Neligh, Clearwater To Continue Sharing ED Services

The Village of Clearwater and City of Neligh will continue sharing economic development services for another year.

Gabe Steinmeyer reported to his economic development board on Sept. 11 and the Neligh City Council on Sept. 12 that an agreement has been reached between the two municipalities following a meeting between himself, Dana Klabenes, Regina Krebs and Tina Snider.

At the economic development meeting, Steinmeyer said a few changes have been made between last year’s contract and this year’s, mainly the number of service hours provided to Clearwater and frequency of payment.
Clearwater will continue to pay $10,000 per year for services from Steinmeyer and Lauren Sheridan-Simonsen. Steinmeyer said $2,500 quarterly payments will made Dec. 1, March 1, June 1 and Sept. 1. The first payment will be Dec. 1.

The contract includes a 5 percent annual increase, which is consistent from previous contracts.

“The move to quarterly payments was primarily so that there’s more accountability for work done each quarter and then also so that Dana at our city office receives timely payments so that we’re not trying to chase them down at the end of the year for $10,000,” Steinmeyer said.

The contract also expands the amount of time Neligh’s economic development team annually will spend on Clearwater projects. Steinmeyer said past contracts were for 500 hours. That will increase to 800 hours for Oct. 1, 2017 to Sept. 30, 2018. It will then revert back to 500 hours.

Steinmeyer said the economic team will dedicate 15.5 hours per week to Clearwater rather than the usual nine hours.

“There may be some months we’ll have more hours and some months with less hours, but I will also be retaining an Excel spreadsheet with hours for Clearwater and events so we have a running list of hours and projects worked so there is actual stuff to look back on to ensure that requirements and obligations for this contract were actually met,” he said.

Steinmeyer said he anticipates amending a section of the contract to include expectations on duties.

​“We want to get more concrete with them - what their expectations are for the role and the different projects they want us to complete over the next year, and so we’ll probably have an amendment or separate agreement just outlining the roles and expectations generated in the future,” he said.