Commissioners Hear Storm Damage Assessment, Receive Bids For Dump Truck

WAYNE – As neighboring counties are still dealing with the aftermath of flood damage caused by snow melt and rain last week, information was brought forward during a recent Wayne County Board of Commissioners Meeting.

Tuesday morning from the Wayne County Courthouse courtroom, emergency manager with Wayne County Nick Kemnitz provided a storm damage assessment.

Kemnitz first had the board approve the Disaster Declaration that was dated for Wednesday, March 13. The City of Wayne and Village of Hoskins have both also declared Disaster Declarations as Hoskins saw damages to 10 homes, three being major.

With the state of Nebraska preparing for a Presidential Declaration, Wayne County highway superintendent Mark Casey believes the state will meet their threshold for Federal Aid. Wayne County has submitted approximately $300,000 in damage.

A total of 508 damaged photos are being documented as county officials are working on creating an interactive map to post on the waynecountyne.org website for the public to view. Once completed, the map will show how many damaged sites there are.

Kemnitz along with Sheriff Jason Dwinell then met with the board about office space usage in the courthouse annex building. The commissioners authorized the two to proceed with adjusting to the space. Both didn’t want to spend money if they don’t need to and would like to see how the flow works for training before remodeling.

Amy Miller, county attorney also addressed a situation in her budget where she could cut costs on paper copies. The board approved the proposed copier lease of $54 per month which will go up to $62 per month towards the end of the year. Wayne County was paying on average $230 a month. County officials will provide paper while Miller will purchase her own paper for personal use for the copier in her office.

Rod Gilliland with the Wayne County Ag Society brought forward a proposed building. The idea would be to tear down the existing 4-H building on the fairgrounds and construct a new one with restrooms, a small kitchen and room for offices and meetings. A high-estimated bid was brought forward of $1.145 million as the Ag Society wanted to get the ball rolling and were in the process of pursuing grant funds and donations. This would possibly open an office for the Extension from the basement of the courthouse but create additional expenses with snow removal and more upkeep year round on another facility.

Commissioners received another round of bids for a tri-axle dump truck in Jim Rabe’s District (#3). Five more bids were sent in from three different companies. The lowest bid was from Cornhusker International for a 2018 truck with net trade-in of $73,965 and would be ready immediately. Jim was going to look more into the details to make sure the truck met all specs. Other bids were from Truck Center for a 2019 Freightliner along with three bids from RDO for a pair of 2018 Mack trucks and a 2020 Mack.

The next regularly scheduled Wayne County Board of Commissioners meeting will be Tuesday, April 2.

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