Following the Seward Planning Commission’s recommendation, the Seward City Council on July 21 approved the redevelopment plan and use of Tax Incremental Financing for two fourplex apartment buildings to be built at Ninth and Lincoln streets.
Plans for construction of two fourplex apartment buildings at a cost of $1.08 million had been endorsed by the Seward Planning Commission for use of the city’s Tax Increment Financing program. The site is now vacant but the remainder of the block is apartment buildings.
The Plex Homes LLC project is the second TIF-funded project to be approved in the city’s Redevelopment Area 3, a 116-parcel, 14.5-block area north of downtown that Seward designated as “blighted and substandard” last summer.
The first Area 3 project approved was the fourplex now being constructed southeast of Third and Moffitt streets.
The Plex Homes project is expected to increase the property’s estimated assessed valuation to $1.08 million, which would generate an estimated $14,981 in annual property taxes as cited in the redevelopment plan amendment filed.
The current value of the property is $20,000 with generated taxes of $276 annually according to documents filed with the city. The difference between the current property taxes and those expected after completion will be used to repay the $131,000 tax increment financing loan for up to 15 years with interest.
Wastewater plans
approved
City Manager Greg Butcher also reported that the state has given final approval to the city’s new wastewater treatment plant plans, which will allow the city to go out for construction bids.
Butcher said the step is significant because the city wants to seek bids on the project as soon as possible to avoid inflation to further impact the project.
“Every month we add before we bid this and lock up final prices, we see the price going up,” Butcher said.
The wastewater project will be the city’s largest capital investment ever at an estimated cost of $50.5 million as of last summer.
The city has a 1.4 percent loan lined up to finance the project, and increased city wastewater use rates by 15 percent in anticipation of the payback needs
Butcher told councilmembers that NPPD had originally budgeted $1.5 billion for construction of its new power plant near Princeton, but that project has seen costs increase over the past three years to reach $3.1 billion.
E911 budget endorsed
Also at the meeting, the council approved the E911 budget for fiscal year 2026-27 which began July 1. The budget for the interlocal operation must also be approved by the city of Milford and Seward County.
The budget totals $1.07 million, which is higher than the 2025-26 fiscal year’s $920,950.
Director Mariá Scamehorn said when she came to the E911 operation a few years ago, the program’s Legacy Fund had about $300,000 in it, which she utilized for expenditures because it has to be depleted by a specific date. Most of that is now gone and some of the items that had been covered by that fund are now in E911’s budget.
In addition, the budget reflects the Seward County Board of Commissioners’ plans to increase county employee wages by 2 percent this year.
In other action at the July 21 meeting, the council:
• Approved a $4,778 change order on the construction contract with Maguire Iron for the water tower project, which City Engineer Mike Oneby would relocate conduits for fiber connections as well as standard lines and brings the total project cost to $3.3 million.
• Authorized an ordinance revising the city’s regulations providing people who are denied a permit to have exotic animals an appeals process.
• Met in executive session for 25 minutes to discuss real estate interests at the Seward Rail Campus.
