Public input sought on city projects

Tuesday, April 3, 2018

McCOOK, Neb. —The city wants the public to have a say in possible future big-ticket items for the city.

To do that, a town hall meeting is slated for Monday, April 9, 6:30 p.m. at the City Municipal Building. Department heads will be present to inform the public of possible projects, said City Manager Nate Schneider at the regular McCook City Council meeting Monday night. He encouraged council members to present their priorities as well.

Funds for capital improvement projects come from the 1.5 cent city sales tax, with half of the one cent going to capital improvement (the other half going to property tax relief) and fifty percent of the .5 going to capital projects (the other half going to LB840/McCook Economic Development Corp.) In 2015, additional language was amended in the fifty percent of the half-cent that goes to the city, for capital improvement equipment if needed.

Schneider said this morning that additional funds will become available when the city municipal building is paid off in October. But with current city sales tax revenue sluggish, city staff is leery of devoting a huge amount of money to a particular project, he said, at least not without public input.

Certain projects always have funds earmarked for them, Schneider added, such as those for streets.

Pricey projects mentioned at previous city council meetings including renovating/upgrading the city pool and Memorial Auditorium, both estimated with costs starting at about $3 million. Of those and other projects, “The more input we have, the more comfortable we’ll be moving forward and making any commitment,” Schneider said.

Areas of concern the council discussed at a February meeting included safety issues at Barnett Park, costs of renovating the city pool, turning Memorial Auditorium into an events center and street maintenance.

Councilman Jerry Calvin at the February meeting said he’d like to see the city park on A Street be sold, with the funds put into the parks department. The A Street park is not used as frequently as Barnett Park, he reasoned, with Councilman Gene Weeding agreeing.

As for the pool, Weedin said at the time he needed more definite numbers regarding upgrading it before making any decision.

At the same meeting, Kyle Potthoff, public works director, said the situation at Barnett Park is still a problem due to the large geese population and droppings. He cited deteriorating water quality in the ponds and that it was only a matter of time before the soccer fields were affected. Mayor Mike Gonzales indicated that infrastructure was his priority.

How much weight the town hall meeting will have on city staff and the council’s decisions about future projects is anyone’s guess, but sometimes, the squeaky wheel gets the grease — or at least, reveals another option.

“Sometimes, somebody will come up with an idea that we even haven’t thought of before,” Schneider said.

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