County drops idea of taxing part of WEC land, buys road grader

Tuesday, April 2, 2019
Thirteen acres of land around McCook’s Work Ethic Camp serves as a “ buffer zone” for the prison, and won’t be taxed by Red Willow County, despite being leased for agricultural production.
Bruce Crosby/McCook Gazette

McCOOK, Neb. — Red Willow County commissioners bought a new road grader and accepted a non-taxed "buffer zone" around the Work Ethic Camp at their weekly meeting Monday morning.

The new grader, for commissioner Cayla Richards' District 3, is a 2018 Caterpillar 12M3 to be purchased from NMC in North Platte, with $10,000 parts and service credit, a 5-year-, 5,000-hour warranty and immediate delivery.

The $245,350 grader will cost the county $173,250, after the trade-in of a 2004 Cat 140H valued by NMC at $72,100.

The Caterpillar grader was $20,250 less than the 2019 John Deere 770GP offered by Murphy Tractor and Equipment, also of North Platte. The $252,500 John Deere would have cost the county $193,500, after allowing $61,000 for the Cat trade-in. The John Deere also included the $10,000 credit, and would have been available in 45-70 days.

Commissioner Earl McNutt, who is also a grader operator for the county, said District 3 road crew operators ran both machines, "and each is capable of doing the county's work."

Without voicing an opinion either way — Cat or John Deere — he allowed fellow commissioners Steve Downer and Richards to make the final selection. Downer made a motion to purchase the Caterpillar because of the lower bid, and Richards seconded the motion.

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The county will not tax the 13-acre "buffer zone" around the state's Work Ethic Camp near McCook for tax year 2019.

County assessor Kristi Korell told commissioners that she has reversed her initial decision to tax the land because it is leased for ag production, and recommends that the land not be taxed because its purpose is "public safety" around the work camp, as pointed out to her by the state's Department of Corrections.

Korell said the buffer land has never been taxed before.

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