The two-story apartment house at 524 Norris was built in 1913 as a private home, and some time later, converted into five apartments, one of which has a back door accessed by an exterior circular stairway. The house is the former home of Ralph G. Brooks, a McCook school superintendent and McCook Junior College president in the 1950s, and Nebraska governor from Jan. 8, 1959, until his death on Sept. 6, 1960. The house sits between apartment houses owned by Greg and Janet Hepp, on the left, and a Frank Lloyd Wright-designed home owned by Jan and Van Korell.
(Connie Jo Discoe/McCook Daily Gazette)
McCOOK, Nebraska — Nothing’s permanent forever … not a meeting schedule that’s been this way forever, nor a big white house that’s been there for 98 years.
Red Willow County, Nebraska, commissioners at their meeting Monday morning decided not to change their schedule of meeting four times a month, and will pay a McCook construction company to tear down a county-owned apartment house.
Commission Chairman Earl McNutt said that talk of reducing the number of meetings each month came about because of light agendas the last couple of months, a trend that he says may be just temporary. If the trend does continue, McNutt said, the issue of changing the frequency of meetings can be brought up again. “Nothing is permanent forever,” he said.
Commissioner Steve Downer of rural Bartley said that in the interest of providing the public transparency in commissioners’ activities and compliance with open meetings law, he prefers meeting four times a month. He said he’s not sure that potential cost savings would be significant enough to risk losing transparency and the appearance of violating open meetings laws.
McNutt said that, with only three members on the board, any time two board members happen to see each other on the street or at any event or business, they create a quorum and run the risk of appearing to the public to have the opportunity to discuss county business outside of a public meeting. Having four official meetings a month would help commissioners avoid possible accusations of discussing county business outside of meetings. McNutt said.
County clerk Pauletta Gerver said there could be some savings in publishing meeting notice legals and then minutes of those meetings (which are charged by the number of lines) twice a month instead of four times a month. Downer is paid $25 a round trip to attend meetings; a two-meeting schedule would cut that cost from $1,200 to $600 a year.
Downer added that it might be difficult for a new board member to become familiar and comfortable with commissioners’ activities and responsibilities if the board meets only twice a month.
Leigh Hoyt, who was defeated in the November election by Vesta Dack, agreed. “The learning curve on this job is straight up,” Hoyt said.
County assessor Sandra Kotschwar said she may feel rushed to prepare for tax valuation protests if commissioners meet only twice a month, and treasurer Marlene Garcia said she does not want churches and organizations to lose tax exemptions if their requests are not received and processed within the required 30-day time frame.
Hoyt said this is probably the first winter he can remember, in his eight years on the board, when the agendas have been so light, and commissioners haven’t been at their weekly meetings until at least 10 a.m. McNutt agreed, “This is a rare occurrence,” adding that he’s sure this will turn around.
McNutt said about meeting twice a month, “I can just envision seven-hour meetings, rather than the normal two to three hours.”
Commissioners discussed maybe meeting Tuesday or Wednesday morning rather than Monday morning, but Downer would have a conflict with other meetings on Tuesday, and Garcia said that many county officials’ workshops are scheduled from Wednesday through Friday.
McNutt said that he probably has the “most odd, unique” situation of all the commissioners, as he is also a county roads department employee, “and I still fulfill my weekly duties” even with the existing four-meetings-a-month/Monday-morning schedule.
Neither McNutt, Downer, Hoyt or Dack said he/she received any comments from the public about the commissioners’ meeting frequency and day-of-the-week schedule. McNutt said it was frustrating to ask for input and receive none. “Let’s just leave it alone,” he said
Commissioners awarded the bid to demolish the county-owned, two-story, 98-year-old apartment house north of the courthouse to Maris General Construction LLC of McCook.
Maris’s bid of $24,500 was $8,000 less than the $32,500 bid from Weaver Brothers of Bartley.
The bid includes demolition, hauling off of debris and backfilling the basement hole. It does not include demolition of the garage, which county crews will tear down and haul off, nor removal of asbestos in floor tiles and around some pipes in the house.
McNutt said he has not yet received a cost estimate to remove the asbestos, but he said he thinks the cost will be “minimal.”
Maris cannot begin demolition until the asbestos is removed. Chris Maris of Maris Construction said the project would be completed by April 1, and that the seemingly late date will allow them to use fill dirt that is not frozen; fill dirt with frost in it would not compact well, he told commissioners.
McNutt said he was not successful in finding grants to help with the cost of demolition, nor does the City of McCook Fire Department want to use the house for a burn training because of its proximity to neighboring homes, churches and a school.
McNutt said he had had hopes that someone would come forward and want to move the big old house, and the county might have just about given it away to have it moved off the lot, which will be turned into a parking lot.
The cost of concrete for the parking lot is estimated at $20,000. This cost, the cost of asbestos removal and demolition costs will be paid for from the county’s jail sinking fund. McNutt said that if nothing is ever done on a county jail, this money may have to be paid back to the inheritance fund from where it came.
McNutt said that he obviously had hoped the dollar amounts would not be at this level. “If we were to revamp the house to make it livable as a rental, we’d spend much more than $24,500. And then consider the costs to maintain the apartment. And, as our county attorney has told us, the county should not be in the rental business,” McNutt said. The house could not be tax exempt, even if the county owned it, if it were to be rented.
McNutt said he was frustrated that someone — particularly one of those who so openly voice the opinion that the house, because of its history, must be preserved — didn’t come forward to offer to relocate it and save it.
The house is the former home of Ralph G. Brooks, superintendent of McCook Public Schools and president of McCook Junior College in the 1950s, and Nebraska governor from Jan. 8, 1959, until Sept. 6, 1960, when he died in office.
Before the county purchased it, the house was marked with a blue-and-white plaque placed by McCook historian and former McCook resident Linda Hein and other McCook historians/supporters who created a project called “Heritage Square.” A “Heritage Square” marker designates McCook homes of Nebraska U.S. Sen. George W. Norris (1861-1944) and Nebraska’s current U.S. senator, Ben Nelson. The sign in front of the former home of Nebraska Gov. Frank B. Morrison (1905-2004) was removed when it was sold after his death.
Red Willow County Attorney Paul Wood said in December 2009 that the Brooks house at 524 Norris is not listed on any state or national registry of historic homes. “There is nothing of record that it’s an historically-registered home,” Wood said. McNutt said it was commissioners’ first priority — when owners Stannis and Kenny Spencer offered the property to the county for $50,000 in late 2009 — to determine that the house was not an historically-registered property.