Commissioners near end of rope with kit company

Red Willow County commissioners are at the end of their rope with the helicopter kit company that owes the county $370,119 in back payments on two loans.

Commissioners at their weekly meeting Monday morning directed Rex Nelson, the executive director of the McCook Economic Development Corp., which oversees the county's revolving loan fund, to get updated financial information on Pawnee Aviation and report back at the commissioners' Aug. 25 meeting.

"He's past all deadlines," commission chairman Earl McNutt said of Pawnee Aviation owner Ron Willocks, with whom the county has written and rewritten loan repayment agreements since his initial $300,000 loan in December 2004.

Willocks is in default on two 10-year loans, one for $248,625 and another for $121,494, each at 4 percent interest. He has paid a total of $4,416.40 in payments since the initial loan was made.

"It's time to get answers and make decisions on the future," McNutt said Monday.

In other action, commissioners:

* Decided to leave its 2008-09 contribution to Domestic Abuse/Sexual Assault Services, based in McCook, at $9,158, the same as in 2007-08, rather than the $9,731 that the organization requested Monday for the upcoming year.

Commissioner Leigh Hoyt said, viewing the organization's annual report, that the number of calls and victims is down, yet the firm is increasing wages and fringe benefits.

As commissioners struggle with the county's own budget, McNutt said "the next thing" they will have to do to cut county spending is reduce the county's contributions to firms, such as DA/SAS, that request funding each year.

* Approved the 2009 and 2010 contract with Pritchard & Abbott Inc., the firm that provides professional appraisal services of oil, gas and mineral interests in Red Willow County.

County Assessor Sandra Kotschwar said the new contract provides for a slight increase, from $3,300 each year to $3,500 each year.

* Tabled until Aug. 25 in-depth discussion of the five-year plan developed by Southwest Nebraska Resource Conservation and Development, based in Cambridge.

RC&D representative Jennifer ten Bensel asked commissioners if the RC&D is meeting the expectations of the county, if commissioners want to make any recommendations or suggestions or if there are any projects they would like to see pursued.

McNutt suggested investigation of better regulation of large-scale livestock feeding facilities; another suggestion was a FreonŽ recapture project to facilitate the proper disposal of refrigerators and freezers.

Commissioner Steve Downer, the county's representative on the RC&D board, will take commissioners' suggestions to the Aug. 28 RC&D meeting.