Cornhusker State News

City Council Meetings

Regular Wayne City Council meetings are at 5:30 p.m. on the first and third Tuesdays of each month in City Hall at 3rd and Pearl Streets. Come on by and see what your City government does!

City Council Retreat

The Mayor and City Council held one of its mini retreats at the Wayne Fire Hall on January 31. The Mayor and Council focused most of its discussion on the parks half of Parks and Recreation. Much conversation was had regarding how to finance the new Prairie Park development. Besides using the voter approved 1/2 cent sales tax to continue and be used for parks and recreation, City staff will work to find grant opportunities to stretch the City dollar. Other parks topics included installing additional equipment in East Park as well as finding more accessible equipment for the parks in general. Many wanted to see Keno funds used for these upgrades. Additional topics to be discussed included a wide range of "community betterment" ideas.....from allowing chickens in City limits, to additional recreation ideas for an indoor pool and outdoor activities of a skate park, ice skating and a good area for community snow sledding. City staff is always willing to discuss these ideas with the public and to listen to other ideas you have for us to forward to your elected officials. Give us a call, stop in, or email!

One and Six Year Street Improvement Program

Typically referred to as "the 1 & 6 Year Plan," the Council recently approved the annual plan for improving certain street and trail segments in the next 1 to 6 years. This Plan is required to be submitted to the Nebraska Department of Transportation (NDOT) each February to be eligible for approximately $645,000 in NDOT Highway Allocation funds for Wayne. If the street segment does not appear on this plan in the 1 year list, it cannot be completed by the City in 2023. While there is flexibility to amend this plan if need be throughout the year, since the plan is approved every year amendments are rare. A couple key projects on this plan for 2023 is the development of roads in the new Prairie Park location as well as the trail extension and storm sewer upgrades from Greenwood Cemetery to the Bomgaars corner.

Fiscal Year (FY) 2021-2022 Audit

The City will have its annual audit presented to the Mayor and Council on Feb. 21. While this topic is not always overly fascinating to the general public, the document and process to write the document compile the true financial picture of the City. This discussion next meeting will help direct the Council to be confident to consider going into debt for some projects the City is looking at to enhance community services. These projects include Park and Recreation additions, new/upgraded roads/streets in the community, and electrical upgrades to include a new substation and perhaps even new electric generation for backup City power. This audit will be available on the City website at https://www.cityofwayne.org/92/Audit

Questions, comments, concerns? Contact Wes Blecke, City Administrator at 375-1733 or by email.

Original source can be found here.