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North Platte City Hall, 211 W. Third St.

The North Platte City Council Tuesday will consider changing law firms and take a final vote on rezoning the site of a 51-lot “shovel-ready” housing project it approved a month ago.

Ratification of a new two-year contract with the city’s firefighters union also will be considered at the meeting. It starts at 5:30 p.m. in the City Hall council chamber, 211 W. Third St.

City officials put out “requests for proposal” for providing legal services in November, Interim City Administrator Layne Groseth said in a council memorandum. North Platte’s Waite & McWha firm has been the city’s legal counsel since January 2020, when longtime full-time City Attorney Doug Stack retired.

A “tabulation sheet” of four applications attached to Groseth’s memo ranked the Brouillette, Dugan & Troshynski firm first. Waite & McWha came in second, followed by former private-practice lawyer Patrick Heng — since appointed a district judge — and the firm of Kelley, Scritsmeier & Byrne.

Council members will be asked to authorize Mayor Brandon Kelliher to negotiate “for a City Attorney agreement with the agreed-upon firm,” according to Groseth’s memo.

The council advanced a rezoning ordinance both June 7 and June 21 for the North Platte Area Chamber & Development Corp.’s planned housing subdivision.

The city would sell the chamber the northern 13.5 acres of some 23 acres it owns at North 17th Street and Adams Avenue, between the North Platte Cemetery and Educational Service Unit 16.

The chamber plans to install streets and utilities, then sell individual lots to developers to install modular homes or build other types of permanent housing. Council members voted 6-2 June 7 to approve $1.87 million in tax increment financing to help offset those infrastructure costs.

If they favor the rezoning ordinance once more Tuesday, the housing site’s zoning would change from “transitional agriculture” to R-2 residential.

The city’s proposed contract with North Platte Firefighters Local No. 831 would grant identical pay raises to those the council approved May 3 for the city’s police union. Firefighters’ pay would rise by 1.5% Oct. 1, another 1.5% on June 1, 2023, and finally 3.5% on Oct. 1, 2023.

Fire union members previously ratified the deal, which would expire Sept. 30, 2024, Groseth said in a memorandum.

Council members will consider the fire contract as part of the evening’s nine-item “consent agenda,” which will be approved with a single vote unless a council member asks for separate votes on one or more items.

In other business, the council will:

» Decide whether to renew the city’s interlocal agreement with Lincoln County to acquire and sell fuel to the latter at its actual cost plus 1 cent per gallon. The item appears on the council’s regular agenda.

» Consider, as part of the consent agenda, whether to authorize the Police Department to seek a $11,164 overtime grant from the Nebraska Department of Highway Safety for a special statewide July 20-Aug. 14 speeding enforcement effort.

County commissioners agreed Monday to let the County Sheriff’s Office seek a grant for the same event.

» Decide whether to ratify Kelliher’s reappointments of Emily Wurl and Lee Davies to the city Planning Commission. Both positions also appear on the consent agenda.

Here’s how to follow Tuesday’s 5:30 p.m. North Platte City Council meeting with remote technology if you don’t attend in person:

» YouTube livestream: Click on here.

The same location includes access to the council’s “agenda book,” which can be downloaded as a PDF document.

» Audio and video (TV): Turn to cable Channel 180 on Spectrum (Charter Communications).

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I'm a 35-year journalist, near-lifelong Nebraskan, Ogallala product and three-time Telegraph writer.

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North Platte City Hall, 211 W. Third St.

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