Minutes

A meeting of the Ogallala Board of Health was called to order at 7:15 P.M. by Chairman Buck Bassett in the City of Ogallala Administration Building, 411 East Second Street, Ogallala, Nebraska. The meeting was convened in accordance with the Open Meetings Act. Members present: Buck Bassett and Dr. Paul Foy. Absent: Mary Lou Heelan, Dave Kling, and Dr. Kurt Johnson. Also present: Ogallala Police Department Code Enforcement Officer Eric Troxel and Lt. Rod Kolsrud as acting secretary.

Notice of the meeting was given in advance by publication in the Keith County News, the designated method of giving notice. Notice of the meeting was delivered to members of the Board of Health by hand delivery of an Ogallala Police Officer.

Public Forum: Bassett opened the public forum and invited any individual wishing to speak to the board to come to the podium. Bassett advised that the Public Forum would remain open for the duration of the public meeting.

The minutes for the March 17, 2009 meeting were not approved for lack of a quorum.

Dr. Johnson arrived at the meeting at 7:26 P.M.

Marion Kroeker and Jerri Cole were present, representing Keep Keith County Beautiful, and Kroeker gave a video slide presentation to the Board concerning several unsightly properties located along Highway 30 in Ogallala. Kroeker had driven around town on March 9 taking photos of the properties that were of concern and explained that it would benefit the City of Ogallala if the properties were cleaned up. Some the locations included vacant businesses and houses, buildings in need of repair or paint, properties with tall weeds or rubbish, and vehicles with flat tires. Kroeker said that the City of Ogallala had allocated $5000 to KKCB in order to assist with some of the cleanup projects and KKCB had chosen six of the locations where KKCB would assist the property owners or persons responsible with beautification efforts. Kroeker also asked the Board if the City Council could be approached regarding strengthening some of the City Ordinances including raising fines for non-compliance with some of the City Ordinances in this area. Dr. Foy suggested writing letters to the respective property owners voicing the concerns of KKCB, and urging the persons responsible for cleaning up their respective properties, and if the properties did show to be a health hazard and if steps were not taken to correct the violations, the properties may be torn down. Dr. Johnson inquired as to why some of the open businesses don’t make the effort to clean up their own properties themselves.

City Manager Harold Stewart was present and reported to the Board that the City had been approached by the EPA regarding chemical contamination on the property of Tip Top Cleaners. According to the EPA, the site had been tested several times and several attempts were made to identify the exact source of the contamination, but the exact source of the contamination still has not been positively identified. Each time the site was tested and a treatment tried, the next test would reveal that the contamination levels were basically the same as the previous tests and no real progress had been made. Dr. Johnson commented that this situation has been going on for at least 10 years. It was thought there may be another source of the contamination coming from a possibly forgotten or overlooked area. The owners of the property had contacted the City asking if the City would have any interest in purchasing the property. Stewart said that it was hoped that some federal stimulus money could help in purchasing the property and CRA and HUD would assist in cleaning up the property, possible demolition of the building, and sealing the contaminated areas in concrete to contain the possible sources of contamination. Stewart also said that the old Midwest Motel was another property that might possibly be considered for purchase by the City. Bassett commented that eliminating the problems of the chemical contamination in the area of Tip Top Cleaners would be a great move forward.

Officer Troxel presented the Code Enforcement Activity for February/April 2009.

Further discussion was held in regards to the Tim Chandler property located in the 200 Block of South Spruce Street. Troxel said that Mr. Chandler was supposed to be coming to Ogallala in the near future to see about plans to clean up his part of the property, and that Joe Roberts had been ill lately and unable to make a lot of progress in his area of responsibility. Troxel said although progress has been slow, there has been some progress made in cleaning up the property.

No further business to come before the Board, Dr. Foy made a motion to adjourn, seconded by Dr. Johnson. Voting Yes: Bassett, Foy, and Johnson. Voting No: None. Absent: Kling, and Heelan. Motion Carried.

Next Meeting is Tuesday, May 19, 2009.

Meeting adjourned at 8:07 P.M.

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Acting Secretary Rod Kolsrud