Village of Brainard Board of Trustees
- Joel Vrbka, Chairman of the Board
- Jeff Karber, Board of Trustee
- Randy Robeson, Board of Trustee
- Tom Pesek, Board of Trustee
- Steve Hummel, Board of Trustee
The Village Board of Trustees meet on the third Monday of every month at 7:00 p.m. at City Hall located at 111 East Washington Street Brainard, NE. If you have a specific topic item you would like the Village of Brainard Board of Trustees to discuss, submit a Request for Future Agenda Items.
Village of Brainard Staff
Cory Burtman, Utilities Superintendent, 402-803-9218
Carla Sander, Village Treasurer, 402-545-2701
Yolanda Bailey, Village Clerk, 402-545-2701
The Village of Brainard
Board of Trustees Board Meeting Minutes
February 19, 2024
The Board of Trustees of the Village of Brainard held a regular meeting on February 19, 2024 at 7:00 P.M. at City Hall. The meeting notice and agenda were posted at three public places: City Hall, the Community Bulletin Board, and the Brainard Post Office. The agenda is kept current at the City Clerk’s Office and available for public inspection. This method is designated by the public body.
Chair Vrbka called the meeting to order with the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance and announced that a copy of the current Open Meetings Act was on display for public inspection.
Roll Call: present: Joel Vrbka, Steve Hummel, Jeff Karber, Randy Robeson, and Tom Pesek.
Staff present: Clerk Bailey, Treasurer Sander, and Utility Superintendent Burtman.
Guests included: Brian Foral, Elaine Fortik, Steve Benne, Valerie Vandenberg, Dan Osborne, Rick Meyers, Dave Foral
Business:
- a. Consider Topkote’s bid for street maintenance – Danny Osborn
- Mr. Osborne begins by handing out a bid with the current rates on street repair options. Discussion follows on which streets were done last year, and what was needed for this year. The board will approve an amount to spend, and the work details will be determined when they come and drive around to look at street conditions.
Motion made by Trustee Robeson to approve spending up to $20,000 on Blow-N-Seal, and up to $25,000 on Armor Coat with Topkote, Inc., seconded by Hummel.
Voting aye: Robeson, Hummel, Karber, Pesek, and Vrbka
Voting nay:
The motion carried.
- b. Discuss Softball concession stand zoning permit w/Valerie Vandenberg
- Discussion on the Zoning Permit for the new concession stand at the Ballfield. Further discussion on setback footage, and how a 25’ setback would conflict with the school’s future plans of building a track out there. The current permit shows 12 feet setback, which is comparable to the existing buildings at the field. The Ballfield improvements are being funded by the Softball program, as well as grants and fundraising.
Motion made by Trustee Robeson to approve the zoning permit, with setbacks based on other existing structures, seconded by Hummel.
Voting aye: Robeson, Hummel, Karber, Pesek, and Vrbka.
Voting nay:
The motion carried.
- c. Discuss Utility Meters and other info. From Dutton Lainsing w/Steve Benne
- Mr. Benne introduces the AMI Project, and the costs involved. As FCS is being phased out, the new system is called Tumetra. There are several one-time fees, and there are new hardware costs as well. This is detailed in the Dutton Lainson Co. proposal. This system will be a major upgrade in the way it delivers information to the town, and will be more efficient when it comes to meter-reading. There should be a 99% success rate on readings after this gets installed. There will be a monthly fee for the software in the amount of $444.00 per month. There will be a propagation study to start with. We would have a 20 week time frame to get the rest of the water meters in before this begins to be installed. We will be billed as things are installed.
Motion made by Trustee Vrbka to accept the Dutton Lainson Co. Proposal, seconded by Hummel.
Voting aye: Vrbka, Hummel, Karber, Pesek, and Robeson.
Voting nay:
The motion carried.
- d. Approve Ordinance #311 – setting wages for Seasonal employees
Motion made by Trustee Pesek to Introduce Ord. #311, seconded by Trustee Karber.
Voting age: Pesek, Karber, Robeson, Vrbka, and Hummel
Voting nay:
The motion carried.
The Ordinance is Read aloud by Trustee Vrbka
Motion made by Trustee Robeson to accept the reading, and waive the 2nd and 3rd readings, seconded by Karber .
Voting aye: Robeson, Karber, Hummel, Pesek, and Vrbka
Voting nay:
The motion carried.
Motion made by Trustee Vrbka to adopt Ordinance #311 seconded by Trustee Pesek.
Voting aye: Vrbka, Pesek, Hummel, Karber, and Robeson
Voting nay:
The motion carried.
- e. Discuss re-seeding City Park
- Discussion begins with a bid for re-seeding the park and installing a sprinkler system by Dave Foral, of LLLL Construction Group. Right now there are numerous bare spots and low spots around the park, with no grass. The idea is if we re-seeded the park and installed a sprinkler system, then the city park grass would be more resilient and inviting for residents. As the school uses the park quite a bit, Trustee Vrbka plans to approach them and ask if they would want to contribute to this upgrade. The bid includes fill dirt and grading, grass seed, and a sprinkler system for $9,325.00.
Motion made by Trustee Hummel to accept the bid by LLLL Construction Group to reseed the park, seconded by Robeson.
Voting aye: Hummel, Robeson, Karber, Pesek, and Vrbka
Voting nay:
The motion carried.
- f. Approve Ordinance #312, detailing Personnel Manual changes.
Motion made by Trustee Karber to introduce Ordinance #312, seconded by Trustee Hummel
Voting aye: Karber, Hummel, Robeson, Pesek, and Vrbka.
Voting nay:
The motion carried.
The Ordinance is Read aloud by Trustee Vrbka
Motion made by Trustee Hummel to accept the reading, and waive the 2nd and 3rd readings, seconded by Karber.
Voting aye: Hummel, Karber, Robeson, Pesek, and Vrbka
Voting nay:
The motion carried.
Motion made by Trustee Robeson to adopt Ordinance #312 seconded by Trustee Vrbka.
Voting aye: Robeson, Vrbka, Pesek, Hummel, and Karber
Voting nay:
The motion carried.
- g. Review draft copy of the Village Audit, and sign authorization if approved.
- The findings of the draft of the Audit were discussed. The main suggestions of the findings were that the staff is too small to have proper oversight, that there is not someone authorized to perform the audit here in the staff, and that there is some Fire Dept. issues to go over, which Neil Danberg will be reaching out about soon.
Motion made by Trustee Robeson to sign the authorization for the Audit, seconded by Hummel.
Voting aye: Robeson, Hummel, Karber, Pesek, and Vrbka
Voting nay:
The motion carried.
5. Approve January Minutes
Motion made by Trustee Karber to approve the January Minutes, seconded by Trustee Vrbka.
Voting aye: Karber, Vrbka, Hummel, and Robeson
Trustee Pesek abstains
Voting nay:
The motion carried.
6. Approve February Claims
Treasurer Sander notes there is a claim she just received which needs to be added: $1,200 for F & S Trenching, for help with snow removal.
Motion made by Trustee Karber to accept February claims with the one addition, seconded by Hummel.
Voting aye: Karber, Hummel, Robeson, Pesek, and Vrbka
Voting nay:
The motion carried.
7. Committee Reports:
Electric, Water, and Sewer:
Parks, pools & trees:
Trustee Vrbka reports on the Pool Committee Meeting. They met Feb. 15, 2024. The guards recommended a pay raise and a new refrigerator for this year. Discussion on the planned 50th anniversary celebration, and they are planning the weekend of July 6, 2024, as there are other things going on in town that weekend that would add to the festivities (Street Dance and Car show). They would like to have a midnight swim, an Alumni party and tour, possibly having fireworks from Pelans’. They are discussing a future pool upgrade, looking at grants and other fundraising ideas for this, and plan on kicking it off this summer. They plan on meeting every two weeks or so. The board is supportive of this effort. The update on the filter system is that Scott with Aquachem, the pump is there, and they are waiting until the weather warms up so they can safely turn on the water. Once that happens, it will take about a week to complete.
Trustee Pesek reports they are planning on getting 10 more trees this year.
(There was a quick recess here, as the power in the building went off.)
8. Employee Reports.
Clerk Report – Yolanda Bailey:
Cory’s work cell-phone has been changed over to Verizon, he received a new phone, and the service appears to be working better. We did have a shutoff this month, and the new system for after-hours worked well. Cory received a call from the resident, Cory called me at home, asking me to come to City Hall, meet-up with the resident and verify that they paid their bill, which I did, and then Cory went and turned the meter back on. This was around 4:00 pm. On February 5th.
Carla will be away from the office from March 18 – 27th, and I will be doing some training with her this month, in order to complete payroll, pay claims, and do other necessary Treasurer duties while she is gone. That timeframe is also when the Clerk Conference happens, which is in Columbus this year, therefore I will be commuting to the conference that week as well. The days of the conference are Wed – Fri, March 20-22, so the office will be closed, but I will check-in on emails and messages after returning from Columbus those days. (Note: post Cory’s number on the days office is closed.)
I have put the 1924 Clipper and the Minutes book from the same period on display in the meeting room, so folks can look at it and see what was happening 100 years ago. On the same note, I would like to organize the historical documents we have in the meeting room cabinets before the Butler Co. Historical Society meeting in May. I also plan to attend the meeting and ask those folks about ideas for storing and preserving these historical items.
Through the Clerks email service, it has come to our attention that the Garbage Service might not be taxable, and we are looking into this to see if we need to change our billing practices – as of right now, we do charge tax on Garbage. Further investigation is needed to determine this.
I put together a comprehensive list of our current Village Fees, which you have in your packets. Joel was noting we don’t have a set “towing fee”, which came up after the last snowfall, so the Board might want to consider setting a Resolution for this fee.
Finally, the Village Board and Staff plan on personally contributing to a memorial fund, in memory of Cory’s brother, Clay, who passed away unexpectedly last month. The funds will go to the CS Bank in Berryville, AR.
Treasurer Report: see attached
Maintenance Report:
Cory Burtman: Snow plow has gone to Kobza’s for auction. The new street broom should be here in 2 weeks. There was a letter from Kawasaki about the new mower, that there is a problem with the motor that has rendered it inoperable at this time. They are going to contact us with a plan for fixing it. Cory called the Mid NE Blasting co. about the sandblasting for the pool. He reports he put the liner in the new truck, after getting rid of some rust. There was an old lien on the new truck title, and that is being released and worked out. We need gravel for the alleys.
9. Petitions, Communications, Correspondence
10. Additional Business/Items for next meeting.
Resolution for fees
Trustee Robeson is wondering if the Sheriff’s dept. is working on nuisances in town. It appears they might start soon, as they have been short-staffed as of late.
Spark will be working on the City Hall electric problem tomorrow.
11. Adjourn
Motion made by Trustee Robeson to adjourn at 8:45 pm, seconded by Trustee Pesek.
Voting aye: Robeson, Pesek, Karber, Hummel, and Vrbka
Voting nay: none
The motion carried.