Crete is a growing and diverse 'community in motion' with over 7,000 residents who call it home. We embrace our pioneering heritage and present-day diversity and continue to thrive with a strong economy, successful school system, and safe parks and neighborhoods.

The City of Crete has nearly 70 full time employees. No matter what role you have with us, you are sure to experience growth, professional development, and career achievements.

(Want to learn more about Crete? Check out City Government, Parks & Recreation, Departments, brand new Library, Business & Industry, and other community links.)

The City of Crete is taking applications for the position of Human Resources Coordinator. Full-time, exempt position. Salary - depending on qualifications and experience; with benefits. Minimum job requirements include, but are not limited to: Must be at least 21 years of age; have high school diploma or GED; must be authorized to work in the U.S. General functions: Provide professional-level human resources support for all City departments, (approximately 65 employees). This role has responsibilities in all areas of human resources including employee and labor relations, compensation and benefits administration, recruitment and retention, and more. Regularly works with City Attorney and reports directly to the City Administrator. See job description for more information.

Applications are due no later than 5 p.m. on Friday, March 12, 2021 and may be obtained from the link below or by contacting the Human Resources office at City Hall. The City of Crete is an equal opportunity employer. Applications should be completed and submitted in one of the following ways: 

• Download the application and job description, type responses, print as PDF and email to jerry.wilcox@crete.ne.gov
• Print, write responses, scan, and email to jerry.wilcox@crete.ne.gov
• Fax to 402-826-4334
• Mail to the attention of Jerry Wilcox, City of Crete, at PO Box 86, Crete, NE 68333-0086
• Drop off at Crete City Hall - 243 East 13th Street in the utilities drive-thru on the east side of the building

View/download the job description and employment application:

• Job description
• Application for employment

For additional inquiries, please contact:

Human Resources Department
City Hall - 243 East 13th Street
Crete NE 68333-0086
Phone: 402.826.4313 Fax: 402.826.4334

Crete is a growing and diverse 'community in motion' with over 7,000 residents who call it home. We embrace our pioneering heritage and present-day diversity and continue to thrive with a strong economy, successful school system, and safe parks and neighborhoods.

The City of Crete has nearly 70 full time employees. No matter what role you have with us, you are sure to experience growth, professional development, and career achievements.

(Want to learn more about Crete? Check out City Government, Parks & Recreation, Departments, brand new Library, Business & Industry, and other community links.)

The City of Crete is taking applications for the position of Swimming Pool Co-Manager for Wildwood Pool in the Parks and Recreation Department. This is a seasonal, hourly position; range: $12.40 - $13.87. Some nights and weekends are required. General functions: organize, implement and manage all aspects of the operation of the city swimming pool. The desired candidate will have any combination of work experience and training that allows the duties and responsibilities of this position to be achieved. Preference will be given to job applicants documenting successful experience in like or similar positions, who have completed Lifeguard, Water Safety Instructor (WSI) and CPR training and who hold a current Nebraska Pool Operator’s Certification. Full job description is below.

Applications are due no later than 5 p.m. on Friday, March 26, 2021 and may be obtained from the link below or by contacting the Human Resources office at City Hall. The City of Crete is an equal opportunity employer. Applications should be completed and submitted in one of the following ways: 

• Download the application and job description, type responses, print as PDF and email to jerry.wilcox@crete.ne.gov
• Print, write responses, scan, and email to jerry.wilcox@crete.ne.gov
• Fax to 402-826-4334
• Mail to the attention of Human Resources, City of Crete, at PO Box 86, Crete, NE 68333-0086
• Drop off at Crete City Hall - 243 East 13th Street in the utilities drive-thru on the east side of the building

View/download the job description and employment application:

• Job description
• Application for employment

For additional inquiries, please contact:

Human Resources Department
City Hall - 243 East 13th Street
Crete NE 68333-0086
Phone: 402.826.4313 Fax: 402.826.4334
jerry.wilcox@crete.ne.gov

Crete is a growing and diverse 'community in motion' with over 7,000 residents who call it home. We embrace our pioneering heritage and present-day diversity and continue to thrive with a strong economy, successful school system, and safe parks and neighborhoods.

The City of Crete has nearly 70 full time employees. No matter what role you have with us, you are sure to experience growth, professional development, and career achievements.

(Want to learn more about Crete? Check out City Government, Parks & Recreation, Departments, brand new Library, Business & Industry, and other community links.)

The City of Crete is taking applications for Swimming Pool Lifeguards and Cashiers at Wildwood Pool for the 2021 season.

Lifeguard - General functions include: Ensure the safety and well-being of all swimming pool patrons and aid in the effective overall operation of the city swimming pool. Report to the Pool Manager and Assistant Pool Manager(s). Hourly, seasonal position. Starting wage: $9.50/hour. Minimum Qualifications - Lifeguard: Possess or be able to obtain a valid certification in CPR and Basic First Aid; Possess or be able to obtain a valid Lifeguard certification; Must be at least 16 years of age.

Cashier - Responsible for staffing the front desk at the pool. Check-in patrons and collect admission fees. Document attendance and record daily financial records. Report to the Pool Manager and Assistant Pool Manager(s). Part-time, hourly position (seasonal). Starting wage: $9.00/hour. Must be at least 15 years old.

Full job descriptions below.

Applications are due no later than 5 p.m. on Friday, March 24, 2021 and may be obtained from the link below or by contacting the Human Resources office at City Hall. Interviews to follow on April 1 and 2. The City of Crete is an equal opportunity employer. Applications should be completed and submitted in one of the following ways: 

• Download the application and job description, type responses, print as PDF and email to jerry.wilcox@crete.ne.gov
• Print, write responses, scan, and email to jerry.wilcox@crete.ne.gov
• Fax to 402-826-4334
• Mail to the attention of Human Resources, City of Crete, at PO Box 86, Crete, NE 68333-0086
• Drop off at Crete City Hall - 243 East 13th Street in the utilities drive-thru on the east side of the building

View/download the job description and employment application:

• Job descriptions
  • Lifeguard
  • Cashier
• Application for employment

For additional inquiries, please contact:

Human Resources Department
City Hall - 243 East 13th Street
Crete NE 68333-0086
Phone: 402.826.4313 Fax: 402.826.4334
jerry.wilcox@crete.ne.gov

Online registration is available for Crete Recreation Youth Soccer and Micro Soccer programs.

Youth Soccer Registration open January 25 - February 26: 

The Youth Soccer program offers divisions for boys and girls in grades 1st & 2nd, 3rd & 4th, and 5th & 6th. Teams will play on Sunday afternoons starting March 14 at Armory Park. (Dates: March 14, 21, 28, and April 11, 18)

Micro Soccer Registration open February 15 - March 19: 

The Micro Soccer program offers divisions for boys and girls ages 3 & 4 and 5 & 6. Teams will play on Wednesday evenings starting on April 7 at Rotary Park. (Dates: April 7, 14, 21, 28)

Forms are available on RecDesk or by calling the Parks and Recreation office at City Hall. Coaching applications are also available on RecDesk - parents who coach will have the registration fee waived. Participants must also have a current liability waiver signed.

Forms can be dropped off at the City Hall drive-thru window.

City of Crete 
Parks & Recreation Department 
Dan Dunaway, Recreation Coordinator

City Hall - 243 East 13th Street
Phone: 402.826.4314
Fax: 402.826.4334
dan.dunaway@crete.ne.gov

Individuals and media outlets are encouraged to contact the City Administrator for additional details or clarification on the following material. Regular meetings of the Crete City Council are held on the first and third Tuesdays of the month at 6 p.m.; Council Standing Committees may meet prior. View a list of City Officials and current council and committee meeting agendas.

Summary for Crete City Council meeting - Tuesday, Feb. 16
View this Meeting Agenda and attachments

This meeting was held in the Community Room at Crete Public Library to accommodate social distancing.

The council approved the Consent Agenda items:

• Minutes of the following meetings: Legislative and Economic Development Committee Feb. 2, Public Works Committee Feb. 2, Public Safety Committee Feb. 2, Council Feb. 2
• Treasurer’s Report
• Claims against the City

The council held a public hearing on the 2021 One & Six Year Street Improvement Plans and then adopted the plans.

• City Administrator Tom Ourada explained these are required by the Nebraska Department of Transportation in order for the city to be included in the state’s transportation improvement program. Plans must be completed by a certified street superintendent, making Crete eligible for state funds. The city typically receives between $650,000-$700,000 annually for street projects.
• Plans first go to Planning Commission for review and a public hearing. The 1-year plan is unchanged with the exception of an asphalt overlay on 12th Street and Linden Ave, which was taken out; gap paving project plans for the north side of town were also modified and now reflect engineer’s estimates. The 6-year plan is unchanged from what was done last year.

The council granted Lamar Advertising a special exception use for an outdoor advertising sign in the railroad right-of-way across from Nestle Purina. 

• City Attorney Kyle Manley and Building Inspector Brad Bailey were primarily handling this request. Kyle explained the application is to replace a sign that was damaged by a car accident almost a year ago and since then the city has made changes to the sign ordinance. There is a special exception for signs of this type, which the council can approve or deny for this location.

The council adopted Ordinance 2120 on its third and final reading: An ordinance relating to the annexation of the Crete Municipal Airport. With that action, the Crete Airport will now be entirely in the corporate limits of the City of Crete.

Officer reports:

Tom Ourada

• City officials are continuing to work on details regarding the Crete Core ingredients expansion.
• Weather challenges - The Water Department was working with the Street Department the last couple weeks moving snow, and today (Tuesday) they were fixing a broken water main in -27 degree weather. Street crews have been putting in long hours moving snow and making streets passable.
  • At about the same time, but unrelated and about six blocks away, a transformer blew and was on fire today (Tuesday), which also had the Electric Department out in sub-zero weather. They also spent the weekend chasing a blink on one circuit; so they spent the better part of the weekend in the very cold weather checking all devices on that circuit.
  • Wastewater plant staff stayed overnight at the plant to manually operate equipment that was freezing in the sub-zero temperatures.
  • All City administrative, office, and Library staff have been working in 60 degree temperatures indoors to conserve energy while helping customers and their situations. Police officers were not only out in this weather, but dealing with 60 degree inside temperatures as well.
  • The city is trucking in fuel oil to operate the power plant. Tom explained the city is generating power to go out on the grid, so it is not really benefiting the City in this particular situation. The city leases the power plant capacity to their power supplier, MEAN (Municipal Energy Agency of Nebraska), who puts it out to Southwest Power Pool.
  • Tom said our people are very well-trained and they are rocking it in some of the most adverse conditions. He is really proud of our city employees who know what they’re are doing and do it very well.
• Tom also reported people continue to push snow into right-of-way and block sidewalks and right-of-way with snow. This is a violation of city ordinance and violators can be cited for doing this. In some instances it doesn’t seem like it would be an issue, but in a lot of situations it does cause issues and the city can’t say it’s okay in one situation and not okay in another. Officials will be making efforts to contact these people to stop violations from occurring.
• BRAC (Blue River Arts Council) would like to be on a future agenda for approval on a contact with their architect. City officials will work with the Finance Committee and BRAC on an agreement and a process that will let them move forward with the things they need to do without appearing in front of the council for specific items.

Mayor Dave Bauer said he appreciates everything city employees have done during a couple of rough weeks. He talked to several businesses, everyone was very understanding. He thought putting things on the website and social media let people know where they can go for facts.

Meeting adjourned. 

Summary for Crete City Council meeting - Tuesday, Feb. 2
View this Meeting Agenda and attachments

This meeting was held in the Community Room at Crete Public Library to accommodate social distancing.

The council approved the Consent Agenda items:

• Minutes of the following meetings: Finance Committee Jan. 19, Council Jan. 19
• Treasurer’s Report
• Claims against the City

The Council approved the Coulter request for an Administrative Subdivision.

• City Attorney Kyle Manley explained there are issues with the attached plat for this request. The property owners are asking for an administrative subdivision from one to two lots on property on South Boswell that was annexed into the city by the adoption of Ordinance 2117 at the Jan. 19 meeting. Manley recommended the council approve the subdivision and that City Administrator Tom Ourada be authorized to work with the surveyor to fix the plat issues.

The Council approved Ordinance 2120 on the second of three required readings: An Ordinance relating to the annexation of the Crete Municipal Airport

Officer reports

• Joy Stevenson, Library Director
  • Thursday, Feb. 4 is an online training for the new Libby audio and ebook app from Overdrive;
  • The library will help in the coordination of the tax assistance program again this year. Protocols have been developed between Doane and the library. The documents will be dropped off at the library and Doane students will complete the tax returns remotely. All documents will be returned to the library for the clients to collect;
  • She received photos from BVH Architecture, which hired a professional photographer to take photos of the completed library;
  • Upcoming ‘One Book, One Community Read’ - Friends of Crete Public Library helped with funds; they are still in the process of selecting the book and related programs.
• Shelby Brown, noting today was her last day as Human Resources Coordinator with the city, thanked everyone for the opportunities working at the city, saying it was an “awesome experience and I will take it with me through the rest of my career.” 
  • Mayor Dave Bauer said the time she spent with the city has been great and as HR Coordinator, she developed the area like the city hadn’t had before.
• Ryan Hinz, Ward II Council Member, reported on the Lincoln Food Bank distribution in Crete with over 300 participants. The Food Bank reported over the last 12 months, 200 tons of food have been given out in Crete.
• Brian Carnes, Ward I Council Member, reported an individual commented on use of the parking lot at 12th and Norman.
• Tom Ourada, City Administrator
  • He talked with Jeff Ray from JEO who recommended waiting on seeking Comprehensive Plan proposals until mid-year when census data comes out. It could be beneficial to have that data for prospective consultants to consider when they make their proposals. Ourada said it makes good sense. He and Kyle Manley will take that recommendation to the Planning Commission meeting on Feb. 15.
  • - The continuity of operations plan is always being looked at and considered; the governor extended meetings for elected officials, in a virtual capacity, until the end of April.
  • - The city fully intends on opening the pool this year, with guidelines if need be. He has asked Dan to work on this. The fire and police department members who wanted to be vaccinated have been; Public Works is next on the list.
  • - Snow removal - He reported that generally, the city did a pretty fair job with hiccups here and there. Good people learn from mistakes and good departments always evaluate after this type of situation. The city kept every piece of equipment moving 24 hours a day and the new snowblower paid for itself with efficient snow removal in the downtown area. They will always get complaints from people who think it should have been done another way, but it’s unreasonable to expect an alley to be done at the same time as a highway or major thoroughfare - that budget scenario would be unmanageable. He believes they will do even better next time.
  • - There was a request for group rate on 10 parking spaces in the lot at 12th and Norman; the request is not unreasonable, however, the council set a rate at $25 and Ourada didn’t know how members want to work it. He recommended a future agenda item to address the latitude to consider and talk about a group rate.
    • Travis Sears said he didn’t want to get into situation of negotiating new rates for each person who requests one.
• James Yost, Assistant Fire Chief 
  • - Presented Crete Volunteer Fire and Rescue’s 2020 call statistics, a project coordinated by department member Will DeHart. Yost said they were about 100 calls down from 2019. He said members felt there was a lot of fear of going to the hospital with COVID and that may have been a big factor in people not calling for ambulance service in 2020.
  • - The department is waiting on a date for zoom meeting to conduct a pre-build conference for the new tanker build.
• Mayor Dave Bauer said he was very pleased with the snow removal effort by all city crews involved. He also recognized the Street Department with 2-3 newer members, who encountered their first big snow storm as employees.

Meeting adjourned. 

This survey is being conducted by the Crete Strategic Welcoming Committee, a sub-committee of the Crete Welcoming Circle, a group of community volunteers who's mission is to support and foster a welcoming city for everyone who calls Crete home. The Welcoming Circle provides a venue for community members and organizations where they discuss topics relevant to the community.

The goal of this survey is to collect feedback from members of the Crete community in order for Crete to continue to be a 'Community in Motion'.

A summary of the survey results may be shared with the public. This summary will not include any personally identifiable information. The committee members (which includes approximately a group of 20 community members, city employees, teachers, and school staff) will have access to the individual and collective survey results and will use the results to inform the strategic planning process.

Please refrain from including personally identifiable information (no names, no addresses, etc.) in survey responses to ensure that the individual survey results are anonymous (meaning not identifiable by name or personally recognizable responses).

For questions or more information, please contact, Nancy Tellez, Community Assistance Director for the City of Crete.

(Printed versions of the survey can be picked up and returned to Crete Public Library, 1515 Forest Ave.)

The survey can be completed online; links hosted by SurveyMonkey in English and Spanish:

The following is important information to know about City of Crete utility accounts in order to avoid potential scams.

• a utility disconnect date is noted on every bill and a courtesy notice is mailed from the city on bills which are past due;
• All envelopes with bills or notices will contain the city logo and address;
• Crete utility bills can be paid in person during regular business hours at the City Hall Utility Office, drive-thru, mailed, or online by using the “Pay Utility Bill Online" link at www.crete.ne.gov which takes customers to the Xpress Bill Pay website;
• The only types of payment accepted are: cash, check, money order, or credit/debits cards; no other forms of payment are accepted by the city.
• Find more information on city utility bills and payments

If a customer questions a call from someone claiming to be from the City Hall Utilities Office, the customer can hang up and call the office back directly. The Public Works Utilities Office direct number is 402.826.4312 and will be answered by city staff who customers can ask about their utility account. 

If customers are further concerned, they are encouraged to contact the Crete Police Department, 402.826.4311, to report a potential scam.

No utility company will ask customers to purchase payment cards from a retail store (Walmart, Dollar General, etc.) to be sent to someone else or ask customers to call back with information from cards they have purchased.

If residents have questions about their bills or payments, please contact the City Utility Office, 402.826.4312.

The City of Crete utilizes gWorks software for digitally mapping property zones, districts, and other information related to the physical layout of the municipality and surrounding area within its jurisdiction.

Maps available include:

• Parcels, Sections, and address points
• Three Wards for city council representation and voting precincts
• Agricultural, Commercial, Industrial, Residential, and Public Zoning
• Floodplain Area
• Wellhead Protection Area
• Cemeteries - grave site information for two municipal cemeteries, Riverside and Blue Valley
• Emergency Snow Routes - applicable during a city-declared snow emergency
• Crete Fire District - Crete Volunteer Fire and Rescue coverage area
• Garbage and recycling collection routes
• Hydrant flushing areas (April and October, specific dates TBA)

(For more information city departments or functions list above, visit these links: city council, zoning regulations, municipal cemeteries, snow emergency routes, Crete Volunteer Fire and Rescue Department, garbage and recycling service, hydrant flushing)

Once on the City of Crete’s gWorks site, Layers and Basemap tabs are accessed on the left hand side of the screen. The Layers tab uses checkboxes to select which mapping layers are visible. Some layers have multiple sub-sections. Basemaps show street, satellite, topographical, or terrain views with selected layers.

Use the search field on the right hand side of the screen to search for names, property owners, etc.; filter results using the checkboxes displayed.

For additional questions or help using the city's gWorks mapping site, contact:

Public Works at City Hall
243 East 13th Street
Phone: 402.826.4312