Board acts on heavy agenda

Cheyenne County Board of Commissioners members not only discussed the application for a conditional use permit for Pine Bluffs Gravel and Excavation Inc. this Tuesday, but they also discussed the lack of Cheyenne County Keno funds, the successful installation of County Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) and the need for additional office space in the Court House for the District 12 Probation Office.

Rich Fahey addressed commissioners regarding the change in the Keno pay table from the 72 percent that it was changed to 7 years ago back to 70 percent.

“We had excess money. We monitored it pretty closely and really didn’t think too much into it,” said Fahey. “But we had 17 major hits in a little over 4 months, which is more than we saw in the last 20 years. We went over the bond that we had for extra money and I switched it back to 70 percent, which should take care of everything. They are concerned about the length of time that it will take to get their money back.”

Fahey said that he could drop it down to as low as 68 percent, which might speed up the process, but it also could affect the game and cost more money in the long run.

“The other option is to have the county drop the 12 percent to 8 percent for 10 months. That would give these people back their money and the county would then go back to 12 and wouldn’t lose any money,” he said.

Fahey said that the county would have all of its money back in approximately 20 months.

Commissioner Ken McMillen said that he wanted all of the options in writing so that it could be discussed more thoroughly and that the matter would be tabled until the next meeting.

“There is a statute that would allow for funding for emergency appropriations but I don’t know without having additional information whether that would fall under the meaning of that statute,” said Paul Schaub, Cheyenne County Attorney.

Also on the discussion board was an update of the installation of CASA volunteers into the justice system.

“We’ve hired our first director who has gone through training at the national and state programs and we’ve started our first training for volunteers to advocate for abused and neglected children in the juvenile court system,” said Rebecca Napier, the Cheyenne County CASA Board of Directors President.

“Judge Roland swore in three volunteers in December and each one has a case now,” said Napier.

Napier said that there are three more potential volunteers for training and that the turnout has been very exciting so far.

“The children that we are serving, one is under 7 and the under two are under 2 years old. The volunteers are working very hard to be advocates for these children,” she said. “We’re just excited going forward.”

Napier said that there are many benefits to the program, not just for the children of Cheyenne County but for taxpayers as well.

“We belong to the Nebraska CASA Association and we have full membership with the national organization. In December there were 1,600 children waiting on the list for CASA services. Three can be taken off that list now thanks to our volunteers in Cheyenne County,” she said. “Not only do we serve the children but we also save the taxpayers dollars when the children don’t languish in the foster care system.”

Napier said that funds for the CASA program come from grants and donations, as well as fundraisers.

“Last year Night of Music was the big fundraiser, receiving over $7,000,” she said.

Napier said that in the future Cheyenne County CASA members would like to extend services to different counties in the area seeing as how the only other CASA organizations are in Scottsbluff and Keith.

“What we would like to do down the road is to reach out to Kimball County and other counties -- all the counties that Judge Roland resides in. To me one child is too many,” she said.

Some of the funds for CASA come from Keno funds.

Also addressed at the meeting was a request for additional space in the courthouse for District 12 Probation Office employees.

McMillen said from his understanding that the area that the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) occupied in the building there was extra room, and that it appeared to be a problem between the two state agencies and less of a county problem.

Linda Buehler from the probation office said that her office was trying to work with DHHS and was receiving little-to-no response.

Attorney Schaub had sent a letter to Kerry Winterer, the Chief Executive Officer of DHHS, on Feb. 6 explaining that the District 12 Probation Office needed additional space due to added staff required by the Nebraska Juvenile Services Delivery Project.

“I further indicated that despite having office space available across the hall, DHHS refuses to allow the use of office space for another state agency, unless Cheyenne County commits to providing additional space to DHHS,” said Schaub.

Later that day Schaub’s office received a letter from Winterer stating that, “the obligation to provide the space to DHHS and Probation are exclusive statutory requirements.”

“DHHS constantly evaluates its programs serving the citizens of Nebraska by utilizing the county provided spaces and, when needed, lease commercial space to meet the increasing departmental requirements,” said Winterer.

DHHS currently occupies 1,472 square feet in the courthouse that is obligated to them by the county, and a commercially leased office space of 2,480 square feet, the executive officer said.

Winterer continued in his letter that at a November commissioners meeting it had been proposed that the county’s 1983 obligation to the office be moved to a set dollar amount.

“This alternative has worked well in other counties and our interest is to find workable solutions that are within our statutory boundaries,” said Winterer.

“I honestly have no more answers for Health and Human Services. They are a different agency. They are under corrections and we are under the courts. Our money and funding comes from two different places,” said Buehler. “I know it is in statute that they are suppose to have X amount of space. Obviously I have no control over that, I’ve had to come up with a few ideas to ask you to consider and think about and don’t say no to right away.”

Options that Buehler had looked into were moving into part of the Cheyenne County Tourism Center, the old Goodwin law offices that are being renovated and the old McConaughy building that used to serve as a bank.

The tourism center would be far away from the main probation office however and would need new supplies bought for office workers. The building is also paid for by visitor funds, not the county.

The other two building spaces would need to be rented from the owners.

“We don’t have the money,” said McMillen. “It’s not budgeted and personally I’m not in favor of spending more money on our judicial systems, especially state, because we’re bound and tied into the court systems and the vast majority of the resources of our county goes into the judicial system. I’m not about to ask taxpayers for additional funds for this type of activity.”

“It’s in statute that the county does need to provide space for the state. Throughout our district there are 12 counties. The state provided last year $1.5 million in salaries, training and mileage, etcetera just for the counties that are benefiting from our probation services,” said Buehler.

“I understand that you can’t make money where there is none but I would ask you to at least talk amongst yourselves and consider if there is anywhere in your budget that you could come up with this funding,” she said. “We are in a bind and we are space poor.”

Buehler said that there is a great need for the agency to be there and be able to properly function to assist juveniles in the county.

“There is such a need for assistance of juveniles. Juveniles down here are going to receive services down here that they haven’t been able to before through probation,” she said.

Buehler said that space for two more offices is needed.

“By statute DHHS has claim to the space that they had in 1983 but it doesn’t make sense to buy more space if we have space to use,” said McMillen.

The commissioners said they will meet again in the near future for further discussion on the topic.