The Seward City Council discussed and carried motions on numerous items during its Nov. 17 meeting in the Seward Civic Center basement.
Council members approved a special use permit for Levander Auto Body at 1778 Pine St. at the new Seward Rail Campus. The special use permit simply allowed the second tenant of the rail campus to operate an auto body repair and auto service shop at that location.
On the other side of a lengthy discussion of the possible Arrowhead Estates subdivision came the seamless adoption to update ordinances re-zoning land from agricultural district to rural residential district for both Jarecki and Banzhaf additions. City Administrator Greg Butcher reminded the council of the situation on both those lots and said the items both had the blessing of planning and zoning committees.
The council heard a discussion for a possible text amendment to the city's unified land ordinance (ULDO) on commercial use. As it was explained, a property located at 139 Sixth St. would include self-storage and ULDO did not permit that use. The planning and zoning committee created an amendment concerning layout. Upon adoption, self-storage could happen at that location but only if individual units were separated inside. Council member Alyssa Hendrix abstained from the vote, but the remaining council members in attendance carried the motion.
The council also cleared a third and final reading of the ULDO as it pertained to floodplain and floodway overlay districts. That amended language stating modular homes and vehicles parked in a floodplain must be operational and able to move in the event of a flood.
Council members also carried an amendment to the city's automated metering agreement with Nebraska Public Power District, which was the latest necessary step to move away from Nebraska Public Power District.
Council members also carried the standard annual motion to renew an agreement with the Nebraska Department of Transportation.
The council also adopted a resolution authorizing Seward Mayor Josh Eickmeier to sign the annual year-end certification of the city street superintendent. Moments later, they approved Julie Ogden of JEO Consulting Group to be consultant to the City of Seward as a Class A City Street Superintendent for NDOT programing requirements. That will be effective Jan. 1, 2021.
Members of the council approved an updated master agreement for professional services with Olsson for on-call services as well as an amendment to rules and regulation that allowed adding temporary cemetery markers.
In modernizing its new payroll system, the city has to update its compensation for overtime. So the council adopted a first amendment allowing flexing compensation time. That moved forward to allow for continued progress with the new software. Updates to the employee handbook were also discussed regarding attendance and payroll time because the new GWorks program would allow workers to clock in with their phones in the event of an emergency. Clearance for overtime would still require supervisor approval.
Because of heightening directed health measures, the council also discussed the possibility of moving back to Zoom meetings if COVID-19 cases throughout Seward County continued to spread. The council agreed that one member could be remote but anything beyond that, meetings would return to an all-remote format.
Seward County Chamber and Development Partnership members gave a business address at the end of the meeting, which included an update from Zane Francescato, who said the City of Seward received $919,000 in CARES Act funding and the county received $2.5 million in total funds.
