Budget requests from several entities highlighted Tuesday's meeting of the Wayne County Board of Commissioners.
Members of the Wayne Ag Society came before the board with a tax request of $160,000 for the coming fiscal year. This amount is the same as was granted in the last fiscal year.
Ag Society members Doug Temme, Dave Jaeger and Merlin Felt thanked the board for their support in the past year, especially with the financing of the new bleachers, which they said created a "wow factor" for fair-goers this year.
The group discussed the recently completed Wayne County Fair and told the commissioners "overall, everything went well."
As part of Tuesday's agenda, commissioners approved the preliminary tax dollar request from the Wayne Ag Society for $160,000, along with the following requests from Wayne County Fire Departments:
Carroll Rural Fire Protection - $83,640.00 (increase of $3,140.00; Wayne Rural Fire Protection - $95,212.00 (increase of $2,612.00); Hoskins Rural Fire District - $85,500.00 (same as last year); Winside Rural Fire District - $58,441.00 (increase of $8,556.00) and Wakefield Rural Fire District - $110,000 (increase of $8,000).
Additionally, a resolution was approved on the preliminary tax request of $13,000 from the Wayne County Library Association. This is the same asking as last year.
Wayne Area Economic Development (WAED) Director Luke Virgil, representatives of the WAED Board and of the Wayne Community Housing Development (WCHD) group, along with Wayne Mayor Cale Giese, were in attendance at the meeting to ask for additional funding for economic development and housing in Wayne County.
WAED asked for $186,000, which represents an equal share, based on population outside the city of Wayne, to what the city of Wayne has committed to the organization.
Among the reasons for the increase in asking was the fact the plans call for re-organization of WAED and Wayne Community Housing Development to better serve both the city of Wayne and Wayne County. The plan calls for hiring two persons for the office within the coming months to staff the office and work to bring additional housing to the county.
"Housing and economic development are important to everyone in the county and we need a partnership to best serve the entire county. The more the county can support the group, the more benefit we will see," Virgil said.
Commissioner Dean Burbach questioned the amount of money being requested as last year's request was $17,000.
Wayne County Clerk Deb Finn shared information how Wayne County employees have used the programs offered by WCHD and told the commissioners "we need to look at the big picture of what WAED is doing for Wayne County."
Following discussion, Commissioner Terry Sievers proposed allocating $125,000 to the organization for the coming year; $150,000 in the second year and $175,000 in the third year.
Board members agreed to this proposal.
Emergency Manager Nic Kemnitz updated the board on upcoming activities, including a training exercise at Providence Medical Center on Aug. 29 and a State Planning Team meeting in Lincoln on Aug. 31.
He also told the board he has recently acquired a separate phone to use for work-related activity. He said it includes a secure system that will be especially useful for communication with the National Weather Service in times of severe weather.
Kemnitz reviewed changes being made to the 2023 Local Emergency Operations Plan. Many of the changes were minor grammar changes or name changes, such as the fact that the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality has changed to Department of Environment and Energy.
Deputy County Attorney Teri Lamplot will meet with Kemnitz to go over specific wording in the document.
In other action the commissioners received updates from Highway Superintendent Mark Casey.
Casey discussed the upcoming Scrap Tire Collection event, set to take place at the Wayne County Fairgrounds from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 18 and from 8 a.m. to noon on Saturday, Aug. 19. He shared information on who is eligible to take part in the event and the plans for removal of the tires from the fairgrounds following the event.
The Wayne County Board of Commissioners will next meet in regular session on Tuesday, Sept. 5 at 9 a.m. in the courtroom.
