WAYNE – With a handful of valuation protests taking up an afternoon meeting, the Wayne County Board of Commissioners completed their regularly scheduled meeting Tuesday morning in less than an hour.
From the Wayne County Courthouse courtroom, commissioners approved the 10 items recommended from the Wayne County Convention & Visitors Bureau Committee on Lodging Tax Grant applications. The amount totaled $5,375 while one was denied for not being turned in on time.
Wayne County Sheriff, Jason Dwinell passed out information to the board pertaining to collected and new distress warrants.
Following last year’s audit, Sheriff Dwinell found out he wasn’t in compliance on giving an update to the board about distress warrants. After reaching out to the state office, no standard format was offered but he was required to provide information on the funds collected and still due.
Since 2000, around $9,444 of the $26,735 have been collected but only $1,173.22 has been uncollected from the 2019 taxes. Sheriff Dwinell stated it’s his job to collect, but he can’t collect on older distress warrants that are no longer in town as it’ll be up to the treasurer’s office and the commissioners to ‘strike’ off the list of distress warrants that are over 10 years old.
Majority of the distress warrants are less than $50 with a lot being $10 but interest has built up over the years.
Sheriff Dwinell also added he’s just waiting on equipment for the new cruisers as the older equipment won’t fit with the new ones. The older equipment will be sold (cages, light bars, etc.) and/or donated to local departments.
Wayne County Board of Commissioners also selected the quote from Porter & Company, PC for $10,200 with an increase of $315 in year two and another increase of $325 by year three which was nearly $7,000 cheaper than the Nebraska State Auditor bid. Other counties have been happy with Porter & Company for their financial audits.
The board then approved Resolution No. 21-11 in opposing the Executive Order from President Biden on setting a goal of conserving at least 30% of our lands and waters by 2030. Commissioners stated this is a farming community and it would impact farmers as several other counties across the state have already signed the resolution.
Highway Superintendent, Mark Casey then updated the board he’ll be finalizing information to submit to media on the Wayne County Scrap Tire Recycling event on Friday (8 a.m. until 4 p.m.) and Saturday (8 a.m. until noon), August 13 – 14 at the fairgrounds. Wayne County again received a grant for around $50,000 as this will be nearly double the amount in the past of up to a 400-ton limit. Butler County Landfill will coordinate the event made only for those with 27-county plates, live in the City of Wayne, Wayne County or villages within Wayne County. No retailer tires will be accepted as more information will be provided closer to the date.
Moving into the afternoon, four valuation protest hearings were received by County Assessor, Dawn Duffy during the Wayne County Board of Equalization meeting.
The protests were from James & Sharyn Paige; Robert Lane; Michelle L. Miller and George Gurnett (Paradigm Tax Group).
Recommendations were then brought forward from Duffy as only one of the four individuals were in attendance being Robert Lane. He recently purchased a house at 1005 Lilac Lane in Wayne for $134,000 after it was advertised on the open market for over a year. Duffy lowered the valuation closer to the market value while no other changes were made on the other properties.
The Wayne County Board of Commissioners will next hold their regularly scheduled meeting on Tuesday, August 3 at 9 a.m.
