Osmond city council hosts town hall meeting

(By Regina Lorenz, Osmond Republican) OSMOND - The Osmond City Council hosted a Community Town Hall Meeting on Monday, Jan. 12, in the city auditorium to review and discuss the results of the recent Community Survey-information gathered from local residents.

In attendance were members of the Osmond City Council, Police Chief Tyler Wells, city workers Bert Wat tier and Caleb Eckstrom, and Sandra Goode, community planner with the Northeast Nebraska Economic Development District (NENEDD). Some 30-40 Osmond residents attended the meeting.

Goode went over the survey information provided by residents last

fall. On many of the questions, the items listed with the lowest number rankings were not necessarily bad, she explained; they just had rankings slightly lower than others.

For instance, she said, one of the items in basic services listed was street conditions, which had a ranking of 2.49 out of 5, with 1 being poor and 5 being excellent. But as she drove around town before the meeting, Goode said she thought the streets were in pretty good condition.

Question 2 had to do with technology services, with internet and phone services being a problem for residents. A number of businesses on the west side of State Street had been without phone service for 12 days, despite multiple calls being made to the provider, Fastwyre. One of the problems is that there are no local service technicians in Osmond.

One of the questions was about whether there is concern about maintaining historic integrity in the downtown district. The answers to that question were "all over the place," said Goode, with answers of "yes," "no" and "no opinion" all ranging between 30% and 40%. She pointed out that grant money is based on maintaining historical integrity. She also said she thought the Osmond downtown area looks nice.

One of the big concerns of residents is housing, with 67% saying they would like to see additional housing or apartments. City Clerk Brittney Timmerman said that there are some houses sitting empty, because the home owners are now in rest homes and the family doesn’t want to rent it out.

Goode asked about the possibility of building new homes. There is an area to the northwest of town which could be annexed, but the problem is the cost of new homes. Realtor Jim Schmit noted that he has a new house in Osmond that he’s been trying to sell but people here don’t have the income to afford a $400,000 home.

The conversation turned to top priorities for the City of Osmond. One, of course, is housing. The subject of having a new community building was also brought up. It was pointed out that Osmond needs to focus on housing and current buildings to bring or keep people here, not parks or a community building, and the comment was made, "but when they're here, they need something to do."

Goode asked if the city would get rid of the current building or add on. When someone said the town should build new, Goode pointed out that a new building would be more expensive.

Then she pointed out the case of Pender’s new community building, much of which was funded by multiple donors. She suggested checking other towns with that type of situation and see how they did it. The town does have the Osmond Community Foundation which is still getting started, but those involved said they keep running into stumbling blocks and red tape.

Goode commented that, whichever direction the city wants to go, it needs to decide what it wants and then have a plan: what it will cost, time frame, etc., and Osmond needs to have an engineer to help figure it out.

When asked how to get started, Goode said, "If you want it, let's start now." She said the NENEDD wrote four grants last year, and all were granted.

Goode said the NENEDD would take care of grant writing for Osmond, so "Why would you not?"