Council hears pitch for pets, special needs playground at budget workshop

McCOOK, Neb. – Inclusive playground and lack of volunteers and donations highlight the McCook City Council preliminary budget workshop.

Joyce Anderson and Lorie Prestes from the McCook Humane Society met to discuss increasing the contract amount the city pays for animal services.

Due to donations being down, wage increases, and pet numbers at the shelter remain high.

Pets are not being adopted, they said, and people are cutting back, so the Humane Society is asking for a 5% increase in what the city provides it to do business.

The Humane Society is doing a bunch of fun specials to help get the pets out the door, but as of now it is going slow. They had 82 out of 356 animals that the owner surrendered this year.

The McCook police department took the Humane Society 130 animals that were strays or ceased and the public brought in another 119 animals. Lorie Prestes said “That number would be higher too if the shelter wasn’t full, and that is why we are doing events like clearing the shelter, because we have to go by appointments and sometimes those appointments are pushed back.

Anderson said that they have been working with the police when they bring in strays when they have no room, and that they have been amazing in helping them. Donations of food are down, and the shelter has to pick up the cost and as we all know inflation is really causing that to rise as well.

When asked about what types of food they need, they said that the pets don’t like food with red dye in it. Purina is a good one that pets like. All the dogs and cats come spayed or neutered. They all are up to date on shots and vaccines as well as chipped to help identify them should they escape.

Next, council members heard from Mariah Pierson, Kacee Karr, and Tricia Wagner on an all-inclusive playground at Kelley Park. This playground would be for individuals with disabilities and those with limitations to participate in the current community playgrounds. Kelley Park already has handicap-accessible bathrooms and adequate parking and the proposed splash pad would be ideal for the location with the city pool already being in the location. The current structure at Kelley Park is already 20 years old and needs replacement pieces as well as new rubber covering and that estimated replacement cost is at $50,000. The estimated inclusive park budget is at $575,371 with a goal layout of $750,000.

Depending on donations, grants and volunteer work the playground could be built in phases on the current design. The goal of the project is to create a sensory-rich, accessible, safe and inviting space for all ages and abilities. They hope that they can create a long-lasting, low-maintenance surface and equipment. The group hopes to start a capital campaign this fall or winter with construction of the project coming in the spring of 2025.

Police Chief Joel Smith and EMS/Fire Chief Marc Harpham provided the workshop with an update on their respective needs and the obstacles they are currently facing. Smith highlighted the wage and benefit package as a possible reason why they are having difficulty getting more candidates to apply for the openings. That would be his number one request to get those up more competitive with the surrounding communities. Smith also requested three new cars to replace the three that they retired even though they had to retire a fourth now because of transmission issues. They estimated that on the low side of $70,000 per vehicle.

Firefighting volunteer numbers are down according to Harpham. They have 24 positions; of those 16 are full, and of those 16 they have eight active ones. It’s no fault of the volunteers, but the eight that are active own their own business and they are able to get to the runs. The others work 2 to 3 jobs and have a much more difficult time getting to the runs. Harpham said, “It’s not just here either, it is across the state.” This year only one person signed up for the EMT class at the college so that isn’t going to happen. “So it’s concerning to see these numbers go down.” “And if I had the answer on how to fix it I wouldn’t need money to buy a new fire truck.”

One of the last things that was brought up at the budget workshop of note that could potentially cause community grumbling was the idea of an occupation tax on cell phones to generate extra revenue due to the decreasing use of landlines. They are down to about $15,000 dollars a year in revenue from them, at one point they were at a high of $60,000 thousand.