Highlights from January 25, 2021 City Council Meeting…
The city council goes over much more than what is written, these are just the highlights on what the citizens may find interesting…
SMELL: In regards to the smell in Scribner, the fight continues on how manufactured bi-products, including biomass and gypsum are stored and applied to the fields around our town. We remain standing up for the noses and water quality in our area. If you’d like to attend, the Dodge County Planning and Zoning Meeting will take place February 16 @ 4:30pm on the 3rd floor of the Dodge County Courthouse in Fremont in the Board of Supervisors room. This planning commission is working on setting up guidelines to address this issue. Your support and attendance is welcomed and encouraged, they need to hear ALL sides of the smelly story, not just the side of those who want to store this stinky stuff.
SIREN: The siren behind the bank is turning but with no sound. We are aware of the issue and are scheduling repairs.
M4H: Miles for Heroes asked for permission to have the streets closed off, the weekend prior to Memorial weekend. The board will be moving the event so families can spend the Memorial weekend with each other. Talk about small town consideration!
Economic Development Report by Elizabeth Valla:
PPP: Paycheck Protection Program, this round was a little harder to obtain so quite a few of our businesses in town didn’t qualify, which is slightly a good thing. It means we really supported our businesses during this pandemic. They had to show a 25% loss with a coinciding quarter from 2019. The restrictions may loosen over time, but as of right now, that stipulation still stands.
BIG GIVE: The 2021 Big Give is a 24-hour day of online fundraising scheduled for May 4th. The past two years, the Scribner Area Foundation has used the Big Give to raise funds for the Scribner Swimming Pool. This year I approached the board of the foundation and was approved to use the funds to help beautify our town. For this year’s Big Give, our Beautification Committee (Laura Schnoor, Lynn Schnoor, Susie Dostal, Anne Poppe, Elizabeth Valla, Alisa Gull and Joe Wolfgram) would like to raise funds to give our small town the facelift it deserves
- Priority 1: Vertical light pole banners downtown, saying “Welcome to Scribner” (if enough funds are raised, they will be made permanent by being made out of dye cut metal instead of fabric.)
- Priority 2: Hanging flower pots from the light poles, like those in Downtown Fremont.
- Priority 3: If enough funds are leftover, we will then install vertical light pole banners alongside the highway.
- Priority 4: Purchase beautiful benches for our downtown, to match those located outside of Scribner’s Public Library (in memory of Jeanne Baumert).
The priorities above are based on how much funding we can raise. This year, we’re shooting to raise $10,000! This is our only fundraiser so we are shooting high, everything will be installed by the SQ150 on July 16-17. We want the thousands that we’re expecting at the SQ150 to see how amazing our small town is, especially the alumni who haven’t returned in decades.
TUBING: The tubing company out of Waterloo that I contacted back in June, comes to look at their options on Friday the 29th. We will talk about the land that he will be able to use and figure out the logistics of it all. We have our fingers crossed that he sees an interest in expanding his tubing company to Scribner, in time for the 2021 summer. The mayor, city administrator, a city councilman, the economic development director and an area conservation officer will all be present for this meeting.
THE HOTEL: I’ve had a couple meetings with a few developers over the past month, with more meetings with additional developers on the schedule. One of the bigger developers said The Hotel isn’t a big enough investment for him, so I offhandedly mentioned the Scribner High School that’s scheduled to be torn down in July. That piqued his interest and now he wants to sit and have a more formal meeting later in February. I conferred with a few community leaders before presenting the idea to Laura Schnoor, president of the school board. She agreed this is an attractive option. This could save the school a great deal of money to avoid paying demolition costs, while adding an elegant housing option to our already amazing small town. This is not set in stone, talk is simply on the table. It would save our historic school and Hotel buildings if we sold them as a packaged deal. The developer would need to agree to start construction within the year because we do not want these buildings sitting vacant any longer.
MARRIOTT: The Marriot is opening a hotel in Lincoln called The Scarlet Hotel. It will be run by those at the university who are studying to obtain a Hospitality degree. The hotel will have 154 rooms, each room will be themed with a chosen town in Nebraska. The developers saw our online presence, with how beautiful our town is and all that our town has to offer and we were chosen as one of the towns the rooms will be themed. I filled out a lengthy form, stating our town’s facts and memorable individuals, along with around 100 photos that best represent our amazing town.