City council considers election results, natural gas and fluoride vote

At the regular meeting of the Lexington City Council Tuesday, Nov. 25, council members considered an ordinance approving a franchise agreement for natural gas service within the city’s corporate limits.

The provider of natural gas in Lexington has been Sourcegas, a company which began providing Lexington with natural gas in 1984, under the name K.N. Energy, Inc., a Kansas corporation. Council members voted unanimously to retain Sourcegas as the provider of fuel in Lexington after noting the only changes in business would be a rate adjustment from .0083 per therm to .0085 per therm and fees collected moving from a revenue basis to a volume basis.

The ordinance was adopted on the first reading.

The second ordinance placed before the council was already passed by a vote of the people in the November election.

The ordinance, relating to fluoridation of the city water supply, repealed Section 71-3305 of the Nebraska Statutes, a statute which require Nebraska cities to add fluoride to the water supply of any city with a population of one thousand or more unless voters of the city adopted an ordinance prohibiting it.

In the November vote, 1,275 people did not want fluoride added to the city’s water supply while 787 did want it added. Therefore it was resolved by the mayor and city council to carry out the will of the people and place Ordinance 2256 in full force.

In a related matter, council accepted the 2008 general election results as certified by the Clerk of Dawson County, Karla Zlatkovsky.

In final business, council held a public hearing to receive comments from the Citizen’s Advisory Review Community on the Lexington Economic Development Sales Tax Program. The tax program provides nearly $14,000 in revenue per month to use for economic area development.

One example of the use of the funds was the $1,000,000 loan to Cornhusker Energy Lexington. The nearly repaid loan allowed the creation of several jobs for Lexington.

The development program began May 1, 2000 and has a sunset date of April 2009.

“All in all I think it’s been very good for the city and the people,” said city manager Joe Pepplitsch.

Current Rating: 0 of 0 votes!

Rate File: Select Rating: * ** *** ****