VILLAGE OF ELMWOOD
BOARD OF TRUSTEES
February 18, 2026 7:00 PM
REGULAR BOARD MEETING MINUTES
Meeting Held at Elmwood City Hall
The Village Board of Trustees met in regular session on Wednesday, February 18, 2026.
Chairperson, Renee Holland, called the meeting to order at 7:00 pm. Holland stated that a current copy of the Nebraska Open Meetings Act was posted.
Roll Call: Renee Holland, Becky Kicak, Heather Scott, Tony Greise and Patric Euse
Consent agenda: Kicak moved to approve the consent agenda; Euse seconded the motion. RCV: 5-0 ayes, Motion carried
Claims Key: Bond Debt(BD)Contract Labor(CL), Electricity (E), Education(ED)Natural Gas (NG), Monthly Allotment (MA), Refuse (R), Fuel (F), Supplies (S) Publication (P), Telephone (T), Mile Reimbursement (MR), Labs (L), Attorney (A), Cellphone(CP), Postage(PO), Payroll Tax(PT), Capital Improvement(CI), Simple IRA(SI), Dues(D), Payroll (PR) Workman’s Comp Audit (W) Petty Cash Reimbursement(PR), Engineer (EN) , Sales Tax (ST), Truck Repair (TR), Dog License (DL), Street Surface Supplies (SSS), Tech. Repair (TR) Tech. purchase (TP), Debt Service (DS), Audit Service(AS) Lodging(LO)
Claims: C-Store(F)323.03, C-Store(S)29.95, American Funds(SI) 430.54, IRS(PT)2982.42, NE Dept of Labor(PT)445.97, Payroll(P)9927.30, AFLAC(I)537.19, S&S(CL)1879.40, NE Dept of Rev(ST)2452.15, TACSS(D)230, USPS(PO)200, Black Hills(NG)862.10, Canva(D)119.99, USABlueBook(S)547.70, Meeske(S)134.97, Menards(S)105.38, Westover(SSS)1098.83, HOA(CL)6980, Utility Service Co(CI)3112.22, NE Rural Water(CL)600, Keckler Oil(TR)200.87, Solheim(A)900, Midwest Labs(L)391.33, WireBuilt(D)29, MARC(S)807.50, Michel Todd(S)37.70, Voice News(P)84.85, Frontier(S)25, Lovell(CL)4750, Pioneer Research(S)321.17, CC Refuse(R)75, OPPD(E)4508.94, NE Lab(L)31, Windstream(T)200.82, PeopleService(CL)675, KCCB(D)125, Municipal Supply(S)3293.80, Matrix Underground(CL)5899.83, Tri-State Pumping(CL)2046.98, OneCall(D)36.47, SEACA(D)10, Consolidated Water Solutions(CI)1020, DWEE(D)150, Verizon(CP)39.94
Public Comment Period
Jim Ronhovde here to discuss pickleball. Their group has been playing at the Quonset and 10-20 people play on Tuesday & Wednesday nights. He states it would be nice to have something at the park at the weather gets nicer. They would really appreciate if the board could look into what it would take to add a pickleball court at the park.
Marie Gregiore also here to discuss a pickleball court at the park. States there has been debate on where to put the courts. She recommends putting a small group together to start the discovery phase of the project to determine how to start the project. This would help to include a broader audience of stakeholders and define the scope and outcome of the project. She notes that the last time the park was worked on the funds were raised by hosting trail events and fund raising and we should look to do some of that again. Accessibility would also need to be addressed. As a member of Cass County Tourism she believes this would be a great tourism opportunity. She asked that the board authorize a group of people to begin a discovery phase.
Dick Romshek supports the idea of a pickleball court. He spoke about Cass County, Our Water, Our Future, which is a citizen coalition advocating for a simple principle: that Cass Co. residents should be a beneficiary when a major public water infrastructure project is built in Cass Co. This is regarding the Lincoln Water 2.0 project. Lincoln projects they will be treating and moving 40 million gallons through Cass County. He speaks the Cass county having the opportunity to change some zoning verbiage but the item was tabled at the last meeting. Romshek states that we should support this coalition as we are able.
New Business
Rock on “6th Street” Alley
The board reviewed the bids for rock for the alley and discussed the need/benefit. There would not be any other homes that would benefit from doing this. There are also several trees that will need to be trimmed or removed which would increase cost. Kicak moved to deny the request to rock the alley, Greise seconded the motion. RCV: 5-0 ayes motion to deny carried.
David Hibler NRD Director
Mr. Hibler was unable to attend.
Mark Patton from Cass County; Our Water, Our Future
Mr. Patton was unable to attend.
Julie Smith from MAPA: Next steps on Downtown Revitalization
Ms. Smith introduced herself and MAPA who provides planning services, grant writing services, transportation services, and many more to our area of Nebraska and Iowa. MAPA helped fund the Downtown Revitalization project with UNL. Ms. Smith discussed grant opportunities through CDBG DTR and in order to be eligible we will need to do a Slum and Blight study and designation. 25% or more of our downtown properties will need to be designated as “blighted”. Next steps would be to designate our official “downtown”, MAPA to assess the properties and the board will make the designation. This grant does have a 25% match requirement, 50% of the funds must benefit commercial properties and 50% can be used for public infrastructure. She also discussed other grant funding opportunities through other philanthropic companies. Scott moved to progress with the next steps with the help of MAPA, Greise seconded the motion. RCV: 5-0 ayes, motion carried.
Basketball court as a pickleball court
No action. As it stands the basketball court will not work as a pickleball court. Added to future agenda items.
Hwy 1 project/Funds
NDOT has mentioned a temporary easement when the project gets started. Information only. No action.
TextMyGov: Communication software
Alicia Greise (clerk) reviewed the software and the services it provides. After discussion with the clerk’s group this company has come highly recommended for community wide communication. Proposal reviewed and discussed. Scott moved to approve getting TextMyGov for $225/month for the 1st year and $150/month for the rest of the three year term. Greise seconded the motion. RCV: 5-0 ayes, motion carried.
Bid for work on the South Clarifier at the sewer plant
Reviewed the bid from Johnson Services to overhaul the south clarifier. Huxhold explained the situation and the necessity of doing this work. Concrete is breaking up and causing issues. Greise moved to approve the bid for $23,000, Scott seconded the motion. RCV: 5-0 ayes, motion carried.
Complaint form: Barking dogs
The board reviewed the complaint. Asked the clerk to have the attorney send a letter along with the village noise ordinance. No action.
Unfinished Business
none
Reports/Boards, Commissions, and Committees
Library: next meeting 3/2. Lots of light bulbs going out and being replaced. The library will need to budget for new ballasts next year.
Park: EMS students will be working on a project for school- repainting the picnic tables. Summer help will get them scraped and ready to be painted
Streets: Getting bids for concrete work that needs to be completed. Oscar has been helping when he can. Spreader is getting worked on in the blue truck
Water: JEO did some surveying last week. Kevin & Adam from NE Rural Water have been working on getting valves exercised, almost done.
Sewer: Vents cleaned out with Oscar’s help. Kevin dug up a manhole that was 8” down in the ground on B & Syndney Lane, waiting on pricing for an extension
Planning/Zoning: next meeting 3/1
Correspondence: Yard from last meeting’s complaint form has been cleaned up
Personnel: Kevin celebrating his 3-year work anniversary
Future agenda items
Manhole riser
Hwy Park Funds
Basketball court
Gate valves
Meeting adjourned at 8:12 pm