Hebron City Council tackles lengthy list of issues

The Hebron City Council tackled a lengthy agenda this month as they re-visited and ruled on several unresolved issues from the previous three months.

In the first order of business, a new lease agreement for a skid-loader though Roehr’s Machinery, Inc., was accepted by the council. Basically, the city trades in the old loader on a new one and makes up the difference for the cost of the new one; in this case, the City will pay approximately $18,000 for a $50,727 loader, plus the trade-in.

The City then pays an hourly usage fee at the end of the year when Roehr’s will take the machine back and give the city another new one. Hebron will only pay an hourly usage fee each year for as long as they choose to contract the machinery following the initial purchase. Roehr’s representative, Randall Hergott said, “Basically, you will own the new loader and can decide to simply keep it, or you can replace it for  a new one each year for the next five years as long as you pay the usage fee. Your hourly rate will never go up for as long as we have a contract up to five years.”

The city then accepted a bid from Roehr’s for a new mower at approximately $10,000.

Repair work topped the next order of discussion as the Council viewed wear and tear damage at the city swimming pool and noted a seriously leaking roof at the recently acquired Pioneer Center. The Center’s leaky roof has been a problem for several years, but city workers say patching needs to be done frequently, about every three months. “Something else needs to be done because we are having to fix the leaks too often,” said Karl Wiedel.

For the swimming pool, manager Bonnie Kassebaum, said a serious crack has developed as well as other maintenance issues that need to be fixed. “I’m bringing this to you early so we can hopefully open on time this year,” she said. The Council feels the pool is a beneficial part of the Hebron community and okayed any work needed.

Hebron Volunteer Fire Department Chief B.J. Linton asked the council to approve placement of five new emergency sirens; a grant for the sirens (equipment approximately $61,000, installation approximately $33,000) was received three months ago. The City is responsible for a 25 percent match, or about $23,500 which will come from sales tax.

The sirens will be located at the fire hall; at the city Quonset on Jefferson Ave.; by the intersection of Second St. and Duffield Ave.; near the water tower; and at the airport. “We should be able to install them this spring barring any snags,” Linton said.

In other business, Al Wilshusen, representing the Friends of American Legion Baseball, asked the council to install lighting on the third softball diamond closest to the campground at Riverside Park. The Friends group feels the lights are necessary as too often during softball season, games are halted due to loss of sunlight.

“Without use of the Legion field, we are limited in how many softball games we can have,” Wilshusen said. “These young kids and their families travel pretty far sometimes, and when we have to postpone or call a game, it makes it difficult for them to return.”

The City already owns the poles, but needs to contract out the cement work for the bases to hold the poles in place and agreed to start looking for someone.

Finally, the Council purchased property at 415 N2nd St. for $1,500. The property was ruled a nuisance about eight months ago. The city intends to tear down the house and clean up the yard.