WAYNE – The Wayne City Council and City Staff gathered on Tuesday for the first regularly scheduled meeting of the new year. While there weren’t many items on the agenda the meeting still lasted a little over an hour and a half.
First up on the agenda was action on the Nebraska Liquor Control Commission Manager Application of Cindi Stolze for the Wayne Hospitality Group, LLC doing business as the Cobblestone Hotel. The application was approved by Council unanimously.
The majority of the Council meeting was dominated by discussion of the 2019 Clark Street Sewer Extension Project which was completed back in late 2019 by Kay Contracting and Brown Plumbing as directed by the City of Wayne and the Engineering staff which is JEO Consulting Group. Roger Protzman was present at the meeting representing JEO Consulting Group as Wayne’s City Engineer. The project was designed on a bare minimum standard. An aerial photograph was used to design the route of the pipe. The Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality approved the plans based on the photograph and gave the construction permit. As time came closer for construction to begin it came to light that there were power lines in the way of the proposed route of the sewer main. One of the options considered and discussed between the City Engineer and Staff to avoid this problem was to deflect the pipe because pipe manufactures allow for the deflection of pipe so much for such a given length. The City Engineer ran air tests, ran a closed-circuit camera down the pipe, and conferred with a reviewing engineer from NDEE (Nebraska Department of Environment and Energy) and everything passed. However, because of the deflect in the pipe, the project would not pass a laser/lamp test which is part of the Wayne specification guidelines. Because of this, Councilman Woehler, brought in to question why the decision was made by the City Engineer without Council approval. This led into a big discussion amongst Council on who has oversight on not just this project but others as well and when to utilize professional services and to what extent. With projects over a $30,000 threshold, decisions are made by Council and the projects go through a bidding process. With minor projects like the one in question it has been City Staff trusting expertise and relationships with professionals in such fields. Ultimately this was just a discussion, nothing was voted on and no action taken.
There was a brief presentation from Jean Grove who spoke of recruiting assistance for the upcoming 2020 census. She asked Council to spread the word as much they can for help for census takers along with passing out literature and posters to spread around. Those interested can find out more information by going to 2020census.gov/jobs or talk to a City Councilmember. According to Grove, Wayne County will be looking for 34 people to hire for the upcoming census.
The second reading of an ordinance regarding off-street parking limitations took place on Tuesday night as well. This ordinance only deals with residential areas zoned R5. Currently there is just one area zoned R5 in Wayne and that is just west of the Wayne State College campus on 13th Street. So in regards to multiple family structures and townhouses zoned in R5 off-street parking standards will allow for one parking space per sleeping room. The second reading was passed.
Council also approved the On-Call Construction Engineering Services Task Order Agreement between the City and Olsson and authorized signing of the same for the Phase 2 Project of the Wayne Trail.
For more information about Tuesday evening’s Wayne City Council meeting tune in to Big Red Country 104.9 at 9 a.m. on Wednesday morning to hear live from Wayne Mayor Cale Giese and City Administrator Wes Blecke. The next regularly scheduled City Council meeting will be held Tuesday, January 21st inside the Council Chambers at City Hall.