Councilman's Column

by Jesse Alber Street Improvements As one of the requirements for receiving state and federal aid for municipal street projects, the city of Blue Hill is required to create an annual 1 & 6 Year Street Plan. Having just completed a major street project, the city's only street improvements for 2010 are some work to York St. by the tennis courts and general maintenance. Streets on the 6 year plan include Williams St. (next to the water tower) for 1/2 block north of York St., York St. from Sycamore to E Railway St. (south of old grade school), E Railway St. from York to Saline (water tower to bus barn), W Railway St. from Saline to Cass (by elevator and sale barn), Gage Street from W Railway to Cherry St. (behind depot), Gage St, from E Railway to Pine (main street), Liberty St. from Nemaha to Saline (lumber yard to county shed), portions of Nemaha St., W Railway from Cass to Greeley St., Greeley Street from W. Railway to Sycamore and Sycamore St. from Greeley to Cass (by L&M Tire). Inclusion on the 1 & 6 Year plan does not guarantee that street work will be done on any of these streets. It is only a plan to address the conditions of these streets when resources permit. Fluoride Congratulations to Larry, Gary & Mark on their excellent care of Blue Hill's Water System. Ralph Naber of the Nebraska Department of Health & Human Services attended the January city council meeting to formally award Blue Hill with a Fluoride Award for perfect maintenance and reporting of Fluoride in the city's water. American Reinvestment & Recovery Act Energy Efficiency & Conservation GrantApplications are currently being accepted for funds from the Nebraska Department of Energy made available through federal stimulus programs for energy efficiency and conservation. If awarded, grant funds require a 20% local match. The council expressed interest in apply for these funds and will enlist the aid of grant writing specialists with our city engineer, Olsen & Associates. The council discussed many options for utilizing the funds and forwarded three ideas on to Olsen's for input. The installation of solar panels on the roofs of municipal buildings to include City Hall, the Community Senior Center and the light plant. A complete energy efficiency upgrade of the light plant to include new doors, windows, insulation, HVAC improvements, weatherproofing, energy efficent lights, and more.A complete energy efficiency upgrade of the community senior center to include new doors, windows, insulation, HVAC improvements, plumbing upgrades, weatherproofing, energy efficent lights, Energy Star appliances and more.I believe this grant would provide an oustanding opportunity for the city of Blue Hill regardless of which proposal we pursued. I feel there are about three main concerns in evaluating these three options. First, which providses the best opportunity for Blue Hill to save taxpayers money on decreased energy consumption. Second, which proposals have the best chance of being awarded the grant. And finally, what will be the city's cost in required match, project administration and future maintenance. While we are still hoping for addition input from Olsen's before determining which project to advance, with the information I have now, I support the installation of solar panels. In a normal situation, the cost of solar panels would probably make them economically unrealistic. However if the city's initial costs are only 20% of the norm, the panels have the potential to create enough electricity to pay for themselves relatively quickly. I believe they have the potential to create much more energy than we could save with energy efficiency upgrades to either of these buildings. Although I suspect solar panels would require more future maintenace than energy efficiency remodels, I believe the amount of maintenance would be very minimal. However, if our engineers tell us that they believe the city can realize a better return through energy efficiency upgrades, I still think this grant is a great opportunity for Blue Hill (although not necessarily for America, but that is a different debate). The cost of the Energy that the city purchases from WAPA, MEAN and South Central Public Power continues to rise dramatically. Currently the city consumes somewhere near $80,000 in energy costs each year to run street lights, truck parking, ball diamonds, pool, city hall, community senior center, light plant and more. It is more important than ever to keep our energy consumption as low as possible. Other Business For at least the 10th time since I have been on the city council, I have made the motion to eliminate compensation for the city's elected officials. And for almost as many times, it has died for a lack of a second. Although, I understand the importance of providing compensation to these posts in order to recruit qualified candidates, I really do not believe that a $1,000 a year really makes a difference in candidate recruitment. However, I do believe that the $6,500 saved could be utilized to keep property taxes and utility costs in check while not taking away from other city services. Full time city employees were given a 1% increase in compensation. A new Savin photocopier, fax machine, printer, scanner was added to the office. Although our current copier was only 4 years old, the new machine will offer a huge improvement in office efficiency. Discussion was held on some personnel policy and procedure issues, an unpaid utility bill in excess of $2,000 from Klancy's Kafe, employee training opportunities, insurance quotes, the community senior center and more.