Planner suggests board take next step toward local survey
Hampton Village Board members reviewed results Monday of a community workshop last month with a Kearney-based consultant who recommended that the next step be conducting a survey to see if citizens would support implementing a tax for certain expenditures.
Bobbi Pettit, owner of Five Rule Rural Planning, conducted the two workshops March 28, sharing her findings with the board during Monday’s regular monthly meeting. Thirty-six people participated in the two workshops, she reported, which began with an exercise inviting people to describe the way they felt about their community.
“Everybody in the room cared a lot about the community of Hampton and had memories they want to preserve, which is really what the meeting was about,” Pettit said. “If there’s one thing everybody could agree on it’s that keeping your school open is really a priority.”
When asked to rank priorities, Pettit said participants listed daycare facilities, housing and more local service business as tops on the list.
“Hampton is a bedroom community, but I would caution you not to become just a bedroom,” she said. “You want services here in town so caution yourself that you don’t become a giant housing subdivision without services.”
Toward that end, Pettit said she is prepared to use the input gathered at the March meetings to prepare a community survey, which could be made available both in print and online.
“I think you should go ahead and do a communitywide survey,” she said. “If I was on your board, working full-time for Hampton, I would like to see you carry this all the way through and see if you can get a sales tax on the ballot.”
Pettit offered a proposal to the board to create and conduct the survey, finishing with reported results and recommendations by mid-June.
James Parsley, board chairman, said he thought the March meeting was informative, but tapped the brakes on taking any immediate action by tabling the issue until next month to allow more board discussion.
“I thought it was very helpful,” he said. “A lot of good information came out of it.”
Moving on to the next agenda item, Pettit then shared an update on the village’s vacant property registry, noting that only two properties remain on the list, with eight having been removed. One involves the former restaurant on 3rd Street, where property owners owe $7,000 to the village. Pettit said a $3,000 lien has been placed on the property, with that total scheduled to increase up to the full $7,000 over time.
The other property is at 202 3rd Street, where Pettit learned that a holding company paid the back taxes and was recently sent a letter from the village attorney advising that they now have a lien for $750 filed against the property.
Monday’s meeting then turned toward the topic of a planned development project on the west edge of town. Karen Bamesberger, representing the Hampton Development Corporation, was joined by village attorney Drew Graham and bond consultant Austin Partridge with First National Capital Markets in Omaha, in discussing various strategies with the board that could be used to fund infrastructure development in a 7.95-acre subdivision which will feature 14 housing lots and one or two commercial lots along Highway 34.
No decision was made, though the topic will be reviewed again at the May meeting.
It was announced that street names for the new subdivision have been determined, with the north-south street to be called 8th Street and the culdesac drive to be called Wall Circle Drive, in honor of the Wall family.
Monday’s meeting began with a brief public hearing, during which acting county zoning administrator Scott Stuhr explained that Mike Larson has requested a change in zoning for property located south of town on the Hampton spur.
In order to move his business to a lot adjacent to H2Grow, Larson requested a change of zoning from R-2 residential to I-1 industrial. The board approved the zoning change unanimously and voted to waive the three-reading rule, making the change effective immediately.