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The O'Neill City Council met on Monday, August 4, for their monthly meeting, with council members Tim Gleason and Kala Burdick being absent. One of the first items on the agenda was the city's ideas for an updated comprehensive plan for the city. Keith Carl, a community planner with Hannah and Associates, a community planning and research consulting firm based out of Lincoln, talked with the council on a new plan. "We've been retained by the city of O'Neill, Nebraska to update and prepare a new comprehensive plan that I'll take a look at, statistical information, land use information and a whole host of different community activities for the next ten and twenty years, as was proposed by the city. We've also agreed to take a look at existing zoning and subdivision regulations for the community, not necessarily writing all new regulations, but just kinda taking a look at, you know, what's working and what isn't, and getting some, some input on that. And then, as part of this comprehensive planning program, we're also putting together a community housing study that'll identify strategies for the implementation of affordable housing activities. The first process we're gonna implement is a community wide survey program. Regional planning is most effective when it involves as much of the general public as possible. So we actually have four different surveys that we would like to implement within the community. They're not all gonna be at the same time. The first one being a community opinion survey. It gives us a lot of good information, a lot of good background information, from those that participate. A couple other surveys in there include a major employer survey to find out which of your major employers have housing programs, which ones maybe provide some sort of financial package or some sort of relocation assistance package to help people get into housing. You're just gonna, kinda define it from them, you know. Does the lack of housing or condition of housing affect their ability to hire new employees? The third survey is a housing stakeholder survey. Some of your housing professionals within the community, like assisted living, nursing homes, you know, general contractors, bankers, insurance people. And then finally, one that I added myself that actually wasn't in the scope of work, but I think it's very important, is a visioning survey for the downtown area, strictly taking a look at, you know, the condition of buildings within the downtown. How vibrant is the downtown? How serviceable is the downtown? Is it a safe location within the community?" Councilwoman Michelle Liewer asked how the surveys would be done. "There's an electronic version. We tend to try to keep it as electronic as possible just because it's easier for us to track the results as they come in and it is easier for participants. We can also, if there is an interest, have a stack of hard copies at City Hall or a strategic location. We're able to do that too. We can generate QR codes for it as well," said Carl. Monica Huber approached the council, asking them to consider some community improvements. One of the first was the city considering a crosswalk at Second and Douglas, due to the increased foot traffic coming in and going out of the Handlebend. "I think there needs to be one there as children crossing on scooters and on foot just seems to be getting more prevalent. The second item Huber asked the council to consider is Bat Houses. "I reached out to the construction department at the public school building, Mr. Tate Erbst. He's always looking for construction projects for his classes. "We'd be willing to do that, as long as we provide the materials. The good thing about bat houses is they they can be as cheap or as expensive as you want. I mean, there are commercial people that do this, but here, it could be as little as $20. The Bat Houses are for the females to roost and then have their babies in there, and have them stay in there and develop. They're good for the habitat. They eat the insects and would cut down on the amount of pesticide that the city would have to use during a summer as well." The final item by Huber was the consideration of a dog park. Huber thought it would be a good idea for people to get out and socialize their dogs. There are a lot of people running their dogs at the parks anyway. And possibly with some of the extra space the city may have, this could be a good idea to use some of that space. The council voted on letting St. Mary's School change traffic in front of St. Mary's Elementary by having no parking on the West and East sides of the North Third Street between Benton and the alley. The change is to help with safety in dropping off students. The council approved four LB840 requests for signage in the amount of $396, a request for $19,700 for demolition, another signage request for $450 and a signage request for $10,000. The council approved the bills and adjourned for the evening.
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Welcome to the discussion.
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