Council Summary - Oct. 7, 2025

Individuals and media outlets are encouraged to contact the City Administrator for additional details or clarification on the following material. Regular meetings of the Crete City Council are held on the first and third Tuesdays of the month at 6 p.m. in the Council Chambers on the second floor of City Hall; Council Standing Committees may meet prior. View a list of City Officials and current council and committee meeting agendas.

The next Crete City Council regular meeting will be on Tuesday, Oct. 14

Summary for Crete City Council regular meeting - Tuesday, Oct. 7
View this Meeting Agenda and attachments.

The council approved the Consent Agenda items:

• Minutes of the following meetings: City Council Sept. 16, Public Works Committee Sept. 16, Public Safety Committee Sept. 16, Legislative/Community Development Committee Sept. 16, Personnel Committee Sept. 16, Finance Committee Sept. 16, City Council Special Meeting Sept. 24
• Treasurer’s Report
• Payment of claims against the City 
• Mayor's appointment of Veronica Ortiz to the LB840 Advisory Board.

The Council voted 6-0 to table the following item to the next meeting: adopting the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) program. City Administrator Tom Ourada said this is a federal requirement to get federal aid. City Attorney Alison Janecek Borer said the comment period ended this week and the resolution can be drawn up.

The Council voted 6-0 to waive required reading and adopt Ordinance 2260 - Creating Street Improvement Project Nos. 2024-1, 2024-2, 2024-3, and 2024-4.Ourada explained this includes paving projects on the north side of town that were petitioned, a paving district in an alley also petitioned in, and the Pinnacle Bank alley.

The Council voted 6-0 to set a Bid letting date of Thursday, Nov, 6 at 10 a.m. for Crete Street & Alley Improvements.

The Council voted 6-0 to approve the Saline County Area Transit (SCAT) request for Crete's share of the local matching funds for fiscal year 2026. Crete’s share of county service is $11,650 and the city service cost is $23,197 for a total of $34,847. Mayor Dave Bauer said there is nothing different from past years. It’s important to have this service in town and we have budgeted for it.

The Council voted 6-0 to approve Resolution 2025-25 ratifying the votes of the City's LARM Representative, Nancy Tellez at the September 24th, 2025 Annual Members' Meeting of the League Association of Risk Management, including the election of nominees to the LARM Board of Directors.

The Council voted 6-0 to approve the LPA Program Agreement between the City of Crete and Nebraska Department of Transportation. Ourada said this is a planning grant specific to an elevated walkway joining the north and south parts of town.

The Council voted 6-0 to approve Resolution 2025-24 Signing of Program Agreement -BL2515 City of Crete and the Nebraska Department of Transportation NDOT Project Number DPS-76(53)

The Council voted 6-0 to approve items in which Crete Public Library will apply for the following grants: Nebraska Library Commission’s 1) Continuing Education & Training Grant, 2) Internship Grant, 3) Youth Grant for Excellence, and 4) Library Improvement Grant, Walmart Grant for Memory Care Items, American Library Association’s Libraries Transforming Communities Grant. Library Director Jessica Wilkinson provided the following grant information:

• first grant requires a 25% match and will send a staff member to the AMA (American Library Association) annual conference in Chicago; The Friends of the Crete Public Library will pick up the matching amount; 
• Internship grant does not require a match and provides $1,000 for intern wages;
• Youth grant requires a 25% match;
• Library improvement grant requires a 25% match to apply for new shelving - staff is growing the book collection and will not need a lot of the specific DVD shelving due to weeding that collection;
• Walmart grant has no match required and the library has never applied for this; purchases would include items for Outreach Librarian Laura Renker to take to her stops at local care facilities;
• Transforming communities grant has no match and the request is $19,475 to help grow the collection for visually impaired patrons - Braille materials cost a little more; materials for kids, adults, and large print books for all age groups, and more shelving;

The Council voted 6-0 to approve the LB840 Application from Heath Sports in the amount up to $35,000 for a new automatic screen-printing machine. Ashley Newmyer, Legislative and Economic Development Committee chair, said the committee discussed the application and recommended approval.

The Council voted 6-0 to table the following item: LB840 Application from Saline Medical Specialties for a loan guarantee for up to $500,000 for equipment, employee recruitment and job training. Newmyer said the committee tabled this item to the next council meeting for more information.

The Council voted 6-0 to authorize the City of Crete to apply for the Nebraska Statewide Arboretum Community Forestry Infrastructure Grant. Parks and Recreation Director Liz Cody said this grant is for funds for the next three years to conduct tree pruning, planting, and removals in parks and public spaces; some funding for green infrastructure, which includes trees adjacent to park spaces.

The Council voted 6-0 to approve amending the Master Fee Schedule.Kyle Frans said the Finance Committee recommended these changes, which involved the Building permit fees.

The Council voted 6-0 to table the following item to the next meeting: Waste Connections draft agreement.

The Council voted 6-0 to authorize deviation from City specifications from Timothy Circle and Iris Ave. Ourada explained the original sidewalk was constructed during a federal aid project which is to NDOT (Nebraska Department of Transportation) specifications, differing from city specs; the developer is requesting to use the existing state specs to complete connected sidewalks.

The Council voted 6-0 to authorize of deviation from City specifications for sidewalk placement at 15th Street and Kingwood Ave. Ourada explained the building inspector worked on this with the developer; the plan is pushing the parking toward the building to accommodate 19.5 foot parking spaces instead of 18.5 foot spaces.

The Council voted 6-0 to approve the Bid Proposal for Weed Control and Snow Removal Services from Will Wenz with Lawn Kings. Ourada said the city released an RFP (request for proposals) through the Downtown Business Improvement District; the first bid was rejected and the bidder decided not to resubmit; the board recommended this second bid. He met with this provider and found they could meet all the requirements. Mayor Bauer said this is a test project for the downtown area and is funded by the businesses in that two block district; hopefully it works well and could be expanded over time.

Petition - Communication - Citizen Concern:

Officer Reports:

• Lt. Dawn Jonas:
  • thank you for allowing us to apply for recent grants; highway safety grant is $110,000 to use during the fiscal year to pay for officer overtime for traffic safety events; 
  • second grant was a car seat grant for $2,500 to purchase car seats for families in need; Officer Noah Zach attended training to certify as a car seat technician; the department helped host an event where Zach, Public Health Solutions, and Crete Public Schools had a car seat inspection site - 12 vehicles came through and 20 seats were installed or inspected, and 16 seats provided; at the event only 4 were installed correctly or were the right seat for the child at the time; once completed the department can be approved for another $2,500 and up to $10,000;
  •  introduced Hermes Trujillo is the new Code Enforcement Officer;
• Liz Cody, Parks and Recreation Director: 
  • flag football and coed softball seasons are done; thanks to our department for all the work with the pumpkin festival;
  • new mulch at North Ward Park and new edging, and new mulch at Library Park, trimming trees at Tuxedo Park;
  • Ourada said the tree grants can free up funds for other activities; Mayor Bauer said on walks around town there are still some limbs broken and hanging from recent storms; if on city right-of-way the city can take it down and outside of that the property owners need to take care of these;
• Trenton Griffin, Building Inspector:
  • master fee schedule changes will better reflect our permit/building numbers; we also turn data in to the census bureau;
  • new apartment units will have the permit coming; two new single family home permits, about 30 total permits issued this month;
• Tom Crisman: all department heads are doing an excellent job on grants.
• Tom Ourada, City Administrator:
  • airport fuel issue - more important to attract business and not try to make a profit;
  • meeting with Burlington Railroad and management agency out of Washington State on grants, one for a possible quiet zone in town, the vehicle and pedestrian overpass project, crossing improvements; they said they would look for federal grants and help facilitate, some would require matches - Burlington said they would do the match;
  • new budget form for this year - all other first class cities submitted it like Crete;
  • JEO on water improvements - plans are almost done and will need to go out for bid; may be about $2.5M and we have $1.2M in grants for this along with a low interest loan;
  • SENDD (Southeast Nebraska Development District) - working on EPA award we received to look at area on South Main;
  • Looking at a Blue Acres paving project;
  • Would like to look at an animal shelter project; we euthanize animals and have to pay for it and that money could be spent on adopting out; the Capital Humane Society is a no-kill shelter and are more selective on which animals they will take and the Beatrice Humane Society will take some; some grant work and effort on our part could make this possible;
  • tarring schedule was emailed to city officials;
  • we extended an offer to a potential police officer but still need background checks, etc.; looking at a second officer as the department has three openings;
  • Alison is here from Cline Williams and Anna is on leave with her new baby boy;
• Mayor Dave Bauer said the community had another successful pumpkin festival which involves a lot of people and city staff who were involved with booths, cars, as well as crews from street and electrical departments; he thanked everyone for the parts they played.

Meeting adjourned.