Council debates future of Imperial light dam

    While no decisions were made, Imperial city council members are looking into the pluses and minuses of selling the light dam section the city owns southwest of Imperial.
    Clerk/Administrator Jo Leyland brought the subject up at Monday’s council meeting, after listing it for discussion on the agenda.
    With the lake dried up and her belief the water won’t return, Leyland said that area is “not being used for anything good anymore.”
    She took Imperial’s summer interns to the area last year to look it over.
    “The spillway is just a canvas for awful things and there’s plenty of that out there,” she said. “It’s a blight on the city.”
    She saw shell casings in the spillway and said a neighbor reported a shot from the area that came close to him.
    For decades, the city has leased the ground for grazing. Current lease-holder Scott Clements pays $8,000/year for that lease, which expires in May.
    City Attorney Josh Wendell, who spoke with the group via zoom, said there is broad discretion on how the city could sell the property, but there are a lot of hoops to go through in doing that.
    He is going to research the city’s options, as well as whether it can be sold while the city maintains the surface water rights to the property, the latter requested by some council members.
    Council President Charlesa Kline said the area has been taken advantage of, but added the city is guaranteed the annual lease payment each year.
    She said she’s uncertain whether there is urgency in making a decision right away.
    “I’m not sure there is a right or wrong answer,” she said.
    If there was a way to deter the traffic there, she said it would leave a place for youths to go.
    Council member Chad Yaw asked whether building a parking area there would help deter people from driving into the section.
    Public Works Supt. Pat Davison confirmed the city does have the surface water rights.
    “Water is a valuable resource, and who knows in 10 years?” he said.
    Wendell said one of the first actions the council would need to take if they decide to sell it is to declare the property surplus. Two of the options for selling are by live auction or listing it with a realtor.    
    Nothing was decided Monday other than to have some additional research done.
    The light dam section, about seven miles southwest of town, originally housed a city-owned hydro-electric plant.
Solar farm proposal
    Like the light dam, there was a lot of discussion but no action other than to do more research on a solar energy proposal.
    Davison presented information on a program through the Municipal Energy Agency of Nebraska (MEAN) to partner with a private firm, Sandhills Energy, to install a solar farm in Imperial for electricity production.
    He said he brought the information to the council to gauge interest.
    According to Monday’s discussion, cost to the city would be land on which to put the solar farm and a transformer.
    Davison said possible solar farm locations are east of the transfer station or the former dump area.
    Twenty-two Nebraska communities have expressed interest in the program with the hope of eventual lower electrical costs.
    The council directed Davison to find out more on costs and schedule a possible site study.
Other business
    Several other items of business were handled Monday.
    The council approved the annual NE Dept. of Transportation’s maintenance agreement for snow removal at the same $5,479.60 cost as last year.
    The state removes snow from the Highway 6 miles through Imperial. City employees must remove the snow from the parking areas.
    Council members did not approve a $144,949.24 pay request from Nielsen Contracting, the firm hired for the East 2nd and Holland Sts. paving.
    Davison said there are cracks in several concrete sections and no walk-through or punch list has been reviewed.
    An updated personnel manual was approved and a 2007 GMC Acadia was declared surplus property and will be sold by sealed bid.

 

The Imperial Republican

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Imperial, NE 69033