Council Minutes - Feb. 3, 2026

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. in the Council Chambers on the second floor of City Hall; Council Standing Committees may meet prior. View a list of City Officials and current council and committee meeting agendas.

• Questions about agendas or meeting minutes should be directed to the City Clerk.
• Meeting minutes are published in The Crete News (local newspaper)
• Each regular city council meeting agenda also contains the minutes of recent council, committee, and board meetings

The next Crete City Council regular meeting will be on Tuesday, Feb. 17

Condensed Minutes for Crete City Council regular meeting - Tuesday, Feb. 3:

View this Meeting Agenda and attachments, entire copy of minutes available at the office of the City Clerk. 

Mayor Dave Bauer called the meeting of the City Council to order at 6:00 p.m.  Answering roll call were the following Council Members:  Crisman, Frans, Papik and Fitzgerald Absent: Ashley Newmyer and Dale Strehle 

The following actions were taken at the meeting:

Approved the Consent Agenda items: Unanimous

• Meeting Minutes: January 20^th, 2026 City Council Minutes, January 20^th, 2026 Public Works Committee Minutes, January 20^th, 2026 Finance Committee Minutes , January 20^th, 2026 Legislative/Development Committee Minutes, January 20^th, 2026 Public Safety Committee Minutes 
• Treasurer’s Report 
• Claims against the City $1,423,842.36

Adjourned City Council to a meeting of the Community Development Agency (CDA). Unanimous 

• Adopted Resolution 2026-01 Second Amendment to Redevelopment Agreement to Redevelopment Agreement Cardinal Ventures Redevelopment Project. Unanimous 

Adjourned the Community Development Agency (CDA) to the City Council. Unanimous 

Enacted Ordinance 2265 Amending Section 5-402 of Bureau of violations process. Unanimous 

Tabled Ordinance 2266 Amending 2-1514 Dead or hazardous tree removal. Unanimous 

Approved Zuercher Addendum#2 Adding The City of David City, The City of Crete, and Butler County 911 As Parties to The Interlocal Agreement. Unanimous 

Held Public Hearing to hear testimony in favor of and in opposition to and to answer questions in relation to the proposed one and six-year Street Improvement Plan. Unanimous 

Approved the one and six-year Street Improvement Plan. Unanimous 

Enacted Ordinance 2267 Amending Salaries and Wages in Ordinance 2257 and 2263. Unanimous 

Approved to authorize the Crete Volunteer Fire Department to apply for a donation from Pinnacle Bank's foundation for the possible Rescue Truck replacement. Unanimous 

Approved the CDBG Grant No.24PWI004 Letter for Contract Amendment Request. Unanimous 

Accepted of Pine Ridge 3rd addition improvements and dedication pending City Engineer’s final approval. Voting Aye: Crisman, Frans, Papik, Mayor Dave Bauer, Abstained: Fitzgerald 

Approved the Dorchester Crete Agreement for Electrical Services. Unanimous 

Approved to amend the Master Fee Schedule. Unanimous 

Officers’ Reports 

• Chief of Police Gary Young stated the following:
  • Human Resource Coordinator Jody Fiehtner and Civil Service Commission member Sarah Brown are helping on Saturday, February 7^th, 2026 there will be testing of candidates for the hiring of Police Officers. Then on Saturday, February 21^st there will be additional candidates being tested. 
  • Council member Tom Crisman asked how many Police Officers need to be hired and Young stated two officers. 
  • Council member Anthony Fitzgerald asked Young about cruiser replacement. Young stated that the department has allotted for one this year and he is working on the quote for that one. Fitzgerald added that Ram has changed their manufactures warranty and he has seen Ram 1500 fitted as Police trucks. Young stated that that has not been explored due to size and fuel economy. Ourada stated that it is worth taking a look. 
• Parks and Recreation Director Liz Cody stated the following: 
  • Youth soccer registration open until Feb. 27 2026 and the fee is now $50. Micro soccer opens Feb. 9 2026 and the fee is $30.
  • Coach waiver, sibling discount & Doane Equity Registration Assistance.  
  • Added duties at city park & tree related activities. A Parks and Rec Groundskeeper position is open. 
  • Submitted final fund request for $21,064 for our 2024 IRA UCF grant for completion of tree removal, tree planting and tree care, and tree inventory and tree management plan efforts. These have significantly benefited in ongoing planning for the next 3 years of tree work. Completed all grant activities and spent down the full $24,855 awarded.
  • Two UNL students will begin forestry activities in Crete as volunteers as part of UNL’s urban forestry program. 
  • Council member Anthony Fitzgerald asked if the City is able to keep that person that will be hired if grant funds are not in the picture down the road in five years. City Administrator Tom Ourada stated grants are our new reality and over half of this new person’s time will be grant funded over the next three years. There are no guarantees but this person knows they have a landing spot for the next three years. More grants in park and rec will be required to accomplish what we need to accomplish. Ourada added that he spoke to Mayor Bauer and this position would replace a couple part-time park and rec positions
• City Administrator Tom Ourada stated the following:
  • The weather hasn’t been horribly bad but it has been really cold and the City has bought four tanker loads of diesel fuel and burned through all of it. We burned 26,000 gallons and ran for 66 hours over the last week or so and generated at 406,000 kilowatt hours. All of that was because Southwest Power Pool who we are a member of was requiring additional energy because of their renewables going offline. 
  • Our lease rate went up $0.50 per kilowatt hour per month per year for our lease generation. That’s an extra $36,000 per year. That benefited us to an extend since we get reimbursed for our generation efforts. This was a new break in for our new person that the City hired from NPPD. He got to see first hand how we went round clock on operation. Gordon Bridges did some of it and Tyler Schmidt did some of it and they both did very well. 
  • Ourada explained that the Board of Adjustments can’t proceed with the variance they were consider at this time because there are unresolved floodplain issues. The floodplain issues have to be addressed first. The City Council does not have any control over floodplain. Only FEMA can grant that. There has to be a FEMA resolution before other issues can be addressed. The meeting that was scheduled for February 12^th, 2026 will not be canceled until sometime in the future. 
  • Ourada stated that with the north side and alley paving the contractor came in over a week ago and stated they wanted to start taking trees out. Ourada reminded them that the contract says June 1^st, 2026 and April for tree removals. They have to remove trees by April 30^th, 2026 and Ourada stated a pre-construction meeting needs to take place and the public engagement has to be done. The contractor is responsible for notifications. They have not done that and they stated they marked some trees. Ourada stated that people were really upset having people on their property. The end result is that we did have a pre-construction meeting and the guidelines are clear they have a notice to proceed for next week and with the community engagement with the contractor and engineer. The engineer is going to do a change order since they are doing some of it. We are good to go with that. Ourada stated that he asked Parks and Recreation Director Liz Cody to weigh in on some of the trees and there was one tree that was top tree in the United States and had protected status that is significant. 
  • The first Burlington Northern grant for a feasibility study will be submitted this week. We are applying for $1.1 Million in funds with a 10% match. 
  • The BUILD grant will be due at the end of the month. We will be applying for preliminary design and quiet zone. 
  • Ourada reminded that incumbents have until February 15^th, 2026 to file for office. There are four incumbents in here. 
  • Council member Tom Crisman asked City Administrator how many crossings are in the quiet zone and Ourada stated that there are between seven and nine depending on the limits. Ourada stated that the RTSD is a county wide function. 
• Mayor Dave Bauer stated that the Mayor’s Chili Feed is on Wednesday, February 11^th, 2026 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. at the College Heights Country Club. 

The meeting adjourned at 6:50 p.m.