by Theodore Wiesehan

    Cordova-area residents will have to wait until 2011 for paving improvements to begin on the Cordova access road - 462nd Road from O Street to Denton roads - after a 3-2 decision by Seward County Board of Commissioners at its Aug. 29 meeting.
     Commissioner Bill White moved to approve a resolution proposing the county pay 50 percent of the estimated $2.8-million project provided the State of Nebraska bump the project timeline to 2009. Commissioner Ray Naber seconded the motion.
     The county's current practice of funding 20 percent of projects involving state funding has the state scheduling improvements in 2011.
     Prior to the vote call, Commissioner Ron Minchow, not present at the previous two board meetings while on vacation, expressed a desire for more time to contemplate the issue.
     "We need to remember...if we've never done this before we're going to establish a precedent," he said. "I'd like to think about that a little more."
     "These people in Cordova have been waiting 30 years," Naber responded.
     The resolution presented to Chairman Joe Ruzicka made no mention of a state committal to 2009. He requested that White and Naber withdraw the motion until such language was added and Seward County Attorney Wendy Elston could examine the document.
     "There's no date," he told the board. "If we commit to 50 percent we have no guarantee (that the state will move up the time-line)."
     White said the language would be added before signing but asked that County Clerk Sherry Schweitzer call the vote.
     White and Naber cast votes for the resolution while Commissioners Bob Elwell and Minchow cast opposing votes. Prior to casting his deciding vote, Ruzicka addressed the half-dozen Cordova-area residents and his fellow commissioners.
     "I've had a lot of calls from my constituents asking why their projects only received 20 percent (funding from the county) but we're doing 50 percent (for the Cordova project)," he said. "I think we need a better plan than 50 percent. I think we need to do a little more research on this and at this time I vote no."
     "Then you need to have a plan," White said after the motion failed. "There's a lot of people there that depend on that road."
     Elwell said that he would reevaluate his decision should additional funding sources present themselves.
     "I'd be willing to reconsider if we get into a situation with something that looks attractive like we had with Matzke road," he said. "If there would be something that comes along that would enhance the project by getting federal funds or state funds into the mix."
     Lance Larsen, a Cordova resident present at the meeting, expressed his disappointment to commissioners over their decision.
     "You're seeing dollars and cents," he said. "I'm seeing my business, my home, my family, my kids and my community."
     The improvement project is estimated at $2.8 million by 2009 due to rising concrete costs.
     The county is currently in the process of widening and grading the road in preparation for paving as well as installing bridge railings and approach railings for the road's three bridges. County Road Superintendent Russ Daehling estimated the final cost of the county's work at $500,000, which will be counted toward the county's share of the project cost.
     The board also has $238,000 in a sinking fund for the road, bringing the county's available project funding to $738,000.
     Had the commissioners elected to pay for 50 percent of the improvement project, the county would have had to find an additional $662,000, approximately, to fund its share of the project.
     "Between 2009 and 2011 to spend $650,000 - that doesn't make good fiscal sense to me," Minchow said. "I know they've waited a long time and there's going to be people in this county that will wait longer than that for what they want done."
     In an unrelated matter, the commissioners revisited the issue of county employee pay periods which was brought to board at its Aug. 22 meeting.
     The initial request was brought by Crystal Prochnow of the county attorney's office who told the board that monthly pay periods made budgeting difficult for employees paid hourly because paycheck amounts varied depending on the number of working days in a month.
     At the Aug. 22 meeting she had presented a petition signed by 68 other county employees requesting that pay periods be changed from monthly to every two weeks.
     The board continued to examine the logistics of altering pay periods during its Aug. 29 meeting and asked County Clerk Sherry Schweitzer what the added cost to the county would be.
     "I'm not opposed to it," Schweitzer said, "but any time you double someone's work load I'm going to need extra staffing and I'm going to need extra space."
     Prochnow added that county employees would be satisfied with semimonthly pay periods if shifting pay periods to every two weeks was too problematic.
     White questioned how moving to a semimonthly pay period would allow for easier budgeting or solve the problem of fluctuating paycheck amounts.
     "For people making $12 an hour, sometimes you need the money in the beginning of the month more than the end," Elwell said in support of the shift. "For people making $100,000 a year, budgeting is not nearly as critical as someone making $20,000 (per year)."
     Minchow asked about the possibility of contracting out payroll responsibilities.
     Prochnow told the board that York County contracts out not only payroll but all payable and receivable claims to an accounting firm at a cost of $500 per month. She added that the number of people employed by York County is comparable to Seward County and York County uses a two-week pay period.
     The commissioners told Schweitzer to research what the additional cost would be to the county if her office processed payroll twice monthly.
     "Let's look at what the increased cost of your office would be," Minchow said to Schweitzer, "and take a look at what York County is doing and see if it would make sense."
     The board also approved the levy limits for miscellaneous Seward County Districts.
     The J Precinct Cemetery and Pleasant Dale Cemetery districts's levies were both set at 0.2 cents per $100 assessed, Seward County Agricultural Society at 3 cents and Seward County Fire District at 4.6 cents.
     Due to the large size of the ag society and fire district budgets the commissioners decided to have representatives of each report next year during the budget hearing process.
     In other business, the board:
     - approved claims for August 2006 totalling $707,347.01;
     - authorized the chairman to sign the NIMS compliance letter for the emergency management department;
     - authorized the chairman to sign a resolution approving submittal of a Homeland Security grant application to the State of Nebraska;
     - heard a report from Ruzicka that recent heavy rains necessitated an emergency courthouse roof repair after the jury room and office of the clerk of the district court sustained damage;
     - accepted distress warrant reports from the sheriff and treasurer for the year 2004;
     - accepted the substitution of $200,000 of pledged securities for First National Bank of Utica;
     - voted 4-1 (White was the lone dissenter) to allow the additional one-percent increase on restricted funds for the 2006-07 budget;
     - adopted a resolution transferring revenue from the now-defunct Tamora Road Fund to the General Fund;
     - eliminated the Security Employment, Grant 2502, Institutions, and Medical Relief funds and transferred all money and future revenue from these funds to the General Fund;
     - authorized the chairman to sign right-of-way documents for a federal aid bridge project on 322nd Road between Little Salt and Agnew roads;
     - went into executive session to discuss a real estate purchase; and
     - acting as the Seward County Board of Equalization, approved a tax list correction.