By Aubreanna Miller
For the Herald
Kyle Huff, the current assistant to the Wayne County Highway Superintendent, accepted the superintendent position to begin in early 2024 after Mark Casey's retirement. Wayne County Commissioners offered Huff the position during their meeting Tuesday.
Other items on the agenda included discussing the 2022-23 Audit and designating banks as county depositories, among others.
The Board held a Board of Equalization meeting to approve a Personal Property Tax List correction. This corrected an error in which the City of Wayne purchased property which was not marked as exempt.
During the regular commissioner meeting, the Board offered Huff the position for Highway Superintendent with a pay of $60,000 per year and an addition to rediscuss the pay amount after a six-month probationary period. The motion passed 2-1 with Commissioner Jim Rabe having the dissenting vote.
Rabe said he wanted to have Huff in the position, but the county should offer Huff a higher starting wage than $60,000. Huff accepted the position with the stipulations and will begin Jan. 1.
The current Highway Superintendent, Mark Casey, attended the meeting to discuss road/ bridge updates and award a bid for the new County shop.
The bid, from MCS Construction out of West Point, amounted to $584,970.45.
County Attorney Amy Miller offered a proposal for the County to purchase the building in which she conducts County business. Currently, Wayne County pays $875 a month in rent and 70% of the utilities for the building.
The appraisal amounted to $142,000 for purchase. Miller said she would be willing to buy back the building for that amount or the future appraisal amount, whichever is less, in the event she no longer works as the County Attorney. The Commissioners tabled a decision until their next meeting.
Next on the agenda, the Board voted on the commissioner salary for the 2025-26 year. They set that amount at $50,000 per year. The pay for commissioners in Wayne County has not increased for four years, Commissioner Dean Burbach said.
County Clerk Debra Finn then reviewed issues associated with the 2022-23 Audit for Wayne County. According to Finn, the auditor who the County had a contract with was recently let go from his company for having too much work and not enough time to complete all his duties.
Finn said this puts the County in a stressful position because all other auditors in the state are booked up. The deadline for audits sent to the Federal Government is March 31, 2024 and the rest of the audits are due by June 30.
If the audits due to the Federal Government are not in by that date, they could request Wayne County give back any ARPA funds received, Finn said.
Finn reached out to the auditor who was let go from his company, who said he could still practice privately for the same rate. He said he will receive his correct documentation from the state in early January.
The Commissioners, with the understanding they have few other options, decided to move forward with working with this auditor. They will put together a verbal agreement and then assemble a written contract after they ensure the auditor has his proper certifications.
Finally, the Board approved a motion to allow the county treasurer to invest and reinvest county funds. They also designated several local banks as county depositories.
These included Bank First of Wayne, Elkhorn Valley Bank of Wayne, F & M Bank of Wayne, Wayne County Bank of Winside, State Nebraska Bank & Trust of Wayne, Nebraska Bank of Carroll, Nebraska Public Agency Investment Trust and Nebraska Federal Investment Trust.
The next meeting of the Wayne County Commissioners will take place on Jan. 2 at 9 a.m.
