Commissioners plan changes to two budgets

McCOOK, Neb. — Red Willow County commissioners proposed increasing the Hillcrest Nursing Home budget and decreasing the Veterans Service officer’s budget, during their weekly meeting in the courthouse in McCook Monday morning.

Commissioners decided a week ago to delve deeper into 2017-18 budgets proposed for Hillcrest, Veterans Services, the fair board and the horse arena, and Extension.

Janet Lytton, the interim administrator at the nursing home, told commissioners that she had written a $6,280,000 budget for 80 residents; last year’s $7,293,012 budget was written for 96 residents.

However, commissioner Jacque Riener explained to Lytton that if the nursing home would have more than 80 residents, it wouldn’t have money to accommodate them. According to state law, if an expense isn’t figured in the budget, money can’t be spent on it if it would mean exceeding the budget’s bottom line, Riener said.

Commission chairman Earl McNutt agreed, telling Lytton and Hillcrest business office manager Renee Wright to “under-budget for revenue and over-budget your expenses. Budget for the worst possible scenario. But don’t spend it if you don’t have to.” McNutt said he wants the proposed budget to cover all projected possible expenses.

Lytton agreed to submit an amended budget, using a more realistic, possible number of residents. “If you get 85 residents,” McNutt said, “these (budget) numbers need to reflect that.”

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It appeared in his budget worksheet that Veterans Service officer Tom Stritt had proposed a $15,635.96 raise for himself for 2017-18, increasing his salary from $41,364.04 in 2016-17 to $57,000 in 2017-18. However, the raise authorized for 35-hour-a-week county employees is $270 a month, or $3,240 annually. So the raise authorized for Stritt by commissioners takes his 2016-17 salary of $41,364 to $44,604 in 2017-18.

Stritt told commissioners he works closer to 45 hours a week.

On top of this salary paid for by Red Willow County tax payers, Stritt is also paid by Furnas County for working with Furnas County veterans. Stritt’s Furnas County salary and raise, authorized by Furnas County commissioners, will go from $11,175 in 2016-17 to $13,175 in 2017-18.

Stritt and the county’s Veterans Service board are anticipating an increase in Stritt’s office rent, from $4,775 to $5,400 a year. Stritt is located in an office in the Temple Building at 322 Norris, not in the courthouse with most other county offices. The health department is located off-campus as well, on the Red Willow County Fairgrounds.

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Commissioners and county roads superintendent Gary Dicenta discussed three potential bridge replacement projects that may be submitted for matching funds from the state’s Department of Roads “County Bridge Match Program” this fall. The CBMP funds 55 percent (not to exceed $150,000) of eligible bridge construction costs, with counties providing a 45 percent match.

The three projects propose replacing bridges with “CMP’s” — corrugated metal pipes.

The projects are An east-west bridge on Road 405 near Danbury; a bridge located about one mile west of the Sauvage feedlot near Marion on Road 390 south of Highway 89; and a bridge located about a mile north of the Bartley Cemetery.

* The Danbury structure, on the Beaver Creek, proposes two 8 1/2-footx40-inch CMPs with metal headwalls. The estimated cost of materials delivered on site is $40,000.

* The Sauvage feedlot area project, also over the Beaver, also proposes twin 8 1/2-footx40-inch CMPs with metal headwalls, with material costs estimated at $40,000.

* The Bartley project, on the Dry Creek, would require twin 9-footx42-inch CMP’s with metal headwalls. The estimated materials cost is $45,000.

The county road crews will be able to provide the labor to build each project, although Dicenta said it might be wise to include the price of hiring a crane (to lift the pipes into place) in cost proposals submitted to the state.

Dicenta said that with each structure, the pipes will be spaced far enough apart that they will not be considered “bridges,” requiring bridge inspections. The existing bridge structures are narrow, he said, and may be considered “functionally obsolete,” even if they’re not “structurally obsolete.”

The hydraulic study on each site cost $4,850. Commissioners agreed to pay Miller & Associates for the studies and then wait for the bridge match application period in the fall.

The projects will be presented to the state as innovative approaches to updating/replacing bridges, improving the county’s vital farm-to-market roads and ensuring the safety of school and mail routes. Even if the match requests are denied, the studies will be useful if/when the county decides to replace the bridges.

Dicenta and commissioners also discussed:

* A resolution to change a portion of Road 717, southeast of Bartley, from “Minimum Maintenance” to “Local Road” because a new home is under construction along it. Minimum maintenance roads cannot be school or mail routes and cannot have habitable houses along them.

* Discussed the ownership of and responsibility for four dam structures built within county roads: The Schlegel Dam northwest of McCook; the Nothnagel Dam south of McCook; the Shifflet Dam northeast of Bartley on the county line; and the VanVleet Dam southeast of Danbury. The Nebraska Department of Natural Resources is responsible for inspecting dams like these across the state and contacts owners with maintenance concerns after each inspection.

As of now, Red Willow County owns and maintains the road and road right-of-way at each dam site, and upstream and downstream landowners are responsible for maintenance of their portions of each dam.

Dicenta will contact the DNR with the county’s existing maintenance arrangements.

* Updating with Riener’s name and contact information a “Bridge Scour Plan of Action” and closure plan for a Driftwood Creek bridge structure in her district southwest to McCook.

* Declared as surplus equipment a 2002 Olympus 3020 digital zoom camera, a Hewlett-Packard PSC 750xi printer-scanner and a Dell Vostro 1500 notebook laptop computer.

In other action, commissioners:

* Approved zoning permits: for Trevor Taylor of McCook, who has added a pole-style boat-storage lean-to to an existing garage on a concrete pad on land he owns west of Bartley along the Republican River; and for Colby and Christin Claflin, who are building a $50,000 addition to their home in the Pearson Addition north of McCook.

* Appointed Colette Balderston to the Visitors Commission to replace Perry Strombeck. Her term will expire Dec. 31, 2019.