DMV to move, making room for county attorney
After three county commission meetings in a row and several hours of behind-the-scenes activity by a subcommittee of the board, Hamilton County arrived at a solution for its space concerns at the county courthouse on Monday. The board also made an important decision regarding the future home of the county Extension service office which is currently located on the ground floor of the courthouse.
In a discussion which started at the Feb. 26 meeting, commissioners were talking about how to make room for County Attorney Douglas Dexter and his staff at the courthouse. The original plan was for Dexter to move into the first-floor offices currently occupied by the county Extension office. However, the Extension’s move to new headquarters has been delayed due to problems encountered at the 4-H Building at the fairgrounds which was going to be remodeled by the county. With broad agreement on the board that the next best location for the attorney’s office was the first-floor space at the opposite end of the courthouse currently occupied by the state DMV on Tuesdays, discussions centered around attempting to move the DMV to another location in the courthouse for that one day a week.
At Monday’s meeting subcommittee members Nicole SaBell and Francis McDonald reported that they had come up with a solution.
The plan approved by the county board at Monday’s meeting calls for the DMV to move essentially down the hall from its current location to the County Veterans Service Office occupied by Mike Irons.
Noting that Irons is not in the office on Tuesdays, McDonald said the move would “displace the least amount of people” in the courthouse.
The next hurdle to overcome was the actual process of moving the DMV which, as reported at recent meetings, could take a considerable amount of time partly because of the time needed to move the dedicated internet line the office requires. However, SaBell said the state had been contacted about a potential move and had replied that the move would only require a 90-day notice. Therefore, McDonald said the move might be accomplished at some point this summer.
Asked for his thoughts about moving into the space currently occupied by the DMV, Dexter said, “I think it will work fine; I’ll have to have an office here for (Chief Deputy) Ross (Luzem), just for file integrity.”
Meanwhile, County Clerk Jill DeMers reported that her ongoing mission of shredding old unneeded files to make space for new ones was “going great.” She said her office, which maintains files for all of the other county offices, is also in the process of setting up to do an annual purge of old documents, as it had in place before it lost the use several years ago of the rooms now occupied by the county Planning and Zoning office.
Following a unanimous vote by the commission to move the DMV to Irons’s office on Tuesdays and send a letter stating its intentions to the DMV, SaBell lauded the move saying it will mean the least amount of disruption in the courthouse and Board Chair Rich Nelson commented, “It’s a winner!”
Extension HQ change
Action was also taken on Monday regarding the rearrangement that began the entire courthouse space discussion in the first place — a new headquarters for the Hamilton County Extension Office.
Originally the county had planned to renovate the 4-H Building on the north end of fairgrounds as office space for the extension service. The fair board had previously donated the building to the county for that use, however, after failing to find contractors willing to do the needed remodeling at a reasonable price, the county board voted on Monday to give the building back to the fair board and go a different direction.
“We need to plant the flag somewhere,” said Nelson, regarding the board’s decision to move on from the 4-H Building. “Initially we thought it would be simple, but a new option would be more cost-effective.”
“It doesn’t make sense to do something halfway,” McDonald agreed.
The option the county is currently considering is to build a new structure for the extension office on the site of the former county noxious weed building on the west edge of the fairgrounds.
NACO report
Earlier in the meeting the commission heard a report from Elaine Menzel, legal counsel for the Nebraska Association of County Officials (NACO). Menzel reported that she and other staff members of the organization had been busy monitoring legislation impacting counties in the current legislative session.
She said that if what is anticipated regarding Gov. Jim Pillen’s property tax relief proposals actually passes the tax system is “going to look entirely different.” Stating that she and Executive Director Jon Cannon had been working closely with the senators to work through the changes, Menzel asserted, “There doesn’t seem to be an understanding (on the part of legislators) of how the whole process works.” However, she said it appears the final legislation will be “more favorable than we would have anticipated.”
She also said the final version of the legislation is still be worked out in committee.
In regard to legislation aimed at eliminating the Inheritance Tax collected by counties, Menzel stated that she had missed much of the early debate on the issue due to illness but said, “It’s my understanding that we’re sitting pretty good,” meaning that chances are the tax won’t be eliminated after all.
She said the challenge faced by legislators in eliminating the tax is that the result would be either an increase in property taxes, a decrease in services or a combination of both.
Noting that roughly $100 million would have to be replaced if the tax was eliminated, Nelson asked where that money would come from, to which Menzel replied that the answer to the question remains unclear.
“We’ve been using inheritance taxes for things we otherwise would have to tax for,” Nelson said, adding, “The ‘tax shift’ thing drives me nuts!”
Nelson also questioned the validity of studies that have been cited allegedly showing that people are leaving the state rather than having their descendants pay the tax when they’re gone.
In other business conducted at Monday’s meeting, the board:
*approved an interlocal agreement with Fillmore County to house inmates at the Hamilton County Jail. Sheriff Jeromy McCoy said the jail is currently housing two women who are Fillmore prisoners. The latest agreement brings the number of other counties with which the county has such agreements with to four. The other counties are Merrick, Adams and York;
*approved the use of the courthouse parking lot on Saturday mornings from June 1 through Aug. 31 for the Market on the Square farmers market. The approval includes the use of the courthouse restrooms for vendors only.