WAYNE – Majority of the Tuesday morning regularly scheduled Wayne County Board of Commissioners meeting focused on general discussion topics.
From the Wayne County Courthouse courtroom, commissioners began the meeting by designating chairman Jim Rabe and vice-chair Dean Burbach as the representative and alternate to cast a ballot. This would be for Wayne County during the NACO Officer 2022 Election.
Bond payments were approved for Highway Allocation Fund Pledge Refunding Bonds, Series 2019 and 2021. Both were refinanced in 2019 and 2021 respectively as County Clerk, Deb Finn was going to provide the board where the bonds are currently sitting on re-payment.
Other board approvals authorized the county treasurer to invest and reinvest county funds while banks to invest approved were Elkhorn Valley Bank of Wayne; F&M Bank of Wayne; Wayne County Bank, a division of the Madison County Bank, Winside; State Nebraska Bank of Wayne and Nebraska Bank of Carroll as bank depositories for Wayne County.
Jill Brodersen updated the board she’ll be going out for bid on courthouse windows in January. Bids will focus on single hung windows with the interior being a wood finish and the outside a white vinyl. Depending on the contractor, Brodersen said they’ll want to stain the inside on site to get a closer match to the current interior wood look. A preliminary estimated cost is around $200,000 – $300,000 as Wayne County will be looking to use their ARPA funds.
Pat Brentlinger began compiling a list in 2021 of future needs for the courthouse. With one of the big ticket items being courthouse windows, going through a process, he mentioned the water and sewer lines could become more of an issue. Most of the lines inside the courthouse are steel pipe with a little bit of copper and they’re showing some wear. Also, unless a sub-panel is installed, officials are running out of space for electrical.
Commissioners would like to start working on gathering quotes for new ceiling tiles along with new carpet.
Commissioner Burbach updated the board on a recent security meeting along with safety concerns in the north parking lot with some holes.
Commissioner Terry Sievers stated there were no issues during the most recent snow removal.
The conversation continued later in the meeting about courthouse security with more issues in both county and district court. During a recent county court day, the sheriff’s office was called to handle a situation.
Other discussion topics focused on ARPA funds and what projects the board would like to look at following the courthouse windows, bidding process future equipment purchase through a state or federal bid along with employee raises.
Commissioners will have some more time to think about staying with the $1,500 raise as a decision will need to be made during the first meeting in January. During the last budget cycle, the board did set aside some more funds in case of an increase in salaries for a pay raise.
The next regularly scheduled Wayne County Board of Commissioners meeting will be on Tuesday, December 20.
