Courthouse opening; law enforcement; roof bids

By GREG SCELLIN
Signal Editor

The Fillmore County Board of Supervisors met in regular season on Tuesday, June 9, in the board meeting room at the Fillmore County Courthouse. The meeting was also available on Zoom.
One of the items on the morning agenda was the re-opening of the courthouse for regular county business. It was noted that Neb. Governor Pete Ricketts wanted courthouses open by June 15. “I have to admit, the way this was presented, it completely offended me at first,” Supervisor Wade Sluka said. “I realize we are going to have to do something, some time. People will also have to use a little common sense with this, too.”
Supervisor Kenny Harre said he wouldn’t mind waiting until after the 4th of July to open up.
In the end, the supervisors opted to open up most parts of the courthouse and Fillmore County Office East on June 15. The Fillmore County Jail and Senior Services will stay closed. The supervisors also emphasized that customers remain using the county drop box behind the courthouse; do business on-line when possible; call ahead to see if the trip is actually necessary and restricting the number of visitors/patrons in the courthouse at any one time and limiting time in the courthouse. See a press release inside this edition for a complete list of re-opening policies.
In other meeting notes:
• The supervisors opened bids for replacing the East Office Building roof. Chappell Roofing, Inc., of Fairbury submitted a bid of $150,000. Conner Roofing Co., Inc., of York submitted a bid of $102,750. The Conner bid was deemed not a complete bid and some additions would have to be made to it to compare it to the Chappell bid. The Chappell roof would have a 20-year warranty, while the Conner roof would be warranted for 10 years. Discussion continued until a later portion of the meeting and the board unanimously approved the Chappell roof bid.
• Fillmore County Sheriff Bill Burgess reported on a recent meeting with City of Geneva officials and the county board about the law-enforcement inter-local agreement. Burgess said two options were discussed, one being two deputies being designated as city officers and supervised by Geneva City Administrator Kyle Svec and Burgess. Burgess said that this wasn’t a workable option as his deputies didn’t sign on to be small-town police officers and want to perform a variety of duties. There is also the ongoing debate about FCSO deputies working city code enforcement.