The Central City Council held their monthly meeting on Monday night at City Hall. The meetings often consist of the mundane aspects of city government, but a pair of ongoing topics of discussion livened up this month’s meeting.

One of those topics has been the ongoing discussion of how to best handle an aging Litzenberg Longterm Care facility and the prospect of building a new facility in Central City. The City Council affirmed their pledge of $500,000 to the Long-Term Care facility, in the hopes of helping to facilitate the building and future plans of a new facility in Central City.

All board members spoke on how important the Long-Term Care facility is to Central City and the surrounding communities for quality care for its residents, and for jobs in the community as well. Chris Anderson said “We originally pledged the $500,000 months ago and within the last month I was contacted by the County Board to affirm our pledge.” Concerns were raised by City Council members as to no one having the knowledge of what’s going on with the old hospital or its intended use in the future.

Some of those questions were answered on Tuesday morning when the Merrick County Board of Supervisors met for their own regularly scheduled meeting. During that meeting, it was proposed by Supervisor Russell Kreachbaum to move forward with placing the $17 million bond for a new facility on the ballot in November. Kreachbaum stated that it was important for the voters of Merrick County to decide while others raised concerns in regards to if the bond was to pass. In the end the item was seconded by Supervisor Placke before going to a vote. Kreachbaum did not stand alone, but the item was defeated 5-2 with only Supervisor Ed Dexter showing support.

At this time the bond will not see the ballot and there is no immediate plan in place for the future, however, it was briefly discussed to seek a buyer for the facility. The topic was dismissed in past conversations as the Supervisors felt it was necessary to protect the beds within the facility at all costs. Our aim with our coverage is to inform the community and in no way are we wanting to scare those who live, work or have a loved one in the facility. Conversations are certainly ongoing and we will continue to follow along.

*In other news, Michelle Arnsmeier spoke raising concerns that her property was bordering this new area chosen for the new Central City Power substation, her main concerns being EMF radiation, noise, and the reductions in property values to her property. Richard Johnson also stood up to voice concerns and wanting clarification as to why this property was the best choice, being as in his opinion the most expensive the city had looked at.

“It’s the most expensive property you’ve looked at, why isn’t the original parcel the Solt-Purvis land a better solution, as some board members call this area of the museum property ‘The Swamp?” He stated he did his own research and according to him, no noise can be heard from the existing substation by the CC Mall, and next to the new apartment complex built by the McHargues. “No noise could be heard from 75 feet away, so noise isn’t an issue in my opinion and shouldn’t be considered in decision making.”

Previous sights have been discussed and thoroughly inspected, and this site on the south of the Merrick County Museum property was made due to the future predicted growth of Central City to the south, also due to the needs of Nebraska Christian schools. “No site we choose will make everybody happy,” says City Administrator Chris Anderson, “Someone is always going to be impacted. Previously someone had brought up the EMF radiation level concerns, we had that looked into, I did not bring the specific material data tonight as I did not anticipate the need however I know the radiation is within tens of feet of the actual substation. Also, it will be blocked by trees in the directions of the Arnsmeier property specifically.”

The president of the Merrick County Historical Museum was present in the meeting. Tracey Hefner spoke “This vote was not a unanimous decision. It was 4-7 to have it approved to sell to the city.” The 90ft by 120ft subdivision will be built on the land sold to the City of Central City by the Merrick County Historical Museum for $60,000 including an access easement.

*There were also more discussions about the Vender fees and possible changes and evaluations, including waivers being available for Area Chamber Members, stricter regulations on out of town, once in a blue moon vendor versus vendors with established relationships, and talk of writing setback enforcement into the vendor applications.

This is still an ongoing discussion as the Council wants to make sure that those vendors who have proven themselves in our community, versus the “Louisiana fish vendor once a year” to maintain public safety concerns. Dr. Lee says “We need to maintain control over these vendors because the random fish vendor who comes in sets up and then leaves, and then we have a lot of sick people and we can’t track the vendor is a public health concern. We need to be able to maintain a record and safety to ensure our public. These food trucks keep popping up and they aren’t going anywhere, they are a nice novelty and a change of choices to our established brick and mortar restaurants but we need to be able to track the random ones.”

The rest of the board was in agreement, public health is the main concern with pop up food trucks and the relationship with establishments such as Holy Grounds, Nachos Tacos, Kennabell’s BBQ for example can be looked at moving forward to honor the good standings these businesses have made, while also keeping our brick and mortar businesses in considerations.

Each month the meeting brings with it plenty of insight into the inner workings of our city government. The City Council will hold their next meeting the first Monday of September at 7:00pm at City Hall.