Lincoln County commissioners Monday heard updates from SMART-TD Local Chairperson Amanda Snide and Region 51 Emergency Management Director Brandon Myers on a 13-car derailment at Union Pacific Railroad's Bailey Yard and two fires that occurred recently.
Commissioner and Vice Chair Micaela Wuehler, who was acting as board chair in Commissioner Joe Hewgley's absence last week, said she invited Snide to speak on the Bailey Yard incident that occurred Thursday.
Snide said the incident was "handled tremendously better than the incident last September" in which a railcar carrying toxic chemicals caused an explosion. A big part of that, she said, was due to the cars being "tank cars," which have more built-in precautions.
"I checked with the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, and they said that all the cars met the requirements that they're supposed to have," Snide said.
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Of the 13 cars derailed, Wuehler said, three were impacted by a leak of roughly a half gallon of alcohol that was being transported for ethanol production.
Myers spoke about two fires that occurred recently, one Oct. 7 and the other Thursday.
The Oct. 7 fire that burned roughly 725 acres south of North Platte along Old Highway 83, he said, started in a ditch, but a cause was not determined. No houses were destroyed and no people were injured.
Myers said the Thursday fire near the intersection of Somerset and Nelson was caused by a vehicle in the tall grass in the area.
Thirteen area fire crews -- 117 personnel -- helped extinguish the 2,300-acre fire.
"It was just one of those days," Myers said. "It was warm, humidity was in the teens to start with and winds were mid- to upper 20s."
While North Platte has seen rain recently and is projected to get more, Myers said the threat of fires isn't going away.
"We're looking at getting a couple more rains," he said. "It's not going to be anything that's going to be soaked in the ground."
He said with the strong winds the region has been seeing, the ground will "dry right back out."
"So we're going to still be fighting these, probably for a while," he said.
Wuehler added that the Salvation Army of North Platte was able to get nearly 70 meals out to the first responders and volunteers fighting the fire.
During the commissioners' reports, Commissioner Kent Weems addressed a concern he received from a Lincoln County citizen about the County Assessor's Office inspecting a church.
According to Weems, the individual was worried that the church was losing its tax exemption status because it was being assessed.
Both Weems and County Assessor Julie Stenger said that exempt properties need to have their valuations assessed, but that does not mean they will be on the tax rolls.
This is important, Stenger said, because federal emergency management organizations such as FEMA calculate the amount the federal government will give to areas affected by natural disasters based on those valuations.
"But they're going to remain exempt," she said. "They won't be on the tax rolls."
As part of the six-year review cycle, Stenger said, her office will be doing valuations in Lincoln County villages this coming year. The appraisal staff will be taking updated photos and getting information for commercial, residential and exempt properties.
In other business, commissioners:
Approved the final change order and pay application for the North Platte River Sutherland bridge project.Approved the purchase of a sign truck for the Roads Department at a cost of $20,500 -- roughly $30,000 less than they had budgeted.Approved labeling some Weeds Department equipment as surplus with the stipulation that the department get estimates on two surplus four-wheelers that need repairs. Get Government & Politics updates in your inbox!
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