YODER – The Yoder Town Council held the town’s monthly meeting on Monday, February 10 at the Yoder Community Center in Yoder. The meeting was called to order by Norm Feagler, mayor. Present at the meeting were council members Jenna Krul, Bob Oaks, Amanda Fogle and Fealger. Town maintenance supervisor Rod Weyrich, town attorney Colby Sturgeon, town clerk treasurer Lilian Green and emergency management coordinator, Justin Burkart were present. Council member Josh Haffner was absent. 

The meeting began with the Pledge of Allegiance followed by the approval of the February meeting agenda. A motion was made by Fogle to approve the agenda which was then seconded by Oaks. The motion passed and carried and the agenda was approved. 

The council moved on to approving January’s meeting minutes. Fogle made the motion to accept the minutes which Krul seconded. 

Oaks made one quick comment to Green for the meeting minutes which included mentioning in the January minutes the public form had no speakers. 

“One note on the minutes, Lilian, you said public comment was held. I would probably extend that to say public comment was held with no public comment,” Oaks explained.

“Alright, I can expand on that,” Green addressed the council.

Moving forward, the council then made a motion to accept the bills for January. Fogle, again, motioned to accept the bills for the month which was seconded by Oaks. The motion carried and the bills were accepted. 

The council then moved on to public comment where there was no comment to be made. 

With no items listed under new business, Feagler moved on to old business where there was no old business for the council to address so they moved on to the maintenance report from Weyrich. 

Weyrich noted there would be work done on the computer for the water system this month. Weyrich also mentioned another town employee, Mathew, was working on applying for a commercial pesticide license. Weyrich noted another town employee holding a license would be beneficial to him. The council then moved on to legal items.

Sturgeon noted he had no additions to the meeting and the council moved on to Burkart’s report. 

“So, when I was on the Elk Fire and the Pleasant Valley Fire, I had my truck and we finally got payment in for those two fires, which is almost $12,000,” Burkart explained. 

The council decided to deposit the funds in the general account which would then be itemized in the town’s QuickBooks account. 

“I was going to set up a spot on QuickBooks so that it’s tracked through there that way we don’t have to worry about too much more paperwork setting up,” Green explained. 

The council noted they were in agreeance whichever method of tracking the funds was easiest was the preferred way to record the income for the use of the vehicles. 

“The grant season is almost upon us here, March,” Burkart explained.

Burkart noted he wasn’t too sure which grants he would be applying for. 

Burkart also spoke to the council on property tax.

“Again, numbers today, Debbie [Surratt] ran the numbers in the counties would be about $600,000 hit for the county. It’s huge. I think the for the town is $3,000, I think for the Town of Yoder,” Burkart explained. “The city is $161,000. Weed and pest is about $100,000 out of their budget. Can’t tell me that’s not going to hurt them.”

“I’ve talked to several people. Everybody, property tax relief, yay. That’s the greatest idea in the world but they don’t think of what they’re paying for. What do you get for that money? How do these services that you expect that you will really be upset when they don’t clear your road or you can’t get where you need to go or your kids can’t do what needs to be done, but property tax [reduction] is a really good idea,” Oaks said.

Weyrich noted he was concerned about volunteer fire departments and the districts. 

“Fire departments over all is like $84,000 cut. Overall, Torrington will be the biggest. It’s about $45,000 because they obviously got the most residential houses outside the city limits,” Burkart said. 

Burkart also noted the Yoder fire department would see a decrease in $3,000 to $4,000 with the reductions which Oaks noted was probably the least amount of change for all departments. 

“Fortunately, with our federal fire program, we’re going to be okay, either way but we’re fighting for the other guy who’s barely keeping the doors open now. We’ll be going up to legislature on Wednesday. We’re taking a bunch of fire guys from Goshen County and then the commissioners are going up there,” Burkart said. “I think we’ve got Platte County, Laramie County, Niobrara County and Weston County are going to join us. They’ve all signed that letter with us.”

Green explained the town office would be closed for President’s Day and with no further business for the council to address, the meeting was then adjourned. The next Yoder Town Council meeting will be held March 10 at 7 p.m. in the community building.