City council meetings set for tonight

A special and regular meeting of the Fremont City Council is scheduled for tonight.
The special meeting about the city’s budget is scheduled for 6 p.m. Jody Sanders, the director of finance for the city, will discuss budget backgrounds and trends.
“We’ve been gathering lots of information in regards to the budget,” Fremont Mayor Joey Spellerberg said. “We don’t get final valuations from the county until Aug. 20 and we’re also in the process of union negotiations so at this point there are a lot of moving parts in the budget.”
The mayor said there will be several more meetings before the city submits its budget to the state by the Sept. 20 deadline.
The Board of Equalization will meet at 7 p.m. followed by the regular meeting.
In unfinished business, the council will consider resolutions to approve the Fremont Technology Park preliminary and final plat.
“On July 19, the planning commission approved the revised drainage study and the re-plat,” Spellerberg said. “They voted 6-0 to recommend approval to the city council. The preliminary plat has been revised to show a larger drainage basin. The outlot has increased from 3.97 acres to 5.5 acres.”
Spellerberg said the lot depths on the eastern edge adjacent to the drainage basin have also increased.
In new business, the council will consider a resolution to approve insurance renewal coverage proposal for the 2021-22 pool year with the League Association of Risk Management (LARM).
“LARM is an insurance pool with other member Nebraska municipalities for general liability, errors and omissions, law enforcement liability, auto liability and commercial property,” the mayor said. “This is a grouping with other municipalities. It allows Fremont to receive a lot better coverage at a lot less cost than what we would do on the open market.”
The total cost for the renewal is $398, 301.
Ordinance 5583 is to establish rate schedules for the Natural Gas System.
“We’re actually going to hear from a consultant who will talk about our gas system at this meeting,” Spellerberg said.
The mayor said that after the polar vortex in February, officials looked at the city’s gas system and decided to initiate a cost of service study to make sure that the rates support the several capital improvement plans needed.
“To meet those needs, JK Energy Consulting was hired to do a cost of service study to determine how we keep our natural gas system up-to-date,” Spellerberg said.
JK made the recommendation for an average increase of 2.7 percent in overall rates.