WAYNE – Following a budget work session last week, the Wayne County Board of Commissioners closed out Tuesday’s regularly scheduled meeting with more conversation on the county budget.
From the Wayne County Courthouse courtroom, the commissioners voted 2-1 to raise the mill levy 0.006 as the group cut putting an additional $200,000 into District 4. District 4 is an account that commissioners use to make bond payments and for some other funds to put money away for major unexpected road and bridge expenditures. District 3 Commissioner Jim Raabe voted against the raise stating he didn’t want to see an increase.
Each of the operational budgets in Districts 1, 2 and 3 will see an increase of $50,000 as all unused funds are rolled into the snow removal and equipment fund.
The public hearing on the county budget has been set during the regularly scheduled Tuesday, September 1 meeting as the budget would need to be put in place by September 20.
Berggren Architects provided another round of updates for the courthouse restoration project as the group has set a goal to complete work by the end of September.
Sprinklers are set and operational to water the lawn, hydro-seeding will take place next Monday and the sidewalks are completed. Contractors will next start on the west oriel this week before moving to the east beginning with the trim.
There were also two leaks found on the new roof that will be looked at along with the snow guard and a gutter repair.
Library directors with both Wayne (Heather Headley) and Winside (Laura Landphear) visited with the commissioners discussing what they’ve used their funds for.
Winside has seen a lot of upgrades to their technology and books while also being able to provide fun kids programs. In Wayne, Story Time has recently started at Bressler Park as they’ve also seen an increase in online-interest. The funds have gone towards purchasing online books which cost between $50 – $120.
Both thanked the board for allowing them to continue to expand their services to northeast Nebraskans.
County attorney, Amy Miller also approached the board needing a resolution to be approved by commissioners for Juvenile Diversion Funds. Both Tier I and II costs for diversion is $100 while Tier III diversion classes would be $250.
Commissioners were then informed that all county officials will be switching to .gov email domains as NACO will no longer be hosting their emails. The company NACO was using had sold and they were then having issues with the new company.
The board approved the motion to make the change to a .gov for their email and then it made sense to do the same for their website which would read waynecountyne.gov instead of .org once the change will be made. No timeline was set on the changes to both the email accounts and county website, but NACO did give the county 30 days to begin the process as it will take time.
There will be a $400 annual fee for the website while other fees will be provided later about the email once more information is gathered.
The next regularly scheduled Wayne County Board of Commissioners meeting will be on Tuesday, September 1 at 9 a.m.