Brief council meeting includes two closed sessions

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

McCook's City Council breezed through a 15-item agenda Monday night, finishing the semi-monthly session in less than 45 minutes. And, despite the briefness of the meeting, the council still managed to conduct two closed sessions for the discussion of legal matters.

Officially called "executive" sessions, the closed door discussions were aimed at briefing the council:

(1) On an impasse in completing payment to BSB Construction Inc. for mechanical work during construction of the water treatment plant, and:

(2) On deciding how the Community Development Authority, a city-county agency, will proceed in action against Retro Development. Retro is the original owner of Landmark Apartments, the site of McCook's former YMCA.

The impasse over the BSB was resolved. After coming out of a nine-minute executive session, the council voted 5-0 to split the difference with the contractor, paying $10,000 of the $20,000 that the city had withheld. The city had kept the money back because city officials felt BSB caused a 20-day delay by failing to fully shut valves before a test of the water treatment system. A tort claim by BSB is still pending.

The Retro Development problem, which deals with Tax Increment Financing (TIF), took a little longer to mull over (16 minutes), but apparently the issue was not resolved because the council took no action after returning to open session.

The main reason the rest of the council meeting went so fast is a procedure called the "consent agenda." Under that method, all topics are covered with one motion. If any council member or citizen wishes, an item can be pulled from the consent agenda for discussion, but Monday night no such requests were made, so the following matters sailed through with a minimum of discussion and 5-0 votes:

SECTION 125 FLEX PLAN -- For the first time, City of McCook employees will be allowed to have money for medical expenses, deductibles and child care deducted from their paychecks. The advantage of this is that it will let the employees escape taxes on the amount of money withheld. The city has contracted with a firm known as CBSA Performax to be the administrator for the flex plan.

McCOOK LIBRARY POLICIES -- A new set of library policies are now in effect. Drafted by the McCook City Library Advisory Board, the library staff and the city manager, Kurt Fritsch, the new policies reflect increased use of the Internet by library patrons.

"The Internet is a global entity with a highly varied user population. Those who use it do so at their own risk," the policy declares. Only slight changes were made before approval by the council. At Aaron Kircher's suggestion, the spelling of "meeing" was corrected to "meeting" and the word "physical" (in a discussion of discrimination due to disability) was stricken as superfluous since it was mentioned in the sentence which followed.

WATER TOWER ANTENNA -- The council signed an agreement with US Cellular, allowing antenna and cable equipment to be placed on the west water tower. The agreement will be a boost for the water department, as the monthly lease payment of $1,400 will go for the city's water needs.

In other business, the council:

* Appointed Pat Bonge as Jan Philo's replacement on the Library Board. The term is for two years, expiring in June of 2009. Mrs. Bonge has been the library director at McCook Community College since 1998 and has been a member of the college's library staff for 16 years.

* Approved a contract with James R. "Jim" Henry to provide law enforcement services at the McCook Regional Airport. Funding for the position is paid in part by the Transportation Safety Administration. Henry serves at the airport on weekdays. Off duty police offers provide law enforcement coverage at the airport on weekends.

* Agreed to participate in planning and development of walking and bicycling routes leading to McCook's elementary schools. The school board is spearheading the grant application to the Safe Routes to School program sponsored by the Nebraska Department of Roads.

* Met Tressa Biegler, the new assistant cook at the Heritage Senior Center. Tressa was introduced by Sue Chipman, the senior center director.

All five council members -- Mayor Dennis Berry, Vice President Aaron Kircher, Lonnie Anderson, Marty Conroy and Colleen Grant -- attended the meeting, as did the city's department heads. No comments were made during the Citizen's Forum.

In the council announcement period, Kircher spoke up, offering his thanks to the city officer who scraped his windshield for him.

To that, Councilman Conroy quickly retorted, "I have just one comment. Tell the officer my address is 706 West M." And, although Marty didn't say so specifically, no doubt some of his vehicles are parked outside with frost on the windows.

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