Dale Strehle:	Absent
Tom Crisman:	Present
Anthony Fitzgerald:	Present
Kyle Frans:	Present
Ashley Newmyer:	Absent
Dan Papik:	Present

Present: 4, Absent: 2.

City Administrator Tom Ourada explained that amendment to the Redevelopment Agreement was already approved and this is the Resolution for the Second Amendment to Redevleopment Agreement Cardinal Ventures Redevelopment Project. 

 

City Administrator Tom Ourada explained that this item was not discussed during the Legislative/Development Committee due to lack of quorum. This item is going to be tabled until the next City Council meeting. 

Chief of Police Gary Young stated that this Addendum#2 is adding the City of David City, The City of Crete, and Butler County 911 as parties to the Interlocal Agreement. Young stated that there will be another agreement once this one is updated. 

City Administrator Tom Ourada explained that it is required by state law for the City to submit a one and six-year Street Improvement Plan. Ourada also explained that the Planning Commission recommended the City Council to approve the proposed one and six-year Street Improvement Plan. 

City Administrator Tom Ourada explained that the Water Superintendent position is going from hourly to salary. 

Mayor Dave Bauer explained that there is a family in town that would like to make a donation to the Crete Volunteer Fire Department. The Department is going to apply for a donation form the Pinnacle Bank's foundation for the possible Rescue Truck replacement. 

City Administrator Tom Ourada explained that the City of Crete is requesting approval of a budget/Sources & Uses amendment to CDBG Grant 24PWI004. This request corrects the project budget to reflect a street-improvement-only scope for the CDBG-assisted activity and adjusts the local match accordingly. 

City Administrator Tom Ourada explained that this can be approved pending City Engineers approval. 
Council member Anthony Fitzgerald abstained from voting due to conflict of interest and Mayor Dave Bauer voted yes. 

City Administrator Tom Ourada stated that this updated the term fees. 

Officers’ Reports
 

• Chief of Police Gary Young stated the following:

• Human Resource Coordinator Jody Fiehtner and Civil Service Commission member Sarah Brown are helping on Saturday, February 7^th, 2026 there will be testing of candidates for the hiring of Police Officers. Then on Saturday, February 21^st there will be additional candidates being tested.
• Council member Tom Crisman asked how many Police Officers need to be hired and Young stated two officers.
• Council member Anthony Fitzgerald asked Young about cruiser replacement. Young stated that the department has allotted for one this year and he is working on the quote for that one.
• Fitzgerald added that Ram has changed their manufactures warranty and he has seen Ram 1500 fitted as Police trucks. Young stated that that has not been explored due to size and fuel economy. Ourada stated that it is worth taking a look.

 

• Parks and Recreation Director Liz Cody stated the following:

• Youth soccer registration open until Feb. 27 2026 and the fee is now $50.
• Micro soccer opens Feb. 9 2026 and the fee is $30.
• Coach waiver, sibling discount & Doane Equity Registration Assistance.  
• Added duties at city park & tree related activities.
• A Parks and Rec Groundskeeper position is open.
• Submitted final fund request for $21,064 for our 2024 IRA UCF grant for completion of tree removal, tree planting and tree care, and tree inventory and tree management plan efforts. These have significantly benefited in ongoing planning for the next 3 years of tree work.
• Completed all grant activities and spent down the full $24,855 awarded.
• Two UNL students will begin forestry activities in Crete as volunteers as part of UNL’s urban forestry program. 
• Council member Anthony Fitzgerald asked if the City is able to keep that person that will be hired if grant funds are not in the picture down the road in five years. City Administrator Tom Ourada stated grants are our new reality and over half of this new person’s time will be grant funded over the next three years. There are no guarantees but this person knows they have a landing spot for the next three years. More grants in park and rec will be required to accomplish what we need to accomplish.
• Ourada added that he spoke to Mayor Bauer and this position would replace a couple part-time park and rec positions

• City Administrator Tom Ourada stated the following:

• The weather hasn’t been horribly bad but it has been really cold and the City has bought four tanker loads of diesel fuel and burned through all of it. We burned 26,000 gallons and ran for 66 hours over the last week or so and generated at 406,000 kilowatt hours.
  • All of that was because Southwest Power Pool who we are a member of was requiring additional energy because of their renewables going offline.
• Our lease rate went up $0.50 per kilowatt hour per month per year for our lease generation. That’s an extra $36,000 per year.
  • That benefited us to an extend since we get reimbursed for our generation efforts.
• This was a new break in for our new person that the City hired from NPPD. He got to see first hand how we went round clock on operation. Gordon Bridges did some of it and Tyler Schmidt did some of it and they both did very well.
• Ourada explained that the Board of Adjustments can’t proceed with the variance they were consider at this time because there are unresolved floodplain issues. The floodplain issues have to be addressed first.
  • The City Council does not have any control over floodplain. Only FEMA can grant that. There has to be a FEMA resolution before other issues can be addressed. The meeting that was scheduled for February 12^th, 2026 will not be canceled until sometime in the future.
• Ourada stated that with the north side and alley paving the contractor came in over a week ago and stated they wanted to start taking trees out. Ourada reminded them that the contract says June 1^st, 2026 and April for tree removals. They have to remove trees by April 30^th, 2026 and Ourada stated a pre-construction meeting needs to take place and the public engagement has to be done. The contractor is responsible for notifications. They have not done that and they stated they marked some trees. Ourada stated that people were really upset having people on their property.
• The end result is that we did have a pre-construction meeting and the guidelines are clear they have a notice to proceed for next week and with the community engagement with the contractor and engineer. The engineer is going to do a change order since they are doing some of it. We are good to go with that.
• Ourada stated that he asked Parks and Recreation Director Liz Cody to weigh in on some of the trees and there was one tree that was top tree in the United States and had protected status that is significant.
• The first Burlington Northern grant for a feasibility study will be submitted this week. We are applying for $1.1 Million in funds with a 10% match.
• The BUILD grant will be due at the end of the month. We will be applying for preliminary design and quiet zone.
• Ourada reminded that incumbents have until February 15^th, 2026 to file for office. There are four incumbents in here.
• Council member Tom Crisman asked City Administrator how many crossings are in the quiet zone and Ourada stated that there are between seven and nine depending on the limits. Ourada stated that the RTSD is a county wide function.

• Mayor Dave Bauer stated that the Mayor’s Chili Feed is on Wednesday, February 11^th, 2026 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. at the College Heights Country Club.

The meeting adjourned at 6:50 p.m.