up to review of the planning commission for their input and then afterwards your folks' input as well. Like I said, I think we've kind of talked about this before, but I'm open to any questions or comments that you folks might have before it does get passed on to planning commission.

I have a question, but I'm not sure if it be directed at you or who, but so this study goes through and there would be some that would be annexed from this with the TIF, I mean, having to do with TIF. If we TIF this, what is our current TIF rate in Norfolk now? Is it 28%?

I want to say that's probably, last I heard from Randy, we were around that you can go up to 35.

So how would this change that or what would it affect there?

That I'm not quite sure what percentage this would go up for that.

Sue, I think if this gets into an extreme blight, it would actually count against that percentage.

If it goes to extreme?

Correct.

Correct. But if it just stays regular, I guess I just wanted to know how that would affect that.

We could get that for you when it comes back. We'd have to get into Randy's numbers.

Okay. That'd be great. I appreciate that. Okay. This is me and Andrew's area, so we just kind of have a little interest in this project yourself.

I understand. Any other questions this evening? Okay. I don't see any more questions from the council. I'm going to ask the members of the public, if you have a question, please come forward now.

Thank you.

Thanks.

Jim McKenzie, I just want to say that I'm generally supportive of blighting this area to encourage development in an area which has seen very little development for many years. I do have a couple suggestions to consider. Just because an area is blighted, ensure that any development in this area asking for TIF truly needs TIF, and only award the amount of TIF that's absolutely necessary to develop a project. If you proceed with changing this and other areas of South Norfolk from blighted to extremely blighted, which I believe is what you're looking to go toward, consider a policy, a local policy, that limits blight and extreme blight to 35% of the land mass of the city. I realize extreme blight doesn't count against your land mass blight calculation, but by putting a policy in place like that, I think it would prevent Overuse of blight and encourage development to happen in those targeted areas such as South Norfolk.

Thank you All right anybody else All right We have a motion a second no further discussion, please vote I

All council members voting in the affirmative, resolution 2026-19 is adopted.

Right. We'll move to item number 22, consideration approval of resolution number 2026-17. Providing for an approval for the City of Norfolk, Olson, and Nebraska Department of Transportation, NDOT, to enter into a professional service agreement for environmental services for a federal aid project in which, NDOT, has designated a project number DPS-5924, control number 32465, and otherwise known as a local intermodal network connection Norfolk project.

I'll offer for consideration the approval of resolution number 2026-17. Sorry, go ahead.

Motion to second. Steve will lead us in discussion on this.

Mayor and Council, this is the agreement, professional services agreement, between the Nebraska Department of Transportation and the local public agency, or what they refer to as LPA, for environmental services related to the Link Norfolk project. Yeah, Link Norfolk project. This service contract would have a term that would end in December of 2028. would be the end of the term of the agreement this agreement is for again, it's free the NEPA or environmental services related to that project total value of the contract is two hundred seventeen thousand two hundred and eight dollars Ten percent of that or twenty twenty one thousand seven hundred twenty one dollars is City city funds or city city highway allocation and park funds the other hundred ninety five thousand four hundred eighty seven dollars is the Raise grant that the state received for this project So again, this is the terms terms and conditions related to that professional services agreement between the city and Norfolk or the city and the ndo T We have any answer any questions you have?

Steve, how did this project come about for this funding and I guess the path and all that's involved for the 60% drawings is what we're trying to come up with with this dollar amount?

Correct. Between this and the next agenda item, item 23, item number 23 is actually for the 60% design. This is for the environmental clearance that needs to be conducted as a function of the 60% design. This goes back probably three, four years in its making when it's just as part of our looking at our trail systems, looking at kind of what links Norfolk and we're bisected east-west by Highway 81, north-south by Highway 275. We've got a fairly large park system in the southern part of town, hard for pedestrians specifically to access that. So this just kind of all came to be as a function of looking at grant opportunities, looking at our census tract data and what that data would support, and again, kind of looking at the concept of linking through Norfolk with a major trail that would connect Tahazuka to Skyview, going through certain corridors of the community. It's also going to assist us then in bringing dollars into Street infrastructure drainage improvements some street improvements in those areas pedestrian safety improvements through through that corridor I Think we applied for the raised grant now It's been almost two years ago that we applied for the raised grant and you sit for about a year We were selected and then over the last six eight months. We've been working on getting these agreements in place I

Thanks, Steve. Any other discussion on item number 22? Yeah, public, come forward now. You got a question?

Jim McKenzie. I noticed the total, and my question really is 22 and 23 together. I noticed the total amount of the engineering contract was not shown in the agenda item. I think that would be helpful. in the past it seems like we list the Amount of the engineering contracts in the agenda item so you don't have to dig in through the attachments to find those Those two projects together add up to about 2.3 million So I assume the ends the city's percentage of the other engineering cost will be 10% So the city is their contribution is two hundred and thirty thousand total. Is that roughly correct?

The city's yeah about two hundred thirty one thousand, okay

And so my next question is, was there an RFQ issued to solicit competitive engineering firms on this?

Yeah, we followed the DOT's process. So they led that process. They issued RFQs or RFPs. I think they issued RFQs for consultants. There was a selection process. Scott, myself, I can't remember if the mayor sat in on that, Don't remember do you remember Scott who was who was on that Scott was I was Anna was? Colleagues so the director of engineering for the Department of Transportation He sat on that and I think Jody Gibson with the Department of Transportation the local local agency lead sat on those. So there were those five people that sat on that interview selection process. So there was a competitive process? The Federal Highway Administration does not allow a competitive process. It's an RFQ process. But there were actually multiple firms submitted? There were. There were three firms that submitted. Olson Associates, Houston Engineering, and FHU, I believe, was the third one. Among the three interviews that occurred, Olsen by far had, and this was even worse for the NDOT, the most passion around the project, probably provided more insight into what the project could be and how that could potentially impact Norfolk. The other two fell, fell substantially short of what Olsen provided in the interview.

Okay, very good. I just wanted to make sure we had a competitive process. Thank you.

Thanks, Jim. Anyone else? All right, seeing none, please vote.

All council members voting in the affirmative, Resolution 2026-17 is adopted.

That brings us to item number 23, consideration of approval for resolution number 2026-18, providing for an approval for the City of Norfolk, Olson, and Nebraska Department of Transportation to enter into a professional service agreement for engineering service for the federal aid project in which the NDOT has designated the project number as DPS 5924, control number 32465, and otherwise known as a local

Intermodal network connection Norfolk project I'll offer for consideration of approval resolution 2026 dash 18 Okay, we have a motion a second Steve again will lead us in discussion mayor and council again This is the professional services agreement for the 60% design for the link Norfolk project a raise grant federal raise grant project and This this this attachment here includes the terms and conditions of the agreement the total of the cost of service for this agreement is two million ninety seven thousand two hundred twelve dollars and some change the city's portion of that cost would be ten percent or two hundred nine thousand seven hundred twenty one dollars and the federal raise grant is one million eight hundred eighty seven thousand four hundred ninety two dollars and I would expect the completion required by the contract is 1231 of 28, and I would expect we would get this done ahead of that, probably about six months.

Any questions?

Any questions for Steve? Yeah, Steve, this is probably where some of my question, I guess the trailing part of my question probably comes into account of what the design includes, and part of it questions, I guess, the railroad in whether this would include anything with the railroad, and I believe the trail would be along that property, possibly. That's what part of this is for. That is correct. Which includes a roundabout at 7th and Madison, which has a railroad very close to it, and also question whether we're doing anything with, say, the quiet zone type stuff that we could do with the railroads.

So this would not address any quiet zone. We will probably set up some of that conversation in here as a quiet zone. Again, I would say how does, when we were looking at how to capture potentially what to go after for a raised grant, We knew we had issues on 7th Street. We know we've got some drainage issues south of Omaha Avenue or along the Omaha Avenue corridor between Northwestern and Omaha. We know there's some desire down in that southern side of the community to do some economic development, which is part of the prior action item here. Again, looking at that 7th Street corridor, There's been a desire to get a trail along the railroad for a long time. We have the railroad crossing on Omaha Avenue. The pedestrian crossing of that, that needs improvement. There's other issues, like you mentioned, the 7th and Madison, Pazwalk and Madison. How are we addressing those areas and so? looking at that need to kind of pull all of that together and Capture some federal dollars to help us accomplish our goal in that corridor We just kind of identified the project along there I would say the project is probably roughly 50% trail 50% Street drainage improvements and

Yeah, I'll leave it at that. I think there's a big task.

Yeah, there hasn't been any design. So as we would engage with Olson's, the first thing would be we would identify a list of stakeholders, landowners, business owners, along those corridors and bring them to the table and identify what do we want to solve. What's the goal of this project when we're done?

I think that's where I was going with that, is I think it would be good to have some public input, maybe something at the library. Again, there's... There's a lot involved there, especially, I'm thinking, trying to cross Omaha Avenue at that railroad intersection when you have traffic that doesn't abide by a 35-mile-an-hour speed limit anyway.

So the scope of services does define that stakeholder engagement requirement. So that is in there. Following the stakeholder engagement, and there's time to digest that information, then there's just an open public conversation as well where we invite the public in to help participate in that concept. Thanks, Steve.

What is the overall time frame here from the start of this engineering contract?

This 60% would be wrapped up by end of December 2028. And then I would anticipate, again, a little bit earlier than that, and we would probably start pursuing the implementation grant through the raised grant process in 2029. Okay.

Steve, would this help address some of the drainage issues possibly at Northwestern?

Yes. Yeah, that whole northwestern area, that all drains sort of over to 4th, and then it comes down the 4th Street corridor into Omaha. So the desire would be to put in a storm sewer system there and maybe tie that over to Corporation Gulch a block or two south of Omaha.

All right, anyone else? Okay, seeing no further discussion, please vote.

All council members voting in the affirmative, resolution 2026-18 is adopted.

And we are adjourned at 619.