LUSK – Mayor Douglas Lytle called the Lusk Town Council meeting to order at 5 p.m. Council approved the agenda, bills, treasurer’s report and financial reports and the minutes of the March meeting.

Mayor Lytle formally declared March to be Sexual Assault Awareness and Child Abuse Prevention Month. He read information provided by Helpmate Crisis Center on the statistics of sexual assault and child abuse in the United States. This year’s campaign for prevention of sexual assault is called the “I Ask” campaign. It is about creating awareness of and educating individuals about consent in every day life from consent to hold hands to consent to share personal information and express consent in all aspects of relationships. Helpmate Crisis Center employees Sabrina Kruse, Marcia Bruegger and Josette Fitzwater were at the meeting to answer questions and receive the Mayor’s proclamation. If community members have questions or would like to find out about volunteering to be a Victim Advocate they can contact Helpmate at (307) 334-3416.

Niobrara Alumni Board representative Katrina Skibicki requested that the trail fees for golf carts be waived at the Lusk Country Club during the 2019 Alumni Golf Tournament. The board intends to bring in 24 extra golf carts to accommodate all the golf teams. After discussion the board addressed the reduction of golfer fees as well. A motion was made and approved to waive the trail fees and reduce the per-golfer fee from $25 to $15 for the Alumni Tournament golfers.

During department updates Cory Wilcox reported that the ambulance had three new EMTs and four students planning to complete the advanced class out of Casper who would be testing at the end of May. The shop is catching up on loose ends and preparing lawn equipment for the upcoming season. Mayor Lytle stated that he appreciated all of the hard work from every department during the recent snow storms and had received a great deal of positive feedback from the community and the Wyoming Women’s Center. Employees were given a round of applause by those in attendance at the meeting in appreciation of their efforts during the blizzard. Bruce Himes expressed concern over the state of the streets and alleys with potholes and missing dirt. He thanked the council for providing the funding for crews to stay caught up with snow removal and sweeping during the weather the town experienced in March. He has met with Knife River to review roads projects and anticipates receiving updated bids from them to get started on projects in May. Sean Duffy reported that the course is busy preparing for the May 1 opening of the golf course. They are watching for any damage as the creek goes down and making minor repairs around the course. James Santistevan has been cleaning the cemetery, trimming trees and getting ready for the spring and summer seasons. March was very busy for the Emergency Management Agency and while Town proper did not flood there was flooding in Niobrara County as a result of dams breaking in Converse County. He had been working with Converse to mitigate those damages. He is also working on the Emergency Management grant. Chief Bo Krein noted that the police department saw and increase in calls for service and anticipates that will continue to go up as the weather improves. The department is planning to increase visibility and traffic enforcement they are also preparing for clean up letters and ordinance enforcement of the new ordinances that were passed last summer. Doug Jergenson reported statistics on call for the animal control department. He is looking to install one or two more indoor kennels and anticipates being able to do this with existing materials from the old dog shelter and some labor. The shelter is also going to try and put a roof over the outside dog runs to provide better shade in the summer. John Eddy stated that as the ice thawed the sewage ponds would begin to have water moving out of them and they would be working on that project. There were multiple freezing issues in the month of March due to the extreme weather. The Fire Department received eight calls in March. Linda Frye is focused on the budget and annual state reports. Todd Skrukrud gave an update on the flood property cleanup and that they will begin landscaping those properties that have been worked on and will be finished with those three by May 6. A pre-bid meeting was held for the water well project. This will be open for bids until April 9 with a substantial completion date of July 1. Spring clean up will occur in late May or early June. They are also meeting about potential bridge options

Old Business:

The board voted to approve the transfer of franchise from Vive to WBC. WBC will take over the contract from Vive, which runs until 2029.

Discussion was held regarding the Lusk Herald building lease that was up April 1 and will continue on a month-to-month until a new lease can be signed. It was stated expressly by Lytle that the city would like to “get out” of the leasing business however at this time they will extend the Herald lease pending sale of the building which will be determined at a future date. The Council requested that Dennis Meier draft a new contract to send to the Herald to begin discussion. This item was tabled until terms are agreed on with the Herald.

New Business:

Chief Bo Krein presented the council with the lowest bids for the two new police vehicles. After a motion and discussion the council approved the four year lease for two new Dodge Chargers for the department. This lease will not affect this year’s budget. Part of the discussion was regarding capital funding accounts for depreciation to aid in large purchases such as vehicles. Frye is to contact a CPA to begin the process of investigating how those accounts would work.

Council approved the top silent bids for the two town vehicles which came in at $705 and $500. The top bidder will be notified.

Doug Jergenson presented the council with the Niobrara Conservation District Cooperative Agreement. The agreement from 2018 for the two phase project of landscaping around the animal shelter had never been signed by the previous council though it had been approved and the first phase completed in 2018. Lytle signed the 2018 contract. Jergenson also requested that funds be transferred from the donation account, which has a current balance of $245, into the expenditures account in order to complete phase two of the project with a cost of $212. This was approved by council.

The Town had been quoted a 5 percent increase in plan cost with the existing deductible. After analysis it was determined that it would save the Town $11,000 in the upcoming plan year to move to a $3500 deductible plan and provide a $3500 HSA to each employee. This will keep premiums at the same rate and avoid any increase to the employee. The HSA will be funded monthly and that money may be used for qualified health expenses at the employee’s discretion. The first round for the HSA will be administered July-December of 2019 to offset these plan changes that are effective July 1 since some employees have already met their $1,000 deductible for the 2019 year on the old plan. In the event that an employee has a catastrophic health event they may petition the council for the entire $3500 at once.

The first reading of the 2020 passed and a budget workshop was scheduled for April 26 at 9 a.m.

Liquor License renewal for: Company Three LLC d/b/a Spirits, Retail; L&J Halligan LLC d/b/a The Pub, Retail; Rex & Julie Tolman d/b/a Lusk Liquor Store, Retail; The Silver Dollar Bar of Lusk LLC d/b/a Silver Dollar Bar, Retail; Lusk Elks BPO 1797, Limited Retail Club; Niobrara Country Club, Limited Retail Club; and Peggy Anne Fitzwater, d/b/a Triangle 4 Café, Limited Retail were all approved. It was noted by Lytle that those licensing fees will likely be raised for the 2020 calendar year.

Livestock permits for Annie Thayer for chickens and ducks and Ada Pflughoeft and Doyle Davies for ducks were approved.

Council moved into executive session for personnel discussions and then adjourned.