MINUTES CITY OF MILFORD SPECIAL MEETING MAY 19, 2016 A special meeting of the Mayor and City Council of the City of Milford, Nebraska was held at the Milford Fire Station, 612 First Street in said City on the 19th day of May 2016 at 5:30 pm. Present were: Mayor Bruha; Council members: Baker, Fortune, Heckman; Building Inspector Hoggins, Maintenance Supt. TeSelle, Chief of Police Siebken and City Clerk Hoggins. Absent: Council member Kral. Notice of the meeting was given in advance thereof by posting in three public places; a designated method for giving notice, as required by law. CALL TO ORDER: Mayor Bruha called the meeting to order. Nebraska Open Meetings Act requirement met. Discuss/Action – Water & Sewer Extensions to the new developments: Troy Johnston opened the discussion by reading the City of Milford Improvement Procedure of the Subdivision Regulations. Initially Thrive 405 thought that they could develop a portion of the ground without the lift station. The information that JEO provided at the May 3rd meeting reflected differently. The lift station will need to be installed right away. Baker asked what is the group asking for or wanting to know. Joe Schluckebier - based on what Dane presented the other night; they are asking the City to pay for the water and sewer so it’s readily available and the infrastructure is in place so it will service the entire subdivision. Fortune asked if the city would pay for the project would Thrive 405 be willing to reimburse the city for half the lift station thru lot sales. The group didn’t think it was there. Fortune mentioned for the record that we are talking over a million dollars’ worth of infrastructure. He also stated that this time next year we will have to ask the taxpayers of Milford to allow us to build a new City building. In looking at our bond indebtedness it may not make good fiscal sense for us to add another bond. We need to talk to our bonding agent; and then decide, being caretakers of city tax money, whether or not we are making the right decision by spending a million plus dollars on this infrastructure. I think we all want to see this project go thru; it’s just a ton of money. Dave Henke asked if Thrive 405 was just asking for water and sewer, and if they would take care of the streets and the lighting. Sean Kremer stated unless you want to throw that in, it’s not off the table. Heckman reiterated that typically the city’s requirement is to get the water and sewer to the development area. He contacted Lincoln and normally the developer pays for all the streets, water, everything, plus the lift station. He’s not saying this is the route we are going to go but this is the developer’s responsibility. We want this to be successful but we need to come to a mutual agreement. Joe Schluckebier stated that we cannot afford to sit on this type of ground at $10,700 an acre; you can’t make money farming it. We have a financial accountability and we have incentive to move forward. Joe’s had 7 soft commitments on the first 11 lots and they would like to get to phase 2. Troy Johnston explain how an Improvement District would work. The City would still have to make the commitment and would also basically act as the banker. All improvements are funneled through the City in terms of construction and then when everything is in place there is an assessment for each lot. Thrive 405 would have to pay the interest on that bond. If they fail on payments then the City would own the lots. Troy mentioned maybe the City can do this with just the water and sewer. Kremer stated the whole expansion of this town, at this point, pivots on one lift station. Baker agreed with Mr. Kremer. We have a development that will allow the community to grow; this is the only direction we can go. This whole project is based around this lift station. We can use revenue bonds or user fee bonds, it will reflect an increase in water/sewer bills but they will see a decrease because valuations will go up. The community will see a benefit, granted we need figure out a way to fund it. His concern is that Thrive 405 fund a portion of it. If you look at user fees for the whole project it would add $11.74 to the water and sewer bills. Fortune asked if he added the new well onto that figure. That would add another $7.00 for the well. Baker, we’ve got to do something! The entire community is facing the possibility of some big choices. Baker feels that this is probably one of the more important choices that we have to make because this is the reality. We’ve been talking about community growth for the last 5 years. Heckman asked if Thrive 405 has put together a plat or gathered estimates on the total project? They have some very rough numbers. Fortune mentioned again that we need to communicate with our bond counsel and if we are going to proceed with this project that we can hopefully use a general obligation bond and not burden the people with a monthly increase of $20.00 on water and sewer billings. Fortune – we need to keep the ball rolling and come to terms with this one way or the other. ADJOURNMENT: Meeting adjourned. Jeanne Hoggins, City Clerk Dean A. Bruha, Mayor MT — June 1, 2016
