Ogallala, Ne - Ogallala City Manager Kevin Wilkins joined Derek Beck in our Ogallala Eagle Media Studio on Wednesday morning during "Sandhills Spotlight" on Z 93.5 Country to recap Tuesday's (January 14, 2025) City Council meeting.
Among topics dicussed were the appointments to the Retired Senior Volunteer Program, who report to the board. Karen Bowlin and Maria Parker were appointed to three year terms. Also there were new appointments to the Board of Health. Jessica Liebhart, Lori Rowley and Richard VanRotz were all appointed to three year terms.
Wilkins also spoke in depth about the construction at the corner of Highway 30 and A streets where GenGen LLC is constructing a building. They were awarded $12,000 for utilities etc. to complete the project. Wilkens said "people need to be aware that these economic development incentives come with strings attached for whatever you need to get your project done; in this case the best way to hook up the utilities was to go into the street to avoid a dead end utility hook up, so we're gonna pay them $6,000 upon connection once it's inspected and then we'll give them another $6,000 at certificate of occupancy when the building is occupied with the stipulation that there is the creation of three additional jobs. So you have a taxable investment which is gonna be about $300,000 for the building and then in addition they're gonna need to create three jobs by June 2027."
Wilkens and Beck also spoke about future city projects like runway improvements at the Ogallala Airport. Listen to the entire conversation here sponsored by NP Kubota.