It’s hard to comprehend that three years of my four year term has gone by. It must be true when they say, “Time goes fast when you are having fun.â€Â I must say that I have enjoyed these past three years. It has been educational, challenging, and sometimes frustrating being a part of county government. It’s truly been a learning experience.
We started off the new year with a new board member after Pat Bredenkamp decided not to run for another term. Jack Sikes, a 40-year retired police officer for the City of York, was elected to fill her district. Jack been very involved and has proven to be an outstanding member of the board.
With the six million dollar highway allocation bonds that were issued two years ago, many projects have been bid. Some have been completed and some are ongoing. Several asphalt overlay projects have been completed and eight fractural critical bridge projects are in the process of being replaced. Hopefully there will be funds left over to replace five or six more bridges and do other asphalt overlay projects where needed.
The Keystone XL Pipeline Project has been an issue for some time. A group called “Good Life Alliance†which consists of people who own land in the path of the pipeline, all in York County, have shown extreme opposition to the project They have drafted zoning rules and presented haul route agreements to the board of commissioners to be acted on. Until the project is approved on the Federal level, there probably will not be much formal action taken by the board at this time. In the meantime, the county comprehensive plan and zoning regulations are being updated and will probably receive formal action during the first few months of 2014.
Jack Sikes, commissioner; Brenda Cavo, county treasurer; Amanda Ring from the clerk’s office, and myself formulated the 2013-14 budget for York County. We had a valuation increase of 18%, mostly due to ag-land sales that brought York County’s valuation to 2.6 billion dollars. With that increase, we were able to drop the levy about 1 1/2 cents per $100 of valuation. The final levy was 28.2 cents/$100 valuation. A public hearing was held and the board unanimously approved the budget.
These are a few of the highlights of this past year. Since 2014 is again an election year, I will have to make a decision as to run for another four year term.
I think we have a board that works well together and will strive to make York County a good place to live and prosper. I look forward to continued service for District #3, York County, Nebraska.
Bill Bamesberger
