The Kearney City Council met on October 14, 2025, at 5:30 p.m. in City Council Chambers. The meeting included routine business, nine public hearings, a consent agenda of 13 items, and three regular agenda items. Key actions included approval of tax increment financing for a restaurant project, adoption of new traffic regulations for bicycles, e-bikes, scooters, ATVs, and golf carts, and an open account claim to the University of Nebraska at Kearney (UNK).
All right, now please join us for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. And to the Republic for which is stands one nation. All right. In accordance with section. Okay. In accordance with section eighty-four fourteen twelve of the Nebraska revised statutes a current copy of the Open Meetings Act is available for review and posted on the wall of the council chambers. Peggy, please take roll. Mayor Nicolas. Here. Bush Cutter. Moore. Here. Schmidt. Stratman. Here. Okay. At this time we have a great uh opening item. We're gonna invite Chief Kowalik and uh Officer Zach Schwartz and our newest police canine officer of Cuba, who will be administered the oath of office after a few remarks from Chief Kowalik. Schwartz, Kuba, if you guys want to come on in here. All right, it's exciting day today for Cuba named KPD. Um gets to get sworn in today as an official member of KPD and surrounded by friends and family. Stacey, thank you for being here. Colt, uh Easton, I know uh he's part of family now, Cuba is. Uh tell you a little bit about him. Uh he is a Dutch shepherd that uh was born in Czechoslovakia. Wow. Uh he was trained uh by a police officer of Czechoslovakia, uh, where he was then taken to uh Blue Street Canine Kennel in uh Arkansas. We went down and selected him. Uh we always want to get the right dog and the right handler. We know for a fact that we have the right handler and officer Schwartz, as well as Officer Allstrom, they do very good work with their canines. Officer Schwartz had a prior dog with Murphy. Uh it was an actual home run, did a lot of great things for the city of Kearney, and we know that Cuba is gonna do the same thing. So uh we we got Kuba, took him to a 16-week school, Nebraska State Patrol, where he's certified in narcotics uh detection, also apprehension, suspect apprehension, did very well. They train in uh they look at things like courage, uh drive, and this dog tested very high in those areas, and since uh he actually got a certification. We've gotten a back and they have several call-outs where UBA has located methamphetamine, other drugs in our community, keep our community safe. Also has done some suspect apprehension, which is very well-trained dog. And uh Officer Schwartz, like I said, he's proven uh KPD, you always want to get the right officers and the right canines. Um we believe CUBA is that right canine. These guys make an excellent PSD team, which is a police service dog team made up of a handler and uh a canine. They have great bonds, they live together, they work together, um and it's it's a great thing to see. It's a great thing for our community. We have such great community support here. It's awesome to see and with uh Cuba uh proving themselves. Uh we thought it was time to officially certify Cuba and make him a member of the Carnegie Police Department. Thank you. Okay. What's that? They're gonna actually swear them in. Perfect.