Stuhr to continue working with county

In his last day on the job as Hamilton County Administrative Manager, Scott Stuhr learned that it wouldn’t actually be his last day, for 60 days at least. In its regular Monday morning meeting, the county Board of Commissioners gave approval to a contract between the county and Stuhr to continue to provide oversight to the areas of county government he has been handling for the past several years, including the Planning and Zoning functions. Stuhr’s last official day on the job was Monday and the temporary contact is for August and September.
Board chairman Rich Nelson announced during the meeting that he and Commissioner John Thomas had spent several hours in meetings last week with Stuhr discussing the outgoing county manager’s duties and areas of responsibility. He said out of those discussions, Stuhr had put together a contact under which he would continue to provide supervision to those areas until a replacement could be hired. County Attorney Douglas Dexter had reviewed the contract and made some suggestions and the document came before the board for final approval.
Nelson said the contract was focused more on the “scope of services” Stuhr would provide over the next two months, rather than paying him for the actual hours worked. He said that was done because it was “better for us to have a handle on what are our monthly expenses,” related to the contract. 
Following the meeting, Nelson said under the contract Stuhr’s scope of duties would be mostly keeping track of the planning and zoning functions as well as training others to take over other duties. 
“Scott can stay on top of most of this stuff in a timely manner,” said Nelson, explaining that the committee had discussed the means by which the board would communicate with Stuhr and get his input on issues facing the county. 
The commissioners said keeping Stuhr on board on a contractual basis during this interim period would ease the transition to hiring a new administrative manager as well as a new planning and zoning director. The vote approving the temporary contract was unanimous.  
“I look forward to working with you,” Stuhr said, smiling following the vote. 
Stuhr said on Monday he was not yet ready to discuss his new position, but said it would allow him the time and opportunity to help the county out during this transitional period. One thing that will change right away, however, is that the board’s weekly meetings will not be broadcast via Zoom for the time being. That was something that fell within Stuhr’s list of responsibilities, so it was decided not to continue it in his absence. 
Several other items coming before the county board in its three-hour meeting did not require votes but did generate a great deal of discussion, and brought several local officials into the meeting room. 
Of particular interest was a presentation scheduled by County Assessor Pat Sandberg in which Ryan Poots of Eagleview Technologies discussed what his company offers in the way of aerial photography. Sandberg had told the commissioners in a recent meeting that she wanted to ask Poots to come because her office is in need of new aerial photos of the county and that Eagleview would be photographing Seward and York Counties starting next spring. She said by coordinating with adjoining counties, Hamilton County could get a better deal on the service. 
In his presentation, Poots showed slides depicting the various kinds of photography Eagleview offers. He said in addition to the normal “ortho” or rooftop images such as can be seen in Google maps, the company also offers three-dimensional or “oblique” imaging that shows all sides of structures and can be used for measuring. 
“We can do four-direction, oblique imagery of every structure in the county,” Poots told the commission. 
He said such 3D images would have applications across a variety of county agencies including the assessor’s office, law enforcement and the highway department. For the assessor’s office, Poots said the program could be used for measuring buildings and seeing changes that have been made from one year to the next. For the sheriff’s office, he said the photos could be helpful for such things as serving a warrant to a particular address and for the highway department it would provide instantaneous information on such things as slopes and elevations. 
Poots said for most of the county the photos would have a definition of one pixel for every six-inch square. However, for the towns and villages the definition would be one pixel for every three inches. He said that would provide a high amount of accuracy for taking measurements, demonstrating by using a picture of the Creighton University football field. Using the program to measure the field, he was able to measure to within one foot of its actual 300-foot length. 
The cost of the photography, the computer program and other things that would come with it, according to Poots, would be a total of $153,975 which includes a 37 percent discount. 
When questioned by commissioners about the proposal, Sandberg said the county is overdue for new photos and the company that used to provide them is not as good. She said she did not include the photography in next year’s budget because she is hopeful that federal Covid ARPA funds can be used to pay for it. 
No decision was made by the board regarding the proposal.
Another matter sparking lively discussion within the county board was an item placed on the agenda by Nelson to discuss and consider approval of appointing a team to “negotiate AIA next steps with Jerry Berggren on the courthouse restoration project.” (AIA is the acronym for American Institute of Architects.) 
“We just need to make a decision so we can move on,” said Nelson, referring to the board’s hiring of Berggren Architects of Lincoln to manage the restoration and preservation of the county’s 150-year-old courthouse building. 
Most of the pushback to finalizing a contract with Berggren’s company once again came from Commissioner Francis McDonald who continued to question the company’s expertise, especially as related to its work on the Wayne County Courthouse.
McDonald suggested at one point that the county should simply bypass the use of an architect in the project and work directly with a contractor. He was quickly reminded by Nelson that, because public money is being used, state statutes mandate the involvement of an architect. 
After several more minutes of discussion, the board gave tacit agreement to moving ahead with a contract with Berggren, which Dexter said he would have “ready to go for next week.” 
The balance of the meeting was taken up mostly by budget presentations by a dozen county agencies as well as several non-governmental budget entities such as the Aurora Chamber of Commerce and the Aurora Airport Authority. Those presentations are to continue over the next several weeks.