2026.

The time is 7 p.m.

This is an open meeting of the Grand Island City Council.

The City of Grand Island abides by the Open Meetings Act in conducting business.

A copy of the Open Meetings Act is displayed in the back of this room as required by state law.

The City Council may vote to go into closed session on any agenda item as allowed by state law.

Now I ask that you stand and join us in the Pledge of Allegiance.

And to the Republic for which it stands under with liberty and justice for all.

Present.

Councilmember Stelk will be absent.

Councilmember Connolly.

Present.

Councilmember Nickerson.

Present.

Councilmember Brown.

Present.

Councilmember Hossey.

Present.

Councilmember Mendoza.

Present.

Council President O'Neill.

Present.

Councilmember Lanfear.

Present.

And Mayor Steele.

Present.

Also present are Sonia Cisneros, the Deputy City Clerk.

Patrick Brown, the City Administrator, Stacey Nonhoff, the Assistant City Attorney, and Keith Kurtz, the public works director.

Individuals who have appropriate items for City Council consideration should complete the request for future agenda items form located at the information booth.

If the issue if the issue can be handled administratively without council action, notification will be provided.

If the item is scheduled for a meeting or study session, notification of the date will be given.

Council members, do you wish to remove any items from tonight's consent agenda?

Hearing none, we shall continue.

A sign-up sheet was available in the lobby for individuals wishing to provide input on any of tonight's agenda items.

If you did not sign up to speak on an agenda item, please come forward, state your name, and the agenda topic on which you will be speaking.

Suite 455, GI 68803 wish to speak on public hearings C.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I move we approve consent agenda items A through M.

And Mr.

Lanfair.

I said.

Any discussion.

Please vote.

Motion adopted.

Mrs.

Cisneros.

An application for a Class C liquor license was filed with the liquor council commission and received by the council on January 14th, 2026.

A notice to general public of date, time and place of hearing was published on January 31st, 2026.

A notice to applicant of date, time and place of hearing was mailed on January 14th, 2026, along with chapter CHAPTER Four City Code Alcoholic Beverages.

Departmental Reports are received as required by City Code.

And recommendation is to approve upon final inspection.

Public hearing is now open.

Would anybody like to speak on this item?

Um we have Luke.

This is a new property in Grand Island.

Um it's a five-floor limited service hotel.

The franchises of these properties now require us to get liquor licenses to have alcoholic beverages in the market areas.

That's the purpose for this application.

Um we have two other properties in town, Fairfield Inn and Candlewood Suites.

This would be no different than those licenses.

And we'll see if they have any after we take a ask for a motion.

Thank you, sir.

Mr.

Hawsey.

Thank you, Mayor.

I move to approve resolution 2026-36.

Mr.

Sheard.

Thank you.

I second.

Any discussion.

Please vote.

Motion adopted.

Public hearing 7B.

Public hearing on request from Amy Webster for conditional use permit to allow for a small RV campground site located at 1333 East Stalley Park Road.

Good evening, Mr.

Navity.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Um the item before you this evening is a request for a conditional use permit.

The property is zoned.

Ah, large lot reserved zone transitional agriculture within the transitional agriculture district.

And RV park is specifically called out as a permitted conditional use.

That does mean that it has to come before the city council for a public hearing.

And you can put conditions on that particular use.

They were in the memo and in the in the resolution that is attached if you choose to approve this.

Again, this is a permitted conditional use within the area.

The conditions that we have placed on this include limiting it to eight spots to include no storage of campers there other than on the R V pads.

The R V pads would have to be improved.

Concrete pads meeting the minimum requirements that is currently in city code for R V pads.

Doesn't mean it has to be all concrete.

You can have tracks for the wheels that are concreted and rock or dirt in between those, but you do have to have concrete pads and parking on site for each RV pad.

The intent is to hook these up to electric and have sewer hookups.

It would be septic system, they would have to meet all of the requirements for the septic system as required by the Department of Environmental Quality or Department of Water Water, Environment and Energy.

As would be required for a typical commercial development.

Now having seen the plans that Ms.

Webster submitted, she is showing substantially more trees than even that.

And you've got a copy of this in your application, and you can see the overall layout that she is proposing at this location.

And this is all in that northwest corner of that property, right across from the Fonnerview Golf Course.

Thank you, Mr.

Navity.

Public hearing is now open.

Can we get Jeffrey Edwards?

No.

Yeah, yeah.

But I thought I'd bring the this back up soon.

All right, thank you.

Good evening.

Good evening.

Jeffrey Edwards will live at 2109 East Dolly Park, which would be the first house.

As you go east down Stalley Park after you get through the uh what's been a cornfield the last several years.

I understand it's a conditional use permit.

We were made aware of it a week ago.

So we've had basically since I think we had an envelope put in our door last Monday.

So not a lot of time to study and figure out what exactly conditional use permit is, and whether you know an RV/slash trailer park, you know, is is legit to go into what I consider our small little neighborhood that's outside of city limits.

Um you know, one thing that I don't know has been taken into account.

You know, the comment was that they would be hooking up to or uh putting in wells for water usage.

Um the well right now that um that farmland there is irrigated, so when he's running his irrigation, the water in our lake goes way down, and obviously with the drought we've been in the last 12-18 months, you know, the water levels dropped quite a bit.

So I don't know.

I'm not a geographical expert or geologist, I guess would be the case.

Um, so I don't know what that's gonna do to further take those resources away from us.

So we're uh we're here tonight just to say I understand it's a conditional use permit that has to be approved by the city council, and we uh request that you do not approve it.

You know, just probably half a mile to the north on Stir Road.

I and I don't know how many lots there are on Fawned uh Park, but there's our already RV trailer access and use available in the same neighborhood, and I'd say probably 75% of the year when I drive by there, it's not even half full.

So it's not even a case where this is a need in our area.

So thank you.

Thank you.

So um Tasha Edwards, um, 2109 East Stalley Park Road.

Um I'm here a couple different reasons.

Um, you know, one of them is our our sandy beach area that we have there, everybody that's moved out there, moved out there for the privacy, for the peace, for not having businesses right next door, not having the the traffic coming in and out, not having neighbors, and for the safety.

Um we all know each other.

There's a lot of us women that are out there, we're home by ourselves during the day.

We all know each other, we watch out for each other and keep up with each other.

One of my biggest concerns, I I mean, the world is crazy these days, and we've got eight RV trailer park places that you know, and and she lists in the information like Jeff said that we received last week that they're gonna be short term.

So we're gonna have eight strangers multiple times moving in and out of this RV area, people that we don't know that there's no background checks for, you know, we've got the small lake behind our house that is accessible through that cornfield.

You know, how many of them are gonna be out exercising their horses and riding their horses and bringing them there and and over on our property and over on our land.

Um it's just like say for me it's a safety concern.

Um we have one other um um wife from our area that's here.

Nobody else is able to make it here because again, we just found out about this last Monday.

Everybody else had other things going on, but with the exception of one person in our sandy beach area, every single person in that area is against this happening, and we're all for local businesses, we're all for entrepreneurial ships and and people doing things that they're passionate about, but this is scary for us to have this there.

Um I think Mr.

Nabity said that it's 1700 feet from my front door, and and you know, again, we don't know who else there.

Um I guess the other part I would like to ask, you know, we were here a few months ago um with the planning commission when uh Mr.

Reezak that lives on the other side wanted to have his area rezoned for commercial for residential, and it was approved.

And you know, we now have um he now has plots.

I think there's four plots in there to have residential homes moved in there.

And all of us said then this is kind of the beginning of the end for our peace and quiet that we have out here.

And so we have a few months ago, we have those those were approved.

Now we're looking at an RV trailer park that um setting right down the road from us, and if it's approved, what's coming next?

You know, the whole purpose and the reason that we moved out there.

We're getting kind of I don't know, just a lot of things are coming in on it.

Um, you know, what's next?

Are we gonna have a subdivision right next door to us?

Um so I know I'm all for progress and everything, but also I just feel like that it should be taken into consideration the reason why we live in these houses that we live in, the reason why we moved to the area that we moved into, and the fact that things like this just keep taking away from what those reasons are.

So I would just like to ask you to consider that as you're deciding on whether you want to move forward with allowing this.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Anyone else I'd like to speak on this item?

If not.

Yeah, look at Amy Webster is here and just did not get signed in.

Okay, I apologize.

I thought I was on the No, you had to sorry, I was looking for you to sign to get you signed in.

Um, I'd like to thank you, Mayor and uh council members.

I am Amy Webster, and I live on the corner of Stirr and Stolly Park Road.

I live on the property full time.

My grandchildren visit regularly.

I keep my horses on this property.

It is my home.

It goes without saying that I agree with everyone here that safety is the utmost concerned and must be upheld and guarded at all times.

My values align with yours.

My values also align with the people I wish to cater to, offering a beautiful private, secure place to stay when they come to Grand Island.

These people that would be coming, I consider them to be my people.

Uh their families that come from rural settings that base their lives and their business and their hobbies around their farm life and their livestock.

I've traveled all over the country with horses and competed, and having a secure, safe place to stay with your family is of utmost importance, and having it close to the livestock, show cattle, horses, hogs, sheep, whatever you're hauling with your children and your family, being close to them is of utmost importance, and that is something just being at this property offers.

I'm just Kitty Corner from Fawner Park.

Um, so it's just dovetails, it dovetails in there very nicely to be accessible.

Um they're good people.

Um obviously, if they have livestock, they have a lot of work ethic, a lot of dedication to that lifestyle and that which they care about.

I'm only asking to put in eight spots.

Uh it's been I've worked on it extensively and planned it within the park.

I immediately talked to the NRD.

They've said a well will be just fine to go onto the property.

It's a low, low capacity well because it doesn't take a lot of water to maintain just eight spots.

Um I guess where I'm located right there, I think is fantastic because it's a peaceful place, but also gives them great access to the amenities of Grand Island.

When I drive through town, it seems like there is a motel on every corner and more being built all the time.

And there's some families that just for many personal reasons need to travel in a motorhome or prefer to travel in a camper and stay more as a unit unto themselves, and this answers that need.

There's very little opportunity to camp in Grand Island, and this is alternative to the Fawner Park facility where they're lined up on gravel.

There's not trees, there's not a picnic area, there's not space for families to stay, and that's more what I'm wanting to do is to be a little bit more upscale.

Um it's a sensible layout and design.

Uh I'm lining up quality construction, and yes, of course, I'm planning beautiful landscape.

Uh it is my backyard.

It's something that I will tend with a great deal of dedication and thoughtfulness.

Um, it's something I want to be proud of, and therefore the community and my neighbors around me can also be proud of it when they come by.

Um I have reached out to them uh with my phone number and offered to meet to answer any questions, to talk about it further.

Um I'd welcome, you know, any questions or concerns to be addressed from each of you.

Uh I have uh representative or a person that's my contact at DWEE, which is the Department of Water, Energy, and Environment.

Uh, Carrie Dunsing.

I have her number if you have any further uh questions or concerns about it.

I talked to her today, she said, absolutely.

Pass along her information.

You can reach out to her in Lincoln.

She's very well versed on what I need to do.

Um I guess that's all that I have to say.

I appreciate the opportunity to come tonight.

Um I guess I would like to add, we were talking about the 1700 feet between the park driveway and the first neighbor driveway.

There's four fence lines and a cornfield in between.

Until I took the letters around last week.

I didn't even know there was a lake over there.

I ride my horses there all the time.

I don't leave my property with my horses.

I don't plan on travelers really bringing their horses.

It's just a place to camp and stay, and I don't consider livestock rural families to be people that are threatening to our community by all means.

I live by the Nebraska State Fair, and these are people we just need to welcome.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Is there anyone else that would like to speak on this item?

If not, public hearing is now closed.

Council members, is there a motion?

Mr.

O'Neill.

I move the approve 256-37.

Mr.

Brown.

I second that motion.

Discussion.

Mr.

Hawsey.

Thank you, Mayor.

When I read the application, and I want to just make a couple of uh comments on it.

Uh I heard the words trailer park, but actually the application is for a campground.

And so there's a difference just in the connotation of what a trailer park is versus a campground.

Um the quarter mile between there's a a buffer fee, you know, the cornfield, and she mentioned the there is a buffer between that and the residential neighborhood.

Uh the application says it's an upscale and short term.

You know, and this so that's very, very different than what I think is a is a trailer park.

Uh it has a welcome and check-in building on it, it has a gazebo.

It's really nicely drawn out on what we're seeing.

And so I'm going to support the application.

Mr.

Nickerson.

I appreciate the opportunity to discuss this a little bit tonight.

I went about this thing kind of backwards, and I'm not sure why, but I actually looked at the concern letter first.

So when I got into it, I was saying, okay, here's the concerns of this RV park that's coming in.

I started reading through that, and I looked at the overhead view, uh, clear out, panned out clear to where Fawner Parks are at, and I'm thinking, so they're gonna put a big RV park in here.

So I think I can understand what's going on, understand some of the concerns, and then I started reading the application that said eight sites.

I thought, eight.

We're making all this fuss over eight sites.

And I looked at the layout just as you proposed, and I thought, you know what?

This thing looks like it's gonna fit just right.

And looking at your overhead view today, and I'm assuming what you had squared off there was about half of the property.

So it's not even the full property, not the full 4.3 acres.

Looks like they're using roughly half of that.

And it looks like it is laid out very nicely.

Miss Edwards alluded to some things that are that are very real with all of us today.

And the very first thing is change is scary.

It is always scary.

Where I live over around five points, I had beautiful open fields there.

Guess what?

They put up 24 duplexes, and I had a fit.

But you know what?

They fit in there beautifully and they look nice, and I can't wait till the others are finished and they're all done.

Change is scary across the field that I'm looking at.

They're gonna be building some homes over the next few years.

It will be just fine.

It will not be what I signed on for when I was there.

I had nice open fields, quiet areas.

It'll probably still be quiet, but it's different.

It's okay.

Change is inevitable.

And we need to be aware of that.

This is not a Mitchell Nickerson RV park where my uh water feature would probably be an inflatable swimming pool with some rubber ducks in there.

I think it's gonna be a little better than that.

I think they're gonna have a very nice nice aesthetically pleasing site.

That's gonna just enhance the area.

I don't see where it's going to harm it in any way whatsoever.

So change is scary, and I'm the first one to be uh in line with that.

Change is scary, but it's okay.

It's okay.

I went to Google and said, okay, are RV parks safe?

Are RV parks safe in rural areas?

Are RV parks safe here and there?

Started doing a little research.

And you know what they talked about?

Most of them, especially in the rural.

They're always worried about congestion.

They're worried about the noise.

They're worried about infrastructure.

They're worried about the overall appearance and how that'll affect property.

I see all these have been addressed within this proposal.

The congestion, we've got eight sites.

That's it, eight.

And they fit in there very nicely.

The noise?

They have electrical plugins, so you shouldn't be listening to any generators humming through the night.

The infrastructure will accommodate the water and the sewer and the things that need to be done there.

And the overall appearance is going to be as we stated aesthetically pleasing.

So I don't see any issues there.

The other thing is the buffer, as Chuck already alluded.

I drove out there today, and I just took a look at the property, and you got that whole big giant cornfield there between the properties.

And then as I drove down, you know what I saw at the very first property was a small RV.

I went to the next property, I saw a small enclosed trailer.

So see, they're already out there.

They're just not on it, they're just not on a campsite.

We already have those things out there, and some of those things probably won't be allowed on the RV park.

The enclosed trailer probably couldn't be stored there.

So I think overall, when we take a look at this, I think the proposal is just fine.

And the other thing to remember that a conditional use permit can be revoked if things aren't followed properly.

It doesn't mean it's going to be there forever.

I have no reason to believe it won't be successful, but it sounds like everything that the Websters want to put into it, uh, including the fencing and everything that goes with it.

The water feature fascinates me already because I think water features are cool.

I can't wait to see what that would be.

Uh but those are all good things, and it will actually enhance that corner more than it is today, which is just land.

It's just land.

And I know you like your land.

I know people love land, they like the openness, but I think the overall results are gonna be really good.

I have no objections to it because of the things that are already addressed, those things that are concerned from people about RV parks are addressed in this proposal tonight.

So I support that.

Mr.

O'Neill.

I I appreciate your concerns tonight, and I I understand why you're concerned.

Um I I live really close to this area, and I just want to share some of my experience with you too.

So you guys will be about 1,700 feet away from it.

I live less than 200 feet away from the one at Fawner.

So I'm very familiar with living near RV park.

And that one came in, I don't know, probably about 15 years ago, I think.

And I'll be honest, at the time I wasn't very excited about it coming over there.

That man, what is this gonna do?

Who's gonna be here?

I had a lot of those concerns.

Um living there for the next 15 years past that, I'll be honest, I've not had issues with it.

Um I've got to know some people in the RV community, and I know there's a big concern over these people are gonna be here for you know four or five days at a time.

Who are these strangers in my neighborhood?

I I get it.

I question that too.

Um I have some friends that are in the RV community, and uh what I realized is it takes a lot of money to RV, and what I found is there's usually a lot of very good people doing it.

I've learned there's a lot of retirees that are people during uh early retirement going to RVs, there's families in there.

Um I see it every day from my living room window, even, and I do not see a police presence there.

I do not hear noise issues, and I'm within 200 feet.

I know you're not excited about it, but we have not had issues really in our area.

Um, but I would expect if there are issues that they'd be reported to Amy, and if this is approved tonight, um, you know, if there are routine issues, this could come back up for review as well, too.

Um Mr.

Nabity, I know something was mentioned about the farm owner or the I I assume he was notified as well, too, correct?

Yes, yes, and um actually the owner of the property, the farm ground in between is Rick Johnson, um, who was here a couple weeks ago with his development there on gun barrel.

And while we were talking about that, I mentioned to him that I had received this application, and so I don't know what his feelings are, but he isn't here this evening.

Okay, thank you.

And I I just wanted to share what some of our experiences were, and I've talked to many of my neighbors out there as well, too, and um it has not really bothered people in our neighborhood.

We we personally have not had issues.

I I hope that you don't either, but um if you did have issues, I think there's a way to report them, and if there was a string of things happening, I think that things could come back to be revisited to you.

So Mr.

Connolly has a question.

He has a question to go.

My quick question is why you'll have to come up to the speakers or the microphones.

Sorry.

Just quick question.

Why were we not notified by the city that this was going to be an agenda item?

If obviously Mr.

Navity notified the farm owner, why didn't he notify the rest of us that are in the same area?

Fair question.

Um the requirement is to notify property owners within 200 feet.

So the property he's adjacent to this and uh almost a quarter mile long, so people on the other side of his property would not be notified.

And his notification was while I was talking to him about his other application, it was not a formal notification, it was an informal notification.

Mr.

Conley.

Uh this question was for Amy.

You'll have to come back up, sorry.

Simple question.

Just is this gonna be short term, or you're looking at like doing like a lease for like an annual lease?

No.

Okay to stay in a space.

Okay.

That's all I had.

That is in the that is in the conditions is the 180 days where that comes from is the definition of permanent residency.

That if you are a permanent resident and that's your permanent address, you are staying there 180 days primarily.

So it that's a very standard term in one of these.

All right, thank you.

Mr.

Sheard.

Thank you.

Uh couple things.

I completely understand the comments that you guys made and reading your letter, kind of like Mitch.

I thought, okay, this has got to be bad.

And I looked at it and kind of felt the same way Mitch did.

It's maybe not so bad.

But I do understand your worries that this leads to something else, and that gets closer and closer and closer.

And the gentleman that has the land between you and this has already turned one property into something else.

Uh unfortunately, we can't do anything to stop somebody from you know doing something within their rights.

But I understand that if it's this, then it's another thing and it's another thing.

But tonight it's this.

Uh we can't talk about what could happen down the line.

I don't like that we're making decisions for people that live outside city limits.

To me, that that does that that bothers me a little bit.

Um it's connected to city limits, it's within the jurisdiction for us, it's totally legal, and it's the way it is.

But I can understand that frustration as well.

Um I wish that you guys could get together.

You're all huddled over there.

Um there's some people between you that are interested in this area as well, uh, sitting out there.

Uh I wonder if you guys had more time to talk and explain things.

You know, I it's unfortunate that you haven't had time to sit and talk uh before it got to meeting each other tonight here and speaking to us.

Uh I'm a fan of people figuring things out by talking maybe over an ice lemonade.

Uh I hate that it comes to us.

Uh I think it's a neat project.

I like everything about it, uh, but it's not in my backyard.

So I understand the frustration.

Uh it is kind of unfortunate the way it's all going out.

So that's all I got to say.

Mr.

Nickerson.

And I just have a couple of questions for you on this TA zoning.

Yes.

According to and I didn't read it in detail, but when I was just looking at permitted uses, it said dwelling units was at the very first of things.

What what does that mean?

Dwelling it.

I know, but but what kind of houses, how many houses, what it in the TA zone, we allow one house per 20 acres, just like we do in the AG zone.

Okay.

Um a house is allowed as part of a farm.

Although if you own 80 acres, you can do a one-time split from that 80-acre tract.

If you own 25 acres and you have a house on it and it's been there 10 years, you can split that house off and build another one.

Um so it is really to limit the density of those houses because these are areas where we do not have sewer and water.

We're not ready to extend sewer and water, and it really is designed to limit that density so that someday we can grow through these areas when it's affordable to grow through them.

My second question is about the 200 foot notification rule.

I can understand in a city where things more dense and everybody's closer together, and how something I'm doing here can affect people in closer proximity.

It seems odd that that 200 foot rule applies even to a rural area such as this.

It does, and in the county it's 300 feet.

In the rural parts of the county, is the actual statutory distance.

Yes, you could.

So the number of letters that we would be sending would be extensive.

Well it's just difficult to have one size does not fit all, but that's what we've got to work with.

But that's what we've got to work with, and we do have we put a sign out on the property so that people who live in the area and drive by can see that there is a zoning action occurring that goes up at least 10 days prior to the meeting.

The and we also publish in the newspaper as required by law.

So if you're reading the public notices, you would know that.

Notification is always difficult.

Okay, very good.

Thank you, Chad.

Please vote.

Motion adopted.

7C public hearing on request from Industrial Tower West for conditional use permit for a telecommunications tower site located at 1231 Allen Drive, south of West 13th Street, south of Target, on the west side of Balsaman's pump and pantry.

Good evening.

Evening.

All right, like stated, um, the applicant is requesting a uh telecommunications tower um conditional use permit to allow for them to upgrade the indoor coverages for uh voice and and data.

Um the property is on general business and within the general business, the towers are not uh allowed outright and has to be approved by council.

They are proposing a 50-foot light pole tower, so it's it will it will be aesthetically pleasing, it will fit in into the to the uh neighborhood, and it should not stand out.

Um they have submitted all the documents required by our comprehensive plan and our zoning regulations.

They have they will also the location of this site being proposed will not hinder any of our existing easements that we have there.

Um we are also limiting the site to 50 feet that to include the antennas on on the towers as well.

Um we are also requesting that the site is upkept, um, no debris, all shrubs, and and um debris that to be off of the property.

Public hearing is now open, Mr.

Riha.

Thanks for shocking.

Thank you.

Um good evening, Mr.

Mayor City Council and administrators.

Um, like Washad said, uh it's a 50-foot aesthetic telecommunications light pole.

And do we have the um simulation picture in here?

Which kind of paints it a little bit better.

It's in that.

Yeah, there you go.

Thanks.

That's it.

Okay.

Like Rashad said.

We chose this here specific targeted area because we're pretty much halfway between our tower site at our Vera Wireless store on Capitol Avenue and two and 281.

And then to the south, uh we're we're equally distant from the uh Vera Wireless store by the Kohl's store.

And this is pretty much nicely centrally located, and as we all know, it's being well developed.

And we really need to improve our in-building coverage for not only data but also voice.

So thought about a monopole.

Uh, but I chose this one because we don't have one here yet in Grand Island.

I have one in North Platte by the high school.

Um top is the is where the concealed antennas will be down below.

Uh we're gonna match our security wall fence, whatever you want to call it, with uh Bosselman's uh garbage uh can area, and it'll probably more or less be painted differently while kind of make it a little bit more aesthetically pleasing.

Um inside that uh concrete block wall decorative concrete block wall will obviously be the pole uh an outdoor cabinet to store the radio equipment, and um I want to say uh there's going to be a light apparatus extending toward Bosselman's garbage area because there's not a light out there yet there to the north.

So uh we really I really like this location.

Uh I like the type of improvement, I like the development in the area that's gonna fit well, and uh be more than glad to take any questions or concerns.

Is there any is there anyone else that would like to speak on this item?

If not, public hearing is now closed, Mr.

O'Neill.

I move we approve 2026-38, Mr.

Conley.

I'll second that motion.

Any discussion, Mr.

Nickerson?

Just out of curiosity.

This being a 50-foot tower, how does that compare in height to the monopole gun uh capital area?

What's that height?

Just out of curiosity.

Okay.

Um our pole on 281 and Capitol Avenue at a retail store.

Is that what you're referring to?

Yeah.

I want to say that's about a 50-foot or two.

Okay.

Yeah.

I call that one a pipe because it's got a bigger, thicker diameter.

I remember when we were discussing that, and there was a little concern from one of our council members afterward, he thought it didn't look like he expected it to, and I thought it looked just great, but I mean everybody in their minds eye things look different.

And this one's even different than that one.

Oh, yeah.

So, yeah, obviously it serves the purpose we need it.

I was just curious height-wise, so they're about comparable in height, it appears.

Okay, very good.

Thanks.

Good.

Please vote.

Motion adopted ordinance number one zero zero six two.

Consideration of approving changes to chapter 15 of city code involving electric utility commercial deposits.

Second and final reading.

Is there a motion to suspend the statutory rules?

Mr.

Hawsey.

Thank you, Mayor.

I move that the we suspend the rules.

And Mr.

Brown.

I second that motion.

Any discussion.

Please vote.

Please vote.

Motion adopted.

Mr.

Schmidt, please tell us what this is about.

Yes, so this is a slight revision from the last time through where this would restrict the changes to any customer that's over one uh thousand KW in demand or greater.

Um, I have a short uh PowerPoint to give a little bit of background because I feel that's necessary to understand.

Um I feel my duty is to protect the ratepayers and bring things forward as I see them, and whether you guys find it fit or not is up to you.

I have no dog in the race, but I wanted to bring this forward.

And so, and I also apologize for being what stands behind people seeing the end of the Nebraska game and not so um so a little uh history.

Um deposits in Grand Island.

Um the near earliest language goes back to 1964.

So from 1964 to 1980, um, the maximum deposit allowed on the books was two times the monthly bill.

Now in 1964, they also established a normal rate, which for residential was uh $10, trailers was $25, commercial was $50, and they had a another tier two.

It's it's slipping off my mind right now.

And that existed up until 1980.

So in 1980, they revised the deposit language to be just commercial.

So from 1980 to 1933, the book said deposits were just commercial up to two times the monthly bill.

1983 is when the language was revised to what it says today, which is capped at $2,000.

Now, although we're talking about deposits, it's also necessary to understand the late fee and collection side of things to really grasp what's going on.

From 1906 to 1962, there was a thing called forfeited discounts, which was always strange to me because if you look when I started account 450, FERC account 450 was for late fees.

Well, the the accounts called forfeited discounts.

Well, that goes back to 1906, and at those times they gave you a 10% discount on your bill if you paid within 10 days of the bill going out.

And so that existed on the books up until 1962.

That's where we can verify.

There's likely it went longer.

I um that's where we lose track of it.

1989, the language changed to $2 plus 1% of the bill.

That was the late fee.

And that existed all the way up until 200 or 2022, which is what it is today, a 3% of your bill.

Um collections.

So pulled some numbers from 2025.

Um we had 9800 stop and transfer requests.

Of those, about 9.8% end up in collections throughout the year.

So that amounts to about 953 accounts in 2025.

Um we sent 275,000 to collections.

Um collection company was able to recoup 27,000 to date, um, which is 10% of what was turned in, and $6,800 of what was recouped or 25% we paid back to the collection company.

So that's a total realized loss of $254,800 approximately.

So commercial deposits, uh, this is kind of how, and I'm sorry, I didn't I should have had this.

Um I didn't realize I didn't have it on the full.

There you go.

I'm sorry.

Um, most other cities have gone to two times the max on on deposits.

And again, we're not asking that here tonight, but it's it's important to understand.

Grand Island's $2,000.

Lincoln's an anomaly, they do not charge a deposit up front, but once you're delinquent, then you're you're on the books for a deposit.

And Fremont has language that allows them to exceed $500 once you're delinquent as well.

The holding time for the other cities, a couple are life of the account, many are four years, there's a couple two years, we have we're one year.

And again, Lincoln changes once you're delinquent.

The average monthly bill by customer class is approximately $82 for residential, 112 for small commercial, which would be your single phase.

Um, large commercial $733, and industrial is north of $20,000.

Um again, this language is not being requested tonight, but just to give context, um, a deposit greater than $2,000 of which customers would fall into that request requirement.

Um there'd be zero residential, nine of our $2,340 small commercial would have fit that.

Um 358 out of 2178 large commercial, and pretty much all of our industrials.

Um number of accounts with greater than 1,000 KW of demand.

So to put KW in perspective, the average residential customer uses about a thousand kilowatt hours a month, plus or minus.

So now think of all the energy used in your house for the entire month used all at once for 30 minutes minimum.

That's a thousand KW.

So that's a lot of power.

Um, the peak load in Grand Island today was 92 megawatts.

So that's about 1.1% of the total city draw is 1,000 KW.

So that's what we're that's the threshold we're asking for here tonight.

So industrials that would affect now again, we're not asking to put this on any existing customers, this would be new customers.

Um if it were to be put on existing customers, it would affect eight industrial counts and zero commercial and zero residential, just to give context.

So if you put a CPI adjustment on what was the changes made, so 1980, again, it was two times your monthly bill.

We equated that to 2,000 for the graph.

That's why you see a flat line at the top until 83.

So that $2,000 in today's money would be $6200 approximately.

And you can see as time has gone on, the value of that money trends down until today, what would be $2,000 today.

And just to give context on the risk of big entities and delinquent payments, a company the size of JBS, if they were to default on two payments, which is when we do shutoffs, that would equate to one and a half percent rate increase across the entire rate base.

One thing to notice is the amount of delinquencies isn't greatly increasing the count, but the amount does.

You see a jump on commercial in 2022 to 2023, and a part of that is the change in how we assess late fees.

It was $2 plus 1%.

We change it to 3%.

So on top of that, in the last three years, we've also seen it continue to increase, and most of that is part of what I'm here today for is seeing increased usage, electric usage in all commercial and industrial continues to go up.

The loads that are coming in and asking to locate in Grand Island, many of which you don't hear about.

They continue to circulate are large loads.

This the bottom graph is really residential, but the top is just a late fee.

Um picture of what others are doing for late fees.

So many others have a minimum on their late fees.

We have no minimum, and our ask is three percent for any late fee assessments.

Now this this was an interesting graph.

I wanted to bring this forward.

So this was done by a company called High Radius.

Um, but it was the data's from 2023, but it I found it still pertinent.

So the top is your bad debt divided by residential sales, and the bottom is bad debt divided by commercial and industrial sales.

And what they found was across all industries, 0.16 was an average performer.

And so the blue line you can see on each graph is where that 0.16.

They further uh got granular and broke it down to the utility sector.

And so in 2022, the second year of their data set, it was 0.41%.

And so that's the green line on each graph.

And you can see that in residential, we've exceeded that for some time.

Commercial, we are are starting to exceed that as well.

Again, we're not asking to do anything tonight.

I'm just want to show you the whole picture.

And I put the orange line in.

So the vertical orange line was the last time deposits were brought to council in 2018.

And so that was the trend line coming in, and you can see what's gone on at that time.

It was decided to stay status quo on deposits, and and so again, we're just continuing to watch this.

This is we're not asking for action on this tonight.

And then the last thing, one thing so people understand, there might be one more slide, is in the text at the top is very small, but it from left to right, it's Grand Island, MPPD, OPPD, LES, Fremont, and Southern Power.

And this is our shutoff schedule.

So the yellow box, which I know it's hard to read, but the yellow box designates at what point in the process we issue a shutoff order.

So Grand Island actually doesn't issue a shutoff order until after the second delinquent or the second bill is delinquent.

Then they'll issue a shutoff order, and a lot of times by the time that order is issued, you're only five or six days from the third bill going out.

So that's why we discussed two times your monthly bill as a deposit.

Now I could be wrong, but I believe the only state statute is seven days notice before shutoff.

I think the rest of the schedule is self-governing as far as how we go about it.

Um but you can tell, so the middle, the only one that's more lenient than Grand Island is LES, they're the middle column.

Um, and the most restrictive is Southern Power who issues a shutoff notice before the second bill goes out the door.

So those are the extremes.

And so just last on delinquent accounts, if if anybody's wandering, 91% of our delinquents are residential, 8.7% of commercial.

Of our shutoffs issued, 93.8% were residential, and 6.7 were commercial.

And as you would guess, industrial, very rarely you ever have a shutoff order and industrial, they have a lot to lose.

So with that said, again, the what we're asking for tonight is just to allow deposits of two times usage, two times a monthly bill on a thousand KW or more.

So your entire monthly bill of your house can pack it into a half hour.

Um and then two years, they can have one late payment in two years, and then they get their money back.

And then on contracts, so on contract customers, which only affect code generation, interruptible and economic rates to lock that payment in for the life of the contract.

And a lot of the ones who are making these big down payments prefer a surety bond or irrevocable letter of credit, which are allowed many other places, so that's the fourth item to allow that.

And again, I just want to finish by saying I I don't have a dog in the fight.

I understand all sides of this.

I just wanted to paint some context.

I'm open to the dialogue, and uh I'll leave it at that.

Thank you, Mr.

O'Neill.

I move that we approve 10,062.

Mr.

Shear, I'll second that discussion.

Mr.

Hawsey.

Thank you, Mayor, and thank you, Ryan.

I think uh at the last meeting, this information would have been helpful as well.

And I appreciate you bringing it back.

Because what the information that our annual reports show, um we have had pretty consistently at 154, 221, 198,000 per year in uncollectible accounts.

That's what your financials show.

And it's been pretty consistent, right around three-tenths of one percent.

You know, so for every hundred dollars you bill in total, it doesn't break it down like you were breaking it down, but in total, for every hundred dollars you bill, we are we don't able to collect about 30 cents.

You know, and that's probably I think you were talking maybe 16 cents versus the 30.

I'm not sure where that number is.

Um, but it's been consistent, and it's not it doesn't show the same upward increases as your charts were.

You know, these are off the last three annual reports.

So uh when I was looking at this initially, um, I didn't see any risk outside of the new contract people you have.

Uh so the utility department has started to have, and I can't remember, is there three contract um vendors?

Yes, there's three out three different buckets.

Yeah, so with the three of the contract vendors who are gonna be high energy, I mean, like use a lot of electricity.

Um those those things they're already paying less probably than I am, you know, for my residential rate per kilowatt hour.

So I think that our risk tolerance can be built into the contract.

If they're a risky person, I want to see those contracts account for the risk factor.

You know, and I really and I think they need to be covering their own risk.

I don't want the other 3,000 commercial or the 20,000 residentials covering the risk of a contract.

You know, like if that person comes in with a high energy, we'll just say an AI, you know, data farm.

You know, I I don't want the rest of the community to take over responsibility for the risk there.

So I think that's where I was looking at, and I didn't see any large movements in in bad debt or uncollectible accounts, and so I thought that everything was looking pretty pretty stable.

Uh, we do have the late fee surcharge, which generally covers most uh I have can't find those numbers, so I don't know what they are, uh how much money we actually collect, but it should cover the cost of collection and some maybe some of the uh bad debt, but we also have a certain amount of bad debts is built already built into the rate structure.

So when you do rate studies and you say, here's how what it's gonna be, bad debt is a part of every business's rate, you know.

Um Walmart probably has you know 10 times this in shoplifting alone, you know.

So what I'm saying is that you can't shoplift electricity, a little hard to carry it with you, you know.

And so we have a very low bad debt.

And uh I think maybe what your chart showed, you know, is that it's getting worse.

You know, maybe it's increasing a little bit.

Um the historical side, the residential, uh we we didn't use to pay interest on deposits, and then all of a sudden we were required to pay interest on deposits.

Our residential deposits, and we had thousands and thousands of them, they were all like 25 bucks.

And it was costing us more than 25 dollars to manage the 25 every time they moved.

You know, so we were spending more than the deposit.

So that's why we got rid of residential, because it wasn't you're either gonna have to collect 200 or 300, you know, for a residential, or you get out of the business.

Just take on the risk, and that is what it is.

And so it was the cost of us and mean you know, managing the multitude of deposits.

That's what caused us to get out of the residential deposit business.

And since then, we you know we stopped paying interest on deposits here a while back.

Uh, although I found it interesting that we still have ten thousand dollars in deposit interest payable at the end of our last year.

You know, so I I would suggest pay it back, you know, give pay the interest back, you know, on the deposit interest payable.

We shouldn't still be sitting on that, even if they're an existing customer.

Um but that's what I was looking at.

Or when it gets to an uncollectible account, I don't know what the time period is.

It's not one year.

We don't write them off at a year.

I think it's 90 days, 80 percent of the account after 90 days.

And 24 gives a bad example because we paused everything with collections because we switched billing systems.

So there was a there was a lift in uncollectible accounts in 24.

Yeah, and that was yeah, so the 24 was kind of an anomaly in the trend because of that situation.

Yeah, so by you're talking about right now the thousand KV or demand are greater.

That limits the number of customers who would actually this would apply to.

My biggest concern was I didn't want to have it detrimental for a business who wants to come to Grand Island to start up if they all of a sudden they have to have a thousand dollar deposit or a two thousand or a ten thousand, whatever it is, depending on what kind of business it is and how much electrical, you know, what their electric usage is.

If it's just a retail store, it's probably not going to be very high.

But if you're a little manufacturer and you might actually use a lot of electricity, it could be insurmountable to you know, and not want to come to Grand Island because they couldn't afford the deposit.

Now, I do like the other alternative forms that that you have there, you know.

And so those those are options, I think, for the businesses.

And so I I'm glad you you brought it, brought it up here.

Uh I wished I'd have seen it before the meeting.

You know, that's putting it together today.

So, but see that's what I was looking for because the things that I was looking at is we weren't bad.

We don't have any major problems brewing that I can see from an annual financial report.

And I don't want the existing customers paying the risk factor or the risk part of these new contract employees that use a lot of electricity.

And so I want them to pay whatever that risk factor is, because I'm not sure these contract customers, I'm not sure if they're good or bad for Grand Island yet.

Uh I know they use a lot of electricity, they pay us a lot of money, but I'm guessing it's not going to drive anybody, any customers' bills down.

You know, and if it's not going to benefit the current 20,000 residential customers or the current 3,000 commercial customers, who's it benefiting?

And then what I see is that maybe the demand, all of a sudden we have to build another gas turbine or buy another gas turbine or do something else to provide more electricity, then everybody's paying.

You know, and I don't want everybody to start paying this risk factor.

So that's all my concern was, and I think you've addressed most of it, Ryan.

So I appreciate the information.

I was gonna I'll add that um behind the scenes we've had loads comparable to the status center that have come in, and they they could easily locate on a class 100 rate if they wanted to.

And so that would again expose us to a $2,000 deposit on an entity that might draw a load comparable to SWIFT or in that next year.

So I I guess the my whole point was here the future is much different than the past on the demand for energy.

And you hear it, you read any news article, you're gonna see that.

And so something like this at least puts a line in the sand that says, hey, anything that's getting above this size, we're gonna protect ourselves.

And most of these companies, once they get to that size, they understand.

In fact, they're surprised if they don't have to.

You know, it's not it's not even a conversation point when you're doing people are dealing with sometimes hundreds of millions of dollars of revenue.

So thank you, Ryan.

Mr.

Nickerson.

You know, thank you, Ryan, for helping clarify a lot of this.

I know you answered some questions for me a couple of weeks ago, which helped me because I had some similar concerns that Chuck had, especially with new people or trying to push people out that might already have an account.

We're not asking anybody that's currently has an account to do this, it's the new customers that you were uh referencing.

My question is a little different, and I might engage Stacey on this as well.

And we're we've been talking about shutoff, so that's why we're segueing into the shutoff part of it.

What process do we have?

We don't we don't have a process in place anymore as we did a couple years ago to notify landlords when a tenant is in shut-off status.

And there are reasons for that that I don't always understand.

I understand why we probably can't do what we were doing, but I don't understand why we can't do something different than we're doing, because we do have a dog in the fight at that point.

Uh if a tenant is in shutoff status and the landlord does not know, they can walk out the door.

We don't know.

And when it's 10 below zero, shut off electricity, and then we have no heat to that house, and then we have the risk of frozen pipes.

What do we do about that?

How in the world are we addressing that?

I know maybe the loss is we don't have to do that anymore, can't do that anymore.

But why would we not want to have a secondary for your to your point secondary source that can pay that bill, which I have on more than one occasion and got reimbursed later from a tenant to make sure that wasn't shut off.

So I'm after where are we with that whole thing?

Can we do anything?

I know Brian was working on that when he was employed with us, but we didn't get anywhere that I know of.

I'm just kind of curious where we're at with that whole thing.

Is it even possible to do, or is it landlords at risk in that situation?

Um if the landlord doesn't put the utilities in their own name, that's at their risk if it is in the tenant's name, that utility account.

By many statutes, we don't give up that information.

We can't give that information to police departments, they have to ask for subpoenas to get even the name of who owns an account at an address.

So that is like highly, highly protected information.

So asking utilities to tell a landlord that their tenant is in shutoff status when that account is not in the landlord's name, it is in the tenant's name would be violating state law.

And is that because we're municipality?

No, that's just that's across the state.

That's state law, not municipality.

It's any utility.

I differ with you on that.

When I have a tenant that's in shutoff status with the gas bill, guess who gets noticed?

Notified.

I do.

I get notified.

Gas bills, gas bills and electric bills have different rules.

Electric has its own set of rules and state statute.

So that's a utility, an electric utility, they have their own set of rules.

By those rules, we cannot give out account information to anybody who is not an account holder.

So if you are not listed as an account holder, we cannot give you any information on that.

Is there anything in the setup of an account where a landlord would be put in as a co not resident?

Obviously, I'm not in the legal side.

Um in the software itself, it can push out text notifications and email notifications.

I think what people find is text are best because you look at that.

But from my understanding is the customer has to request that.

You can't just sign them up for that.

I thought that was there was some legal I I don't know all the the ins and outs of that.

But I know it's a it's a function that you can send out a text, you can send out an email, and they do do that for people who are signed up and on the shut-off list, but it only goes to the person on the account right now, from what I from what I understand.

Yeah, so my question would be as a landlord, do I sign up as a secondary account holder in that case?

And can both be a notified or is just one get notified?

Is there a primary, secondary?

Can you let them both know?

Because in Colorado Springs, I'm set up very similar to my house there to where I'm notified.

I'm notified if the water usage seems to be high.

I'm notified by that.

Uh so it's happening somewhere.

It's it's done.

Uh I just don't know why we don't do it here.

And I know what we did in the past, we shouldn't have been doing.

I used to get phone calls, which I was I hated to see that call because I knew somebody's going to get shut off, but I was glad to get the call because I could make a call and we could get it taken care of.

It's not, it's just not, it puts the landlords at risk, and I'm looking for a way to keep the landlords from being at risk in these situations in the extreme weather events, mostly in the winter.

You know, you don't have air conditioning, turn on a fan for a while.

But when the pipes are about to freeze, you got a lot bigger problems on your hands.

And that's what I'm hoping we can somehow figure out a way.

Could you have joint account holders?

Something I can poke at deeper.

But that's it's a real situation that we have here in town.

Looks like Stacey had something else to add.

Um just trying to bring that back in because what you're talking about is off topic of what Ryan had presented.

Um if that isn't a topic that you want to continue to address about residential, because this is not residential, this is commercial, this has to deal with deposit.

What you want to talk about, um, you need to get in touch with city legal, and we can start looking at it for you, but we have to bring it back to the topic.

I understand, but we were talking about shutoff, so that escape segued me into that.

So I understand what our topic is tonight and support it.

All righty, thank you.

Please vote.

Motion adopted.

Thank you.

We are adjourned.