REGULAR MEETING Crete City Council Meeting City Hall February 3rd, 2026, (Condensed, entire copy available at the office of the City Clerk). Mayor Dave Bauer called the meeting of the City Council to order at 6:00 p.m. Answering roll call were the following Council Members: Crisman, Frans, Papik and Fitzgerald Absent: Ashley Newmyer and Dale Strehle The following actions were taken at the meeting: Approved the Consent Agenda items: Unanimous Meeting Minutes January 20th, 2026 City Council Minutes January 20th, 2026 Public Works Committee Minutes January 20th, 2026 Finance Committee Minutes January 20th, 2026 Legislative/Development Committee Minutes January 20th, 2026 Public Safety Committee Minutes Treasurer’s Report Claims against the City $1,423,842.36 Adjourned City Council to a meeting of the Community Development Agency (CDA). Unanimous Adopted Resolution 2026-01 Second Amendment to Redevelopment Agreement to Redevelopment Agreement Cardinal Ventures Redevelopment Project. Unanimous Adjourned the Community Development Agency (CDA) to the City Council. Unanimous Enacted Ordinance 2265 Amending Section 5-402 of Bureau of violations process. Unanimous Tabled Ordinance 2266 Amending 2-1514 Dead or hazardous tree removal. Unanimous Approved Zuercher Addendum#2 Adding The City of David City, The City of Crete, and Butler County 911 As Parties to The Interlocal Agreement. Unanimous Held Public Hearing to hear testimony in favor of and in opposition to and to answer questions in relation to the proposed one and six-year Street Improvement Plan. Unanimous Approved the one and six-year Street Improvement Plan. Unanimous Enacted Ordinance 2267 Amending Salaries and Wages in Ordinance 2257 and 2263. Unanimous Approved to authorize the Crete Volunteer Fire Department to apply for a donation from Pinnacle Bank's foundation for the possible Rescue Truck replacement. Unanimous Approved the CDBG Grant No.24PWI004 Letter for Contract Amendment Request. Unanimous Accepted of Pine Ridge 3rd addition improvements and dedication pending City Engineer’s final approval. Voting Aye: Crisman, Frans, Papik, Mayor Dave Bauer, Abstained: Fitzgerald Approved the Dorchester Crete Agreement for Electrical Services. Unanimous Approved to amend the Master Fee Schedule. Unanimous Officers’ Reports Chief of Police Gary Young stated the following: Human Resource Coordinator Jody Fiehtner and Civil Service Commission member Sarah Brown are helping on Saturday, February 7th, 2026 there will be testing of candidates for the hiring of Police Officers. Then on Saturday, February 21st there will be additional candidates being tested. Council member Tom Crisman asked how many Police Officers need to be hired and Young stated two officers. Council member Anthony Fitzgerald asked Young about cruiser replacement. Young stated that the department has allotted for one this year and he is working on the quote for that one. Fitzgerald added that Ram has changed their manufactures warranty and he has seen Ram 1500 fitted as Police trucks. Young stated that that has not been explored due to size and fuel economy. Ourada stated that it is worth taking a look. Parks and Recreation Director Liz Cody stated the following: Youth soccer registration open until Feb. 27 2026 and the fee is now $50. Micro soccer opens Feb. 9 2026 and the fee is $30. Coach waiver, sibling discount & Doane Equity Registration Assistance. Added duties at city park & tree related activities. A Parks and Rec Groundskeeper position is open. Submitted final fund request for $21,064 for our 2024 IRA UCF grant for completion of tree removal, tree planting and tree care, and tree inventory and tree management plan efforts. These have significantly benefited in ongoing planning for the next 3 years of tree work. Completed all grant activities and spent down the full $24,855 awarded. Two UNL students will begin forestry activities in Crete as volunteers as part of UNL’s urban forestry program. Council member Anthony Fitzgerald asked if the City is able to keep that person that will be hired if grant funds are not in the picture down the road in five years. City Administrator Tom Ourada stated grants are our new reality and over half of this new person’s time will be grant funded over the next three years. There are no guarantees but this person knows they have a landing spot for the next three years. More grants in park and rec will be required to accomplish what we need to accomplish. Ourada added that he spoke to Mayor Bauer and this position would replace a couple part-time park and rec positions City Administrator Tom Ourada stated the following: The weather hasn’t been horribly bad but it has been really cold and the City has bought four tanker loads of diesel fuel and burned through all of it. We burned 26,000 gallons and ran for 66 hours over the last week or so and generated at 406,000 kilowatt hours. All of that was because Southwest Power Pool who we are a member of was requiring additional energy because of their renewables going offline. Our lease rate went up $0.50 per kilowatt hour per month per year for our lease generation. That’s an extra $36,000 per year. That benefited us to an extend since we get reimbursed for our generation efforts. This was a new break in for our new person that the City hired from NPPD. He got to see first hand how we went round clock on operation. Gordon Bridges did some of it and Tyler Schmidt did some of it and they both did very well. Ourada explained that the Board of Adjustments can’t proceed with the variance they were consider at this time because there are unresolved floodplain issues. The floodplain issues have to be addressed first. The City Council does not have any control over floodplain. Only FEMA can grant that. There has to be a FEMA resolution before other issues can be addressed. The meeting that was scheduled for February 12th, 2026 will not be canceled until sometime in the future. Ourada stated that with the north side and alley paving the contractor came in over a week ago and stated they wanted to start taking trees out. Ourada reminded them that the contract says June 1st, 2026 and April for tree removals. They have to remove trees by April 30th, 2026 and Ourada stated a pre-construction meeting needs to take place and the public engagement has to be done. The contractor is responsible for notifications. They have not done that and they stated they marked some trees. Ourada stated that people were really upset having people on their property. The end result is that we did have a pre-construction meeting and the guidelines are clear they have a notice to proceed for next week and with the community engagement with the contractor and engineer. The engineer is going to do a change order since they are doing some of it. We are good to go with that. Ourada stated that he asked Parks and Recreation Director Liz Cody to weigh in on some of the trees and there was one tree that was top tree in the United States and had protected status that is significant. The first Burlington Northern grant for a feasibility study will be submitted this week. We are applying for $1.1 Million in funds with a 10% match. The BUILD grant will be due at the end of the month. We will be applying for preliminary design and quiet zone. Ourada reminded that incumbents have until February 15th, 2026 to file for office. There are four incumbents in here. Council member Tom Crisman asked City Administrator how many crossings are in the quiet zone and Ourada stated that there are between seven and nine depending on the limits. Ourada stated that the RTSD is a county wide function. Mayor Dave Bauer stated that the Mayor’s Chili Feed is on Wednesday, February 11th, 2026 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. at the College Heights Country Club. The meeting adjourned at 6:50 p.m. PAYEE, DESCRIPTION, AMOUNT; CRETE AUTO SUPPLY INC, SNOW TRUCK EXPENSE, $47.35; KIDWELL, DUO ESSENTIAL SOFTWARE, $6.57; SAPP BROS, INC, PROPANE, $426.63; WASTE CONNECTIONS , UTILITY, $96.71; AIRPORT FUNDS, SUBTOTAL, $577.26; CITY REVENUE FUND, CONSUMER DEPOSIT APPLIED, $1,144.82; DOMINGO JACINTO RAFAEL, PASCUAL, CONSUMER DEPOSIT REFUND, $77.02; REGION V SYSTEMS, CONSUMER DEPOSIT REFUND, $150.00; RODRIGUEZ AVILA, ALBERTOR, CONSUMER DEPOSIT REFUND, $38.16; CONSUMER DEPOSIT FUNDS, SUBTOTAL, $1,410.00; RDO TRUCK CENTER, 2025 MACK MD7 TRUCK, $125,000.00; CRETE POSTMASTER, UTILITY POSTAGE, $1,399.41; AQUA-CHEM INC, POTASSIUM PERMANGANATE, $2,020.79; ARMOR EQUIPMENT, TURBOJET CHN FLAIL W/KIT BOW, $4,389.99; BEATRICE CONCRETE CO, CONCRETE, $585.88; BLACK HILLS ENERGY, UTILITY, $333.95; CAPITAL BUSINESS SYSTEMS INC, SERVICE CONTRACT, $126.75; CITY HALL FUND, DEPARTMENT OFFICE RENT, $1,225.00; CITY HEALTH FUND, HRA, $535.00; CITY REVENUE FUND, TOILET PAPER, $189.54; CITY TAX FUND, ELECTRIC SURPLUS & FRANCHISE, $39,167.00; CORE & MAIN LP, SCADAMETRICS METER DISPLAY, $13,507.38; CRETE AREA MEDICAL CENTER, DRUG SCREENING, $36.00; CRETE AUTO SUPPLY INC, WIRE KIT FOR NEW DUMP TRUCK, $662.77; EAKES OFFICE SOLUTIONS, PAID-DATE STAMP, $1,957.50; FAIRFIELD INN & SUITES, MEAN MEETING-TOM, $289.90; FASTSPRING, RENEW SOFTACTIVITY MONITOR, $217.98; FIBER PLATFORM LLC, ETHERNET INTERNET/PHONES, $391.53; JAY'S OIL CO, EQUIP MAINT, $15.00; KIDWELL, DUO ESSENTIAL SOFTWARE, $1,660.65; LINCOLN WINWATER WORKS CO, FC CLAMP 9.00-9.40 ODX12 LONG, $1,103.61; MAX WLKR UNIFORM & APPAREL, UNIFORMS, $174.59; NE PBLIC HLTH ENVRNMNTL LAB, LABS, $240.00; NEBRASKALAND TIRE INC, BACKHOE TIRES, $2,095.32; OLSSON, SCADA ON CALL CONSULTING, $826.32; OURADA, TOM, MEAN COMMITTEE MEETING, $32.90; SAPP BROS, INC, 7000 GAL DYED DIESEL, $57,210.87; SE MUNICIPAL SOLAR, ACTUAL MATERIAL/LABOR COSTS, $1,773.25; SID DILLON FORD, 2 TIRES REPLACE '13 FORD F550, $832.56; USABLUEBOOK, GLASS FIBER FILTER 47MM, $1,297.68; WASTE CONNECTIONS, UTILITY, $311.00; HUNZA LLC, UTILITY OVERPAYMENT, $677.90; MEAN , WHEELING EXPENSE, $762,146.21; QUADIENT LEASING, POSTAGE LEASE PMT, $329.43; UPS, POSTAGE, $11.65; CITY PAYROLL FUNDS, WAGES, $119,573.78; UTILITY FUNDS, SUBTOTAL, $1,142,349.09; CRETE LODGING LLC, SEMI ANNUAL PMT, $29,870.99; AKRS EQUIPMENT, REAR VIEW MIRROR, $112.50; AMAZON CAPITAL SERVICES, BOOKS, $1,512.95; BADGER BODY & TRUCK EQUIP, 1 TONE SALT SPREADER REPAIR, $542.00; BLACK HILLS ENERGY, UTILITY, $1,662.36; BULLDOG GARAGE DRS & OP, BLDG & GRND MAINT, $147.00; CAPITAL BUSINESS SYSMS INC, SERVICE CONTRACT, $676.67; CENGAGE LEARNING INC, BOOKS/MAGAZINES, $483.04; CENTER POINT LARGE PRINT, BOOKS/MAGAZINES, $250.50; CITY HALL FUND, DEPARTMENT OFFICE RENT, $375.00; CITY HEALTH FUND, HRA, $990.00; CITY TAX FUND , LIBRARY BOND PAYMENTS, $21,000.00; CORNHUSKER INTRNTNL TRCK, DUMPTRUCK PARTS -FIX OIL LEAK, $110.92; CRETE AREA MEDICAL CENTER, DRUG SCREENING, $71.00; CRETE AUTO SUPPLY INC, BRAKE CLEANER, $164.78; CRETE GLASS PROF LLC, SW DOOR REPLACED-CITY HALL, $4,685.00; EAKES OFFICE SOLUTIONS , FILE, VERTICAL 8 SECT, $146.20; ELECTRONIC CONTRACTING CO, VE AUDIO SYSTEM, $8,303.88; ENGINEERED CONTROLS INC, BLDG & GRND MAINT, $70.00; ENVIRO-TECH PEST SERVICES, PEST CONTROL, $105.00; FASTSPRING, RENEW SOFTACTIVITY MONITOR, $690.30; FIBER PLATFORM LLC, ETHERNET INTERNET/PHONES, $1,045.29; GRIFFIN, TRENTON, CONCRETE PAVING CONFERENCE, $18.00; HAWKS PLUMBING & HTNG LLC, FURNACE REPAIR - CITY HALL, $171.00; HOMETOWN LEASING , CNTRCT ADMN FEE & MNTHLY PYMNT, $155.12; JEO CONSULTING GROUP INC., CRETE HOUSING STUDY, $7,360.00; KIDWELL, DUO ESSENTIAL SOFTWARE, $5,151.78; LAWN KINGS, SNOW REMOVAL-MAIN ST SIDEWALKS, $725.00; LEAGUE OF NE MUNI, MEMBERSHIP DUES, $797.00; LIBRARY IDEAS, BOOKS/MAGAZINES, $769.34; MALY CONSTRUCTION INC, VETERANS WALL, $4,000.00; MARVIN PLNNING CNSTNTS INC, ZONING & SUBDIVISION REGS, $9,175.00; MATHESON TRI-GAS INC, OXYGEN, $214.83; MIDWEST ALARM SERVICES, INSPECT SERV 210 E 14TH, $390.00; MILFORD A/C & APPLIANCE INC., RADIANT HEATERS IN BAYS, $20,496.00; NEBRASKA MACHINERY CO, HYDRAULIC OIL-CAT LOADER #6, $245.98; NEBRASKALAND TIRE INC, TIRE REPAIR UNIT #16, $86.82; NIFCO MECHANICAL SYSTEMS LLC, ANNUAL FIRE SPRINKLER INSP., $387.00; ONE SOURCE BCKGRND CHECK, BACKGROUND CHECK, $154.00; OVERDRIVE INC, DEP ON ACCNT FOR CNTNT PRCHS, $2,000.00; PITNEY BOWES GLOBAL FIN, PD POSTAGE METER LEASE, $91.14; PRESTO-X, PEST CONTROL, $74.70; SCHINDLER ELEVATOR CORP, INSPECTION SERVICE , $403.32; SEEDLINGS BRAILLE BOOKS , YOUTH K-12 BOOKS, $568.50; SEWARD COUNTY INDEP, COMMITTEES, CMMSSNS & BRDS, $324.31; SID DILLON FORD, OIL CHANGE, $424.94; SIEDHOFF TOWING, TOWING, $200.00; SPRING CRK PRAIRIE ADBN CNTR, WINTER BIRDING PRESNTN, $50.00; TRANSUNION RISK & ALTERN, TLO MONTHLY CHARGES, $170.00; WASTE CONNECTIONS, UTILITY, $819.49; CANON FINANCIAL SERVICES, COPIER CONTRACT, $255.00; NE DEPT OF REVENUE, GAMING TAX OCT/NOV/DEC, $10,271.95; QUADIENT FINANCE USA INC , POSTAGE, $200.00; CITY PAYROLL FUNDS, WAGES, $140,340.41; TAX FUNDS, SUBTOTAL, $279,506.01; ALL FUNDS, TOTAL, $1,423,842.36 CR — February 11, 2026 ZNEZ
