Commissioners Discuss Possible Time Capsule
Replacement of the Howard County Courthouse’s steps, which began this week with preliminary work, was the subject of multiple conversations during the Howard County Board of Commissioners’ first regular meeting of the month of April last Tuesday.
While discussing unfinished business, the commissioners noted that they had yet to secure an electrician for the installation of the new steps’ heating element.
The small size of the project and the commissioners’ desire to hire from within the county were both noted as having reduced the number of candidates.
“We’re kind of running out of options in the county,” said Howard County Chairman Kathy Hirschman.
However, a local electrician with some interest in the project was expected to make his way to the county seat to examine the project last Wednesday.
Also related to the steps project was the discussion of plans to place a time capsule within one of the new steps’ cheek walls during the construction process. Howard County Surveyor Tim Aitken and Howard County Treasurer Jackie Synowski had been present for this discussion.
St. Paul Utilities Superintendent Matt Helzer and his office, noted the Howard County Clerk Brenda Klanecky, had agreed to help with supplying material for the capsule, which is expected to be made from a roughly fifteen-inch segment of sealed, six-inch diameter polyvinyl chloride (PVC) piping.
Klanecky added that she had reached out to the Phonograph-Herald about the potential inclusion of a picture of current county officials and editions of the paper detailing “some big things that have happened in recent years” in the capsule, such as the 2019 bomb cyclone and COVID-19.
Aitken also proposed the inclusion of coins dating back to the county’s founding in 1871, current coins, and/or surveying equipment.
Also entertained was the inclusion of current commodity prices.“These steps have been here 110 years,” noted Hirschman.
“And we’re making [the new ones] out of the same stuff.
“It could be who knows how long before [the time capsule] gets opened.”
Depending on how well the old steps come out when removed, the county is entertaining the possibility of using them to make a bench, or giving them to Aitken for use as section markers.
Later in the morning, the commissioners disclosed a settlement that had been reached between the county and an individual, stemming from a fall on the courthouse steps in September 2021. The settlement, which was reached via mediation outside of court, was required to be made an agenda item in accordance with Nebraska Revised Statute 84-713.
The settlement amount was $77,500, which was covered by the Nebraska Governmental Risk Management Agency (NIRMA), the county’s insurance pool.
Payments to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) had also once again been on the commissioners’ docket, with the commissioners agreeing to pay $24,695.96 in penalties to that body stemming from failures to make proper tax deposits in the fourth quarter of 2020 and the first and second quarters of 2021.
The tax deposits at that time, noted Hirschman, had not been deposited on a semi-monthly schedule, but instead had been deposited monthly. As with other IRS penalties faced by the county of late, the funds will come out of the county’s American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) allotment.
Altogether, said Klanecky, the county had accumulated nearly $150,000 in penalties to the IRS. The county is still awaiting the appointment of an IRS agent for the purpose of abatement. “Tim [Vaughn, CPA with AMGL, PC] can’t do anything until we get an agent,” noted Howard County Commissioner Jessie Urbanski. “It would be like writing a letter and throwing it outside.”
During brief roads discussion, Howard County Highway Superintendent Janet Thomsen said that her department had been advertising to remind landowners to keep their rights-of-way clear. Roads crews will be “doing a lot of ditch work this spring,” she noted.
The superintendent added that the county was continuing to work on grading and putting gravel on the roads, but noted that, due to the sustained dry conditions, the grading was “almost doing more damage than good” and that the department may start prioritizing “ditches and bridges.”
In other roads department will news, the department be out a secretary come the April 21st, with Administrative Assistant Dawn Bransfield having tendered her resignation effective that date.
There was some debate among the board as to whether to maintain the position as full-time or to move it down to part-time, as the initial move to fulltime had been made in the wake of the 2019 bomb cyclone event.
“When [Bransfield] started five years ago, it was a part-time position, and we moved it to full-time because of the flooding,” noted Thomsen, before adding that incipient developments at her department could warrant the position remaining full-time.
After some deliberation, the commissioners ultimately resolved to keep the position full-time, with Urbanski noting that “parttime without benefits is a hard position to fill.”
Also paying a visit to the board last week had been Service Officer Don Shuda with the Hall County Veterans Service Office, with which Howard County has had an interlocal agreement for services since 1996. Shuda had been present to update the commissioners on the goings-on of the office, to request they approve the fiscal year’s budget, and to request the reappointment of Larry Kiser to the Howard County Veterans Service Board, for a five year term.
The total dollars that came into Howard County from United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) expenditures in 2021, noted Shuda, had been $3,000,647. Last year’s figures, he added, will be available later in the spring or summer.
Shuda requested that the county increase its annual contribution to his office’s budget by just over three percent, from $38,722 to $39,910.
Hirschman moved and Urbanski seconded to accept the increase; the motion passed unanimously.
Larry Kiser’s reappointment was also unanimously approved.
Additionally, the commissioners approved a special designated license (SDL) for Miletta Vista Winery on May 20th, reviewed a job application in executive session, were apprised of a potential third allotment of opioid settlement money from the state, looked over the annual tax increment financing (TIF) report for 2022, and heard an update on the Nebraska Extension’s Central IV from 4-H Youth Development Educator Doug Anderson.
“It“
could be who knows how long before [the time capsule] gets opened.”
- Kathy Hirschman