York County Press Release
YORK COUNTY – During the Primary Election in May, the majority of York County voters said yes to giving additional budget authority to the York County Historical Association.
However, the way the wording was on the ballot, the association was inadvertently not given the allowance to spend the additional budget authority.
This was explained this past week by the historical association’s Lauren Powell, as she met with the York County Commissioners.
As she explained – and as further addressed by York County Commissioner Andy Bowman who also is a member of the historical association board – there was miscommunication between the entity and the Nebraska Secretary of State’s office when the ballot language was being formulated, thereby creating the need for further ballot language and another appearance on a local ballot.
In other words, they cannot spend the additional budget authority until another measure is placed on the ballot and voted upon in the General Election in November. And until then, the association needs funds to pay rent and utilities for its location.
As the county no longer houses the historical association as it had for many decades, the association asked the county for a line of credit so they can continue to operate until the matter is resolved. The county had earlier asked the historical association to leave its original location because that space was needed by the county to further extend the space for District 5 Probation.
“This line of credit would help us bridge that gap,” Powell said.
“The clarity with the secretary of state’s office led to this,” Bowman said, noting the entity had already discussed the matter with a bank.
York County Commissioner Chairman Daniel Grotz noted how the $30,000 (in additional budget authority) is included in the preliminary budget for the 2026-27 fiscal year, but the budget will not be finalized until September. The line of credit would allow them to operate until the matter is cleared up in the November election.
Bowman noted how the historical association has been seeing a lot of visitation since its move to the new downtown location and the board’s reorganization. “The foot traffic continues to greatly increase and we are adding rapidly to the collection, but this has us running into difficulty here.”
“This would be a one-time gift,” Commissioner Randy Obermier noted. “I’m for helping them and unfortunately, this was a misunderstanding in the primary election. And they did move so we would have more room for the probation offices.”
All the commissioners voted in favor of the line of credit.
