January 15, 2024 at 7:00 PM - Beatrice Regular City Council Meeting

Discussion:  Brent, Merchant McIntyre, firm based in Washington DC, working for cities, counties, hospitals, colleges, etc.  feel strongly about ability to take non-profit priorities & objectives to go after grants.  had opportunity to work with tobias & team to develop a strategy for city.  will review the identified & recommended strategies & grants.  appreciate opportunity to get feedback from council.  TT has been great job with organizing & directing what priorities are.  resource inventory for couple weeks.  resources inventory shows city's strengths, city's priority well inline with fed gov plans, other city staff trying to do on daily basis, grants are on top of that, MM function as member of staff to find, develop & write grants.  findings focused on what MM needs to get funding for.  5 surface, transportation, water/wastewater, economic development, parks/rec.  original proposal even when working with strategy & began in 2 key areas.

Jason - early on in conversations discussed TT/TR worked on several transportation grant cycle for several proejcts.  this is area identified quickly to gear up & develop upcoming application for RAISE grant.  worked with TT & Olsson to take application previously submitted for 136 reroute & work on updating/improving. coordinate with OA on technical, aplication due 2/28 & team is on schedule to develop all parts of the grant & will have competitive & award winning application ready

Brent - rural begin to address some economic development needs.  great working experience with usda providing funding for staff or contracted to build out for additional economic development,.  annual opportunity, found to be very achievable. work with USDA staff to ensure will be $50-93,0000???  client 6th grant - smaller grant, but targeted opportunity to bring $ into city & can become an ongoing annual opportunity.

Jason - several identified grants.  brownfield, economic derv, coming up in next several months - congressional developed spending, will work with city for FY25, FF grant expected to come out soon through FEMA - equipment for firefighting, have had initial conversations with Daake.  Talked to TT regarding childcare, another opportunity body cam.  see several others on the horizon & will discuss as they make sense.  often talk about it before grants come out to general public

Brent - important & consider have a very thorough discussion, need to apply for grants that we have good chance to win.  look at what agency is looking for, one consideration increasingly taking into account, fullscale community engagement, good support from local elected officials, to state & federal, using relations with agency as well.  keep posted on recommended actions/request of actions.  exceedingly appreciative of feedback if relations not already aware of, will include those in their strategy.  

Mayor - have you had opportunity to work with congressional/senate in DC.  Brent - have, not himself, but Julia engaged on daily basis.  another director in office who manages relationships on capital hill.  have had good history of working with staff as well, support staff just as important.  are using legislative team to ensure

Ted - dollar amounts for the grant, have had conversation, are we better off looking or applying for everything we think we can get or just what we know we can get.  Brent - difficult thing to know.  do you swing as many times hoping to hit a few, reality not sustainable to capacity.  what they have done with RAISE grant, look at what the best way to tie the city's needs & it will score really well, becomes combination effort.  not as much luck with trying to put something for everting, try to take a measure of what top needs are, make general/informed assessment how they will score & go in in that project.  get to as close to 100 points as we can, if don't think we can get the high points, we wont apply.  identify in order, which we can do without burying city staff with added information.  at least 1 grant in batters box, up to the plate & have to get done, have one on deck, then in the hole, doing some initial conversations.  any given time 3 active projects 
TEd - when making application, in touch with who to get information where we are falling short?  Brent - yes, that is correct, doing in advance before grant being announced.  federal agency/congressional staff discussions, tell TT we think we can do this grant, and what needs to be considered to obtain the grant.  can we get 6-8 over the scoring items.

Terry - hope we can have as partner for a long time, in it together.  under RAISE grant, was suggested to move grant along have to do final design studies, do you believe initially that needs to be done before it is submitted?  and/or will it enhance grant application everything it would.  Brent - final design is not required.  have worked on several, never worked on any that are near final design.  OA already working on this & knows requirements that have to be in place with the grant.  make sure when goign to application, 20-35% design, generally what seen, benefit cost analysis - which OA is working on now.  those pieces together are included with second level review with Dept of Transportation as part of technical review. not saying we will win, but we will meet all requirements & believe we will score really well.  Jason - something extremely useful is court street corridor master plan, city has prioritized for number of years & believe it will go along way.  served as essential document of what we are looking for.  puts city above others.

Mayor - thanked for time, TT has done a great job, if something CC needs to do, let them know.  Brent - close with affirming with point of we will reach out as needed.  will be moving on RAISE & REDLG, appreciate opportunity to work hard for commitment.

Terry - thanked TT & TR on work previously done.

Discussion:  another sponsorsip agreement.  signs in fields $4,700 over 5 years, paid everting up front & signs will be out there 5 years.

Discussion:  awarded grant, have a committee to review  consists of Grant Jones, downtown property owner, Morgan, Chet - code enformcent, Densie Pahl business owner, TT, similar to last time.

Discussion:  ss4a grant about 1 year ago to do review of entire street system, find how to make safer.  carver, Jackie school, Jessica from young professionals. hope for another implementation grant  year from now. WHO ABSTAINED????

Discussion:  talked 2 weeks ago, some clean up references to bldg to CDD, business days/calendar days, boats/watercraft, added similar to nuiscance unlawful to interfere with City, increased fines.  Mayor recommended by code committee.

Discussion:  TT - go together whispering pines, south of city limits by golf course, julie & armstrongs want to adjust lot lines of existing proeprties, replats the adjustment of their property.

Discussion:  P&Z recommended approval, have been working on this for quite some time.

Discussion:  Do we need to display sign?  TT- speak with Murphy.  Mayor congrats

Discussion:  Morgan - HOppe & Sons, Kayla sifted sweets relocated & expanded.  shine brighter & court street nutrition.  3 hopeful entrepreneurs, best focus on social media  course through ????  
partnered with NGage & Chamber

marketing strategy working along city with SEND for CCCFF funding was
2023 mural was completed & 5 individuals added additional murals in downtown

March 1st something is scheduled

Terry - what equitable pilot program is?? has survey out in entire community, what they need, what is going right & what they need.  will have meetings with Main Street America, ensuring supporting from start to finish, want anyone wanting to be entrepreneur, have ability to 

Terry - creative district?  MOrgan yes, only funding is CCCFF want projects that start at $1 for creative district, looking at city projects
Eskra - hit ground running, anything Council can do to help with?  
McLain - liked art project in alleys, do you plan on doing more?  Mrogan - yes, hope to add downlighting as well

Discussion:  asked to do 2023 year in review
hgihlights accomplished that were on goal list, not include everything, but larger projects include:
Demo at Dempsters, took first bite, acquired back taxes, first time actually taking down building - high on goal
finished stormwater detention cell - Gage county fondation donated $$ to help beautify, used as display piece of what a cell should look like in the future TEd - other areas we plan on doing?  TT - Carnegie & others, if have alot of concrete, at end of ella to help with stormwater detention & cleaning before entering stream
hannibal park improvements 
waterfall at Chautauqua Park restoration - have some improvements to be made in that area, was also on goal
pickleball improvements  number of improvements at chatuaqua park, added screening on fence & added lights, moved into City Aud for 
trail to Homestead - on trail for 10 years, mark angler spearhead, received grant in 2023 to construct grant, looking at bidletting in 2026, construction in 2027. 3 miles worth of trail system
completed Pioneer Trail 24th to 26th, students would walk along the highway, finally reallocated revolving loan funds to put trail system in, nice addition connects to sidewalks in community
UTVs - legalized on city roadways, registrations going well, 25 so far in compliance
Addressed one-way streets - 8th Street to 2 way traffic, has been going well, few accidents, 2 total due to 2 way traffic, relatively non event - was on goal list
purchase industrial park ground - made first inquiry 12-15 years ago - schwartkopf ground good addition to IP
Street improvements 33rd & Lincoln - on goal list, partnership developed, moving through design phase, hope for bid letting in next 45-60 days
fiber to every house in town - finally found partner in Pinpoint, building out fiberhoods, things going well for both, weather has hindered
createive district - downtown building light project  all main street did heavy lifting & used part of grant to get lighting
Court STreet master plan concept - next step in process of Hwy 136 reroute, big step completed
Owner Occupied Housing rehab grant - $440000??? how much?
Awarded PHase V of CDBG Downtown Revitalization Grant, next grant awarded for next round, taking applications now.  
Backup 911 Dispatch Center - in Fire Station up & functional if needed in future

Terry - thank for Mayor & T for doing that.  each project not just 1 day, important to see some things we have done, just surface, not 2 meeting a month job.  everyone appreciates around the table & city adminstration.  would like done every year.  Can we get copy
Mayor - continue to build highlights for remaining, one thing everyone nice to have some history, 10 year historical highlights helps new councilmen.  Ted - lot of years that this would have been 1-3 slides, this has been a great working group.
 

Discussion:  TT - dempsters thanked Sen Dorn for demolition, working on what we will ask for grant due end of February, will look to use that
LB850 - introduced by Jacobsen, reappropriates dollars for Kensington grant, this would reappropriate funds & hopefully go back to original applicants to help move that forward.  Terry - will we need something formal?  TT - will bring something
TT - thanked city employees done excellent job, complaining too cold, we had guys at wastewater plant overnight, no one wants to go there anyway, tells dedication.  Mayor  one of those things don't realize unless working with city or council, thanked all of them, everything breaks when it's cold, same amount of snow, one thing noticed is have help from neighbors, thank to employees & neighbors with the cold snap.  lot of resiliancey in community & employees.
Fralin - electrical increase like vortex?  TT - no request for drop, if wind produces, wind prices cheap on Sunday, our system load has stayed fairly consistent.  one outage of 4 people, continue to monitor.