County manager moving to national organization
Already in a search for a new planning and zoning director, Hamilton County will need to hire a new administrative manager as of next week as well. The man who currently holds that position, Scott Stuhr, who has also been overseeing the County Planning and Zoning office due to recent vacancies, has submitted his resignation effective July 31. The resignation was considered by the Board of Commissioners at its regular Monday morning meeting this week.
After discussing various matters related to the resignation and following some good-natured joshing about not approving it, the board voted to accept Stuhr’s resignation “with regrets” as board chairman Rich Nelson added.
Reached after the meeting, Stuhr confirmed he has accepted an offer of employment from a national organization, but because he has not yet signed a contract with the organization, he declined to identify his new employer at this time. With an extensive background in county government, Stuhr first contracted to provide Hamilton County with planning and zoning services in January of 2016 and in September of that year was offered the position of planning and zoning administrator. He became the county’s first-ever administrative manager about five years ago.
Stuhr’s absence will no doubt be felt, especially as the county searches for a director of planning and zoning to replace Melissa Barry who resigned recently to go back to work at the Hamilton County Dispatch Center. Stuhr told the board he had received three applications for the job but had not proceeded with interviews because, “I assumed the board would want to have more of a say in that.”
Commissioner Nicole SaBell and Nelson volunteered to work with Stuhr on interviewing candidates.
There was also some discussion about hiring Stuhr on a contract basis during the interim to ease the transition while a new administrative manager is hired. A subcommittee of the board will meet with Stuhr this week to discuss that and other matters pertaining to his leaving. The board also scheduled a work session for next Monday to talk through those issues.
“We do wish you well,” Nelson offered after the vote on the resignation.
Following the discussion about Stuhr’s resignation, the board dealt with another agenda item that was directly impacted by his exit. In an item tabled from the previous meeting, the board voted to discontinue an interlocal agreement with Merrick County to provide zoning services. Since Stuhr has been the person providing those services, the commission believed it was impractical to continue with the arrangement.
In one other agenda item related to planning and zoning, the board of commissioners discussed at length a proposal to consider a data center proposed for Hamilton County as a “business support service” under the county’s zoning regulations. If so, Stuhr said the company would still need to apply for a conditional use permit in order to operate.
A representative of the company proposing to construct the data center participated in the meeting via Zoom to explain the nature of the facility. He said a similar data center was recently installed in Hall County near Grand Island and would involve a number of climate-controlled containers housing computer servers to do data processing. In answer to a question, he said the facility might also be used for crypto mining.
After extensive discussion about such things as the power consumption of the facility, noise produced and other impacts, Stuhr reminded the commissioners the purpose of the agenda item was only to determine whether such an operation could be considered a business support service for the purpose of applying for a conditional use permit.
He said he had brought the matter to the commission because he wanted to avoid a scenario in which a company might go through an expensive permitting process only to learn it would not qualify under that zoning category. He said his recommendation would be to amend the regulations to make a category specific to those kinds of businesses.
In the end the board decided to table the matter and include it with the exit discussions it plans to have with Stuhr in coming days.
Another item discussed at length at the meeting was the deteriorating condition of the pilings on the Chapman Bridge which crosses the Platte River between Hamilton and Merrick Counties just south of Chapman. Chris Lane of Speece Lewis Engineers of Lincoln was on hand to discuss the needed repairs.
“Everything is in decent shape, except for the pilings,” Lane reported, noting that where the steel supports go down into the river bed there are several areas of “section loss” where the metal has rusted away.
He said the best way to repair the pilings would be to dig down into the river bed and weld plates on as needed and then encase the pilings with concrete to prevent further erosion of the metal. He said it would be easier and less expensive to do that in late summer when the water levels are low. He also said the most cost-effective plan would be to repair the structure soon because replacing it might have a price tag close to $8 million.
Asked by Nelson “how much time do we have,” Lane replied, “I would be getting started on a plan on how it needs to be fixed,” noting that if it is going to use federal funding, that could be three to four years down the road. He said any project using federal monies would require more environmental scrutiny, especially with a bridge crossing the Platte.
“What would be good to do,” Lane said, “would be to get another look at it while the water level is down.”
No action was taken on the matter but Nelson encouraged Lane to continue working on the project.
“We do consider it a high priority,” he said.
In other matters under consideration on Monday, the board:
*approved special liquor license applications for Scotty’s LLC for Sept. 16 for the Ag Building and for Sept. 23 at the Farr Building for wedding receptions at the county fairgrounds.